Page 45 of Tiger Queen

It seemed so effortless for her, too. Like she looked that way after rolling out of bed in the morning.

“What’s for dinner?” David asked later that night while I was in the kitchen.

“King ranch casserole,” I said while filling a glass dish with food. “I was going to use only half a can of tomatoes though, since you’re doing the low-carb thing.”

“I don’t mind picking them out.”

“This is easier.” I stirred the food into the dish and began covering it with grated cheese. “Rachel and I hooked up.”

“What? Really?”

“In the medical office.” I felt my cheeks turn red. I didn’t normally like to kiss and tell.

David smacked me on the back. “That’s awesome! I was wondering if she would be into the group thing. This is great. It’s really great, Anthony.”

“Yeah, it is.”

David lingered. “You don’t sound happy.”

I covered the dish with foil. “It’s not because of her. It’s about what happened with Jake.”

“Oh.”

“Do you think we’re doing the right thing? By moving the cats?”

David’s face hardened as he put up his walls. “What other choice do we have? Dad bankrupted this place, and that was while he was illegally selling cubs. It can’t stand on its own. We need to move the animals.”

“Yeah. You’re right,” I said.

He put a hand on my shoulder. “It still hurts, though. I just don’t wear my emotions on my sleeve like Jake. I’ve accepted it and moved on.”

I put the dish in the oven. “Dinner will be in an hour. I’m going to go for a walk.”

I wandered back out to the zoo. Rachel wasn’t in any of the enclosures, but I found her in the medical facility hunched over a keyboard. Her face was illuminated by the screen, and it brightened when she saw me.

“Hey there sexy,” she said.

I grinned. “Took the words out of my mouth. Dinner’s in an hour.”

She nodded. “I’m just finishing up some numbers. David asked me to run some calculations on food and vitamin requirements now that we’re eight cats lighter.”

I leaned down and kissed her. “Don’t be late.”

“No way!” she said with a laugh. “I’ve started looking forward to your meals. I’ve never had a man cook for me this much!”

I walked back through the zoo feeling lighter than air. I know she didn’t mean it that way, but I couldn’t help but feel like she had just called me her man. It was nice being relied upon like that. I was making her happy by feeding her each night.

Not the typical male gender role, but hey, who cares?

It was a nice night so I took the long way around the back of the zoo. I lingered with the chimps, then spent a few minutes over by the exotic birds. After that I passed the big enclosure where the six female Bengals had been kept. Only two remained now. They were playing with a rubber ball, batting it between them and wrestling over it.

It made me sad to see the enclosure so empty. I had agreed to David’s plan from the beginning, but seeing the results of it made it a lot more real. It felt like losing a piece of dad. I had never gotten along with him—none of us had—but he was still my father. Dismantling this place felt like desecrating a grave.

Jake came walking by with a welding torch and hose slung over one shoulder. I waved and fell in beside him on the way back to the supply shed. I had always been able to get through to Jake in a way that David never could. So I decided to try to make him feel better.

“It sucks,” I said. “I know it sucks, and you’re hurting right now. We all are.”

“David seems fine.”

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