Safari Island Shifters: The Complete Collection(71)
On his way home, he ran into Parker Travers, the chef at Wild Eats and Clementine Blue’s husband. “What are you doing out here?”
“I had to sign some papers for HR,” Parker said. “I’m headed out to the brush to get some running in. Want to join me? I could use something to chase.”
Ward laughed. It had been ages since he’d hung out with Parker’s cheetah. “What the heck, sure. I don’t have any plans.”
The two men rode the bus to the safari tour meeting point. They went to the trainer locker room and undressed, then went outside and shifted. Ward’s gazelle was very jumpy and it wasn’t just the sight of Parker’s cheetah. He’d had this pent-up energy for a while.
He ran so fast he was almost flying. Parker gave him a twenty-second head start before chasing after him, but the cheetah was almost on top of him in a blink of an eye. He’d forgotten how fast Parker was. For a vegetarian cheetah, he took Ward’s gazelle down pretty hard. Once he had him on the ground, Parker put his paw on Ward’s neck and growled. If he’d been a lion, he would have roared. It was all very amusing. Parker let him up and they did it all again.
It was two hours before they stopped playing and went back to the locker room. Ward felt great. “That was fun. We should do it more often.”
“Agreed.” Parker pulled on his pants. “Once the baby comes, I doubt I’ll have much time to run on my own. It would be nice to have a partner.”
“Great idea. It would make me more likely to stick to playdates instead of working longer, too. Why didn’t we do this sooner?”
“Because we’re both busy! How have things been going with you? The celebration has been spectacular.”
“Thank you. I’ve been working, mostly…and there’s a girl too.” Ward filled Parker in on the details of his burgeoning relationship with Joan.
“That’s intense. Isn’t it funny how fast that stuff happens? Have you talked to her about being your mate?”
Ward shook his head. “Not yet. I don’t know how I should bring it up.”
“Just tell her. She’s feeling it too.”
“You think? She seemed pretty quick to leave my house last night and she didn’t want to see me today.”
“She’s probably freaked out because of the intense feelings. You need to just tell her straight up. You’ll be so happy when you do.”
“I don’t know. She’s a career girl. I don’t think she’ll give that all up to come and live on an island so I can keep my job.”
“So make it worth her while! Clementine’s a career girl too. It just so happened there was a job here for her. Maybe you could find something for Joan. Or compromise. Give her a reason to stay. Make it easy for her. She wants to give in to these feelings. Trust me.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
They went their separate ways. Parker had been more helpful than Ward had imagined. Make it easy. Why hadn’t he thought of that? There had to be something for Joan to do on the island. All he had to do was find the job.
He brainstormed for the rest of the night. By the next morning he had an idea. All he had to do was find her and ask her. He didn’t have anything to lose. If she said yes, he’d be happy with his mate for the rest of his life. If she said no, he’d still have time to make her an offer she couldn’t refuse.
Ward was no quitter, and he knew Joan was the woman for him. It was only a matter of figuring out how they could be together.
***
Joan was having a stressful day. She should have never stayed the night at Ward’s. She was almost late for work and it had gone downhill from there.
It was so strange, because her morning had started so wonderfully. Waking up with Ward had been brilliant. By the time she got to the bus stop, she’d been totally relaxed and couldn’t wait to get the day started. Then, her first filming had been moved to the Safari Corp building. She’d had to go to the resort, change, and then go back to Safari Town. It had been very close, and for Mitch, being five minutes early meant you were ten minutes late.
The shoot for the day had gone well, but she couldn’t stop thinking about her pet project. There was no sinister underbelly to Safari Island. There was no magic, either, according to Ward. She now had no story to pitch at the end of the shoot. She’d been looking forward to having something to give to the editors back at Travel Log. How was she ever going to get her own byline?
She was also stressed about Ward. He was such a nice guy and she liked him a lot. It was such a shame he loved his job on Safari Island so much. There was nothing for her here and she wasn’t interested in having a long-distance relationship, but there was no way he’d ever leave the island. He loved his job and was a Safari Corp man for life. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, exactly, but it wasn’t something on the island.
As great as the night before had been, there was nowhere for their relationship to go. She had no direction in her career and no personal life direction either. What the heck was she doing? Everything had been fine before she came to Safari Island. She was starting to think her article should be about the way Safari Island had trashed her life. How paradise hadn’t been so nice for her and had only opened her life up to more issues.
By the end of the day, she was ready to curl up in the giant tub in her room. She kicked off her shoes when she got back to her room and called room service to order a bottle of wine. She was going to pour herself a glass and soak until she had a plan for the rest of the trip. She already had the bath drawn when room service knocked on the door.