Second Chance Girl (Happily Inc. #2)

“Actually FedEx has a wild animal division who does this kind of thing all the time.”

He stared at her. “Moves giraffes?”

“Other animals, too. How do you think zoos do their animal exchanges?”

“In the back of a pickup in the dark of night?”

She laughed. “Nope. They’re delivered.”

“Nice. Okay, so we have the purchase price, transportation, the barns. You’re going to need more giraffe chow.”

“We are. The plans for the barn are already approved. The structure’s pretty simple, so once we have the money, it will only take a few weeks to build. The different giraffes will have to be kept separate as they get to know each other. Just because they’re giraffes doesn’t mean they’re going to instinctively bond.”

“Still no boy giraffe on the horizon?”

“Not at the moment. If I get the herd established and the girls are happy, and there’s extra money, then I’ll look around for a male. Before I did that, I’d have to get the girls on birth control. We’d want them to breed, but on our terms, not theirs.”

He laughed. “Giraffe birth control? I don’t want to know what that entails.”

“I’ll admit it’s not my area of expertise, but I can do the research.”

He finished his beer, collected her half-empty glass and his bottle, went into the kitchen and freshened both, then returned to the sofa.

“What if your dad and uncle had settled somewhere else? You might not have Millie at all.”

She’d never thought of that but he was right. Happily Inc had been very welcoming to the animal preserve. “I’m glad we could be here for her.”

“She’s glad, too.” He studied her.

“What?”

“I’m picturing you in South Africa. You’d look good there. I’m less sure Violet would fit in.”

Carol told herself he hadn’t actually complimented her and not to read too much into his words.

“Violet would think of reasons why she had to go back home, during our summers, while I was looking for excuses to stay. I loved the animals, the work, the people. I learned a lot and always had an interesting topic for the ‘what I did on my summer vacation’ essay. I hated going back to New York for the school year.”

“I can’t see you living in the city.”

“I wasn’t very good at it. We were close to Central Park, so that helped. I could be outside and pretend I was somewhere else.”

“By the time you were fifteen, you knew you wanted to work with animals?”

“I did. When I was around that age, my dad and uncle inherited enough money to buy the landfill here. They’d been talking about wanting to do something different with waste management and recycling and they finally had the opportunity. My dad also wanted an animal preserve, which is where I came in.”

“Where did he get the animals?”

“From all over. A few came from other private preserves that had overpopulation issues. Millie’s owner died and no one wanted her. That kind of thing. It’s shockingly easy to find animals like ours. Most people aren’t the least bit able to care for them, but my dad and uncle know what they’re doing.”

“As do you.”

“Thank you.”

They spent the next couple of hours talking about the animal preserve and town and what it was like to have a steady flow of wedding parties to deal with every weekend. She wasn’t sure how many margaritas she drank or how many beers he’d had and the chips and dip he’d put out didn’t do much to counteract the alcohol. It got dark outside and he flipped on a couple of lamps.

“I hope things work out for Millie,” he said. “Animals are better than people. With them you know what you’re getting. Put a lion and a gazelle in the same space and the outcome is clear. Humans are different. They play games.”

“Okay. That was an interesting transition. Want to explain it?”

“No. It’s nothing. Just some stuff happening with my brother. It’s different now, you know. Not like it was.”

“That would be one of the definitions of different.” She stared at him, trying to figure out why he was acting so unlike himself. “Is this your third beer of the day?”

He held up the bottle. “Yup. Of course there were the couple of shots of tequila I had earlier. Like I said, a few bad nights, followed by bad days have an effect on a guy.”

She angled toward him. “Mathias, what’s going on?”

“A lot of crap. People who are supposed to love you betray you. Did you know that? You should be careful.”

Huh? “Are we talking about women? Do you mean an old girlfriend?”

“What? No. I was thinking about my dad. He’s a real bastard. And my mom. She’s the saint who loves him more than anyone. Isn’t that always the way? When you see male genius, there’s probably a good woman in the background. History never remembers her. Only with him, we knew what we were getting, but with her...”

He shook his head. “He cheated on her and she forgave him. He ignores her for days at a time and she’s fine with it. Why does she do that? Why doesn’t she demand more? Only she wouldn’t. She tells us to be patient, too. To understand. And then there’s Ronan. With him, what I understand is—”

He took a couple of long swallows. “Hell, it doesn’t matter.”

She set down her margarita and slid onto the coffee table so she could sit facing him. “Now you’re starting to worry me.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Only a little. Okay, a lot. Probably because I haven’t eaten today.”

She stared into his dark eyes. Funny how until now she’d always seen the front he wore so comfortably. She’d never gotten that his father had somehow damaged him. That he wasn’t as perfect or confident as he wanted everyone to believe. He was just a regular guy, trying to get through the day. Only this day had turned out to be harder than most and she had no idea why.

“How can I help?” she asked.

His expression sharpened and eyes darkened with an emotion she couldn’t read.

“Don’t go there,” he warned her. “Trust me, you won’t like it.”

“I should get you something to eat. You’ll feel better.”

“That won’t help at all.”

She ignored that and stood. He rose as well—to get out of her way, she thought. Or maybe to stop her. What she didn’t expect was for him to pull her hard against him and kiss her as if she were the one thing he’d been waiting for. Which was totally ridiculous and not the least bit relevant. Not when his lips were hot and demanding against hers and every part of her began to cheer.

*

VIOLET WAS MORE relaxed than she’d expected. Ulrich was actually a nice guy, not to mention easy on the eyes. He handed her one of the menus and they discussed the selections. At first she wasn’t sure why he seemed to be so very interested in her choices, but when their server came by to take their order, Ulrich surprised her by ordering for her.

“The lady will have the house salad,” he began.

It was all she could do not to sigh. The lady will have... She knew it was just the accent, but still, the words sounded so sexy. Plus, being taken care of like that was sweet.

“We’d like some time between the courses,” he added when he was finished.