Chapter 7
7
W hile Geena had been mulling over how to reimagine her life these last few weeks since her separation, this was not what she’d had in mind.
“Damn bird.”
“You got that right,” she said to the bird as Taylor and Cody settled the cage in the living room corner Geena had cleared out for it.
She’d been thinking about taking a cooking class while she waited for her ex to sign the final papers. Or looking for a hiking group. Or a book club for new divorcees. She’d already stretched out of her comfort zone by signing up on the dating app that led her to meeting Cody.
What she hadn’t been considering was watching her sister and a guy she went out with exactly once carry a gigantic, foul-mouthed bird into her townhouse in the middle of the night.
This wasn’t at all what she’d had in mind for life reimagining.
“Sorry, can I use your bathroom real quick? I have to pee.”
Geena turned toward the tall, curvy, gorgeous woman squirming in her doorway and pointed at the hall. “First door on the left.”
“Thanks so much,” the woman said with a bright smile. Then she brushed her hand against Cody’s back as she hurried behind him.
Geena felt a red-hot sensation in her gut. Something she hadn’t felt since she’d started dating her ex and watched him flirt with a bartender in front of her.
Jealousy.
The ugliest of emotions, as far as she was concerned. And extra unwelcome in this case, since she had absolutely nothing to be jealous of. Not now, not ever, not where Cody was concerned.
They’d been on one date. They weren’t still dating, not even casually. And she didn’t like the guy, for crying out loud.
But somewhere in the back of her brain, she realized she wasn’t merely jealous of the woman touching Cody like that. Part of her was envious of Cody being on the receiving end of that touch.
That was definitely not something she was ready to unpack right then.
“Sorry, I didn’t have time to gather everything,” Cody said. “But he should be good for now.”
Geena pulled her attention from his date and let her gaze fall squarely on Cody. The wing sauce man who’d brought an unruly bird into her life. Instead of a wing-sauce-dripping date, she now had a poop-dripping roommate.
“Please clarify ‘good for now.’”
The corner of his mouth quirked up as if her annoyance amused him. Or maybe he was used to getting away with vague statements in his line of work and found her attention to detail humorous.
Neither possibility was acceptable.
“He has enough food and water in his dishes for tomorrow.”
As if to prove his point, Taylor returned from the kitchen with a full dish of water that she hooked into the cage with some complicated-looking screw-in device.
Geena’s breath caught in her throat as she realized there was no guarantee in his statement past the next day, and that she’d have to figure out that contraption herself.
“And then what?”
“And then I’ll swing by tomorrow evening with more supplies. It’ll be a Saturday, so I won’t be out of there until around 8,” he said. “If that’s okay with you?”
Geena looked at the bird. Gary had settled from the transport jostling and seemed to be intently absorbing their conversation now.
The poor bird hadn’t asked for any of this either. Geena felt a bit sorry for it.
“Who the hell are you?” Gary squawked.
There was a tone of indignation he had to have picked up from his owner. The guy must have been a real piece of work.
She looked back at Cody with a heavy sigh. “That’s fine.”
“Thanks for taking him in.” He scratched at his shaggy hair while he frowned at Gary. “I realize this is a huge ask, but I didn’t know what else to do with him.”
“Bet your ass,” Gary mumbled.
“So… rules.” Cody turned back to Geena. “Don’t stick your hand in the cage.”
“Not a problem.”
“Don’t let him out just yet,” Cody said. “You might not be able to get him back in.”
The last thing Geena wanted was close contact with this bird. “Again, not a problem.”
“Good. Like I said, he should be fine with everything he needs until I can get back here tomorrow evening to refill his supplies.”
“You never said why he couldn’t stay at the zoo.” That was the big piece of this puzzle Geena didn’t understand. Not that it mattered. She was stuck with him for now, no matter what the answer was. “I mean, I know why he can’t be in the aviary and needs a home, but why did he have to be evacuated in the middle of the night?”
Cody stuffed his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “How about we save that story for tomorrow evening?”
Geena didn’t like the sound of that. She felt as if she was missing something important. But it was well after midnight, and whatever the reason was, she could wait another day to hear about it.
His date returned from the bathroom with a confident strut as she tucked her arm around Cody’s. “Is the bird all settled in?”
There was that jealousy again. And it was definitely aimed at both ends of that move of hers.
Geena cleared her throat. “Looks like it, I guess.”
“Yeah, let’s get you home,” Cody said to his date before turning back to Geena. “Thanks again. I’ll text you when I’m on my way with the rest of his stuff.”
Right. Because he had her number from their date.
This had been one heck of a week since she’d met him.
Geena walked them out and leaned against the door once it shut. That left her facing the inside of her living room, where Taylor stood a respectful distance from the cage, making kissing noises at its occupant.
“You owe me,” Geena told her little sister as she walked across the room. “Big time.”
“I know, I know.” Taylor cringed. “I honestly didn’t think you’d let us in with this thing at all.”
“Liar. You always think your schemes are going to turn out all sunshine and roses.”
“Not true.”
“Yes, true,” Geena said. “But your optimism makes stuff happen, so who am I to judge?”
“Your judgment keeps everyone out of more trouble than they can dig out of. That’s important too.”
Gary made a series of beeping noises followed by a squawk of, “Bullshit!”
Geena gestured wildly at the cage. “Where was my judgment tonight?”
With a laugh, Taylor said, “I think it was right on target.”
“ Or ,” Geena countered, “it was another colossal mistake.”
“You act like you run around your life making mistakes. You, Geena Bourque, are the most careful person I know.”
“And yet, I’m wading through divorce documents and now bird crap.”
Taylor frowned. “The first part wasn’t on you. You cared for and gave someone a chance. His screw-up is on him.”
“It was still bad judgment to trust him.”
“And in this case tonight,” Taylor continued, steering the conversation away from the divorce, like she usually did to keep Geena from sinking too much into self-loathing, “you did a good thing. The right thing. Cody and Gary needed help, and you helped them.”
Geena was less convinced than Taylor about this being a good thing, but she couldn’t argue about it being right. She couldn’t send them away when they needed help. That just wasn’t in her to do, no matter what time of night her sister showed up or who she showed up with.
Taylor scrunched her nose. “Sorry about the whole date thing, though. I had no idea he had someone with him.”
“That was the least annoying part.”
Was it?
Gary made more beeping sounds.
“Is he going to do that all night?”
“No idea. Birds aren’t really my area of expertise,” Taylor said. “But I’ll leave you to find out.”
“Gee, thanks.” Geena couldn’t suppress a yawn any longer. “Sorry. Yeah, I should probably get some sleep.”
“Me too.” Taylor glanced at the time on her phone. “Geez. Yeah. I didn’t want to wake Austin, so I left a note. But I’d better head back in case he doesn’t find it.”
Geena watched that Taylor made it to her car safely before shutting the door for the last time that night.
“We’re all fucked!”
She frowned at the bird.
Taylor definitely owed her for this. Big time.
C ody spent his afternoon break filling a translucent blue plastic tub with pellets and frozen chop packages. He had already packed a bag of chew toys and treats after he’d bought the container at a big box store. He figured Geena would want to keep the supplies nearby but not have an eyesore of plastic bags in her living room.
Her place had been so… nice .
He didn’t know if he’d ever lived somewhere that everything looked so clean and orderly. Especially not someone who lived alone. She hadn’t mentioned a roommate on their date.
Cody finished filling the container with food for Gary and snapped the lid on top. When he lifted it and headed toward the door, he found Lauren leaning against the frame with her arms crossed.
“I hear you had an exciting night.”
She sounded a little annoyed, although over what he couldn’t tell. Probably something personal. Not his business.
“Something like that,” he said.
“And you didn’t bother to tell me about any of it?”
Okay, so it was his business.
But he couldn’t figure out why .
“It was the middle of the night.” He continued carrying his tub to the doorway, but Lauren didn’t move to let him pass.
“Right,” she said. “But you couldn’t even text this morning? I had to find out from Damon.”
“Sorry. I didn’t think you cared about Gary that much.”
She rolled her eyes and pushed off the door frame and out of his way. “I care about you. I thought we were friends.”
“We are.”
Were they?
He’d thought so. But he considered everyone he worked with a friend. At least while they were in the same place. He didn’t carry friends through to his next jobs and states.
But he and Lauren spent more time together than he did with anyone else at the zoo. By that measurement, she was pretty much his best friend.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to bother you. It was the middle of the night. And it wasn’t a big deal.”
“I heard you had to call the cops.”
Against every instinct he had, yes.
“Had to.”
Lauren somehow frowned even harder at him. “And that wasn’t your proof it was a big deal? That maybe it was something I might want to know about?”
“Fair,” he said. “I just didn’t think to tell you. Guess I was tired from the long night. Sorry.”
“Yeah, well, you owe me a full status report. Juicy details and all,” she said. “But I gotta get to the aviary. Melinda left early for a doctor’s appointment, so I’m covering for her before I do close-out checks in my section.”
“How are the rest of the troublemakers doing today?”
“Haven’t been yet.” She grabbed a bag of treats, the ones they used for bird training. “Walk with me and see for yourself?”
He knew a trap when he heard one. She was gonna grill him on everything.
But he had a few hours left in the day, and he needed to check on the other birds, anyway. He was interested in how they were doing without Gary in there to egg them on.
If Lauren was going to make him recap the whole disaster of last night, might as well get it over with.
They walked together through the zoo with Cody summarizing in a little more detail the events of the previous night. Skipping over the part with what he and his date had been doing before they stumbled upon the intruder.
Lauren took it all in, grunting and nodding once in a while. She looked concerned more than anything. Cody couldn’t tell where that concern was coming from. Was she worried about Gary? Or maybe she was worried that the intruder might make a return appearance?
At the aviary, they entered behind two women, each with a young child in hand. Cody and Lauren stood back by the entrance, watching the visitors interact with the birds.
At first, things went well. The kids pointed excitedly as they spotted each new bird.
“See?” Cody said. “I told you they’d be fine. Gary was the instigator.”
Then it happened.
A bright green Amazon parrot let an expletive fly.
It wasn’t the worst word. But the moment the kids began giggling, and the women grabbed their hands in shock and tried to pull them along, the rest of the birds fell into a fit of laughter.
“Oh, I see all right.” Lauren didn’t even bother to hide her smug grin.
They approached the family, and Lauren proceeded to apologize and herd them away. The women ushered the children out of the aviary, while the birds continued to cackle and shout more expletives as a farewell.
Cody confronted the hooligans. “That’s enough, chuckleheads.”
The birds cackled some more.
“When you’re back in your cages this afternoon, remember that you only have yourselves to blame here.”
Well, that and a notorious instigator whose lingering impression Cody had underestimated. He’d have his work cut out for him next week, training this out of the rest of them again. Hopefully, it would be as short a process as last time. They’d all been fine until he’d reintroduced the Amazon to the flock. Fingers crossed, he could do it again.
But that was a problem for Next Week Cody. He never worried about Next Week Cody.
“Told you it was too soon,” Lauren said once the family was out of earshot.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Cody glared at the new ringleader of the bunch. The bird gave a defiant squawk. “Put them back inside. I’ll start working with them again tomorrow.”
“Not gonna stick around to help me clean up the mess you made?”
“I’ve got enough mess to clean up,” he said. “I need to help Geena get acquainted with Gary.”
“Wait. Geena is the foster?” Lauren grabbed his arm. “ That Geena? Your Geena?”
“She isn’t mine.” Cody remembered her talking about an ex-husband, but he couldn’t imagine the woman “belonging” to anyone. “But yes, that Geena.”
“I got the sense that date didn’t go so well. Or at least she wasn’t super thrilled to find you here the other day. How’d you convince her to take that mess of a bird?”
“I didn’t. Her sister did.”
“Ah, I see,” Lauren said. “You just gave her those puppy eyes.”
“I don’t have puppy eyes.”
“Yeah, you do. When you want a favor.”
“Anyway, she seems like a good person, and we all want the bird safe. Since she was the only option, she agreed.”
“Wait, does that mean you told her what happened last night? With the break-in?”
“Not exactly.”
“So she doesn’t know someone was trying to steal him?” Lauren put her hands on her hips. “Cody.”
“I know, I know.” He put his hands up in defense. “I’ll tell her tonight and make sure she’s okay with everything. It was just really late, and I had to get Kayleigh home.”
“Who the heck is Kayleigh?”
Dang it.
He’d stepped right into that one, hadn’t he?
“My date last night.”
“You brought your date to your other date’s house to drop off a swearing parrot being hunted by some stranger. Do I have this right?”
“No. Geena wasn’t my date last night. It might have been awkward, but I didn’t do anything wrong. We’re not in a relationship. Of any kind, much less a monogamous one. We had one date. And I’m fairly certain she does not want a second.”
“Not after last night, I’m sure.”
Cody decided that was enough of a lecture for that afternoon. “I’d better finish my shift so I can get that stuff over to her at a reasonable hour. Let me know if you have any issues with these guys. You’re off tomorrow, right? Just leave a note or send me a text.”
“Will do,” she said. “Oh, I forgot to ask. Heard back on that job yet?”
Cody’s shoulders slumped. He’d forgotten all about that. “Yeah. Didn’t get it.”
“Sorry. I know you were hoping.”
He shrugged. “Not meant to be. I’ll find something else.”
“Or…” She dragged out the word with a half-smile. “You could accept that the universe maybe wants you to stay here?”
“Not a sign,” he said. “I’m leaving now.”
He gave her a smile before he turned to leave the aviary. It was nice to have people who wanted him around, but he’d been back in this part of the country long enough. Now it was time to move on and start a new adventure. He just had to wait for an opportunity to present itself again.
But first, he had to see how Geena and that foul-mouthed parrot were getting along.