Chapter 9 #2
Perhaps it was hard for him to break free of his playful persona long enough to be taken seriously. At least, by some.
Zee gave the trainer a nod, and she was off again, back to her hidden place in the brush before coming back with a very small, very cute monkey. Viv couldn’t help but be charmed by it at first sight.
“Oh, it’s just a baby,” Darnell cried.
Duke’s grin grew impossibly wider. “It looks like it.” He looked to the specialist as she brought it close. “Is it? Is it just a baby?”
“Yes,” the specialist said. Suddenly, the macaw flapped its wings and squawked, causing the specialist to back away. “Maybe I should remove the bird first,” she said, looking from Zee to Duke.
Duke shook his head. “I think it’s okay. Just…let me see if I can distract her. I want to get the shot if we can.” Duke turned slightly toward the bird and rubbed his face over its body. “It’s okay, girl. It’s okay.”
He was brave, Viv would give him that. And determined. “Couldn’t that bird bite him?” she asked the specialist.
The girl gave Viv a reluctant nod. “She could, but so far she’s not exhibiting any warning signs. When she’s agitated her feathers will puff, her eyes will dilate, and she’ll open her beak a little.”
“Good to know,” Duke said. “Thanks for asking, Vivi. Now if I see her doing one of those things I can just flick her off, right?”
“No,” the specialist said with a laugh. “I’ll take her off your shoulder if that happens. Now hold still while I try coming in with the monkey. His name’s Jack.”
“Hey, Jack,” Duke said, propping the sloth higher up on his hip. Once the sloth was settled, Duke reached for the monkey. The macaw squawked again.
“How about I extend my arm, and Jack can sit on it like a branch. Or maybe he can hang from it, like with his tail. I see the monkeys here doing that all the time.”
“He might do that,” the trainer said, but she looked apprehensive even still.
“Listen,” Duke said. “If your macaw flies away or bites me in the face or something, I’ll take responsibility for it, okay? Everyone here can vouch for me.”
She nodded and took a step closer. “Yeah, okay. Let’s try again.”
The specialist moved to place the monkey on Duke’s arms as he requested.
Viv’s heart picked up its pace. Her breaths came shorter too. She leaned over her lap, anxious to catch the response of each animal as the monkey neared.
The sloth paid no mind, but the bird’s feathers rose along the back of its neck.
The trainer took a step back. “She’s not happy right now,” she warned.
Viv tried not to imagine how badly things could go if the bird aimed for Duke’s face, as close to it as she was. “Maybe you should give the bird back,” the mother in her piped.
Duke glanced at her from across the clearing and flashed his heart-winning smile. “I think we’re good,” he said, voice soothing. He turned his face toward the bird again and clicked his tongue. “Come on, Polly, it’s okay. You’re still my girl.”
The bird’s feathers perked up once more, then settled slowly, softly into place.
Duke motioned for the trainer to come forward with the wave of his hand. “See if he’ll hang on my arm like a bar,” he said, moving it into flex mode as if to show off his muscle. There was, in fact an impressive knot bulging along his bicep.
The trainer inched closer and, to Viv’s surprise, the monkey stretched one skinny arm toward Duke. Its small fingers curled around his wrist as he released the trainer and gripped onto him with two hands now.
The scene melted Viv’s heart in a million ways.
The small monkey tipped to its side next, swapping one hand for a foot and swinging sideways while Zee captured the shot.
The small creature swung in place a bit more before reaching up with its tail and wrapping it around Duke’s arm. At once it tipped upside down completely and aimed its face at the lens.
Astonished oohs and ahhs lifted over the space.
Zee was clicking away to capture the moment. “Incredible,” he breathed as he zoomed in and clicked some more.
Viv had nearly forgotten about her neglected notebook, too lured in by the man standing center stage.
A clearer vision of Duke was unfolding before her eyes.
A lovely one. A man who knew his lot in life.
The entertainer. The one they could count on to do something different.
Something that would either ease tension or cause it.
Something that would raise brows, cause chatter, and earn him the reputation that was his.
His, perhaps, whether he wanted it or not.
As they finished up the rest of the rain forest shoot, Zee directing the occasional chin tilt or narrowed glare, Viv couldn’t deny the draw she felt toward him.
It was complicated, she’d admit that much. She almost wished she wasn’t so interested in the truth about people. It’d be much easier to assume that Duke was the jerk she’d determined him to be.
Amidst the storm of her own thoughts, Duke’s gaze caught Viv’s across the clearing. Her heart let out a long, extended beat as he narrowed his gaze into a deep smolder. He grinned then, as if releasing her from his alluring spell. Little did he know that smile held a magic of its own.
There was more than friendship behind those eyes.
Viv was used to letting her candid inner thoughts guide her while seeking the truth about her subjects. So why couldn’t she entertain that one?
She knew psychology well enough to know what held most people back: fear. So what was she so afraid of?
Viv flipped to a far page in the back of her notebook. With her pen poised for a few notes on a new subject—herself—she considered the shift in her take on Duke’s feelings for her.
Last night she’d been certain he was interested. Come morning, she’d convinced herself that he couldn’t want more than friendship.
She wrote the word friend at the top of the page. It was a safe word. No potential for hurt and rejection there.
Viv didn’t like turning her own truth-seeking tactics on herself, but if she were analyzing one of her subjects, she’d guess they were simply trying to avoid the risk that came with any romantic endeavor.
Fine. Maybe she was scared of getting hurt by Duke. Why shouldn’t she be? He’d hurt her once before. And even after that, she’d allowed herself to fall blindly into the arms of a guy who cared more about himself than anything else.
Had she really fallen blindly though?
Viv wrote those two words next. She wasn’t blameless where that part of her past was concerned.
When someone claimed to be swept away, taken by storm against any will of their own, they dodged responsibility for their actions. She’d seen it over and over.
Was that what she was hoping to do? Pretend she hadn’t seen the relationship coming so she could duck out at the first sign of trouble and say she hadn’t meant to fall for Duke after all?
Viv didn’t want to give herself that kind of an out. There was something between them. She knew it, and she didn’t want to pretend otherwise.
With that thought in mind, she scribbled out the words fallen blindly. If she and Duke were going to have a second chance at romance, Viv planned to go into it with both eyes open. Not as a victim, but as a grown woman with the wisdom of her years behind her.
Intentional. She wrote those two words beneath the scribbled mass, stared at it for a blink or two, and then flipped the notepad back to its place.
There.
Life’s lessons are meant to teach us, her mom always said. It’s up to us to apply those lessons or keep reliving them until we do.
Viv set her eyes back on the action at hand. The animals had been taken back to their places, and Zee had Duke swinging from some sort of vine.
First the crocodile hunter, now the king of the jungle. What was next?
The question led to a different thought in her mind. Now that she’d admitted there was romantic potential between them, just where would that potential take them in the days ahead?