Chapter 2 #2
“And how many do you have?” His voice sounded tight. He stayed about three feet behind John Wayne as we made slow progress across the grass.
“I have three more like him. Then I have a pair of Galapagos tortoises, Greta Garbo and Mae West, coming later today actually. I’ve been asked to take on a pair of sulcatas, but they’re diggers, and, as you can see, they can be escape artists. John Wayne’s the biggest of all of them.”
“He’s kinda… I don’t know that cute is the right word?” His voice pitched higher at the end, but he continued to follow. “He looks…wise.”
“They’re super gentle, and they have funny personalities.”
“How did you end up with them?”
John Wayne had nearly finished munching the first banana, and he’d slowed his progress. I held out my hand to Francis, and he handed me another one.
“That’s quite a lengthy tale, neighbor. You sure you have time? You must be busy.” I wanted to give him an out. I needed to be realistic. What would this young… hell, super-rich guy want with an older man who puts out fires and enjoys playing in the mud with reptiles in his spare time?
“Seeing as we’re making slow progress, I think we have time for a story.”
I grinned. Jay Dub, you might be a genius.
“My best friend in the whole world growing up was a guy named Dave Costa. We went to elementary school together. His father has a massive reptile sanctuary in Florida, and I worked alongside Dave and his father, Benny, whenever I could. The reptiles fascinated me, and I always said that when I had the ability, I would have a small sanctuary of my own. Mr. Costa does some breeding, too, but a lot of his reptiles were willed to him by folks who were elderly and needed to provide care for them since they can live for centuries, can’t you, buddy? ”
John Wayne’s neck was stretched as far as he could go, but he was starting to slow down.
This was really going to take forever. I’d been contemplating buying a vehicle to move these guys around, other than a wheelbarrow, which would work for my smaller guys, or my truck, but obviously, if John Wayne was going to keep getting out, I needed something I could use myself.
I’d planned to hire a second live-in assistant in addition to Alberto, a grad student from UC Davis who stayed while I was working, but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
“That’s right. I hadn’t thought of that, but a lot of reptiles live over a hundred years, don’t they?”
“The longest on record from this species is Harriet. She passed away at the Australia Zoo at one hundred seventy-five years old. Supposedly, Charles Darwin himself collected her on his trip to the Galapagos.”
“No way!”
“Yes way,” I said, and we both chuckled.
His cheeks gained the slightest bit of color.
Yes, I loved that look on him. “There are other species that live longer. There’s a Seychelles tortoise who is one hundred ninety-three years old.
He lives on the island of St. Helena and has lived through forty US presidencies. ”
“Well, then, yeah, I guess you would have to make arrangements for something that lives so much longer than a human. Have you made such arrangements?”
“I’m working on it,” I admitted. “I’ve made contacts at the UC Davis veterinary school and the Oakland Zoo, and Benny’s got resources. There are quite a few private collectors in the country. I’ll revise my living trust when all of my creatures have arrived.”
His eyes bugged out. “You mean there’s more?”
“Mmmm, having buyer’s regret?”
He coughed out a laugh, and his gaze traveled between our properties. “Depends on how many of them will be coming to visit me.”
My creatures might not be welcome at Francis’s new endeavor, but would I? I’d thought about spending more time with him. We’d bantered, we’d danced, we’d shared a smoking-hot kiss… and it had been the most fun I’d had in a long, long time.
“I swear, I’m working on a better enclosure for this guy. This is the fourth time he’s gotten out, but he hasn’t left my property so far.”
“I suppose as long as you swear he won’t eat me, we could learn to get along.” He wrinkled his nose. “I don’t know about my mom, though. I’m trying to get her and my aunt to move out here. They’re not big fans of nature, so you could imagine seeing this guy was kind of a lot for her.”
I offered him my most charming smile. “John Wayne swears he’ll be on his best behavior, don’t you, buddy?” I can’t say the same for me.
Francis grinned and shook his head, handing me another banana. We still had about twenty feet to go before we reached the rickety fence. “I suppose the first thing we should discuss is a better fence?”
“Absolutely. I’ll take care of it. I’ll run the plans by you, of course. I wouldn’t want to block your view.”
“Of your property? It’s fine. If I want to be nosy, I can always look from my observation deck.” He chuckled and pointed at the deck on the third floor of the main house.
I whistled through my teeth. “It’s a gorgeous house. My grandma said they threw some wild parties when she lived here.”
“How long ago was that?”
I blew out a breath and reached down to scratch Jay Dub’s neck. “I moved her out to Florida about three years ago? I hired a caregiver when I was on shift, and I cared for her until she passed a year ago.”
“I’m so sorry,” he said, his hand pressed to his chest. “That’s wonderful that you could care for her, but that’s a lot.”
His sentiment gave me a spark of hope. “It wasn’t a problem.
I was already equipped to do it, as I’d cared for my father for four years before that.
He’d had a stroke and lost his ability to walk and some of his speech.
Grandma was a piece of cake after the old man.
” I smiled, thinking about the first time I’d told Grandma that.
“Where do you think your father learned to be so cranky?”
“Grandpa?”
She smiled. “That’s why you’re my favorite.”
“That’s… You took care of people all day at your job and then went home to…
You’re pretty amazing,” he said, his smile softer now, not the sharp, clever, saucy one I’d been mesmerized by.
This one made my heart flutter in a much more wholesome way.
Most people thought I was noble or some shit, but I just wanted to do what was right for my family.
“Well, my ex-wife didn’t necessarily agree, and my daughter is constantly irritated with me, so I suppose I come with mixed reviews.”