Page 3 of Stay for Forever

Chapter 2

How you treat animals tells me all I need to know about you.

I peek out of the window one more time before I open the back door to slink out of my house. This is what my life has come to – sneaking around to avoid Maverick the movie star aka heartbreaking lying piece of donkey dung. How dare he come to Winter Falls claiming it’s ‘time to figure out where this thing between us will go’!

I growl in annoyance and my dog, Bark Twain, howls in response, which of course means my other dog, Indiana Bones, barks and my cat, Meowise, snarls.

“Shush, guys. You’re ruining my whole sneaking out of the house thing.”

Bark Twain’s ears lift in confusion before he lets a fart rip. I try not to gag. I don’t want him thinking there’s something wrong with him, but there is. There most definitely is something wrong with this dog. It’s not normal for those sorts of smells to come out of an animal. And I should know.

As manager of the Wildlife Refuge outside of town, I spend most of my time with animals. Many of which come to the refuge ill because they were adopted as pets by rich people when they were adorable fur babies. Apparently, rich people think it’s okay to not only own wildlife but to feed them human food.

It’s not okay. Trust me. Those poor animals arrive at the refuge with gastronomical distress you cannot imagine. It’s enough to make me gag, and I can hold my sister Ashlyn’s hair back while she barfs without blinking an eye.

“Okay, sweet things, time for Mama to go to work.” I use my foot to push my dogs back while my cat glares at me for having the gall to abandon her with those heathens aka the dogs.

I manage to escape the house and shut the door without anyone losing a paw. Time to get to work. I hop on my bike and begin pedaling toward the refuge. A block later I slow down when I notice Forest, the owner of the pet store, Unleashed, waving me down.

“Good morning,” he bellows, and I cringe before glancing around to double-check no one heard him. It’s hard to pull off incognito when the residents of your town pride themselves on being a bunch of busybodies.

“Hey, Forest.” I rest my bike on its kickstand and kneel down to pet his chipmunk. “Hey, Chip,” I coo. “How are you doing?” The little guy chirps in response and jumps into my lap. I cuddle him close. He’s too cute.

“He’s missing his brother, Dale.”

I glance up to respond and nearly fall on my ass when I realize Forest isn’t wearing any pants or underwear for that matter. I should know better. The man hates wearing any type of clothing over his family jewels. Apparently, clothing restricts his cojones – his word, not mine. Definitely, not mine.

This is Winter Falls at its finest. They’ll skewer you for having the gall to use a plastic bag, but stroll around without pants on? No worries. You go for it.

“Bring Chip to the house soon and the brothers can have a family reunion,” I tell Forest.

I adopted Chip’s brother Dale, but Ashlyn, who was living with me at the time, threw a conniption fit and claimed she’d move out if I adopted Chip, too. I should have ignored her – to hell with her portion of the rent money – especially since she moved out a month later anyway.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice someone in a bright pink sweater marching in our direction. Uh oh. The gossip gals wear bright pink sweaters. Those five women have been sticking their noses in my business ever since they found out Maverick and I had a ‘thing’. I am not handing out details. No one needs to know what a naïve fool I was.

Time to get out of here before the gossip hounds of Winter Falls attack. I jump to my feet.

“I need to get to work. Later!” I hop on my bike and pedal off before Forest can respond.

“Juniper Berry, I know you saw me!”

I ignore Sage’s yell. Sage is the police dispatcher in town. She’s also the leader of the gossip gal gang and as such is the biggest gossip this side of the Mississippi. Correction. This side of the Atlantic. I wish I were exaggerating.

I breathe a sigh of relief when I arrive at the Wildlife Refuge. This place isn’t only a refuge for the animals, but it’s my refuge as well. It’s the one place in town where I can have a bit of peace. Where none of my sisters come barging after me, and none of the busybodies bother me.

The animals at this Wildlife Refuge are ‘unique’. We specialize in animals people thought would make good pets but in fact, don’t. But the ‘people’ I’m referring to aren’t any old people. No, they’re mostly Hollywood stars because ‘he who shall not be named’ is a movie star and has ‘connections’. I’ll show you what I think of his connections.

I notice the light in the capybara shelter is on. Uh oh. Did I leave it on? I’m usually meticulous in ensuring everything at the refuge is perfect for my babies before I go home. But I have an intern who in addition to covering weekends comes over for a few hours at night to check up on the animals. Maybe Harmony forgot to switch off a light?

I make my way to the shelter where we have several capybaras. The giant rodents look like a mix between a cavy and a guinea pig. In other words, they’re beyond adorable. They’re also affectionate, making people think they’re great pets, except they don’t respond well to being alone. But do people listen and ensure their pet capybara has a buddy? Of course not.

I enter the enclosure and freeze when I see Maverick. Damn it. Maverick Langston the movie star aka ‘he who flees in the morning before the girl wakes’ aka ‘the jerk’ is here in my sanctuary. How dare he? Yeah. Yeah. I know he owns the place, but he never comes here except to check the books twice a year.

And why does he have to show up appearing positively delectable? His thick brown hair is tousled perfectly making me want to shove my hands through it and mess it all up. And then there’s his model perfect high cheekbones and square jaw hidden under his trimmed beard. Add in his smoldering blue eyes and the picture equals yowzah! There’s a reason the man is everyone’s favorite romantic lead.

I shake my head and all thoughts of licking his abs from it. The last thing I need is to lick one of Maverick ‘only interested when the girl gets fed up with you’ Langston’s body parts.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

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