“Is she coming out here or are you going to Nairobi?”
It didn’t really matter, did it? Haki had clued in long ago that spending time at Busara no longer held the attraction for Maddie it once had. When her family first moved to Kenya, she was only ten and had just regained her ability to speak. She used to beg Hope and Ben to let her spend the night out here so that she, Pippa and Haki could sit around a campfire surrounded by nothing but stars and the call of the wild. Maddie loved animals back then and had always wanted to visit Africa. Being out here had helped her heal after the loss of her biological mother.
Of course, they’d been within the safe boundaries of Busara and their parents were nearby, but those nights had been exhilarating just the same. The kind of experiences that childhood memories were made of. He and Pippa had loved having a new friend around and the three of them had formed what seemed like an unbreakable bond. At least Pippa and Maddie were still close. He still wasn’t sure why things had gotten awkward and distant between him and Maddie. Sometimes he wondered if he’d done something or said something to offend her. Her visits to Busara had slowly fizzled out, and once she took off for college in the US, it was as though they’d both gotten too busy with their lives to bother with one another.
“I honestly have no idea if she’s coming out here or how long she’s staying,” Pippa said. “She was a bit vague in her email, which is strange. I know law school wiped her out, so maybe with this new job in Philadelphia, she just needs a break.” Pippa sat up bone-straight and her eyes brightened. “Oh, my gosh! I bet she met someone. She’d want to tell me in person, especially if it’s serious. Think about it. She’s twenty-six, out of school and working at a firm that’s probably full of handsome, eligible bachelor lawyers. Her nerves must be fried right now. With brothers like hers...and Uncle Ben...I can’t blame her for not introducing any guys to them yet. This one would have to be worth it. But I can’t believe she hasn’t mentioned him to me. I wouldn’t have said anything. Well, maybe to you, but not to anyone else.”
Trust. Life was nothing without it. Trust meant a sense of peace, honesty and truth. It meant feeling safe. A person could be themselves around those they trusted. He was honored that Pippa would confide in him...but Maddie? Getting married?
Something faint and indefinable pinched at his chest. The young Maddie he’d known had loved wearing jeans, feeding baby animals and camping. The last Maddie he’d seen had looked more like a big-city office type: hose, heels and tied-up hair. Maybe the real Maddie was the one who’d be happy spending her life with a man in a suit. They could carpool to court the way he and Pippa liked to floor a jeep across the savannah. He lowered his chin briefly to release a cramp at the back of his neck. It was none of his business anyway. There was no reason why any of it should bother him.
“Maybe you should just wait and see before making up stories,” Haki said, pulling up next to three other Busara jeeps parked just far enough from the camp’s wooden pens so as not to disturb the baby elephants. They were all recovering from injuries incurred when their mothers were killed in the name of ivory. A keeper stood feeding a ravenous calf with a milk bottle in a small grassy clearing to the left of the pens. Dr. Bekker—Auntie Anna, as Haki called her—glanced over her shoulder and gave them a relieved thumbs-up when Pippa hopped out of the jeep. She shook her head at her daughter, then ducked into their small vet clinic.
Judging from the absence of their rescue vehicles, Haki’s father and his crew had already been called off on mission. Dr. Kamau Odaba was a field veterinarian who’d been working at Busara from the start...and who’d fallen in love with Haki’s mother, Niara Juma, and had taken them both under his wing when Haki was five. He was the only father Haki had ever known, and the only one he ever wanted to. He and his mother had taken Kam’s last name after the marriage and his legal adoption. Since his father was Dr. Odaba, their staff avoided confusion by calling him Dr. Haki.
“Maybe I’m right,” Pippa said as she came around the jeep and leaned on the rim of Haki’s open window. “Maddie will need us as backup if she tells Uncle Ben she’s getting engaged. If you thought training with her dad was tough, can you imagine the vetting he’d put this poor guy through?”
“Good. He should.”
“Haki, have a heart.”
“Me?” He couldn’t help but chuckle. “You spent too much time hanging upside down from trees as a child. You haven’t even met this man who—I might add—is a figment of your overactive imagination, yet you’re already defending him. But say he does exist. What if he’s not good for her? What if you end up hating him?”
“I won’t because I trust Maddie’s judgment. I’m sure I’d adore any man worthy of her love.”
Haki rubbed his forehead, then restarted the jeep. Mosi, a small vervet monkey, squealed at them before scampering down a nearby fig tree and eyeing Pippa for food.
“My hands are empty, Mosi.”
The little guy was the only child of the late Ambosi, a three-legged vervet who’d been rescued by Dr. Bekker when Pippa and Haki were infants and who’d spent his life hanging around Busara for treats...or because of the amusing crush he seemed to have had on Dr. Bekker. He’d gotten quite jealous when Pippa’s father, Jack, had shown up at Busara. It was no secret that Pippa missed Ambosi. Everyone did.
“I have to get back to work, Pip.”
“I know. It’s just...” She wrinkled her nose and shrugged. “Never mind.”
“What is it?”
“Nothing. It was a totally selfish thought. Best to keep it in my head.”
“There’s not a selfish bone in your body. An uncontrollably wild imagination, yes. But not selfishness. Out with it.”
Pippa sighed and looked at Mosi, then gazed wistfully at the house that her and Haki’s parents had built after they’d married. It had been built for both families so they could live more comfortably at Busara. Both of their younger siblings had been born in that home. Maddie had played in that home.
“It hit me that I hardly get to see her as it is. Once she’s married or has children, she’ll be even busier. I want her to be happy, the way you and I are, but a part of me is afraid of losing her. See? Rotten selfishness. Don’t you dare repeat anything I just said.”
Haki grabbed one of her hands and pressed her knuckles to his lips.
“First, you’re going to freak Maddie out when she finds out you’ve planned her wedding with a man she’s never met. Second, you’ll always have me. And third, you’ll never lose her. She’s your cousin. She’s family.”
Pippa gave him a small smile.
“Okay. You’re the best, you know? Now, go save some animals or help catch some bad guys.” She ducked her head in the window and gave him a quick peck. “Be safe.”
“You, too,” he warned, then backed out. He pulled his sunglasses out of the glove compartment and slipped them on.
You’ll never lose her. She’s family. But he knew Maddie was more than just Pippa’s cousin. They were best friends the way Haki’s mother, Niara, and Anna were. Pippa was right about a woman’s strength. Their mothers had raised them both at Busara when the remote camp consisted of nothing more than a few tents and a water well. They’d had no amenities. No extravagances. Just each other. Pippa hadn’t had a lot of other girls around growing up out here.
That’s why he hated that Maddie didn’t seem to understand how much Pippa missed her. It was also why Pippa wasn’t just any girl to Haki. He’d known her all his life. They’d been through every growing pain together, from infancy to toddlerhood to the troublesome teens. Maddie had been around during their teens, too. But he and Pippa had a future together. Not because Haki put faith in the Laibon’s divination methods—that silliness was Pippa’s thing, along with reading her horoscope every now and then. No, Haki knew she was the one because their lives had become so intertwined he couldn’t