Page 8 of A Summer Mismatch
Logan’s mood brightened. He loved seeing Cameron every Tuesday. His life could be crumbling like a poorly-built Lego structure, and Cameron would still have a genuine hug for him. “I’ll head out in a minute.”
”Is Ryan on today?” Kai asked.
“Unfortunately.” Logan hated to speak poorly of his staff, but if he could work exclusively with Allison or Finn, both of whom had a gift with the elephants—but worked the night shift—he’d feel a whole lot more comfortable walking away from Raza for more than just a few minutes at a time.
For now, Logan had Ryan measuring out nutrients for their feed, which should fill up most of his morning, and hopefully keep him away from the elephants. Ryan didn’t mistreat them, per se, but he didn’t seem to like them either, and the elephants were perceptive enough to sense it.
Kai and Logan stood quietly beside one another, watching Raza amble unevenly around his stall. Raza was still favoring his right, front leg. An injury like this could be deadly in the wild, but with proper care, exercise, and nutrition, Raza should have a complete recovery after some time. Which was a relief, especially with the news about Matis. Still, Logan was having a hard time walking away from Raza, as if his very presence could help the bull elephant heal faster.
Logan had gone into veterinary work because of his love for animals. He’d been fascinated by them since he was a little kid, and he’d begged his mom to take him to the zoo every weekend, just like Cameron did.
Kai and Logan had worked with Matis together, and their friendship had grown along with their knowledge of working with elephants.
“Remember the first time we met Matis? With the food box?”
Logan laughed. “She outsmarted us all.” They’d been working with some scientists at the education center who were studying the intelligence of elephants by giving them a cooperative task to get into a box of food. It required two elephants: each to pull the rope evenly to open the box. It hadn’t been long before Matis outsmarted the scientists and learned how to manipulate the rope so she could open it herself. Logan had loved elephants before then, but it was the first time he really respected them as truly intelligent creatures with personalities. It had cemented his desire to make elephant veterinary work his specialization, though he could work with any number of exotic animals as well.
“What have you got going on this weekend?”
Logan knew exactly where Kai was going with his too-casual question. “I’m busy. Helping my grandparents move in.”
“The entire weekend?”
“They have a lot of stuff.”
Kai gave him a skeptical look. “I think a night out would be good for you. You’re starting to act like one of these bulls the more you spend time with them.”
It wasn’t such a bad life, the solitary existence of a male elephant. “I can’t do another blind date.”
“An easy way to solve that problem is to go on more than one date with someone. Or better yet, find your own dates.”
Kai was right. Working sixty-hour weeks and not seeing a single soul on the weekends couldn’t be good for him. What worked for elephants didn’t necessarily work for humans, as Kai was always quick to point out. “Next week, okay? I’ll give this one a real chance.”
“You better.” Kai pulled away from the rail as his radio crackled to life, and he pulled it from his belt. “I need new material for my article on the mating patterns of humans.”
Logan groaned. “That joke stopped being funny years ago.”
“For some people.” He slapped Logan on the back a few times before he headed into the learning center, already talking on his walkie-talkie.
Logan walked around the back of the learning center, toward the elephant enclosure. The SFWCC had received a very generous donation five years before that allowed for an enormous elephant exhibit to be built, and made Logan’s goals of helping the elephants to live healthy and fulfilled lives more attainable.
He turned the corner to see Cameron sitting on the bench he always parked himself on to watch June, Adia, and Lulu. Cameron had watched those elephants play; he’d watched them sleep. He glanced around for Flora, Cameron’s mom, but didn’t see her. Instead, he caught the back of a long-haired woman standing at one of the informational plaques and recalled that Flora and her husband were going out of town, and Cameron was spending the summer with his sister Julia.
“Cameron!”
Cameron whipped his head up, a huge smile on his face. “Vet, vet, vet.” He pressed the button over and over on his device, something Flora told him he did when he was excited. She’d told Logan that Cameron could understand a lot more than he could say, and about a year ago they’d gotten him his talker, which was essentially a tablet with a communication app, and his world of speech had opened up. She’d also taught Logan how to pause and give Cameron time to reply after each question.
Logan loved the pace of his conversations with Cameron and wished everyone could take the time to slow down and let people think through their replies.
“Hi, Cameron.”
Cameron ran toward him, and the sister, Julia, turned in his direction just before Cameron embraced Logan. Logan stumbled back when he saw Julia’s familiar smile, and then tried to pretend he was just playing at nearly losing his footing from Cameron’s tackle-hug.
He thought he’d never see her again. The creative makeup wearing, fictional-character killing, I’m-not-a-psychopath woman from the gas station.
Julia.
And she was a whole lot prettier than he’d even dared to imagine.
