Page 77 of Unlikely to Stay
Chapter 18
“Oh.My.Lord!”
Colleen was currently standing in the enclosure housing the newest members of Sophie’s Haven.Ella the elephant and her baby, Josephine, had come from the Oklahoma City Zoo.Ella had fallen ill and needed intense one-on-one care the zoocouldprovide but it was easier to let her go to a sanctuary with her baby so she could heal properly with less stress.The weather in May had been unseasonably cooler than usual, but had quickly given way to the heat of June.The sun was currently beating down on top of CC’s head.She knew it was time to start pulling out the sunscreen.
Josephine was the most adorable creature CC had ever seen.From her fuzzy hair to her little trunk, CC was in love.If she could steal the baby and hide her in her apartment for her own safekeeping, she totally would.However, her new best friend would quickly grow out of CC’s tiny home.Not to mention the fact CC didn’t clean up poop of any kind.
CC rolled her eyes.“What?He’s just helping me with the gym,” CC replied.
“Yeah, yeah,” Annie said, not buying the bull CC was trying to sell her.“Helping you with the gym.Kissing you senseless.Soundstotallyinnocent to me.”
“How do you know he kissed me?”CC shrieked.
“Ha!Iknewit!”Annie said, elbowing Breckin.“Didn’t I tell ya she had probably kissed him already?”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”Breckin asked.
CC shrugged her shoulders.“Because I knew if I did, you’d start planning my wedding.Like I said, it was innocent.It just happened and it hasn’t happened again.He’s just helping me on the gym.End of story.”
“Funny,” Breckin said with an ornery smile.“I didn’t know helping a person required you to stick your tongue down the other person’s throat.”
“I remember what Wyatthelpingme led to,” Annie said, waggling her eyebrows.
“Trust me, falling in love and getting married are the last things we’re thinking about,” CC said.“We’re just…working.Together.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Breckin said under her breath.“Somehow I think what you and Brant have going is more than meets the eye, despite what you’re telling us.”
“I don’t think so.We’ve only been on one official date.”
“A date that was intense enough to count as like,tennormal dates!”Annie exclaimed.
“Besides, you’ve been working on the gym together for like, what?A couple months now?”Breckin asked.
“Give or take,” Annie answered for Breckin.
CC kept rubbing the top of Josephine’s head, laughing when the baby elephant wrapped its trunk around her shoulders and began sniffing CC’s hair.“Can I tell you how excited I am that you got two elephants?”CC asked, changing the subject.“They’re my favorite animal of all time.”
“I’ll have to admit I’m pretty excited, too,” Annie said.“They are so amazing.”
“I can’t believe how this place has grown,” Breckin chimed in to the conversation.Thank the lord.It appeared as if she got her friends successfully off topic.“To think this used to be your old farmhouse.Now, it’sthis.Your granny would be so proud.”
CC looked around Sophie’s Haven named in Annie’s granny’s honor.What used to be a ten acre farm with nothing but a few farm animals, a rickety old barn, and rundown farmhouse was now a forty acre facility large enough to have a small, interactive sanctuary for all the exotic animals and an adoption shelter for all the unwanted domestic animals from the surrounding areas.
The farmhouse still remained, turned into living quarters for the veterinarians on staff.An office and top of the line veterinary clinic had been built next to the barn that had been given a facelift by Annie and Wyatt as they were falling in love and healing from their hurts at the same time.All of Sophie’s farm animals named after Disney characters still lived in the barn, a petting zoo built on the north end.
“She really would, Ann,” CC said softly.“I love this place.”
“You don’t loveeverything.I still can’t get you to go into the cat room.”
CC shivered.“Nope.Still have an illogical fear of all things domestic cat.”
“But you played with the baby tigers Shakira had last summer!”
CC shook her head.“Not the same.Baby tigers didn’t hide under the couch and bite my ankles.”
Her friends rolled their eyes.“You’re ridiculous,” Breckin said.
“Think what you want.I’m still not going in there.”