A Daughter's Legacy

A tear slid down her cheek, followed quickly by another. Kelli couldn’t bear to put down the pictures long enough to wipe them away, so she let them go.

Oh, Mom! Why didn’t we fix this before it was too late?

Or was it too late? Would this crazy condition of Lillian’s trust help her to finally understand what had gone wrong between them? If she agreed, maybe she would discover, once and for all, if the fault had lain with Lillian or with her.

A tear dropped from her chin onto Daddy’s picture, followed a second later by another. Jason put an arm awkwardly around her shoulders and squeezed. She found his silent embrace oddly comforting and leaned into his warmth.

In the next moment, she stiffened. No! She couldn’t let her guard down around Jason Andover, even for an instant. No matter how nice he seemed, she must remember where this man’s loyalties lay. He was a zookeeper and he would always choose his precious animals over everyone else. Just like her parents.

Well, she’d show him. Even if it killed her, she’d last the whole six months. And then she’d walk away without a backward glance.

She stepped sideways, out of his reach. Still clutching the photographs, she lifted her face to look up at Jason. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m staying.”

Chapter Six

Jason arrived at the zoo at seven o’clock Friday morning, like he always did, and took his customary walk around the grounds to check on the animals. Everything looked normal, nobody injured or sickly. He examined the repair job on the wolves’ fence, satisfied that it seemed to be holding Bob, their resident escape artist, in place. The goats bleated and kicked up a dust storm as they trotted around excitedly. Samson paced the length of his enclosure, eyes fixed on Jason as he passed, as did the cougars. The capuchin monkeys rushed toward his side of their exhibit, calling to him as he strode by.

“Hang on, fellas, food is on the way,” he promised.

The radio on Jason’s belt erupted with sound. Angela, from the office.

“Jason, Raul just called. He sprained his ankle last night. Won’t be in today.”

He stopped on the path, digesting the news. Raul, the fiercely possessive zookeeper who’d been at Cougar Bay longer than anyone else, ruled the Small Animal building like a tyrant. He even came in on his days off to check on “his animals.” The man’s injury must be severe to keep him away from his beloved charges.

Jason conducted a quick mental review of the day’s staffing chart as he unclipped his radio. Each keeper took care of a group of animals from a specific natural habitat. They developed a relationship with each animal in their care, feeding them and cleaning up after them regularly, so they could spot a potential problem before anyone else from changes in the animal’s behavior or eating habits. Of course, Cougar Bay made sure the keepers were cross-trained, so a person could step in to care for other animals during the regular keeper’s absence, a policy Lil had implemented long before Jason joined the team.

The lemurs in the exhibit up ahead saw him stop walking and, alert to the change in the daily routine, raised their voices to a screech as Jason pressed the radio button to answer to Angela.

“When Stephanie gets in, let her know she needs to pick up Small Animals today.”

Radio static and then Angela’s voice. “She’s covering the Canyon and Penguins for Erica today.”

Great. And the other keepers were already stretched thin to cover a couple of vacations and the absence created by Jason’s reassignment to the director position. They were going to be short-handed on a Friday, the busiest day of the week outside of weekends.

Besides that, Jason had planned to team up Kelli on her first day with Stephanie, the most outgoing and friendliest of the keepers on staff, but he couldn’t saddle an already-overworked keeper with a newbie. Especially one with no training and a chip on her shoulder when it came to animals.

Well, he’d just have to take care of the Small Animal building himself. And Kelli would have to hang with him. A memory surfaced, of her pulling away from him at the hospital last night. He didn’t know what he’d been thinking to put his arm around her like that. She’d just looked so sad, so forlorn, with tears running unchecked down her cheeks. Until he offered a simple gesture of comfort. Then she’d stiffened like a Popsicle.

She wouldn’t like working with him today.

“Tough,” he told Casper the cockatoo as he passed. “She’ll have to get used to it.”

Casper fixed Jason with a shiny black eye as he spoke into the radio. “If Kelli Jackson arrives before I get back to the office, tell her I’ll be there shortly. Give her a new hire packet and let her start filling out forms while she waits.”

A short pause met that news. Then, “You mean Lil’s daughter? She’s coming to work here?”

Jason allowed a smile to creep onto his face. The news would make the rounds faster than a cheetah chasing a rabbit. “That’s right. She starts work as an assistant keeper today.”

Angela was silent as she digested the revelation. Then, “There’s a story behind that and I want to hear it.”

Jason shook his head. Of course Angela would itch to hear all about it. And as soon as she knew, everyone else would, too. Nice girl, but chatty. Well, Jason didn’t intend to say a word about the conditions outlined in Lil’s trust. Let Kelli handle that however she wanted.

“Just have her fill out the paperwork and tell her I’ll be there shortly.”

“Will do.”

As he clipped the radio back onto his belt, Jason stopped beside a macaw cage. Bongo, a beautiful blue and gold, continued grooming beneath a wing and ignored him.

“She’ll just be another employee,” he told the bird. “If she thinks she’s going to get special treatment because she’s Lil’s daughter, she’s wrong. She’s going to clean enclosures like everyone else.”

Only, she wasn’t like everyone else. For a second last night when he’d pulled Kelli close to his side, he’d felt something. Like a warm breeze had blown through the cold, empty space inside him. For one moment, he wondered how it would feel to really hold Kelli in his arms.

He swiveled from the cage and strode away quickly, as though he could leave the thought behind with Bongo. He had a lousy track record with women, proven by the fact that Aimee couldn’t stand to be near him. Better to stick with something easier to handle, like porcupines.

Kelli signed her name at the bottom of the I-9 form and clicked the pen shut. There. She was now an official employee of Cougar Bay Zoological Park.

Are you happy, Lillian?

Her mind echoed with her boss’s angry words on the phone last night when she called to request a six-month leave of absence. The only way she’d managed to calm him down was to agree to continue to work part-time for him at night. Actually, she’d been relieved at the arrangement. Stepping away from her life as an accountant was a huge move, a little too final for her comfort. This way she could keep her long-time clients without worrying that whoever Gary hired to take her place would mess things up for the more complicated accounts. And besides, the work would give her something satisfying to do in the evenings. Working in a zoo certainly wouldn’t tax her mental energies.

Jason came into the zoo office as she handed the completed paperwork across the desk to Angela.

“All done?” He nodded toward the packet of papers.

Angela fanned the forms, eyeing each one quickly. “Everything looks good.” She smiled up at Kelli. “Welcome to Cougar Bay. I’ll get your name tag ordered and it’ll be here in a few days. Here’s a couple of the shirts everyone in Animal Care wears. Will a medium work for you?”

Angela picked up two folded tan shirts, identical to the one Jason wore, and extended them across the desk.

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