Summary: Alise breaks the news to Lowery that she's dating Owen and he doesn't like it one bit. That doesn't stop them from going on their second date. She's shocked by what Owen has in store for them and the night takes them back to his bungalow, but this time it's for different reasons than the last.
After much debating with myself and a phone call to my best friend Aspen, I decided that I had to tell Lowery about my date with Owen, especially because we had another one planned for tomorrow, which was 5 days after our first date.
I've put it off for this long, I figured I couldn't wait anymore. I sure as hell didn't want him to find out through someone else or god forbid he caught us on a camera because apparently, he's always watching.
I've had him be like: "I saw you over by the T-Rex paddock earlier, everything okay with her?" and I said "If you can see everything, wouldn't you already know? Why are you stalking me?" with a look on my face that could kill. He said he wasn't purposefully watching me - he just so happened to catch me on the cameras here and there. Of course, I called him a stalker because it seems intentional. Regardless of his excuse, I don't think it's always an accident. I still think he's trying to keep tabs on me, but that's another story.
I decided to have him over that night for dinner and I made my special brownies from scratch that he loves. (Not that kind of "special"). I figured food and sweets would help soften the blow. I had an idea of how he'd react and that reaction wasn't going to be all hugs and smiles.
"God, Claire is so frustrating sometimes!" I heard Lowery exclaim from the living room as I cut the brownies into squares.
"What'd she do this time?" I called back.
Lowery complained about his boss, Claire, quite a few times before. She's very by the book, organized and a little patronizing, something I figure you have to have to be in order to succeed as the park Operations Manager. It had to of been a stressful job, I can barely manage the other assistants in my office, let alone an entire park.
"She's giving me a problem about going home next month, she says someone else requested the time off and I requested this time off over 3 months ago and she's just telling me this now," he said, I could hear the frustration in his voice.
"That's frustrating. Maybe she didn't check the schedule or something, I don't think she's purposefully barring you from going home for the hell of it. You'd have to be a real dick to do that." I said, putting the brownies on a plate.
"You don't know Claire Dearing the way I do."
"Well, I've never met her, so I really can't say." I said, walking into the living room with a plate full of brownies, hoping it would distract him.
"Yes!" he exclaimed, taking one off the plate and eating it whole. I raised my brows. "These are amazing, Lise. You're the best." he was basically having a foodgasm.
"Don't have an orgasm." I laughed.
"Fuck you." he sneered. I laughed, then remembered why we were here in the first place. No more messing around. I had to get down to business, there was no more putting it off.
"So…" I sighed, finally working up the courage to say something. "I'm going to tell you something because I don't want to keep things from you. But you have to promise me you won't get mad… or do that weird stutter, nostril flare thing where your face gets red like a cherry tomato."
"I don't do that, what are you talking about?" he defended, seeming highly offended.
"Yes you do," I said, sighing. Normally I'd be ready to argue with him, as we usually do as brother and sister. "But that's beside the point…" I shook my head, letting out a breath. God, why was this so hard to say? Normally I could tell Lowery anything.
"Tell me already!" he exclaimed.
"Fine. Owen and I went out on a date…" I gave him a look, praying he wouldn't get mad. His face fell.
"You-you went on a date with Owen Grady?" he stuttered through gritted teeth. He already did the stutter so the nostril flare and cherry tomato were next, but he took a deep breath, trying to control it.
I nodded, "Yes."
"When?" he asked sternly.
"A few days ago, why?" I downplayed it a little. I didn't exactly want him to know I'd been sitting on this for 5 days.
"So I can go back and time and kick him in the balls." He said seriously.
"Lowery!" I snapped, hitting his arm. "And that wouldn't have stopped him anyway," I added, insinuating something that I knew wasn't true. It was to lighten the mood and to get under his skin just a tad more. I'm so mean to him, but I couldn't help it.
"Alise!" he scolded.
"I'm kidding," I laughed. "Why are you like this? What is it about Owen that makes him so bad? He's not who you think he is…"
"I know guys like Owen. I've been friends with guys like Owen. Hell, I was Owen," he began. I just raised my brows at him and squinted, cocking my head to the right. There was no way I believed that Lowery had ever been the "Owen" he's thinking about. "In college," he admitted with his head down. I still wasn't buying it and my facial expression said it all. "Okay, I did it once and I still feel terrible about it. She was so sweet and I was a dick, but that's beside the point. I already told you my problem with him and the last thing I want him to do is date my sister."
"I get that, but you can't control it. It's happening whether you like it or not. I've known my fair share of the Owen's you're talking about and I've been hurt by them before. Owen isn't the man you think he is. There's so much more to him. If you give him a chance, I'm sure you'll see that too." I said, hoping he would give in and see things from my perspective.
He sighed after what seemed like an internal debate, "Fine… as long as you're happy, that's all that matters."
"Aww, thanks Low," I hugged him and he rubbed my back.
"Can I still kick him in the balls?"
I pulled away, smacking his arm again. "No, you can't."
"Fine, then I'm eating another brownie." he shrugged, settling for that as he shoved one in his mouth. I laughed, shaking my head. That didn't go as bad as I thought it would.
The next day I was supposed to have the day off, but Dr. Collier texted me at 9 am telling me I need to be in the office at 1 pm for a meeting with higher-ups. I've been in meetings before, but they were just with the entire vet team, including the doctors and assistants. I've never had to have a meeting with higher-ups before, so it was a pretty big deal.
I arrived at the conference room a little early, figuring that the last thing I wanted to do was be late. That doesn't send a very good message to the higher-ups. No one was there yet, so I waited outside.
"Always timely, Dr. Cruthers." I heard Dr. Collier's voice as he walked over his Dr. Sanchez. Since I've been out of training, Dr. Collier switches between calling me "Dr. Cruthers" and Alise, usually when the other doctors or assistants are around he sticks with "Dr. Cruthers" because it's more formal and I knew it was more of a respect thing. I smiled at both of them. "Hope we didn't ruin your day off dragging you in here."
"Not at all…" they walked past me and into the conference room, so I followed suit.
"We're in for it today," Dr. Sanchez sighed, sitting down. I gave him a confused look.
"It's about the SM3 virus." Dr. Collier explained.
SM3 virus is just a fancy name for the viral infection that's been going around with the dinosaurs that's similar to smallpox, which can be deadly in dinosaurs just as much as humans. We just came up with the name a week ago after I diagnosed a Pteranodon with it. Since I've started working here about 3 months ago there has only been 1 case of SM3.
"A Pteranodon that was diagnosed by you last week died last night and so did a Stegosaurus that was diagnosed hours before her passing. We've had 3 more cases in the last week." Dr. Sanchez explained further.
"I thought we had it under control?" I asked, a little surprised.
"Not as much as we thought." Dr. Collier said, right as Mark and Olivia made their way into the conference room, along with Dr. Sanchez's assistants, Margo and Ed.
A few other people that I didn't recognize walked in the room and took their seats, then a woman with orange, bob cut hair with straight across bangs walked in. She was standing up straight and confidently and looked like she meant business. I subconsciously sat up straighter just seeing her.
"Hello Dr. Collier, Dr. Sanchez." the woman said as she shook both of their hands. I recognized her from somewhere, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
"Ms. Dearing." Dr. Collier nodded his head.
"Right, so I'm Claire, Parks Operations Manager and I trust you all know why I'm here." she sat down directly across from me. Claire Dearing, Park Operations Manager, and Lowery's boss. It all made sense now.
"SM3 virus, yes?" Dr. Sanchez said, Claire nodded.
"My job is to make sure the park is running smoothly and I hear about a viral infection going around that has killed 2 dinosaurs in the past week and there are 3 more cases since then. This is not acceptable." she sounded angry, which was misplaced because it's not like it was our fault.
"We believe that the virus goes undetected for weeks, months even, until the dinosaur is showing all of the symptoms. We haven't had much time to do research on the infection, like how it spreads, seeing as it's just presented itself recently. All we know are the symptoms it carries and that allows for diagnosis." Dr. Collier explained.
"You need to get this under control. If you need a bigger team to figure out what is going on with the attractions, then so be it. Bring more people in, more experienced people," she glanced at me, Mark, Olivia, Margo, and Ed - all of the assistants. Well, that was a little rude. I tried not to take it personally as she continued, "We can't have the assets dying on a weekly basis because of some infection you don't know anything about."
"We will get right on it." Dr. Sanchez said.
"I need to know your game plan," Claire said.
"We're going to do screenings on every dinosaur who has presented any such symptoms, catch it early on and make sure the infection can no longer be spread. We're going to figure out a treatment for the infection and figure out if it's something that requires a vaccine." Dr. Collier said.
"I need to be updated with the progress of this. We can't afford to have any more of the assets dying because of this infection." Claire said, standing up. I couldn't help but cringe at the word "assets" when referring to the dinosaurs. They weren't just "assets", they're living and breathing animals.
"We will keep you updated, of course." Dr. Sanchez assured her.
Claire nodded. "Thank you for your time. I'll be hearing from you soon I hope." and with that, she left. The 3 other people that came with her left as well.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in until she left. Wow, she was intimidating as hell.
Dr. Sanchez sighed, I could tell he wanted to make a further comment, but he refrained. He had a sense of humor and I would have expected him to crack a joke, but he knew how serious this was.
"Okay, so here's the game plan…" Dr. Collier began.
The plan was basically to start screenings right away and get that part over with, then we'd worry about the other steps after that. Thankfully, they let me go after that and I was back home by 2pm, just in time to get ready for my date with Owen and he was picking me up at 3:30.
"Wow, this is beautiful," I said as I looked around.
We were standing in front of a beautiful waterfall. It was peaceful and the rushing water wasn't too loud. There were patches of flowers along the shoreline and a clearing in between the flowers and trees, right where we were standing.
"I'm surprised there are no tourists…" I said.
"That's because they don't know it's here." Owen replied. It was pretty secluded, but there was a dirt path that led right to it, so we were able to take Owen's bike here.
"You've been living here for 2 years, right? I'm sure you've explored quite a bit."
"I know a few spots. Maybe I'll show 'em to you sometime." he said.
I smiled, "I'd like that."
"I also brought some food…" he said, opening the bike seat as he pulled out a bag.
"So, like a picnic? Wow, I never pegged you as a romantic type of guy. Is there wine, too?" I asked with a smirk.
"Nope, but I got this." he said, holding up a bottle of tequila. I laughed, that's probably about as romantic as Owen Grady gets.
"If you start on the tequila now, how do you suppose we'll get home?" I raised my brows. He put it back.
"Then it's something to look forward to when we go back to my bungalow." he said with a sly smirk.
"You're so sure of yourself. How do you know that'll happen?" I laughed.
"It happened last time, didn't it?" he raise his own brows this time, but he still had a smirk on his face.
"Right, well that wasn't planned."
"We'll see where the night takes us then." He said, pulling out a blanket and we set everything up. He brought veggies and dip, a fruit salad, a pasta salad and some kind of potato salad with prosciutto that was really good.
"Wow, I didn't know you could cook so much," I pointed out.
"Truthfully, I bought these at the store." he chuckled.
"I never would have known," I said.
"Then we'll pretend I did. I'm an amazing cook."
"I can tell, everything tastes so good." I teased. He chuckled and smiled.
"So how's your week been? Haven't talked much since I last saw ya."
He was right, we haven't spoken much since our date. We had each other's numbers, but he warned me he wasn't much of a texter. He was barely with his phone for that matter and leaves it everywhere, at his house, at the enclosure, you name it. One would think he'd be more organized than that after being in the Navy for so long.
That being said, I was surprised when he texted me the next night after our date that he hoped my day went well and he can't wait to do it again Friday. I told him my day went well and I hope the same for him and that I was excited for Friday, too. Other than that, not much has come out of it. It didn't worry me, though. I wasn't quite sure if that was something that should bother me.
"A little stressful as of late. The Park Operations Manager is really on our case about a virus that's going around that has the same effect on dinosaurs as smallpox has on humans. We're trying to figure everything out, but she wasn't results like yesterday." I sighed.
Owen sneered, "Claire Dearing."
"How did you know?" I asked, surprised.
"She's the only Operations Manager on the island." he shrugged.
"Oh, so you know her?" I raised my brows.
"I don't really know her." he put emphasis on the 'really'.
"But you know her?" I pushed, curious.
"We went out once." he admitted, shrugging his shoulders and biting a carrot.
My eyes widened, "You and Claire? You guys are like total opposites!" I exclaimed, realizing I was probably a little too excited about this. But it was interesting, they were polar opposites. I just couldn't see it.
"Thought it'd be nice. It wasn't. She was mad at me for wearing board shorts and she made an itinerary," he said.
Well, my hunch about her being a super organized person was correct.
"And she doesn't like tequila." he added. Now that was probably the real problem.
"That's a big one for you." I laughed.
I felt Owen's eyes on me, "I'm glad you like tequila." he smirked.
I squinted my eyes, "Why? Just because people get drunk off of tequila and make questionable decisions?" I asked.
"You didn't make any questionable decisions the other night. But I like when you're drunk. You have less of a filter, then you get really embarrassed after you say something and you're like 'Oops, I shouldn't have said that' and you get all shy." he smirked.
"Shit." was all I could say. He was right. I totally do say embarrassing stuff when I'm drunk.
"I think it's cute." he smiled at me. I couldn't help but smile back, and my cheeks probably turned a bright shade of red.
I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and picked it up. Normally I wouldn't answer because it's rude on a date, but it was Lowery. He knew I was on my date with Owen, but he asked me to text him where we were going earlier and I didn't have an answer then, but he wanted to know if I knew now.
"Sorry, I just have to answer this text. Lowery will freak out if I don't, he'd think I got eaten or something." I laughed as I answered him really quick, telling him that I was fine and safe and that's all he was getting out of me.
"You and your brother are close?" he waited until I was finished texting and I looked up at him.
"Yeah, we're only a year apart and we've always been close. Sure, he's always been the annoying little brother and I don't see him ever growing out of that, but I know he's like that because he loves me." I said, Owen nodded. "You said you have two brothers? How close are you?"
"I'm the youngest. There's Oliver, who's 40 and Henry who's 35. Oliver and I weren't that close, he was always out doin' his own thing. He also went into the Navy when I was 10, so I didn't really see him much. Henry and I were pretty close, though. We still are. He actually has a son named Arlo that I'm pretty close to."
"Aw, how old is he?"
"He should be about 6 now. His birthday just passed in April."
"That's so nice. I bet you're an awesome uncle and that he loves you." I smiled.
"I try to be, you know, when I'm there." he said, looking down.
I understand that it's hard being away from family. Heck, I've only been here for 3 months and I feel like I'm missing so many things back home with my family and friends. At least I have Lowery here, Owen doesn't have anyone. Besides Barry that is.
"You ever think about having kids of your own?" the thought just popped into my head. I wasn't hinting at anything by any means, I was just curious.
"Not anytime soon and definitely not on this island." he answered, taking a sip of water.
"What, you don't want to have a little Owen running around here?" I laughed at the thought of it. I could picture a mini-Owen running around, training baby Velociraptors to do tricks.
"No, because chances are, he'd be running away from something that's hunting him."
"Good point, I didn't think about that." I said, taking the last bite of the pasta salad and washing it down with some water.
"What about you? You want any kids?"
"Definitely," I nodded, putting the bottle down. "For sure. Eventually. But like you said, not while I'm on the island. It would be cool for my baby to see what I see, but there are just too many dangers."
"Just how long are you planning on staying on the island?"
"I never really thought about long-term," I said honestly, starting to think about it. "I guess I'd like to settle down somewhere and have kids by the time I'm 32, but that's only 5 years away, so no longer than that. What about you?"
"I'm just finishing up training with my girls and I'm out, so, another 4 to 5 years. Depending on how things go."
"What would you do after that?" I asked curiously.
"I don't know. I've always wanted to build a cabin." he shrugged.
"Where would you build a cabin? Back home in Missouri?" I asked. He told me he was from Bolivar, Missouri a few weeks back.
"No, but someplace warm and secluded."
I nodded, "Well, you have a few years to figure it out. I always imagined myself settling down in Colorado, but since I've been here, the weather is completely different and as much as I do miss the snow, I could trade that for this any day." I dipped a carrot into the dip and ate it.
"So someplace tropical?" he asked, finishing up his potato salad.
"I don't know," I shrugged. "I've always wanted to go to California though."
"Why California?" he raised his brows.
"Because when I get sick of the warm weather by the coast, I can go into the mountains and get the snow, it seems like a nice place to be." I smiled.
"That does sound pretty nice." he nodded in agreement. He looked at his watch. "We should probably wrap this up within the next 15 minutes." he said.
I'd noticed he'd been checking the time here and there. Probably because it wasn't safe to be out here at night. Even though the dinosaurs have their own zones and implants that will shock them, it's still dangerous. Implants short out, like I've seen before and it's not that hard for an animal to wander outside of its zone.
I had been lost in thought when he said that. I had just been watching his lips move. I couldn't help it, I've been wanting to kiss him since I first saw him come into the bar a couple of months ago, I just didn't want to admit it then.
I couldn't help but think 'what was he waiting for?'. There had been plenty of opportunities to make it happen on our last date, but I figured he was hesitant because we had been drinking and our night would have ended up just like the rest of his drunken nights with women. But now we weren't drinking, now we were having an actual conversation and no alcohol was involved. I was getting antsy waiting, impatient even.
"There's just one more thing before we go…" I said, biting my lip. Owen looked up at me, his green eyes gleamed with curiosity. I took a breath and just went for it.
I grabbed onto the back of his neck and pulled his lips to mine. I could tell he was caught off guard at first, but it only took a moment for him to return the kiss. I was careful not to show my eagerness right away and his lips were soft against mine.
That all changed when he took control. His hand grabbing the back of my neck, his tongue darted out of his mouth and grazed my bottom lip. I didn't hesitate to allow him access, parting my lips enough so he could slip his tongue inside.
I ran my fingers through his hair as our tongues fought for dominance. It was like all of the pent-up sexual tension that has been building for the past two months was being released into the kiss. It grew more passionate, more hungry as the seconds passed.
He pushed the containers of food to the side with his other hand, not paying attention to the spilled food on the blanket as he grabbed my waist and pulled me to my knees. I was quick to catch on and I straddled his waist, the kiss growing deeper. His hands moved from my waist and to my ass as he pulled my body flush against his and I still wanted more.
We pulled away reluctantly as we both took a breath of much-needed air.
"Wanna finish this in my bungalow?" he smirked, his hands wrapped around my waist. I raised my brows, looking down into his emerald eyes that were so magnetic, they were just pulling me in. Instead of responding, I grabbed his face and crashed my lips into his. "I'll take that as a yes?" he chuckled, pulling away slightly.
I hummed a response against his lips, kissing him hungrily one more time before getting off of him so we could quickly pack everything up and get back to his bungalow as quick as possible.