Wanted: Zookeeper (Silverpines Book 19) Read online

  “I thought I was going to see you mauled to death.” He yanked her back, searching her face and settling on her eyes. He lowered his face to her and kissed her hard. Then jerked her back again.

  She panted and shook her head. Everything happened so fast, she had no way to fight him. He kissed her, but it wasn’t sweet or affectionate. It hurt. Maybe he was angry, but why?

  “I – let go of me!” She twisted her arms to get out of his grip.

  As if he realized what he had done, his jaw went lax. “I-I’m so sorry, Miss Myers. I was so frightened. I-I lost my head.”

  Mr. Cutler and Ryder ran into the warehouse. Ryder closed the door and turned to his father, then followed his frozen gaze to Ellen and Mr. Phinney. ”Y’all all right?” The boy looked confused.

  “Yes.” Ellen rubbed her shoulders. “Mr. Phinney was… frightened. He overreacted.”

  “Overreacted! You could have been killed! I can’t lose—” He cleared his throat. “I mean, I wouldn’t want you to get hurt on my account.”

  Ryder’s eyes darted between them and his father. “That was foolhardy, as ma would say.”

  Mr. Cutler didn’t say anything, but his raised eyebrow said enough. “Are we done here?”

  “Yes.” Ellen said too quickly. “Mr. Cutler, if you’ll take me back to the mercantile and let me get Clarence, I’ll —“ She turned to Mr. Phinney. “Shall I plan on Sammy staying with Clarence tonight?”

  Mr. Phinney’s eyes widened. “No. I’ll fetch him. We’ll all be sleeping here tonight.”

  Ellen gasped. “You can’t sleep here!”

  “Why not? I hung a hammock and stayed in the cargo storage on the freighter. Nothing’s different here.”

  “Do you not have money for a hotel room?” She gawked at him, waiting for an answer. “Or… is it because you’re worried about the animals?”

  Ellen stepped closer to him so she could look into his eyes for the truth.

  “Precisely. I can’t trust that any of them will be alright on their own. I need to be here in case anything else happens. You saw firsthand how quickly things can go wrong when you mix predator and prey.” Mr. Phinney jammed his fingers into his hair. His face was pale and his dark hair fell across his eyes. The cheetah nearly escaping had unnerved him.

  No. Ellen mulled the image over in her head. He really cared. He wasn’t too cheap to rent a hotel room, he really cared about these animals… and her. He had hugged and kissed her.

  It was not romantic, but hard and desperate.

  And it stirred something inside her she couldn’t explain.

  She’d been attracted to this mysterious Mr. Phinney. Felt a kindred spirit with him. But the way he grabbed her and kissed her. Heavens to Betsy, she wanted more. How could her heart have such wanton longings? She wasn’t that kind of girl. She’d been raised with civility and manners. A decent woman didn’t have desires like what she was feeling. She stared at him, hating him for stirring these awful feelings up inside her.

  As soon as this storm died down, he’d be gone. But she’d pine for him the rest of her life. For this emotion he released inside her heart. A suffocating sense of desperation strangled her. She couldn’t breathe. She staggered back, bracing her hand on the hay wall. She couldn’t let this man leave Silverpines!

  #

  Niles’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest when he saw Miss Myers standing directly in the path of the cheetah. The desperate cat smelled the fresh meat. She had flared her nostrils and stalked out of the livestock car sniffing vigorously. It had been over a month since the big cats had been fed such a delicacy as raw, fresh meat. Spotting Ryder, she jumped the hay wall, instead of following the path laid out, because of her delirium for the food. Then Miss Myers yelled, drawing the cat’s attention to her at the entrance to the warehouse.

  Niles leapt into action. He screamed, “Ellen! Move!” He crawled on top of the bale wall and took aim with the tranquilizer rifle, but the cheetah had already pounced into the warehouse. Niles had lost sight of Miss Myers. He didn’t know if the cheetah had knocked her down, or if Ellen had jumped out of the way. She had no idea that cheetah are the fastest animals in the world. She could have been on top of Ellen in the blink of an eye. Ellen could be dead within the next blink. He jumped down from the wall, landing on his feet with a jarring bolt of pain in his sore leg. He shrieked, “Ellen. Oh Ellen!” As he ran to where he’d last seen her and slammed into her body against the hay bale that she’d managed to push into place, closing the cheetah inside his pen. Until Niles felt her small frame between him and the hay, he had no idea she was there. She was alive!

  “Are you alright?” He knew he was yelling, but the fear for her life surged in his veins and he couldn’t slow his heart or lower his volume. Then his anger turned on her. He heard himself screaming at her. “That was the dumbest thing anybody ever did!”

  Why was he screaming at her? All he wanted to do was take her into his arms and squeeze her so tight. Feel her life. Know she was all right. But instead, he was screaming at her like she was a child. A foolish child!

  Without thinking, he grabbed her by the shoulders, spun her around. His intention was to look her over, confirm she was not harmed. But then his eyes met hers. He felt himself dive into the pools of desire that were the color of her eyes. He had almost lost her. Because of his ridiculous determination to redeem himself with his twin brother.

  Niles had no idea, when the train crept into Silverpines, he would meet this woman. She was beyond his wildest expectations. And yet, there she was, chasing a pig… in a blizzard. And he’d almost lost her to one of the exotic animals he brought for bragging rights to his brother.

  But she was not harmed. She didn’t have a single scratch on her. He pulled her against him. Relief swamped his heart. He hugged her so tight with a hundred different sensations: relief, fear, anger, frustration. His mind reeled. There was no way he could adequately describe everything he was feeling. “I thought I was going to see you mauled to death.”

  He pulled her back to look at her. He had a need that could only be fulfilled by losing himself in her dark quartz-colored eyes again. Her lips trembled. He covered them with his own. Kissing her with everything he felt inside. Suddenly, he realized what he was doing. His fear for her life had made him reckless. He jerked her away from him. He had to stop this. It wasn’t appropriate. She should slap him immediately. He examined her reaction. She seemed stunned, then terrified.

  “I, ugh, let go of me!” She twisted out of his clutches.

  He had driven her away. He’d lost her anyway, because of his unbridled fear and passion for her when he thought she would be killed. How could he explain all that had gone through his head when he saw her standing in the doorway, so vulnerable to the cheetah’s speed and razor sharp claws? He opened his mouth to explain. “I-I’m so sorry, Miss Myers. I was so frightened. I-I-I lost my head.”

  ”Y’all alright?” Ryder’s voice brought Niles to his senses. Mr. Cutler and the boy were here in the warehouse. How much had they seen? Shame swamped Niles’s chest. He couldn’t believe how he’d reacted to Ellen’s near-fatal mistake.

  “Yes.” Miss Myers answered the boy, a blush filled her face as she brushed down her trapper’s britches as if they had wrinkled in their tussle.

  Lord have mercy, Niles had completely muddled any chances he might have had with this angel sent to him in a snowstorm by heaven above. Niles knew his chances were completely lost. She asked Mr. Cutler to take her home. Niles had already told her he’d make sure she got home safe and sound. Now they thought he was a womanizer and she wouldn’t have anything else to do with him. He sighed, sorrow choked out any decent explanation he could possibly devise.

  Her eyes cut a sharp glare toward him. “Shall I plan on Sammy staying with Clarence tonight?”

  She wanted to keep his African elephant shrew. That was the final straw. Misunderstanding his intentions and taking his little companion were two different things. “No. I’ll fet
ch him. We’ll all be sleeping here tonight.”

  “You can’t sleep here!”

  Did she not realize, except for on the train, he always slept near his animals? Even at the compound in Africa, he slept within earshot of them. He recognized every sound they made whether they were calm or stressed. It was the only way for him to monitor their wellbeing. All of these animals had come to him under near-death circumstances. They weren’t like the ones in the wild. His confidence in their survival, whether in captivity or not, was minimal.

  “Why not? I hung a hammock and stayed in the cargo storage on the freighter. Nothing’s different here.” He thought she had an uncanny understanding of animals. But the way she acted now, he decided she had no idea what he and these animals had been though.

  “Have you no more money for a hotel room?”

  He stared at her. She didn’t even realize he had no issues with money. He and his brother had a trust fund from their father that would sustain them for all of their lives, even with his philanthropic excursion in Africa. But what a rude comment for her to make, in front of the Cutlers. It was nobody’s business how much money he had or didn’t have, or whether he stayed near the animals or checked into a hotel. Who was being inappropriate now?

  “Or…” Ellen turned her head as if she were examining him. She stepped closer to him. “Is it because you’re worried about the animals?”

  The sting of insult drained from his body like a hole punched in the bottom of a barrel. Maybe she did understand, even if only a little bit. “Precisely. I can’t trust that any of them will be alright on their own. I need to be here in case— you saw firsthand how quickly things can go wrong when you mix predator and prey.” And you were almost the prey.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  A knock at the front door surprised Ellen. She put down her crocheting to turn to her grandpa. “You expecting anyone?”

  He shrugged and gulped down more coffee. Was he hiding behind the mug? She glared at him suspiciously and rose from the small table. Who could be knocking at this hour of the morning? Mr. Phinney had surely loaded his exotic animals onto his specialty livestock train and left for Seattle by now. The only evidence of the horrible snowstorm were the huge piles left from the men clearing walkways, those would take weeks to melt completely. Her grandpa, Jackson McMillan, and Martin Gale always cleared the boardwalks and crosswalks in town as soon as the snow stopped falling. This time was no different. It had taken nearly a week to dig every walkway out. There had been several feet of snow by the time the storm ended.

  A silhouette of a man showed through the opaque oval glass of their front door. Now, even more curious, she hesitated. Who could possibly be on their porch? Perhaps it was for her grandpa. She turned back to confirm he was still in the kitchen. He was. She turned the brass knob and pulled the door open.

  Mr. Niles Phinney jerked a bowler hat from his head with one hand and held green pine branches and white-berried mistletoe in the other. Her mouth fell open as her eyes dropped to the bouquet. “Those are a parasite, you know.”

  He shrugged. A cautious smile lifted his mouth. “It’s all I could find this time of year. I think it’s pretty nonetheless.” He shoved them toward her.

  “What are you doing here?”

  His smiled waned. He pulled the greenery back to his waist. “I-I wanted to apologize… for the other day. It was very… ungentlemanly of me… and I—”

  “You what?” She cocked one hip out and planted her fist on it.

  “Well.” He cleared his throat. “You helped me transfer my menagerie to safety, but I didn’t see you and Clarence home safe and sound, as I had promised. I was wondering… if I could see your… collection—“

  “Collection?” She tilted her head. “I don’t have a collection. My menagerie comes to live with me because they cannot live as they once had—”

  “Precisely. That’s exactly why my exotic menagerie is with me. They would have surely died if I had attempted to return them to their natural habitat.”

  She stared at him a moment. “Yes. You told me that, I believe.”

  “I did?” He hesitated, as if he were carefully considering his next words. “I must apologize for… in my defense, I really thought I was going to witness your terribly bloody death. I was overwhelmed with relief when you were all right, and… I—“

  “Kissed me.”

  He looked shocked she’d said it so bluntly. “Yes. I kissed you.”

  “So. Did you enjoy it… kissing me?”

  His mouth dropped open. Then closed. He seemed to be recovering from his surprise with a slight grin. “If I told you I did, would you slam the door in my face and never speak to me again?”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  He smiled cautiously. “I have thought of nothing else since that night. In fact, I have not made any effort to load my animals and leave… because I was hoping to be able to… discuss it with you.”

  She struggled to hide her mirth, stepped back, and swung the door to close it. It bounced off his boot which was wedged across the threshold to prevent the door from closing. She laughed as he sheepishly pushed the door back with a splayed hand against the glass. “Please give me a second chance. Sammy has missed Clarence, and I haven’t been the same man since I met you.”

  As if on cue, the rodent popped out from under Mr. Phinney’s collar and scurried through the Myers’s home. It was as if he knew exactly where to find his pig friend. She watched him run away, then returned her gaze to Mr. Phinney. “To be honest with you, Clarence hasn’t been himself either. I believe meeting your African mouse changed his heart forever.”

  Mr. Phinney stepped into her home. She didn’t move back. The heat radiating from his coat-clad body warmed her through her wool dress as he stood so close. Her heart pounded and she found it hard not to show how difficult it was for her to breathe.

  “Are you really talking about Clarence? Or is he just a metaphor for how you really feel… for me?”

  “I-well, a lady doesn’t—”

  He closed his lips over hers. Her arms encircled his neck without a second thought. Lost in the warmth and passion he shared so freely with her, she kissed him back.

  A throat cleared. “You two might want to close that door, before Charlotte Daniels spreads a rumor that you’re betrothed.”

  “What?” Ellen’s eyes widened. “Charlotte isn’t out and about like she used to be, Grandpa.” Heat filled Ellen’s face. But if Charlotte wasn’t walking about to tell what she saw of them kissing in the doorway, someone else would be. She gently closed the door behind Mr. Phinney. “Mr. Phinney, this is my grandpa, Walter Myers. Grandpa, this is Mr. Niles Phinney, the zookeeper I told you about.”

  He reached out and shook her grandpa’s hand. “Well, I’m a veterinarian, actually. My brother is the zookeeper.”

  Walter nodded and slinked back into the kitchen with a mischievous grin on his face.

  Mr. Phinney tried again to hand her the bouquet. This time, she took it. She smiled up at him. “It’s lovely.”

  “You don’t seem to have a flower shop in town, or I’d have brought you roses.”

  “This is just as lovely and even more thoughtful.”

  He smiled. She’d let him have that.

  “Have you had breakfast, Mr. Phinney?”

  “No, but could I convince you to call me Niles?”

  She hesitated. “May I offer you some breakfast… Niles.”

  “I’d be honored.”

  #

  Niles gathered the dirty dishes and carried them to the dishpan. He poured hot water from the large copper pitcher on the stove into the pan and shaved off some lye soap.

  “You’re not washing dishes.” Ellen protested vehemently.

  “I’ve been a bachelor so long, I’m not used to having anyone else to clean up after me… or cook for me. That was an amazing breakfast. Who cures the hams here in Silverpines?”

  A twinkle flickered in Ellen’s eye. She glanced toward
her grandpa who had skedaddled from the table the minute Niles sat down. He had muttered some excuse about “Leaving you two youngens to eat in peace.”

  “Grandpa smokes ‘em.” Ellen giggled. “He’s a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. Since he retired, he keeps busy and a few coins in his pocket by doing favors for people. Building a smokehouse was a project that turned into a chore, ‘cause now, with all our new families, women are asking him to smoke hams, pork butts, and bacon all the time. There’s almost always something curing or smoking in there year round.”

  She leaned closer to Niles. “Personally, I think he’s hoping to charm one of the remaining widows into a romance by smoking the meat. The way to a woman’s heart is through a good piece of smoked meat.”

  “I heard that.” Came Grandpa’s voice from the study.

  Ellen laughed.

  Niles smiled. This was nice. Their camaraderie warmed his heart. He’d never had a family that teased and laughed together. Except for his twin brother, he’d always felt different and isolated. “You know, you have an advantage over me.”

  “I do?” Ellen leaned back from him in her chair. “How is that?”

  “Well.” Niles smiled mischievously. “You’ve seen my animals, even fed them. You nearly fed the cheetah with your own flesh… and soul.” They giggled. “But…”

  Her mouth dropped open. “You haven’t seen mine. Except for Clarence.”

  “Right. Except Clarence.”

  “Well, let’s remedy that immediately. Grandpa!”

  “I’m not deaf. Go show him your critters. I’ll wersh the dishes.”

  “Thank you Grandpa.”

  Ellen led him onto the back porch where Clarence lived during inclement weather. Niles smiled at the sight of his African shrew curled up against Clarence’s chest. Did those two really think they were from the same litter? Ellen seemed to think that animals adopted each other. Perhaps it was true. All he knew was the shrew certainly had taken a shining to Clarence and ran to be with him the first chance he got.