Chapter 22
ZINA
I tossed the thin local paper down on the table. It made a very unsatisfying whoosh, making me wish I’d been reading one of Lacey’s huge bridal magazines or a hardcover book instead. The harsh thunk of a thicker volume would have better matched my mood.
“What’s wrong?” Morty lifted his gaze from his mug of coffee.
“They didn’t even mention the dog adoption event.
All of the news, if you even want to call it that, revolved around those stupid penguins.
” The penguins who weren’t even supposed to be arriving for at least another week.
Alex had left early that morning to drive into Houston to meet with the director of the aquarium.
At least he seemed as concerned as I was about the mistake, not that there was anything anyone could do about it now.
He chuckled. “Folks around these parts probably ain’t ever seen a penguin in real life before. Not unless they went to the zoo.”
I huffed out a breath as I lifted my mug to my lips. “I suppose. But why couldn’t we have gotten through the adoption event before they brought the dang birds over?”
I shot a glance to Shiner Bock. The Phillips House was going to the birds. Literally. “And sending twelve instead of the six we were expecting? Now all anyone wants to talk about is penguins.”
“It’ll all be over soon.”
“Not soon enough.” I got up from the table and stalked over to the sink.
With Alex gone for the day, I was in charge of both the dogs and the penguins.
He’d shown me how to feed them and clean up after them.
With any luck he’d be back before the evening feeding.
“I’m heading over to the warehouse to take care of the animals. ”
“I’ll come with you.” Morty pushed back from the table and stood. “I want to check on those little pups you brought in the other day.”
“They’re doing great. Greta took them in like the rock star mama I knew she’d be. They’re nursing right alongside her brood.”
Morty nodded. “We could all learn a lot from the way animals treat each other, don’t you think?”
I held the door for him as we made our way onto the porch. “How so?”
“Acceptance. Willingness to see each other for who we are and where we come from. Miss Greta doesn’t know those pups from Adam. Yet she’s taken them in and is giving them a home, a family. Seems like if more people acted like dogs, the world might just be a better place.”
Hmm. He might have been onto something. Nine times out of ten I’d much rather spend time with my four-legged friends than a human. I turned my attention forward and pulled the door closed behind me.
“Oh no.” As we approached the warehouse, a sinkhole seemed to materialize in my stomach, sucking all of my hope for a drama-free day right down the drain. A couple dozen cars sat in the parking lot, and a line of people stretched from the front door and wrapped around the side of the building.
“Good thing you’ve got backup this morning.” Morty ambled ahead of me, apparently excited at the idea of having to turn the crowd of people away.
I increased my step to catch up to him. “What do you think they want?”
“To see the penguins, of course.” He looked at me like I didn’t have a working brain cell in my head. “I told you they probably haven’t seen one in the wild before. This is their big chance.”
“I don’t think I’m up for this today. I’ve got to start making some calls to see if I can find a place for my dogs to go until I can get the roof repaired. Alex doesn’t think it’s such a good idea for them to be sharing space.”
“Nonsense.” Morty waved a hand in the air. “How much do you think we can charge for all these fine folks to meet a real-life penguin?”
“Oh no.” My heart pounded like a brass knocker on a wooden door. Boom-boom-boom. The echo reverberated through my limbs. “We can’t charge people to come in and meet a penguin.”
“Why not? You need to raise money to fix your roof, don’t you?”
I did. If I could get the roof fixed up, I could move the dogs back to the shelter before the wedding and not have to worry about rehoming them in such a hurry.
I considered the idea for a moment. A short moment.
It did have some merit to it. Who would it hurt if we showed off the penguins for a bit?
Alex wasn’t around—he’d left the two of us in charge. No harm, no foul in my opinion.
“I don’t think Alex would like it.” That was a lie. He’d be furious if he heard I’d pimped out his penguins. I flip-flopped back and forth. It was a bad idea. Something was bound to go wrong. It always did. But instead of shooting down the crazy idea, I decided to embrace it.
“What Alex doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?” The older man gave me a wink as we reached the edge of the crowd.
That sealed the deal. I was in. Wasn’t Alex the one who went through life with the motto “You only live once”? Well, if he hadn’t said exactly that, he sure seemed to embrace the idea.
The crowd parted as I reached the door and slid my key into the lock.
Morty leaned over and mumbled to me, “Just leave this to me. You go get everything ready and we’ll be pulling in a mint before you can say cock-a-doodle-doo, young lady.”
I didn’t want to be the one to break it to him that penguins didn’t crow like roosters. Maybe Alex was right to think his grandfather needed to be in the care of a home. But then he put his hands to his mouth in a makeshift megaphone and shouted out directions.
“Listen up, everyone. Yes, we’ve got a dozen of the best-trained penguins in the world.
If you want an up-close and personal encounter, it’s going to cost you twenty bucks apiece.
Taking a picture with one bird is going to run you an extra ten.
Give us about fifteen minutes, and we’ll let you in one small group at a time. ”
Wow. Did Alex know his gramps might have been a circus ringmaster in a previous life?
I yanked the door open and then pulled it closed behind me.
If my dogs had to share space with the infamous birds, at least they could get something out of it.
I made the rounds and fed the birds, then cleaned out their pen as best I could.
Thankfully I wasn’t on the morning shift for the dogs.
But if we had that many people moving through the building, I ought to have an ambassador pup at the table in case anyone wanted more information or felt moved to make a larger donation to the rescue.
But who would be well behaved around the birds? I moved to the back of the warehouse to see who might be in a good mood that day. Not Herbie. And Greta was on nursing duty. Maybe Aurora. She was sweet and gentle and could probably be trusted not to eat our main attraction.
I walked over to her kennel. The pup’s tail began to wag, thumping against the raised dog bed. “Hey, girl. Feeling friendly today?”
Aurora nudged her nose through the front of the kennel. Yeah, she wouldn’t give anyone any trouble. I opened the door and clipped her leash to her collar. Operation “Raise Money for the Pitties by Exploiting the Penguins” was well underway.
Ten minutes later the first group came into the warehouse, led by Morty.
I fumbled and bumbled my way through the information I’d looked up right before they came in.
They met the bird—the one some clever aquarium worker had named Thelma.
Gramps posed the family around Thelma for a quick picture and then ushered them out the door. He handed me a wad of cash.
“Tuck this under the table somewhere, will you?”
I glanced around, looking for somewhere to stash the cash before the next group came in.
Finding nothing suitable, I tucked it into my sports bra as he opened the door.
Another group, another info dump on emperor penguins, another hundred bucks.
And so it went. I gave Thelma a break after the first couple of groups came through and ended up rotating through all of the penguins at least once.
I skipped Gilligan on the second round. That bird was goofier than the character he was named for.
By the time Morty announced there was no one left outside, I was more than ready for a break. We were just about to count up the cash when the warehouse door opened. Alex came in, his boots clip-clopping across the concrete floor as he stalked toward the two of us.
“What the hell’s been going on around here today?” Oh, he was pissed. I could tell by the set of his jaw and the heat that blazed in those baby-bluish eyes.
“What do you mean, son?” His gramps might as well have been an award-winning actor too. He turned from the table to face his grandson. “We’ve been taking care of your birds”—he hooked a thumb toward me—“and this one’s dogs. It’s a virtual zoo around here.”
“More like an animal exhibition from what I hear.” Alex dropped his hat onto the table. “I thought we were trying to keep a low profile?”
“By ‘low,’ you mean what, exactly?” I asked. It wouldn’t have been fair for Morty to take the heat on this one by himself. Selling out the penguins might have been his idea, but I hadn’t argued against it very long.
“I was in Houston.” He paused, most likely for dramatic effect. “Houston.”
I clapped. “Yay, you survived your trip into what most Texans consider the armpit of the state and lived to tell. What do you want, a medal?”
“No.” He rounded on me, shifting his anger from his grandfather to me. His glare hit me smack-dab in the center of my chest. “I want to know what’s been going on. Why are there pictures of the Ido penguins trending on social media?”
The color drained from my face. I knew it because it all pooled in my gut, creating a woozy feeling in my stomach. But I tried to play it off. “What do you mean?”
He held his phone out, tipping it toward me. One of the families who had been through our penguin meet and greet stared back at me. There was Thelma, right in the middle. They’d tagged the Phillips House and hash tagged #PhillipsPenguins in their post.
“I guess you wouldn’t believe me if I said someone broke in to photobomb a feeding session?” My voice softened as the words drifted out of my mouth. I waited for a quirk of his lips, for that easygoing smile of his to appear.
“I can’t believe you did this.” He turned away, shaking his head.
“Hey, now.” Gramps stepped in. “It was my idea.”
“No, Morty. We’re both to blame. I guess I don’t see what the big deal is though. Thanks to Cyrus and that article in the paper, people already knew they were here. We made some people very happy and put a small dent in the amount it’s going to take to fix the roof of the shelter.”
“Part of my agreement with Munyon was that we’d keep the damn penguins under wraps as much as possible until right before the wedding.
He’s the kind of guy who wants to make a splash.
Now that it’s leaked, hell”—he paused to scrub a hand over the scruff on his chin—“the whole project might be at risk.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that?” My heart stopped for a moment. If the wedding fell apart, I’d lose out on the cash he’d promised to help pay the high deductible on the shelter. That wasn’t an option.
“I didn’t think I had to. What the hell were you thinking?”
Gramps moved closer to Alex. “We were thinking we had a good opportunity and we took it. We’re all to blame for this. You should have told us.”
“Who would have thought you’d turn them into a roadside attraction within twenty-four hours?”
I nodded to myself. “So it’s okay for you to make commitments like agreeing to move up the wedding date without talking to anyone about it, and taking on double the birds, but we aren’t allowed to make any decisions without consulting you?”
“It’s not like that.” He’d turned to face me, his shoulders slumped.
“Fine, handle them how you see fit. You’re the one in charge, Mr. Sanders. From now on you can call all of the shots.” Before I said something I’d regret, I retreated to the back of the warehouse.
Alex didn’t come after me. I could hear him arguing with his grandfather. Maybe I’d been too quick to open myself up to the man candy with the gorgeous eyes. I’d thought he might be ready for change. Based on the way he’d overreacted, I was wrong.