Chapter 2
CHAPTER
TWO
Kendall
This damn tortoise was going to be the death of me.
Not only had John Wayne broken out of his indoor enclosure at some point in the night, this time he wasn’t hanging out at the back door like he usually did.
No, this time he’d gone AWOL. I checked everywhere I could think of, and it wasn’t until I heard voices that I thought of checking the outer fence.
By fence, I meant the divider between my property and the neighbor’s.
It was really just decorative pieces of rustic-looking wood nailed together.
A sneeze would knock it over. I’d have to put up something much more secure, or my new neighbor wasn’t going to like me very much.
I’d seen the moving truck come earlier in the week and drop off stuff and a car.
I tried to be all neighborly, but instead of gaining intel, I’d ended up in a friendly conversation in Spanish about my iguanas, tortoises, and chameleons with the movers.
They said the homeowner would be coming in a few days, but that was about all I could get from them.
I’d thought of calling Derek, since the sign in front of the property was from his agency, but I’d worked extra shifts this week and had all the prep to do to finish the last of the indoor enclosures.
I was also expecting the reptile stork to bring a delivery today, and having a loose, gigantic Aldabra tortoise wandering around didn’t bode well for my next guests.
I spotted movement and took off running in my damn flip-flops. I’d forgotten to put my Vans by the back door, and though I knew better, I had no time. I hopped the dinky fence and went running for John Wayne.
And caught a glimpse of the man of my dreams.
I was either the luckiest bastard on the planet or about to be in a world of trouble.
Francis Liang had been fodder for my fantasies since Pride two months ago.
We’d shared a dance and a mind-blowing kiss after a day of flirting.
I’d tried not to allow myself to get too preoccupied with the what-ifs, choosing to trust in fate that I’d see him again, but I’d had more than a few dreams about him.
Seeing him now? In a pair of cut-off sweatpants, Crocs, and a loose white t-shirt, he was way hotter than I’d remembered.
I hoped I’d run into him in town, that maybe he and Derek would come visit.
I’d seen Derek… and so had my buddies. They were crushing hard on the guy.
But I’d apparently missed the times Francis had come to town.
Caring for my reptilian friends took up most of the time I wasn’t working at the Foggy Basin Fire Department, and I hadn’t been out much.
What was he doing way out here?
I called out to him, and he gave me a finger wave.
“I was just about to call animal control, but it seems you two are acquainted?”
“Yeah, this is John Wayne. Jay Dub, this is Francis.”
Francis looked down at my sneakiest tortoise and smiled, but it wasn’t the saucy one I remembered or the relaxed one when I’d had to say goodbye after I’d kissed him thoroughly.
No, this one was obviously an attempt at playing it cool while being concerned.
“John Wayne?”
“Yeah. You know, the famous movie cowboy? His previous owner named the guys and dolls after movie stars from the forties and fifties.”
“I’m familiar. And you’re familiar with this creature, as in…”
“Oh, yeah. He’s mine. An Aldabra tortoise. He’s supposed to be hanging out with Cary Grant, Marlon Brando, and Gregory Peck, who, it so happens, is a female.”
His smile fell. “There are more?”
“Uh, yeah.” I rubbed at the stubble on my head. “I believe I told you I was a collector?”
“Mm-hmm, I believe you did.”
“Yeah. I have a collection—”
“Of dinosaurs?”
I laughed. “Of reptiles. I have a sanctuary, actually. I’ve rescued some, and some I received as part of estates.”
“So, I guess I thought you’d have like a car collection or motorcycles or, I don’t know, something else big, but not… dinosaurs.”
“Not quite that old. These guys are from the Aldabra atoll in the Indian Ocean.”
“And they’re here legally?”
This was not going the way I’d hoped. “Yeah. I told you that Derek helped me do research? That was it.”
Francis peered beyond me with a skeptical expression. “Are we talking, like, alligators? Those giant pythons?”
I concentrated on being serious. “Crocodilian species, snapping turtles, and venomous snakes are illegal in California and therefore will not be guests of my sanctuary.”
He nodded and tapped his lip thoughtfully, but he didn’t say anything, so I filled in the silence.
“When my grandmother passed, she left me this place. I wasn’t sure what all I could have here in California—different states have different laws—but, yeah, Derek helped me do the research. Everything I have is legal here and non-lethal. I swear.”
He nodded at me with a look in his eye like he didn’t quite buy what I was selling, and his eyes went wide.
“Oh. Oh, so you live—”
“That’s my place,” I said, gesturing over my shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
“I bought this place.”
It was my turn for the wide eyes. “This place? Wow. A winery?”
“Oh, well, it was. I’m not, no, I’m not going to have a winery. I don’t even like wine. I’m turning it into a retreat. You know, art, writing, dance… Weddings and special events, that kind of thing.”
His face lit up as he described the place to me, and it took me back to holding him in my arms in the park under a gorgeous moon.
“That’s so cool. That’s a lot, though. Do you have someone…?” Things happened so fast at Pride I hadn’t even asked if there was a partner somewhere.
He shrugged. “It’s just me, for now. I’m going to hire an assistant, and, like, staff for events as needed. It’s a work in progress.”
“Cool.” I was in so much shock seeing him that it took me a second for his words to settle in. “Wow, so, this is your place now.”
Grandma had told me stories about how several different owners had tried to turn this place into a successful business, but mostly they’d had big, loud parties with rude guests and lots of cars.
I’d actually been enjoying the solitude out here.
How was it going to be with a bunch of events going on? How would it affect my crew?
“Derek brought me out here the day after Pride, and I fell in love. He tried to talk me out of it, said it was too much for me, but I’m ready for the challenge.”
I whistled through my teeth. “Cost you a pretty penny, too.” Which meant he was most likely loaded.
I’d looked at the listing out of curiosity and knew the former owners had been asking more than six million dollars.
My grandparents’ place, in comparison, was estimated at a million-six.
I had less land and a way smaller house.
Francis’s property had a three-story, modern-looking mansion, a separate guest wing with a massive pool yard, a stone cottage closer to the road, not to mention the large metal outbuildings where they’d made and stored the wine, and then there were vineyards.
What the hell was he going to do with it all?
“Sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind if you want to live your dream.”
His words sparked my interest. “What’s your dream, Francis?”
He smiled and bit down on his lower lip. “To help other people make their dreams come true.”
I was caught up in the idea that we had common ground. Was he really in that same place in his life? He was so young. He seemed younger than the day we’d met, even. I didn’t know how young, but I knew he was young.
We’d been staring at each other for a minute when John Wayne grumbled beside me. Francis jumped back a step, and the playfulness was gone.
“Since he belongs to you, I’m assuming you know how to get him out of here?”
My heart sank a little. I wanted to think his tone had more to do with fear than dislike, but I was fully aware of how much people didn’t understand reptiles and either feared or loathed them.
My ex-wife had never understood. I’d been warned multiple times not to bring “those things” home.
My daughter Shay loved them, but she didn’t understand why I’d come all the way out here to do this.
The few folks I’d dated since moving here had wrinkled their noses when I’d told them about my plans.
I wanted him to be different.
“Right. Well, seeing as he weighs three-hundred-forty-five pounds, it’s a bit of a task.” Of course, I knew how to move my big guys, but maybe I felt like testing my new neighbor.
“A task you feel will be successful?”
I gave him a shrug and an innocent smile. “Probably. You got any carrots?”
“I… carrots? I just moved in.”
“Bummer,” I said. “How about lettuce? Or bananas?”
That got him flustered. “Bananas? I—”
The sliding-glass door behind him opened, and a beautiful, stern-looking woman with her dark hair pulled up into a bun reached an arm out with a bunch of bananas in her grasp.
“Oh. Thanks. Mom, this is Kendall, my new neighbor.”
Mom?
“Hi.” She raised an eyebrow, he took the bunch from her, and she slid the door closed to watch from the other side.
I waved. “John Wayne doesn’t bite.” I held out my hand, and Jay Dub watched the bananas as Francis handed them to me. I took one and handed Francis back the bunch. Jay Dub couldn’t seem to decide which yellow blob to follow. “Keep those out of sight? Thank you.”
I peeled the end of the banana and held it close to Jay Dub’s face, making him stretch out his long neck, eager for the sweet stuff. I spoke in a gentle voice, the one that seemed to have a hypnotic quality with my big boys. Or it could’ve just been the banana.
“With three or four folks, he can be picked up and placed into a mode of transportation, but since it’s just us, how about,” I said, walking backward with the banana a couple of inches from the big guy’s nose, “we take a little walk?”
Francis opened his mouth to speak, turned to look at his mom, who had her arms crossed and both eyebrows raised, and he took a step toward me.
“You said he doesn’t bite…?”
“Nope. He’s a gentle giant. All of my giant tortoises are.”