Page 9 of Alistair

She hummed softly but didn’t say anything.

He immediately began to doubt whether he’d misread the situation. He knew they were soulmates, but she was human and sometimes humans thought things moved too fast.

“I’d love to go out with you,” she said. “School ends at two-thirty and I have to clean out my desk, so I probably won’t be home until four, but we can talk after that and make plans if that’s okay.”

He opened his mouth to say it was fine with him, when he realized what she’d said. “You’re cleaning out your desk?”

“I’m a substitute. The regular teacher is coming back Monday, so this is my last day with this class. I don’t have a job lined up yet, but hopefully I’ll get an assignment soon.”

While the kids spent an hour riding in circles on the colorful horses and the music just about drove him insane, he and Maggie talked quietly about her being a teacher and him being a vet tech for the park’s animals.

“That sounds amazing,” she said. “I always wanted to work with animals, but I didn’t want to spend all that time in college to become a vet.”

“It’s a lot of schooling,” he mused. “I didn’t want to be a vet either. I like being an animal handler, though, because I get to work with all the animals.”

“Has Tank ever caused you any problems?”

“Well, he did break my wireless earbuds,” he said with a chuckle. “But generally if he’s not in the mood to be friendly, we can usually coax him around with carrots. They’re his favorite.”

“I love that.”

They spoke for a little while longer, and then the kids were getting their suckers and saying thanks to the tour guides as they marched away to the parking lot where the bus was waiting.

“I’ll call you after four,” he said. “I’m so glad I met you today.”

“I’m glad I met you too,” she said. “See you soon.”

They said goodbye at the gate, and then he stood with the other tour guides while they waved at the kids until the bus was gone.

His elephant let out an annoyed grunt at her having to leave. But soon enough, he’d be on his way to see her for their date.

“She’s really sweet,” Rhomi said. “It’s so neat how fate works out.”

“It really is,” he said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to move into one of the apartments and get ready for a date.”

“Good luck!” Tarquin called after him as he jogged away from the parking lot and headed to the employee cafeteria. In just a few hours, he’d be on his way to pick up his soulmate and take her out on the best first date of her life.

He didn’t know what that would look like, though, but he’d figure it out.

She was the most important person on the planet to him now and he was going to pull out all the stops to make it a memorable night.

Maggie picked up her favorite coffee mug from the desk and immediately dropped it. She caught it before it hit the desk and blew out a relieved breath.

She was nervous!

All because she’d been asked out by the sexiest guy she’d ever seen in her life.

Alistair.

Even his name was sexy.

She felt a connection to him that was stronger than she thought it should be because they’d just met. She felt like she’d known him forever, but they’d only spent a couple hours together at the park, plus she hadn’t been able to devote her full attention to him because she needed to focus on the kids.

But still…stormy-gray eyes, dark blond hair, and lips that seemed made for kissing and other wicked things.

She could admit, to herself anyway, that she’d had a heck of a time concentrating. And she’d hated to leave the park and say goodbye to him.

“So, when are you meeting up with your sexy fellow?”

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