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“Levi! Can you show us any more magic tricks?”
“Pweese?” Little Olivia pulled at my slacks with her tiny hands.
“Uh, sure,” I said, reaching into my pocket and digging around for some change. I pulled out a nickel. I kept it hidden from view as I pretended to pull it from little Olivia’s ear.
The girl gasped and put her hand to her ear as if trying to see if there were more where that came from. The other kids just stared with wide eyes.
“My turn!” Sophia called out.
“I’ll just put it in your ear really quick, for later,” I said with a smile. I pretended to put the nickel in Sophia’s ear and showed her my hands were empty.
Sophia felt her ear. “Where did it go?”
“Right here,” I said, turning to Nicholas and pretending to pull it from his ear.
The kids squealed.
“How’d you do that?”
“It’s magic,” I repeated.
The table full of adults chuckled, bringing me back to the real world.
“You’re really good with them,” Noah said. “You sure you don’t want a brood of your own anytime soon?”
I glanced at Anna, who was blushing. I really didn’t know how I could make it any more obvious that we simply weren’t discussing that.
“Uhhh–”
“Hey, I have an idea,” Anna said, taking my hand. “You’ve never seen my childhood room. I’d love to show it to you.”
Anna jerked me to my feet, out of the dining room, and up the stairs to her room. She shut the door behind us and fell against it. “I’m so sorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” I chuckled.
Her room looked just like a room a teenager would have. Posters on the wall. Drawings and doodles on a memory board near a vanity. Her walls were a light pink, which surprised me as Anna didn’t seem like the girly type. There was a wallpaper border with tiny animals, and when I stepped closer, I noticed they were kangaroos.
The posters on her wall weren’t of celebrity crushes or from movies; they were from nature magazines. A cheetah and her cub. A grizzly bear playing with a ball. And so many kangaroos.
“Your sister wasn’t lying before. You really like kangaroos, huh?”
“I’ve always been obsessed with them.” She smiled as she looked around. “I know it’s weird, but I can’t help it. They’re just so cool… the way they carry their babies in their pouch. It’s so cute!”
“What started your obsession with them?”
She shrugged and seemed to think for a second. “Nothing in particular. I just remember being around five or so, at the zoo, and seeing one. And I told my mom I wanted one as a pet. She said I couldn’t have one as a pet and it broke my heart. From that day forward, I was determined to own one one day, until I realized how cruel it would be to keep it as a pet. Then I found out I could work with them at a reserve or zoo… and my career choice was set in stone.”
She’s literally perfect, I thought. Someone who loves animals as much as I do. I couldn’t ask for anyone better.
“There aren’t any kangaroos in Tanzania,” I said, walking over to a picture on her dresser. It was her and her sisters when they were in high school. Her hair was in her signature ponytail, and she didn’t look much different than she did today except a little curvier, which was nice.
“I know,” she said. “But this opportunity could open a lot of doors. It’s a two-year internship, and I likely wouldn’t stay in Tanzania after that. I could then go anywhere. Australia is always a possibility.”
My heart sank. Even though it didn’t make a huge difference, Australia was even further away than Africa. Levi, you already know she’s not coming back to you. Stop it.
“That’s great,” I said, forcing a smile. Then an idea occurred to me. “You know, you could always create a sanctuary of your own, and then you could be anywhere in the world. Even right here. There’s plenty of land in Sunville.”
Anna was quiet for a few moments. She walked over to her bookshelf and began straightening the already-straight books there.
