Page 47 of Tiger Queen

21

Rachel

Dinner was awkward and I didn’t understand why.

Nobody was behaving the way I expected. For one thing, Jake seemed upbeat as if the argument earlier was in the distant past. He wolfed down his dinner and joked about the lack of carbs. Meanwhile, David was quiet and contemplative. Like something was on his mind. None of Jake’s prodding comments seemed to get through to him.

And Anthony? He was downright gloomy. He was bad at hiding it, too. He fake-laughed and forced a smile all through the meal to the point that I started to grow worried.

Jake left the house again after dinner. David and I took care of the dishes.

“You okay?” I asked.

He wiped one of the plates with a towel and placed it on a drying rack. “Why?”

I rinsed a plate and handed it to him. “You seemed preoccupied at dinner.”

“Just thinking about the finances. I read your report.”

I flashed him a big smile. “Eight fewer mouths to feed should help, right?”

“Right,” he said dourly. “But it’s not helping as much as I expected.”

“Anything I can do?”

He smiled gratefully, then kissed my hair. “If I think of something, I’ll let you know. In the mean time, keep doing what you’re doing.”

David carried a stack of financial documents to his bedroom. Since he didn’t seem to be in the mood for anything sexy, I headed to the library to look for Anthony. He was seated by the checkers board, but he was typing on his laptop and had headphones on. He took them off when I entered, and I could hear the thumping beat of techno music from across the room.

“I’m going to take two of three tonight,” I promised. “So I’m warning you now: you’d better bring your A-game.”

He smiled weakly. “Yeah. No, I’d love to. But I kind of have a bunch of work I need to catch up on.”

“I thought you said you were such an amazing computer programmer that you could complete a week’s worth of work in an afternoon.”

“Normally that’s true. But one of my teammates took a new job, and a new project of his fell into my lap. I need to give it my full attention.”

I moved his laptop to the table and sat on his lap. “Well I just fell into your lap. So maybe you should give me your full attention.” I began caressing his cheek.

He kissed me, but I could tell his heart wasn’t in it. “I’m really sorry. You’re beautiful, and I want nothing more than to say yes, but I need to finish this checkpoint before the morning or my boss will chew me out.”

I let out a dramatic sigh. “Very well. How about you come visit me in my room when you’re done? Not necessarily for anything sexy. Just some sleepy cuddling. After what we did in the medical office today, you owe me some cuddles.”

“If I finish this, sure. But I’ll probably be going to bed by the time you wake up.”

I hid my disappointment with a glare. “Tomorrow night, then.” I gave him a kiss and rose from his lap. As I exited, I glanced at him over my shoulder. He had already put his headphones back on and was typing away.

I went upstairs and tried not to feel like I had just been rejected. Anthony’s excuse seemed legitimate. He did have his day job to worry about while we were here. But it also felt like it was about me, and not the work he had to do. Like he would have come up with a different excuse even if he wasn’t busy.

Eager to talk to someone, I called Ashley. I wanted to tell her that we had already moved eight big cats to the ECAP, which proved that the work I was doing here was worthwhile. That I hadn’t just accepted it because the men were smoking hot.

And I wanted to tell her that I had already slept with two of them, because if anyone would understand and be excited for me, it was her.

But Ashley didn’t pick up. I left her a short voicemail and then sat on my bed feeling lonely.

The moon was shining bright through my window, a sliver away from being completely full. I went to the window and gazed out at the treetop view. The trees were illuminated in the moonlight and gently swayed, which made them look like dark green paintbrush strokes against a black canvas. It was beautiful.

Then the view was interrupted by a flickering light in the distance. The same one I had seen before on the far end of the zoo. Brilliant and bright and man-made, ruining the natural splendor I had been admiring.

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