The World According to Vince - Jane Harvey-Berrick Page 0,47

into the room.

Pow! This is what love is like! I only have eyes for Gracie! Fook me!

My smile grew wider.

“Vincent, allow me to introduce you to Mr. Greg Pinter, Central Park Zoo Director.”

The dude stood up and offered his hand to me. “Mr. Azzo, it’s a pleasure, sir! A great pleasure! We at Central Park Zoo can’t thank you enough for bringing Jabari back to us safe and sound.” His voice dropped as he finished pumping my hand and slumped back into his chair, rubbing his forehead. “To be honest, this would have been a total PR disaster if it hadn’t been for your timely assistance. Jabari is completely harmless, as you know, but if he’d wandered into traffic … and he is quite scary if you don’t know him.” He rubbed his forehead again. “The welfare of all our animals and the safety of the general public is our primary concern, always. Tonight … well, there are questions to be answered … but I wanted to give you my personal assurance that the small matter of burglary…” he waved his hand in the air. “Forgotten! Never happened. And, ah, I know it’s hardly the appropriate time, but I couldn’t let this fortuitous meeting go by without asking if you’d consider being a Patron of the Zoo?”

I glanced at Gracie, feeling like I’d just been slapped around the face with a wet kipper, and still a little confused.

“So … I’m not being arrested?”

Gracie shook her head. “Not tonight, Vincent,” she said with something approaching a smile. “Although I’m sure there will be other opportunities.”

“Mr. Azzo,” the suit-dude began again, “you’ve become an icon for animal welfare in this city—your voice has shouted louder than we’ve ever been able to. If you were our Patron—an advocate for the animals, you might say—you could continue that with a framework of…”

“Eh, cheers and all that,” I interrupted him, “but I’m not good with frameworks,” and I shook my head.

“He’s really not,” Grace added with a smirk. “Rules, frameworks, laws—he breaks out in hives.”

I blinked. Had she just made a joke? Things were definitely looking up.

I grinned at her.

“The thing is,” I said, turning back to suit-dude, “I don’t like seeing animals in cages. Safari parks, yeah, I get that, for breeding programs, but zoos … it’s not really me.”

Suit-dude deflated but nodded understandingly. “Well, perhaps I can entice you and Ms. Cooper to visit—in daylight…” and he laughed carefully. “So you can see the extent of our conservation efforts and work to preserve wild habitats. I assure you, our resources reach beyond Central Park,” he said seriously, then gave a kind smile. “And you can visit Jabari. I believe he’s become rather attached to you.”

“Alright, you’re on!” I said, brightening up at that prospect. “It’ll be good to visit my buddy.”

Then we all shook hands and the suit-dude left the room.

“That was unexpected,” I said cheerfully.

“Very,” Gracie agreed, packing up her briefcase. Then she looked up. “A lion, Vincent? Really?”

“It just sort of happened,” I said lamely and shrugged.

“Only to you,” she muttered, snapping closed her briefcase.

“It’s great to see you,” I said more softly and she looked up, her expression unreadable. I cleared my throat. “On a scale of one to ten, how mad at me are you?”

She waved her hand dismissively. “It’s not me you have to worry about.”

“It’s not?”

She gave an amused smile. “No, but I can’t speak for Cady.”

My smile fell. “But … but Rick’s fine! He had a good time. It was a fantastic night and…”

“I’m sure it was memorable,” Gracie said shortly, putting on her coat. “But I think she’s just the tiniest bit ticked off that her fiancé was nearly eaten by a lion.”

“Oh,” I conceded, my shoulders slumping.

“Yes, oh.” And she linked her arm through mine. “Come on, Vincent, time to go home.”

I really liked the sound of that.

“What, you and me?”

Her gaze frosted over. “I just saved you from being arrested again. Don’t push your luck.”

I gave her my winning smile: Message received and understood.

For now.

Grace

The aftermath of Rick’s bachelor party was not pleasant. Cady, usually so even-tempered and with a God-given gift of laughing things off was furious and tearful, spending half-an-hour reaming them both out until the guys looked completely whipped.

I had a theory about why that might be, but now was not the time.

Finally, to draw a line under the evening and bring an end to the emotional beatdown, I ordered an Uber for Rick and Cady, pushed them inside and