Page 87 of Heart to Heart
“Are they in those cages?”
“Also, yes.”
I let out a squeal that would probably embarrass me later, but for the time being, I only had lemurs on the brain. “Can I?” I asked, needlessly motioning between myself and the cages.
Julie smiled as she gestured to the cages, giving me all the permission I needed to speedwalk at a respectable pace to them, ignoring the beat my heart skipped when Tristan murmured, “She’s so cute” to her.
Inside one of the cages, lay two small fuzzballs, their distinctive black and white ringed tails curling around their tiny bodies. This must be how first-time parents felt when they saw their newborn children in a nursery, wanting to hold them but also just wanting to let them remain in their peaceful slumber. I watched the rise and fall of their backs and the fade of their fur from charcoal grey to a dusty brown and back into an ashy grey near their hind legs.
“This is the best day of my life,” I blurted out.
“You’ve been bested by a lemur.” Julie looked at Tristan and giggled.
“If they make her this happy, I’ll take her to see lemurs every day,” he answered.
I peeled my eyes away from the slumbering lemur babies to see him looking at me with the same transfixed gaze I must have had on them. “Thank you,” I mouthed to him.
“You’re welcome,” he mouthed back. I turned my attention back to the furry lumps that were beginning to wake up, poking their shiny black noses in the air while their amber eyes opened to take in the world around them.
We walkeddown the path back to the entrance to the zoo, where Tristan had another surprise waiting for me as though I weren’t still on a high from the lemurs as it was. We’d ended up getting to hold them briefly, but it was enough time for me to consider moving to Madagascar to be in the lemur epicenter.
“Nothing you do is going to top that,” I said, squeezing his hand.
“Nothing, huh? Well, that’s not going to stop me from trying,” he spoke softly, looking at me with the same fire in his eyes I saw in the hot tub and in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
That was it.
He was going to invite me to his room tonight.
I was going to be able to tell him how I really felt about him.
I was?—
I stiffened, my brain stopped forming words as we turned a corner, and I caught sight of a ghost that had quite literally come back to haunt me.
“Avery?” Tristan called my name, concerned. “Avery, what is it?”
“It’s Guy.”
CHAPTER 50
AVERY
Tristan’s body went rigid,his jaw hardened. “Is that your ex?”
I nodded, suddenly dizzy, my palms sweaty. Guy looked up, catching sight of me, the smile on his face fading when he saw my hand firmly in Tristan’s.
“Hi, Avery,” he called out to me. He’d been leaning against a bench, clad in a suit, a bouquet of daisies in his hand.
He hated wearing suits. I hated daisies.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, trying my damnedest to keep my voice steady.
“Can we talk?” he asked, adding in a “Please” for good measure.
“Is this the guy you told me about in the hot tub?” Tristan asked, measured anger in his voice. The tears in my eyes told him all he needed to know. “You don’t have to talk to him,” he said, lowering his voice. “I can have him escorted from here.”
I shook my head. “No. I need to talk to him. If anything, for closure. For me.”
