What I Did for Roman — Pamela Conrad

With her mother away on a honeymoon in Europe, fifteen-year-old Darcie spends the summer with her dour uncle and his wife, restaurateurs in a zoo where Darcie begins a search for the father she has never known and develops a crush on a mysterious seal and bird keeper who leads her into a test with death.In her search for her mystery parent and for the fatherly love that has always eluded her, Darcie develops a crush on a zoo keeper named Roman and fails to notice the changes he undergoes