“I don’t want to get hurt!”
They all looked down at the little boy. He was staring at the arguing grown-ups with wide eyes and a trembling lower lip.
“Then you need to be nice to the goat,” Griffin told him bluntly.
“I love the goat!” the boy insisted.
“You’re not acting like you love him,” Griffin said. He put his hands on his hips and looked down at the kid.
He looked intimidating, even to Charlie, and she knew the soft, caring, sweet, passionate side of him.
She grabbed Griffin’s forearm and squeezed, willing him to look at her. “Griffin.”
Suddenly Fletcher was there. He dropped to one knee next to the little boy and put his hand on his back. “Hey, Hunter.”
“Hi, Mr. Landry,” the little boy said, seemingly shy now.
“Let’s talk about goats for a second, okay?” Fletcher asked.
“Who the hell are you?” the father demanded.
“That’s Fletcher Landry,” his wife told him. She was smiling at Fletcher. “He’s one of the third-grade teachers. Colt and Jonah both had him. You should come to more parent-teacher conferences,” she added with a frown at her husband.
Even in the midst of this chaos, Charlie rolled her eyes. Fletcher had a fan club, and they were definitely not all elementary-aged kids.
Fletcher was mostly ignoring the adults. He was talking to Hunter in a low voice.
Charlie felt Griffin’s arm tense under her hand. She glanced at him. His jaw was tight, but he was watching Fletcher and the little boy rather than staring down the father.
“Do your brothers and sisters ever pinch you or hit you or pull your hair, Hunter?” Fletcher asked.
The boy nodded.
“And that doesn’t feel good, does it? And it makes you not like them for a little bit, right?” Fletcher asked.
Hunter’s bottom lip stuck out slightly, but he nodded. “Right.”
“That’s how it feels to Happy when you pull his tail,” Fletcher said. “It hurts him, but it also makes him not want to play with you for a little bit. If you can be nice to him, then he’ll want to come over and be friends.”
The little boy sniffled but nodded. “Okay.”
“But he’ll forgive you,” Fletcher added. “Happy knows that sometimes kids don’t know how to play with goats. Don’t worry. He’ll be your friend again.”
The boy managed a little smile.
“See, everything’s fine,” the father said, directing the comment to Griffin.
Griffin tensed again. “No thanks to you. You should be teaching your kid how to treat animals. They need to learn it from people they respect and trust, and it needs to be reinforced all the time.”
“Look, man. I work two jobs. And we don’t have any goats,” Hunter’s dad said.
“Kids can learn to be gentle and kind and patient and to care about animals in a lot of ways,” Griffin said. “You can read to him. You can watch programs about animals.”
“And you’re some kind of animal expert?” the man said.
Charlie tensed at that. The man was questioning Griffin’s expertise? And even if the man didn’t know who Griffin was, Griffin was clearly right. Every adult here should recognize that.
“This is Dr. Foster,” she said, her tone indignant. “He’s the veterinarian here. These goats are all in his care. If he tells you something about how to treat them, you need to listen.”
The man looked slightly chagrined. “Okay, fine. But I grew up on a farm, and I know that farm animals aren’t exactly delicate.”
“All animals, farm or otherwise, deserve to be treated with kindness and respect,” Charlie said. “One of our goals here at this petting zoo is to teach people more about the animals and to give them a chance to interact and understand them better. However, first and foremost, we are concerned with the treatment of our animals. And if you cannot be responsible enough to ensure that our animals are safe with your family, then yes, you will be asked to leave and not allowed to come back.”
The man stared at her. “You’re overreacting.”
“Am I?” She took a step forward. “Or am I calling you out on bad behavior? I’m sorry that it has to be in public and in front of your children, but that’s on you.”
She felt a finger hook into the back waistband of her jeans and tug slightly. She took a step back, realizing as Griffin tucked her under his arm that she’d been only inches from the other man.
“Thank you,” Griffin whispered, softly enough that only she could hear. Then he released her and went down on his knee by the little boy the way Fletcher had.
He didn’t reach for the kid, and he was several inches back, not invading the boy’s personal space, but he said, “I’ll tell you what, Hunter, let’s set up a time for you to come to my clinic. We’ll play with a couple of kittens together. Maybe a dog. Then, if that goes well, you can come back, and we’ll play with some rabbits and hedgehogs. We’ll talk about how to handle them properly and how to know if they like what you’re doing or not. And once I think that you’re doing a good job, I will give you a special animal handling certificate. Then you bring it with you to the petting zoo for our next big event.”
Hunter’s eyes were wide.
“What’s the next event?” one of Hunter’s brothers asked.
Griffin glanced up at Charlie. “You’ll have to ask Ms. Landry. She’s in charge of all the good times around here.”
Charlie couldn’t tell if he meant “good times” sarcastically or not, but she did realize that he had just put her on the spot to announce another event. One that, no doubt, he had major reservations about before even hearing it. He hadn’t wanted to do the pajama party, and she’d had to assure him that everything would be fine. Of course, now it wasn’t, and she was feeling like an idiot.
But everyone in the barnyard was now listening. Someone had paused the movie, and all eyes were on her.
Well, this was Griffin’s fault, she supposed.
“Yeah,” she said brightly as if she’d been fully prepared for this announcement. “We’re going to do Lunch with the Lemurs.” She looked at Griffin as she said it and noticed his small grimace. Well, he was the one who’d said no to Lunch with the Llamas. And Lunch with the Alpacas didn’t have the same ring to it.
But as the words came out of her mouth, she realized she could have called it Alpaca Lunch. Wow, that would have been perfect. The alpacas would have been a better choice too. The lemurs weren’t as used to visitors. And they were endangered animals. Maybe they shouldn’t be around humans much. She honestly didn’t know. But now she blurted out Lunch with the Lemurs, so she had to keep going.
She was definitely going to do an Alpaca Lunch though.
Her mind worked to catch up with her tongue. “Everyone will come and get a brown bag lunch which will also include some fun treats for the lemurs. We’ll go out to the lemur enclosure, and spread out picnic blankets, and…” She glanced at Fletcher, who was also watching her attentively with a very amused grin. “Mr. Landry will teach you all about lemurs and what they like to eat and how they like to play, where they’re from, and what we can do to help protect them as endangered animals.”