Читать книгу Paws And Proposals - Кэрол Мортимер - Страница 29

December 29th

‘HOW many changes of clothes did you bring with you?’ Gabe asked slightly above a whisper as she wiggled backwards out of A-den’s hatch the following night and felt around with her feet for the floor. She understood his question. She was filthy.

Again.

‘Any further and I’ll be in there with her,’ she said, with no small amount of satisfaction.

It had been a tough dig, but the tunnel between dens was holding and it would only take a slight poke through to breach the remaining few inches of dirt. Curious Mjawi would do the rest. Or desperate Mjawi, to save her pups. Ingrid stood and steadied herself, then turned and smiled up at him. Bits of grit fell into her mouth.

‘I think we’re done,’ she said past them.

Gabe shone his torch into the space she’d just been working in and nodded. ‘Nice job, Ingrid.’

He reached his long arm up the den entrance and grabbed the inflated block they’d been sealing it with, let the air out through the popped valve, then quickly closed up the inspection hatch.

She shook her hair and loose dirt went flying. ‘Remind me about this moment the next time I have a good idea that no one but me can carry out.’

Gabe chuckled and rattled the inspection hatch to make sure it was secure. ‘I will.’

It was just something to say. It didn’t imply any kind of future between them or any kind of intimacy. But it dried her mouth completely. Then he turned and inspected her.

‘Hold still.’

Her breath grew even shallower as his large fingers slid behind her head and his thumbs wiped away the worst of whatever was on her face. She hated to think. She’d found more than just earthworms and the odd beetle while digging her way towards B-den. But this moment made those moments totally worth it. She stood, unusually compliant, and let him drag his flesh over hers.

It had been a long time between shivers.

‘So now what?’ she breathed, but didn’t move away.

‘Now we wait. Watch for signs of her den deteriorating.’

‘You don’t think she’ll move them just because?’

‘No. She’ll only move them to keep them safe. But what you’ve just done … That will mean they have a safe bolthole if B-den caves in.’

It was an odd mix of pride and futility—she’d have been instrumental in saving their lives if their den collapsed, but if it didn’t then all her work was purposeless. She decided to stick with pride.

He tipped his head. ‘For someone who saves animal lives every day, you look pretty pleased about that.’

‘I am. It’s different. This is about prevention.’

‘Is that why you wanted to change careers?’

‘Partly. I like what I do, but I want to contribute to the long-term management of our animals, not just their occasional care.’

‘Shovelling dung appeals that much, does it?’

She smiled, knowing that mundane tasks were the price they all paid for the more engaging, higher level tasks. Besides, she’d done her fair share of repetitive dirty jobs in the hospital.

‘It’s hard to form relationships with the animals there. The ones who are in long enough to bond with are the ones you can’t afford to bond with.’

‘Not sure zookeeping is the right choice, either, if it’s bonding you’re after. We can be transferred without notice, animals get transacted out to other zoos, there are management decisions. It’s not exactly stable.’

‘It couldn’t possibly be a faster revolving door than at the hospital.’

‘Is that what you’re looking for—constancy?’

‘I’d like to come to work every day and see the same faces. I’d like to get to know every dog out there by sight and have them be happy to see me.’ I’d really like not to come into work and find some animal I’ve spent two weeks nurturing back to health has declined and gone overnight. ‘I wouldn’t mind working with them when they’re healthy instead of only when they’re sick.’

Maybe then she could get a bit of certainty back in her working life—if she couldn’t get it in her personal one.

She stepped back a bit. ‘Anyway, it’s a moot point. I didn’t get the job.’

‘This time.’

True. It had been a year since the vacancy Gabe filled had opened up. That made the next one a whole year closer. Not everyone was wedded to the place as she was.

‘Will you try again?’

‘Maybe. Just don’t you go for the next one.’

‘I promise.’

His laugh was like fingers trailing up her skin. Seductive. Hypnotic. She let it coax a smile out of her.

‘Careful. I’ll start believing you’re comfortable around me.’

It was testament to how he could winkle his way under her skin that she blurted, ‘I’m never comfortable around you.’

Anyone else would have stepped back, offended.

Gabe stepped forward and his eyes blazed into hers.

‘Why?’

She could lie, she could mumble something with a passing resemblance to credibility. She could. But she didn’t because he really wanted to know. ‘You’re always so intense.’

Although always wasn’t strictly true. There’d been entire minutes the night they were together that he’d lain in languid half-sleep, his fingers tracing patterns on her skin, about as disarmed as a human being could be. But such moments had been as rare as some of the animals they cared for.

‘I have a lot of passion,’ he murmured.

Wasn’t that the truth? In everything he did.

He frowned. ‘I don’t like that it makes you uncomfortable around me.’

‘Uncomfortable doesn’t necessarily mean unpleasant—’ though this conversation certainly was leaning that way ‘—it just means I’m not … relaxed.’

‘How can I change that?’

You can’t. And there it was again. As many times in two days she’d realised her issue with Gabe was more about herself than him. She sighed. ‘It’s complicated.’

Something in his eyes shifted as he caught her drift. They gleamed. ‘Good complicated or bad complicated?’

Really? You want me to spell it out? Fine.

‘It’s not getting any less …’ She waved her hands as if that would help churn up words from the ether and fling them towards her struggling lips.

Gabe exhaled in the gaps between her speech, bringing their breathing into sync. An old zoo trick to help relax a stressed animal. It irritated her that it worked on her so immediately.

‘Any less …?’ he murmured.

But she wasn’t that brave. ‘You don’t feel it?’ she hedged.

‘Depends on what you were about to say.’ He shuffled closer and looked down on her. ‘Are you talking about what happens to the air when we stand this close …?’

Sure enough the air around them seemed to thin and divest itself of its oxygen. She sucked in a pointless breath.

Okay. So he felt it.

‘Or what happens to my blood when I touch you?’ His thumb retraced its path across her cheek.

She just nodded.

His eyes darkened. ‘That doesn’t make me uncomfortable.’

You’re not me. She turned away. ‘It’s not appropriate. We’re at work.’

‘I’m not working. Not till morning.’

‘I am.’

‘Yeah. You are.’ He let the silence hang for a bit and lowered his hand. ‘Until eight.’

She glanced back at him.

At the smile in his eyes.

At the badly disguised promise behind that.

He let her off the hook and returned to the monitor, hit rewind to view back what they’d missed while they’d been lost in each other.

Ingrid let her breath out slowly and quietly. She’d been foolish to go there at all. Just because she couldn’t be mad at him any more for getting the job it didn’t mean it was safe to let herself get close to him. Nothing else had changed for her.

One night was all well and good, but … longer? Trust was not something she gave easily these days.

They were colleagues, and maybe now they could be friends.

That was all.