Page 74 of Refuge for Flora

“I know.” His hand separated and he patted the sofa cushion beside him. “Come sit down.”

She moved in that direction, but when she reached him, she ran her fingers through that dark, thick hair and let them slide down his cheeks before she sat down beside him. All she could think to say was, “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“I’m sorry I was here. That set him off, and I’m sorry.”

“No. Like I said, you have nothing to be sorry about. He’s just going to have to move on. I’m trying to, and I really resent him trying to pull me back toward him. It’s just not going to happen.”

She giggled. “I’m filet mignon?”

Barrett slapped a hand on her knee and gripped it. “Yes, beautiful lady, you most certainly are.”

“Well, that’s nice. At least I’m not tube steak.”

Barrett started to laugh and in just a few seconds, they were both shaking with laughter. “By god, no, you’re not!”

“I wish I could’ve seen his face when you said that!”

“I wish you could’ve too! It was pretty damn funny, but I was too mad to laugh at that moment. And now, looking back, yeah. Funny as hell!”

“So when will Conor be here?”

“Oh, shit!” Barrett jumped up from his seat. “I totally forgot he was coming with all that going on! What’s left to be done?”

“I folded the towels and I’ll go put them away. After that, nothing. The house is spotless and everything is neat as a pin. By the way, I really like this house. It’s very comfortable.”

“Thanks. It was one of the first things I bought after I started working for the state. I wanted to be out here somewhere near Mom and Dad, and when it came up for sale, I jumped on it. I had a friend in high school who lived here, so I’d been inside it, and I knew I liked it. It worked out perfectly.”

Flora stood and headed toward the bedroom to put away the towels in the hall linen closet. “So, what did you do until you landed this job?”

“I lived in northern Kentucky for two years and worked at the Cincinnati Zoo.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” She could hear him in the kitchen, starting the dishwasher. “My degree qualified me to work with the animals, and I worked with a breeding program there.”

“What kind of breeding program?”

“Marsupials. I worked mostly with the Australian ones?wombats, koalas, quolls. Tasmanian devils too.”

“What’s a quoll? And are Tasmanian devils really mean?”

“Quolls are cute. Look them up. And TDs aren’t really mean, but they do have a strong jaw so they can do a lot of damage if they bite. Oh, and quokkas.”

“Aren’t they the ones who look like they’re smiling all the time?”

Barrett chuckled. “Yep. I actually went to Australia for two weeks, stayed with a zookeeper, and spent my days at ZoosVictoria. They operate three zoos, but they’re all about conservation. It was an amazing trip. I’ve stayed in touch with some of the people I met there.”

“I’d love to go there sometime.”

Barrett had wandered down the hallway and stepped up behind Flora, his arms wrapping around her waist as he hugged her back to his chest. “I’ll take you sometime.”

“You’d do that?”

Before she could protest, he’d spun her to face him, his lips an inch from hers. “I would. I’d take you anywhere. Haven’t you figured out by now that I’d do just about anything for you, girl?” When he pressed those lips to hers, Flora lost all sense of time and space. God, she wanted to be with him! She’d never met a man like Barrett, strong and yet gentle, country and yet sophisticated, hard-working and yet he had no trouble taking time for family and friends. Hell, he mowed Mrs.Murphy’s lawn! He had to be one of the best men, maybethebest man, she’d ever met in her life. She tipped her head to let him explore her mouth when suddenly, he drew back.

“What’s wrong?”

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