Chapter 14
14
C ody examined the white box in his hand. He flipped it back and forth, studying the image on the cover and the text on all the other sides.
“What about this one?”
Lauren put the box she’d been looking at back on the shelf and leaned to look at Cody’s. “That one’s not bad. You don’t have to connect to a network, and you can see the images from anywhere on an app.”
“So it wouldn’t be too difficult to install?”
Cody had taken Lauren with him to look at security devices after work. She was much better with tech stuff than he was. And he wasn’t afraid to admit it.
“Nope,” Lauren said. “But I can give you a hand if you get stuck.”
“Thanks.” Cody studied it a second more, then double-checked the price. Not bad at all. Well under what he’d anticipated. No flashy bells and whistles. Just what he wanted. Simple. “Looks small, too.”
Lauren guided his hand to flip the box on its side again. “Yup. No one will know it’s there if you don’t want them to. It’ll look like a normal doorbell button, so no one will know to dismantle it.”
Exactly what they needed.
Something larger and more obvious might deter someone from trying to break in, but the way they’d easily gotten in at the zoo made him think that if they knew the security device was in place, they’d be determined enough to find a way in.
“All right then.” Cody lifted the box in the air. “This is the one.”
They walked together to the register, and Cody placed the box on the counter. The salesperson rang him up and asked about a warranty.
When he looked at Lauren, she said, “Nah. They’re a scam. Besides, you’ve got me. I’m your installment and service warranty.”
Cody paid for the item and headed to the parking lot with Lauren. “Thanks again for coming with me. I’d probably have picked the first thing I saw and been screwed.”
“That’s how you roll,” she said. “No problem. You sure you’re okay to install that yourself? I don’t have anything going on this evening.”
“Let me check first.”
He sent a text to Geena asking if it was okay to go over and install the new device. A moment later, she replied.
“Her sister’s staying over tonight. Said we can put it in another day. Maybe tomorrow evening.”
Cody didn’t have anything scheduled all week after work, so it didn’t matter to him. He never really scheduled anything except the occasional date. He’d been too busy with Geena and Gary to even bother setting something up, even though a guy he’d hooked up with a couple months ago had been messaging him again.
But normally, other than scheduling dates, everything he did was an in-the-moment-decision. He could handle this whenever she wanted him to.
Lauren stood on the other side of his car, waiting for him to unlock the doors. “What if someone tries to get in during the day?”
With a shrug, Cody said, “This is the best I’m going to get. She’s got her sister with her tonight, and Geena’s not going to want me there while she’s at work. I’ll try to go over tomorrow evening.”
“Hopefully this is all extra precaution, anyway.”
“Yeah, I’d feel terrible if me going over there tipped someone off to where Gary was hiding out.”
“You were trying to look out for both of them.” Lauren opened the car door and sat in the passenger seat. “Don’t beat yourself up over that.”
He wasn’t exactly beating himself up, but he did feel a twinge of guilt. This was one of the many reasons he didn’t want a serious relationship. Even his friendships maintained a respectable distance between him and the other person. Lauren included. Getting too close meant you were responsible, in part, for the other person’s well-being. Physical and emotional. Not something he was interested in. Not at this point in his life, at least.
“It’s fine. If she doesn’t want me over now, I’ll take care of it after work tomorrow.”
He started the engine and headed out of the parking lot, aiming for the zoo to drop Lauren off at her car.
From the corner of his eye, he caught her staring at him curiously.
“What?”
“It’s okay to admit you like her,” Lauren said.
He’d been trying to convince himself of that for the last several days. He liked hanging out with her, and while he’d been teasing about their time together being dates, he couldn’t help feeling there was some truth there.
“I care about her safety. Geena’s an orderly person who wants a commitment. I’m… well, me. So I’m just making sure she’s safe until we find another landing spot for Gary.”
Against all of his instincts to keep his distance, he couldn’t help worrying about her. It was a new and uncomfortable feeling, but that was all it was.
Or, at least, that’s all it could be.
“Oh, come on,” she said. “It’s obvious you’re more than worried. How many times have you been over there?”
“Just twice. No, three times. But for Gary mostly.”
“Uh-huh. Just for Gary? Didn’t you say you brought food for her?”
Sure, he’d gotten a kick out of guessing what food she might like. And he’d gotten a little thrill out of making her laugh. Plus, their conversation had been easy and enjoyable. Much better than their first and only official disastrous date.
But none of that meant he had romantic feelings for her, much less that there was any chance of a relationship.
Did it?
He wasn’t even sure how she felt about him, making this whole line of thinking pointless.
“She’s doing us a big favor, so I did a couple of small favors for her.” He stopped at a red light and squeezed the steering wheel. “That’s all it is.”
For now , his brain added, despite his attempts to downplay everything.
“Fine,” Lauren said. “But once you realize what’s obvious from this angle, I’m gonna say I told you so.”
G eena downloaded the app and handed her phone to Cody. He looked back and forth between the system’s manual and the app, adjusting settings and testing out the live feed.
“All right, Bourque,” he said. “You’re good to go.”
She side-eyed him. “So we’re really doing the name thing, huh?”
He grinned. “It should be all set up. Take a look and see if it works for you.”
She took back the phone and studied the app while she tapped around a bit.
“This is great.” She gave a sly smile. “Thanks, Brasseaux.”
Cody couldn’t hide his amusement even if he wanted to. And he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hide anything related to his feelings.
“Just let me know if you run into any technical snags,” he said. “I’m not great with this stuff, but Lauren is. She said she’s glad to help if we need.”
“Thanks again. What do I owe you for it?”
She reached for the receipt on the coffee table near the empty box and the cordless drill he’d brought. Cody snatched it away before she got her hands on it.
“No way,” he said. “You’re taking care of Gary.”
“Gary!” squawked the parrot from his perch on top of his cage.
“It’s the least we can do for putting you in the line of fire.”
Geena cringed. “Please don’t say, 'Line of fire.' It’s bad enough thinking about someone trying to break in. The last thing I want to think about is guns in the mix.”
Cody smiled, attempting to break the tension and soothe her fear. “Not a hunter then, huh?”
“Absolutely not. I said I’m not an animal person, but that doesn’t mean I want them dead.”
“I know. Just teasing,” he said. “I work at a zoo. Not exactly the hunting type myself.”
He’d grown up with cousins who would shoot anything they could in season. Deer, ducks, squirrels. Didn’t matter what.
He never had a taste for it, and it was one of many reasons he was glad his dad never paid much attention to him when he was a kid. No awkwardly trying to get out of any obligatory father-son hunting trips.
Beep beep boop beep
Geena tilted her head at Gary. “I’m actually growing fond of those noises.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am. I mean, not the squawking. But some of his little noises aren’t so bad.”
“Bet your ass!”
Cody laughed. “You sure about that?”
“Gary.” Geena put her hands on her hips and walked up to the bird. “We talked about this. That’s not very nice.”
Cody fought the urge to warn her about getting too close. She probably knew that bird and his tendencies better than he did by now.
In fact, she was holding his attention pretty well on her own. Gary ducked his head, like he was ashamed of his behavior.
She lowered her tone even more. “What do we say?”
Gary made the softest little cluck and mumbled, “Sorry.”
Cody stared at them both in shock and amazement. “How did you do that?”
“I didn’t do anything,” Geena said. “Apparently he already knew that one.”
“Did he?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I told him one day he wasn’t being nice, and he just said it.”
If Cody had known that, maybe Gary could have stayed at the zoo.
“Rat bastard!” The parrot rolled his head on his shoulders and cackled until he nearly stumbled off the cage.
“As you can see, he’s not actually sorry.”
Cody chuckled. “Well, at least I don’t feel like an idiot for not discovering an easy fix.”
“Oh no,” Geena said. “It’s a cute trick, but it doesn’t fix anything.”
He watched as she put a couple of blackberries in Gary’s bowl and shut the cage door behind him. She was moving with such confidence now after only caring for the bird for a few days.
And it became harder with every moment to deny he was truly beginning to care for her in that brief amount of time.
She brushed her short blonde hair away from her face and returned his curious stare. “What?”
“Nothing,” he said. “Just noticing how comfortable you are with him now. It’s only been… what? Five days?”
“Since Friday. So, yeah. Five days.”
“That’s pretty impressive.”
Geena shrugged. “He’s easier than I thought he would be. The fact that he’s well-trained already is a big help. At least with the messy and pesky stuff. The language doesn’t bother me.”
“I was worried it would.”
“That his vocabulary would bother me? Why?”
“I don’t know. At first, you seemed…” Cody thought of how to put this in a way that didn’t make him sound like a jerk. “You seemed like you like order in your universe.”
Thankfully, she didn’t look offended by that.
“I do like order,” she said. “But a few crass words aren’t disorderly. In fact, everything else about him is pretty darn orderly.”
Cody watched Gary gobble up the blackberries and pick at the rest of his food, hoping to find more treats hidden in there.
She was right, he supposed. The bird was fairly predictable, aside from his swearing vice. His tricks and habits did make it easy to adapt to him. But there was more to this situation.
Geena had seemed terrified of Gary at first, but within only a few days, it was as if Gary had been living with her instead of a convict for the past several years. And not just because Gary had grown comfortable with her. It was her unexpected comfort and confidence with him that was surprising.
Or maybe it shouldn’t surprise him.
She seemed like she could take charge of any situation she wanted to. He got the sense that nothing outside of him randomly showing up in the middle of the night with a parrot could fluster her.
Except maybe her divorce.
From the little he knew about it, he could sense the whole thing kind of unnerved her. Or maybe it was just the human on the other end of it that threw her off her game. Which made him want to have a lengthy chat with the man who had that effect on her.
His phone buzzed in his back pocket, and he checked if it was something important.
It wasn’t.
“Got a hot date tonight?” Geena’s tone was teasing, but she quickly deflated in horror at her own statement. “I’m sorry. Once again, that’s none of my business.”
Cody studied her face for a moment, trying to determine if she was just upset with her impulsive question or if she was maybe upset with the idea of him having a date.
“It’s fine,” he insisted. “And yeah, it’s someone I dated before, but not someone I’m dating now.”
Geena’s expression deflated even more. “Sorry. Is it Karen? No, wait.. Kayleigh? Crap, that’s really none of my business. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”
“It’s fine, I swear,” he said with a small laugh. Then he decided they’d spent enough time together to reveal a little more about himself. “And it’s a guy, actually.”
“A friend?” Then, as her brain caught up with her mouth, her eyes widened. “Oh. Ohhhh. A guy you dated.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m pansexual.”
“Is that like bi?”
“It just means I like who I like, and gender doesn’t really matter. But they’re almost the same thing.”
Geena nodded while she looked as if she was processing the information. “Okay. Got it.”
He decided to take a chance and stretch the conversation to what was probably slightly out of her comfort zone. “You? Just guys?”
“Yeah. I mean, I find women attractive, too. Like, I can say your date was pretty hot.” Her cheeks flushed slightly with the admission. “But I’ve never been with a woman. Just guys. So yeah, I’m straight.”
Cody smiled, trying to keep it contained so she wouldn’t think he was making fun of her. “Hate to break it to you, but it sounds like you might be bi. Or pan. Depending on how you feel about people overall.”
“How?” She looked genuinely confused. “I’ve never dated a woman.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s about the attraction, not the act.”
“Oh,” she said, staring at the floor for a moment, then looking back up at him. “Then, yeah. I guess I might be bisexual.”
Cody put his hands up. “I don’t mean to tell you what you are. That’s for you to figure out. I’m just saying, it doesn’t have to be about who you’ve dated or been with.”
“Right. Got it.” Then, with a shy smile, she said, “Thanks.”
He gave her a nod and a rush of warmth flooded him. He’d revealed his sexuality to plenty of people before, but it never felt like an intimate or vulnerable thing. Not like this.
Geena broke the stretch of silence with a clap of her hands. “Well, since the security camera didn’t take long, and Gary’s had a quick stretch, I suggest we celebrate getting that thing working.”
Cody raised his brow as his interest rose right along with it. “What did you have in mind?”
“There’s a little place down the road. You up for burgers? My treat.”
Cody was taken aback. He figured she’d have had more than enough of his company by now. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I owe you for all of this.” She gestured at the empty box and tools on the coffee table. “We can test the app out while we’re there.”
“Good idea.”
He checked her hazel eyes for any sign of hesitation. For any sign that she was doing this just to be polite. Because she didn’t owe him anything, since she was doing a favor by keeping Gary.
But he found no such thing. In fact, the only thing he saw in her eyes was… hope?
That couldn’t be right.
Either way, he was hungry, and a burger sounded good. So did her company.
If she was down for dinner, so was he.
“All right, Bourque.” He grabbed his keys from the table and nodded at her. “I’ll drive.”