Page 55 of Unlikely to Stay

“Yeah.”

“Well, I have the money to do it now because of the auction.So…wanna help?”CC smiled a huge smile into the phone and then rolled her eyes at her idiocy.He couldn’t see her smile through the cellular line.

“I would love to, Cees,” he said.“But we just got a request for an elephant mommy, her baby, and a camel at Sophie’s Haven so I have to build a couple more enclosures.We also have a ton of school field trips scheduled for May, and that’s in three days.We’re swamped out here.I could definitely help you when school is out, though.Would that be okay?”

CC refrained from sighing.Even though elephants were herfavoriteanimal of all time, it would have saved her so much money to have Wyatt help her out.Still, she didn’t want to burden her friends.She’d just do the stuff she could do for now and wait on Wyatt to help her out with the rest after May.

“Sure.Yeah, no problem.I gave you short notice, anyway.”

Wyatt chuckled.“Yeah, nothing like calling the day you want to start.”

“What can I say?I’m excited.”

“And a little out of commission with a stitched up finger is what I hear.”

Damn her friends.They couldn’t keep a secret if their lives depended on it.

“Yeah, yeah.Annie has a big mouth.”

“You survived stitches?I’m impressed.Guess it helped that Brant Billings was the one who stitched you up.”

CC was tempted to flip Wyatt off but again, since he couldn’t see through the phone, it would be an exercise in futility.

“I survived.Happy now?”

“Totally happy.”Wyatt started to say something else but instead, nearly burst CC’s ear drums when he yelled.“Don’t let him go!”

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, just got a baby kangaroo loose in the office.I gotta go!”

CC placed her phone in the back pocket of her jeans and looked around the empty building that was eventually going to be the town’s gym.She sighed, the sound echoing through the empty space.This was going to be a lot of work.What was worse is that she didn’t even know where to start.