“It seems to have gotten a little wild,” Eve says as high-pitched laughter cuts through the hedge.
“Yes,” I agree, my heart kicking up a notch as though that were a suggestion.
“Do you know where we’re going?”
“Home.”
“Well, duh.” She laughs, her fingers tightening briefly on mine. I’m almost surprised she’s allowing me to hold her hand. “I meant, do you know where the car is?”
“Can’t be far.”
She falls quiet again, concentrating so her heels don’t sink too far into the damp evening grass. Since the sun has set, the air has taken on a distinctly cooler feel. It’s almost autumnal.
“So, tell me about this safari park,” she says with a carelessness that must cost her.
“What do you want to know?”
“Oliver.” My name sounds like disappointment. “I was so angry at you earlier, but I don’t have it in me to fight with you right now.”
I wheel around to face her so abruptly that she stumbles back a step. My heart hurts that she would, even for a split second, think that I might hurt her. But the truth is, I have. Perhaps not physically, but hurt is hurt.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I don’t want to fight with you.”
“You’re not. Not really.” She gives a slow shake of her head. “I can’t do this, you know. I can’t in good conscience lie to that man about his animals.”
“I haven’t asked you to.”
Her trill of unhappy-sounding laughter fills the night air.
“Not directly,” I amend.
“You didn’t even tell me who I was meeting—you wouldn’t tell me the name of the house, and you certainly didn’t mention the estate housed the inhabitants of the Serengeti!”
“Because you would’ve asked questions I wasn’t ready to answer.”
She rears back as though slapped, but I don’t give her a chance to speak.
“I didn’t mean it that way. I just honestly don’t know what I’m going to do with that side of the place.”
“So why buy it?” She looks at me as though I’m suddenly alien. “You can’t expect me to believe it’s purely to spite him?”
“It’s also a sound business proposition,” I answer defensively. Words twist in my throat, though I force them back, swallowing over guilt and anger. “But there was a time I would’ve burned the place to the ground if I could.”
She looks away, horrified.
“Not with the animals in it, for God’s sake.”
Her expression falters. Is that pity I’m seeing? “You really hate him that much?”
“Yes, I hate him.” But perhaps not as much as I admire Eve.But that can’t be true, can it?“I hate him even more after tonight.” I take a step toward her, cupping my hand to her silky cheek. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there, so sorry I—” She silences me, her forefinger pressed to my lips.
“Like I said, I needed to see him. I needed confirmation that I don’t truly know who he is.”
“I should’ve been with you.”
“Well, you weren’t.” She pulls away, begins to walk again. But then she turns her head over her shoulder, the tiniest of smiles playing on her face. “And then you were there.” I hang onto that smile, store it inside me as we walk in silence for a while. “The animals,” she begins again. “I know I can’t defend every cause, but I can’t help you if you’ve no concern for them.”
“Do you really see me that way?”
