The Promise of Rain Read Free

difference—just like he didn’t comprehend that Busara wasn’t “around the block” from Nairobi. All he worried about was liability and cost control.
    “He’s never sent anyone, Anna. This can’t be good,” Kamau said.
    “You’re right. Having someone show up at the same time as this incident isn’t ideal, but Miller has never denied me funding before, and he’s fully aware of the orphan nursery. And as far as the Kenyan government is concerned, I’m helping the wildlife. There’s no logical reason for not getting the permits and funds needed. It’ll be fine. Like you said, this person just happens to be in Kenya for other reasons. You’re worrying for nothing. This is a bunch of red tape. Miller is dotting his i ’s,” Anna said, trying to believe her own words. But she wasn’t convinced the nursery’s growing needs wouldn’t pose a problem.
    After all, Miller had been her mentor in vet school. He’d supported her one-year exchange student internship to a Kenyan wildlife reservation after graduation, and had taken on her study suggestion after she told him Kenya had become home and she wasn’t ready to leave. She didn’t mention that she had a child until the specifics of the arrangements went through. As far as he was concerned, the father was in Kenya. Miller didn’t ask and she didn’t tell, knowing full well there were things an employer couldn’t legally question.
    Dr. Miller had included Busara in a university trust he’d formed to support animal rescue work and research. But he had, over the past year, expressed his concern for her. He’d offered to keep the initiative going with a replacement vet so that she could raise her daughter in “civilization.” Anna had refused. She hoped this wasn’t another attempt of his to replace her. That this person “dropping by” wasn’t a prospective vet scoping out his or her future lodgings. Anna couldn’t let Miller lose faith in her. This was more than her project. It was her home.
    Kamau opened the mess tent’s screen door, but turned back to Anna before entering.
    “I’m not sure I share your optimism, but let me know when our visitor arrives so that I can smile for them.” He gave an exaggerated grin, sarcastic yet beautiful and white against his dark skin. He was quite handsome when he managed to relax. And completely silly-looking with the uncharacteristic expression. Anna laughed.
    “Now, how could they refuse that smile anything,” she said.
    He disappeared into the tent and she watched through the screen as he teased the children, who were doing some activity at a table with Niara. Anna’s heart swelled at the sound of Pippa’s giggles when Kamau pretended not to know who was hiding under the mop of curls. There was plenty of love here. Plenty of spirit and noble intentions. The truest examples of right and wrong and selflessness.
    Nothing like the past.
    Anna couldn’t think of a more civilized place to raise a child.
    * * *
    J ACKSON H ARPER HAD always assumed four-wheel drives had shock absorbers—and four wheels. After the last pothole, he wasn’t so sure this vehicle had either left. He grabbed the frame of the windshield to keep from getting ejected, and tried to swallow despite all the dust in his mouth. He didn’t dare let go long enough to dig for the water bottle in his backpack. As exhausting as his trip had been so far, at least the flight from Nairobi to the small airstrip in the central part of the Amboseli Reserve had been uneventful. But once his driver left the paved road for a more...rustic path toward Busara, things went downhill. And Jack considered himself an outdoorsman. Somehow, camping out by a lake stocked with fish near his parents’ home in Pennsylvania didn’t come close to getting chased by a female rhino whose calf had ventured too far from the cover of brush. It had been only a matter of yards, but Jack’s adrenaline was still pumping strong.
    As if knowing that in minutes he’d come