But Griffin was telling her there were already new enclosures built for the sloth.
“The poor sloth is going to be housed out there all by himself?” Charlie asked, her heart thrumming with anticipation and excitement.
“Well, it looks like he’s going to have some lemur friends,” Griffin said.
Charlie nodded. “But you didn’t know that.” She tipped her head. “What were you thinking, Dr. Foster?”
“Just that it might be nice to have room for some expansion. The alpacas could use a little more room. And Fiona and I were talking, and she has a baby ostrich that might need a new home.”
Charlie swung to face the other woman. “What do you do?” she asked. Who had access to sloths, lemurs, and ostriches at the snap of her fingers?
“I run an animal park outside of Orlando with my boyfriend,” Fiona said with a smile. “We specialize in giraffes, but we have lots of other animals.”
Charlie knew her expression was one of shock and amazement. “You have giraffes?”
Fiona nodded. “A bunch. They are my favorite. That’s who I fell in love with in Zambia.”
Wow, Fiona was fascinating.
“You can get us more animals?”
“Oh, definitely—”
“Hang on,” Griffin interrupted. “Let’s not go crazy. How about we get the sloth and lemurs settled and see how things go.”
“But you’re willing to talk about more?” Charlie asked. Her heart was definitely pumping hard now. She was asking about more than the animals. She wondered if he realized that.
“I am.” His gaze was intense and steady. “But in regards to the animals, I’ll need a team.”
So, yes, he did know she was talking about more than the animals.
Charlie took a deep breath herself. Just a few minutes ago, she admitted to Fiona that she was committed to this idea. In large part, because of Griffin. But now, she was about to admit the same to him. That would make it even more official. And… complicated. Exactly what he’d wanted to avoid.
It would also mean she could quit sending out her resume to marketing firms and companies.
She took one more deep breath. Then said, “I’m in.”
“Okay.”
It wasn’t just the word, it was the look in his eyes and the tone in his voice that made that one simple word into a much bigger promise.
Charlie opened her mouth to respond with more, but just then, a car came screeching into the parking lot. They all whirled around.
A man jumped out of the passenger side the second the car came to a stop. “Dr. Foster!” He had a dog in his arms.
Griffin immediately shifted into professional mode and bee-lined for the man.
“What happened?” Griffin took the dog and turned toward the clinic as the man fell in step beside him.
“We just found it by the side of the road. Hit by a car, I’m sure. We were driving by and thought it was dead, but it lifted its head, and we knew we had to stop.”
The dog whined in Griffin’s arms and was clearly in distress. Charlie stood frozen to the spot in the parking lot watching them as the man pulled the door open for Griffin, and they disappeared inside.
“You need to go in?” Fiona asked.
Charlie shook herself. Yes, of course, she should go in. She was Griffin’s assistant, and obviously, he was now at work. But she didn’t really want to. This seemed next level and far beyond her ability to help.
But she swallowed. Griffin needed someone to assist him. She finally nodded. “Yeah, I should go in.” She glanced around. “I don’t know what to do about the lemurs.”
Fiona waved that away. “No worries, I’ll call Tori or Fletcher or Mitch. We’ll get them taken care of.”
Right, Fiona knew everyone here, and obviously, knew more about lemurs than Charlie did. Still, Charlie wanted to go with the lemurs a lot more than she wanted to go into the clinic.
“Okay.” But she was still just standing looking at the clinic door.
“It’s not exactly any of my business,” Fiona said. “But you’re not a veterinary tech, are you?”
Charlie shook her head. “No. I am just the receptionist and another pair of hands here. I’m in… marketing.” That sounded so weak and stupid suddenly.
“But you want to help Griffin expand the animal park.”
“I do.”
“Well, working with animals is amazing and can be very rewarding,” Fiona said. “But it can also break your heart. Animals, like people, get hurt and sick, and sometimes they don’t recover. Exotic animals can be especially a lot of work and can be difficult to treat.”
“What are you saying?” Charlie asked though she knew.
“If you’re going to have a collection of animals, and if you’re going to support Griffin in this, you have to be prepared for the bad things that happen too.”
Charlie took a moment to really focus on the other woman. Fiona was clearly very friendly and, as Griffin had described her, an optimist. But right now, she was being completely serious and, if Charlie wasn’t mistaken, protective of Griffin.
“I just want Griffin to be happy,” Charlie said.
Fiona nodded. “I believe that. But taking this on, expanding with new animals, is going to be a big deal for him. It’s a risk. The fact that you’ve got him thinking about it in the first place is huge. But there will be times when it’s hard on him. He hates seeing animals suffer, and he hates losing them. And that will happen, of course. He knows it will be painful at times. So if he’s willing to do this, it must be because he trusts in your support.”
Charlie sucked in a little breath. Basically, Fiona was telling her that Griffin was willing to do this because of her and that if she wasn’t up to the task, now was the time to realize it. And get out.
But she was in too deep.
Not only did they already have hedgehogs, lemurs, and a sloth, and not only had Mitch and Zeke put time and resources into the new enclosures, and clearly, the Boys of the Bayou would’ve had to put money into that, but… she was also in too deep emotionally.
With Griffin.
She wanted to make him happy. She wanted to give him something that he would find rewarding and that would make him smile and feel like he had a purpose. Yes, as cliché as it sounded, she wanted to save him. She wanted him to use his passion and potential, and it seemed she had found a way.
She couldn’t bail now.
“I understand what you’re saying,” she told Fiona. “And I’m going to go inside and help Griffin right now.”
Fiona looked at her for a long moment but finally gave a little nod. “Okay. I’ll see you later.”
Charlie turned on her heel and faced the front door of the clinic again. She took a deep breath, blew it out, and headed inside to be Griffin’s assistant.
“I am so fucked, you guys.”
Griffin was seated on one of the large boulders in the otter enclosure. It was dinner time, and he knew everyone would be gathered at Ellie’s, including Fiona. He knew he should go up there. They’d probably make him feel better.
But Charlie would probably be there. And she’d had a really bad day.
The dog that had been hit by a car along the highway hadn’t made it. It wasn’t his first, of course. Sometimes, no matter what he did, animals didn’t survive. It always tore him up a little, of course, but it was a part of being a veterinarian.