Flipping Love You by Erin Nicholas
19
“What do you mean by lost?”
“I mean, while I was chewing that guy’s ass, Ferdinand wandered off. Apparently, I was making a bit of a scene. And so everyone else was paying more attention to me and making sure I didn’t punch the guy and didn’t notice the penguin waddling off.”
Jill wasn’t sure what exactly she was feeling. She was aware that she should be feeling panic. But strangely, she wasn’t.
“Obviously, you’re all going to go look for him.”
“They already are. And I’ll join them in a minute. But I wanted to tell you about it as soon as possible.”
“And when I was in another state and couldn’t kill you?”
“That too.”
“Okay. Well…keep me informed.”
Jill realized that she was possibly just in shock.
But she didn’t feel in shock. She supposed that somewhere in the back of her mind she’d realized that losing a penguin was a risk. But sitting right beside that thought was the realization that the people there in Autre were probably more panicked than she was. And that they would do everything they could to find Ferdinand and make sure he was safe.
“No tips on where to look?” Zeke asked.
Jill laughed at that. “You know the area far better than I do.”
“But you know penguins.”
“I know penguins in captivity and what they’re like on the Galápagos Islands. I would say it’s unusual for anyone to really know about penguins on the Louisiana bayou.”
Zeke blew out a breath. “Fair enough. So you’re not breaking up with me?”
“Would that do me any good?”
“Are you asking if I would just leave you alone and be fine with the mother of my child never speaking to me again? The answer to that would be no.”
“I figured. So it’s probably better that I just forgive you for this, since I know you didn’t mean for it to happen, and give you a chance to fix it.”
“That’s very reasonable.”
“Thank you. Hey, Zeke?”
“Yeah?”
“Go find our penguin.”
She knew he noticed the “our”.
“Yes, ma’am.” His voice was a little huskier. “And, maybe hurry home?”
“I’ll be there soon.”
They disconnected and Jill sat back in her chair with a sigh.
“You’re a lot calmer than I would’ve expected.” Her mother eyed her curiously.
“I figure there’s not much I can really do. The best people are down there. They know how to get around the bayou, and when they find him, if he’s hurt, Donovan and Griffin are there.” She lifted a shoulder. “Ferdinand is in good hands. I don’t need to be there.” She thought about that with a little frown. “You know, that’s kind of a nice feeling.” It felt strange, but good, to be able to turn it over to other people and trust that it was going to be okay.
“Still,” Holly said. “When you needed your appendix out, I couldn’t perform the surgery, but I still wanted to be there in the waiting room. And I definitely wanted to be there when you opened your eyes.”
Jill looked at her, studying her mother’s face. Her mom had been a good mom. She may have given Jill some strange ideas about motherhood, but it wasn’t entirely her mom’s fault. Jill had taken from it what she wanted.
Jill had very much enjoyed being able to focus just on being a penguin expert. It had definitely been easier. A lot like doing her laundry all in one load and cereal for dinner. It was possible that she had just not let herself think about doing anything else because the way she was doing things was easy.
“I love that you’re here and I love the good news you shared,” Holly said. “But I know you want to be there when they find Ferdinand.”
“I’m sure I won’t be able to get a flight right away, anyway,” Jill said. “I’ll call and see when I can move my flight to, but it’s not a rush.”
But she did feel her heart pounding. She needed Ferdinand to be okay.
“Why don’t you just use our plane?” The question came from Ava Carmichael.
Jill looked over. It seemed that the rest of the pie shop had been listening in.
“Your plane?”
“Yeah, we have a private plane. We’re happy to fly you back to Louisiana.”
“You have a private plane?” Jill asked. Her eyes flickered to Evan, who had come back in at some point.
He chuckled. “Don’t let the blue jeans fool you. They’re still billionaires.”
Two hours later Jill landed on the small landing strip outside of Autre. Apparently, Bennett Baxter, Kennedy Landry-Baxter’s husband, also had a private plane and he landed it here often.
She called Zeke via video. He answered after only two rings.
“Hey, Kansas.”
“Hey, I just landed, can you come get me?”
“I’m so glad you’re back.”
She took her suitcase from the pilot and thanked him. Then she said to Zeke, “Yeah, come get me.”
“That’s going to be just a bit of a problem.”
Jill stopped walking. Then sighed. “Why, what’s going on?”
“I’m just a little…tied up. I’ll send Michael.”
“Have you found Ferdinand?”
“We did actually.”
Relief flooded through her.
“Is he okay?”
“We think so. A bit freaked out, but not hurt.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Zeke, let me see Ferdinand.”
Zeke grimaced. Then he switched his camera and she saw Ferdinand on the screen. In a net. And he was hanging in midair.
“Zeke, why is my penguin hanging in a net, from a tree?”
“It was Donovan’s idea to keep him up away from the alligators.”
Jill felt her heart thunk hard against her ribs. “Alligators?”
“Yeah, they had him cornered.”
“They? How many?”
“Just three.”
Jill gasped. “Three? There were three alligators stalking my penguin?”
“Honestly, that’s good. There could’ve been a lot more.”
“But he’s safe?”
“I mean, we still need to get him down now.”
Jill realized there was something strange about the perspective of what Zeke was showing her.
If Ferdinand was in a tree, why was Zeke seemingly on the same level rather than looking up…
“Zeke, are you up in the tree too?”
“Well, someone had to come up here to get him down.”
Of course he’d been the one to climb up.
“And why haven’t you gotten him down?”
“I’m waiting for Donovan to get a handle on the second alligator. He got away from him. So now he’s loose and stalking both of us. And he’s pissed.”
Jill closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “So my penguin and my fiancé are both hanging from a tree being stalked by an alligator? Is that right?”
“Yeah, but…wait, did you just call me your fiancé?”
She nodded. “It makes the most sense, doesn’t it? Of course, I’m starting to think that with you and this family, making sense is not the primary criteria for anything.”
Zeke gave her a big grin in spite of hanging from a tree with alligators underneath him. “Yes, I will marry you, Jill.”
“Then how about you get down from that tree safely with my penguin so that we can celebrate that.”
“As soon as they get this alligator under control.”
“How long will that take?”
“Naomi is live streaming it so Donovan’s taking his sweet time and making it dramatic.”
“Are you telling me that Donovan is showboating for the camera while my penguin is hanging from a tree?”
Zeke turned the phone so she could see Donovan.
Her eyes widened. Donovan was not showing off. He was trying to get behind a very large alligator while the thing hissed and thrashed. His head was in the loop of cable at the end of the long pole Zander was holding.
“Uh, Zeke. Is that my alligator pole?”
“Do not try this at home,” he told her firmly.
Hell. No.
Suddenly Donovan lunged forward onto the alligator’s back, immediately leaning onto the top of the gator’s snout to keep its mouth shut.
Jill shrieked.
“A gator’s chomping power is immense but a man can overcome their strength to open,” Zeke said quickly. “Now that he’s holding the thing’s mouth shut, we’re good.”
“Holy crap,” Jill muttered. She was riveted to the scene.
Donovan wrapped the gator’s mouth so it couldn’t open, then he and Zander carried the thing to Zander’s truck.
“He’s going to relocate it down the way,” Zeke said. “That will give us time to get down.”
“I can’t believe I missed seeing all of that in person by just minutes!” Jill exclaimed.
Zeke grinned into his camera. “You know you’re getting touched by the crazy, right?”
“It was kind of inevitable, wasn’t it?”
“Indeed it was.”
* * *
An hour later the alligators had been moved to another location and released, Zeke and Ferdinand were both down from the tree, and they had an amazing video for the Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild website.
Charlie was ecstatic. The more of this kind of stuff to go along with the Gone Wild name, that had initially been tongue-in-cheek, the more visitors they were going to have, tickets they were going to sell, and donations they were going to get.
Ferdinand was a little ruffled, a pun Donovan made at least three times, but only had a couple of scrapes for Jill to treat. He was back in the enclosure with the rest of the penguins and Zeke and Jill headed home to…do laundry.
They did actually throw Zeke’s dirty clothes into the washing machine, but they also made very good use of the top of the machine and the spin cycle.
Afterward they sat at his kitchen table with grilled cheese sandwiches. They were slightly overdone but definitely short of being burnt.
Zeke watched her as Jill took the first few bites. Then he said, “You’re not sending those male penguins away.”
Jill paused with her sandwich in front of her mouth. She frowned. “What?”
“After I kicked that guy out of the park and hung up with you, Donovan told me that you were thinking about sending the male penguins away so they could find mates somewhere else. You’re not doing that. And you’re not pulling out of the program.”
Jill swallowed and set her sandwich down. “I’m not?”
“No. Dammit. You are not giving up on those birds because of the baby. You can have it all, cher.” He reached out and covered her hand. “I’ll make sure you do.”
God, she really did love him. “I am pulling out of the program, Zeke.”
“Jill—”
“And I’m starting my own program.”
He paused. “What?”
“I’m keeping the penguins. And I’m getting some more. I just want the penguins to be…whatever they’re going to be. If they want to mate, great. If they don’t, great. If we have baby penguins, great. If we don’t, great. I just want them to be safe and healthy and a part of Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild. I don’t need a big, private, national program. I just need you all. And so do they.”
He was staring at her. But his love for her was so obvious Jill felt like it was wrapping around her. Like a hug.
“There is another member of the private program who is feeling in over his head. He called while I was at the airport on my way home and asked if I would take his penguins. He’s got ten. And I said yes. He’s going to give me money to keep his penguins and I think I can make a very convincing pitch to A.J.’s attorney about letting me keep the money to support ours.” She squeezed his hand. “I do have the best penguin habitat of any of them after all.”
“That’s…”
“Perfect,” she filled in. “It’ll be perfect. However it all ends up.”
“Yeah.” His voice was gruff. “And there’s a chance Columbus and Magellan will find mates then, right?”
“There’s a chance. And if not, then—” She shrugged. “We’ll still have lots of penguins for everyone to look at.”
“You’re going to let everyone see the penguins now?”
“Yep. Everyone. The town. The tourists. If nothing else, we can let our penguins be educators and ambassadors for endangered species everywhere.”
He shook his head. “Damn, girl. I’m so glad I knocked you up.”
She laughed. “Me too, cher.”
He gave her a huge grin at her use of the endearment. “So…”
She lifted an eyebrow. “So what?”
“You’re really not mad?”
“About you losing my penguin and risking his life and your own?”
“Uh…yeah.”
“How can I be mad? I know if you’ll all do what you did for my penguin then you’ll definitely do it for my kid. And I suspect that you’ve probably been stuck in a tree before and it will happen again. Whether or not there’s penguin or kid involved.”
“Fair enough. And damn right I would do that for a kid. Ours or any other.”
“And here’s where you could reassure me that you will do whatever you can to keep our kid from being stuck in a tree in the first place. Particularly one surrounded by alligators.”
“Well, baby doll, we’re gonna be raising a bayou boy. There will be gators in his life.”
“Or a bayou girl.”
Zeke nodded. “Yeah, and they tend to be even more trouble than the boys.”
“Even the ones who become adopted bayou girls?”
He leaned in, cupped the back of her head, and pulled her in for a kiss. “Oh yeah. In my experience, they’re the ones who flip your world totally upside down.”