New York Doc, Thailand Proposal by Dianne Drake

Author:Dianne Drake
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-06-05T14:02:28+00:00

* * *

Arlo hid himself in the bushes near the elephant reserve and watched Layla playing with the baby assigned to her care. She looked so happy, playing and splashing. He hadn’t often seen her abandon herself this way, and he truly wished she could find more joy in her life. But she went about her life so methodically, like she was laboring under the biggest weight in the world.

Emerging from the bushes after watching her for a while, Arlo waved at Layla as he passed near her, and found himself totally drawn into her smile as she waved back. He’d always enjoyed finding those things that caused her to smile like that or gave her an unexpected thrill or happiness she hadn’t expected. She could be like a child on Christmas, excited to open all her presents. And he’d been lucky enough to be part of that occasionally. “Care for a mango?” he called across the compound. “Your baby might love them.”

Layla turned to look at him, which was her first mistake. Her second was allowing the hose to point away from the baby. In that split second of distraction the baby grabbed the hose from her hand and started to run off with it, as any toddler, elephant, human or otherwise, might do. And in doing that the baby, named Tika, bumped into Layla, sending her sprawling into the big, orange plastic tub filled with muddy water where Tika had been playing. Seeing that as an opportunity to play, Tika slid into the tub with Layla, pinning Layla to the side at first, then trying to crawl onto her lap as she struggled to pull herself up.

“I see you have a situation,” Arlo called out. It was too funny not to laugh, which he and everyone else did, as Layla struggled to get out from under the affectionate ministrations of the two-hundred-plus pounds of Tika, who thought this was the best playtime ever, and wasn’t about to let her new playmate out of the water.

“Did I mention that baby elephants love to play?” he said, walking over to the edge of the tub, not to lend Layla a hand but to enjoy a more close-up view of playtime in the elephant compound.

Covered with muddy water, she simply looked up at him. No smile. No frown. No expression whatsoever on her face. “I think she’s sprained my ankle,” she said, her voice flat. “Could you help me out of here? I want you to have a look at it.” With that, she extended her hand to Arlo, who was already feeling terrible about Layla’s injury.

“Maybe it’s just a twist,” he said, as he took hold of her, which was his first mistake. His second was to lean slightly over the tub in case he had to lift her from the water. In that instant, what he never saw coming happened. Layla pulled him down into the tub with Tika and her.

“The twist, Doctor,” she said, her face still as serious as it could be, “is that you fell for it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.