This job was going to be amazing.
She was so glad Jason had dumped her.
“So I was the good guy. I backed off. I respected that she was with Jason. But fuck…if we’d just gone for it in Galveston, this would be a lot easier now.”
“Are we really good enough friends to be having this conversation?” Griffin asked Fletcher as he pulled on rubber boots outside of the otter enclosure.
Fletcher thought about that. “Probably not,” he admitted after a moment.
“So you want to wait for Zeke, right?” Griffin asked, hopefully.
“I already know what Zeke will say about this.” Fletcher sighed. “He’ll tell me I was an idiot that night in Texas and that I’m being an even bigger idiot now.”
“Are you?”
Fletcher frowned. “It’s Jordan.”
“Thought she was your best friend. Haven’t you known her forever?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
Griffin opened the otter enclosure door and stepped through. He held it open for Fletcher as if expecting him to follow.
“I can come in?”
Griffin was very protective of his otters and who got to interact with them. Actually, he was very protective of all of the animals. But there was something special about the otters.
“You’re not done talking, are you?” Griffin asked.
“You want to keep listening?”
“My feelings about listening have never stopped anyone named Landry before.”
Fletcher had to grin. Griffin wasn’t a warm, fuzzy, spill-your-guts kind of guy but he’d definitely opened up since Charlie had shown up. Honestly, once Charlie had decided she was interested in Griffin, the guy hadn’t stood a chance.
“I swear I just came by to talk to you and Zeke about the red pandas and to ask Zeke what he meant by his text earlier,” Fletcher said.
Zeke had texted simply ZEBRAS! with a hammer and a saw emoji.
Were they building a zebra? A wooden cut out of a zebra would look cute at the petting zoo. Or were they building a pen for zebras? But Griffin had told Fletcher zebras could be real assholes if they got spooked or defensive. So, it probably wasn’t a pen.
The most important word there being probably.
But then Griffin had made the mistake of asking Fletcher how married life was treating him.
Griffin himself admitted it had been a mistake to ask. And very unlike him.
“So what the hell happened in Galveston?” Griffin asked, as he was swarmed by otters. “Was it that big of a deal?”
He had to raise his voice to be heard over their squeals and chatter. There were only seven otters, but they made it sound like the place was being overrun whenever Griffin showed up. They loved Griffin.
Fletcher was careful where he stepped as he followed Griffin deeper into the enclosure. He watched Griffin tossing fish to the otters for a few minutes. Griffin would occasionally toss one of the fish into the man-made river that flowed through the enclosure for the juvenile otters to dive after. Their parents, Gus and Gertie, were doing a great job raising and training the pups, but not living in the wild meant that they needed as many simulated activities as possible.
“Yeah, Galveston was a big deal,” Fletcher said. “We were there for this science teachers’ conference. I didn’t want Jordan going alone so I agreed to go along.”
Griffin moved to sit on one of the boulders, allowing the otters to climb up into his lap.
Fletcher took the boulder next to his and Snickers and Hershey quickly scooted up his legs and into his lap.
Griffin chuckled and handed over a few treats. The otters knew where to look and the two in his lap had been pawing at his shirt pocket.
Fletcher held a treat out to each of the ones sitting with him. “We were supposed to drive back home that night, but a tropical storm rolled in. It was too risky to be on the open road for five hours, so we found a hotel. But there was only one room. And one bed.”
“Ah,” Griffin said.
Fletcher sighed. It was very cliché, yes. “We were starving so we found a Mexican restaurant within walking distance. We ate, had a few margaritas, and then started back. By the time we got back to the room, we were soaked. We walked into the room and just as we shut the door, the power went out. Jordan grabbed me and…” He shook his head. “I don’t know. It was a combination of tequila and the idea that we were stuck, just the two of us, far from home in a bad storm, and it was like everything just snapped. I backed her up against the door and kissed her.”
Griffin pivoted on the rock to face Fletcher. “That was the first time you’d ever kissed?”
“One game of Truth or Dare and a couple of New Year’s Eve kisses, but nothing even close to that.” Fletcher blew out a breath. “It was like in a blink everything changed. I still can’t totally explain it.”
Even now, three years later, thinking back, he was stunned by how quickly it had happened. She had gone from being his best friend to the woman he wanted to strip naked and fuck against the hotel room door in about three seconds.
“But then you didn’t sleep together?”
“No. We made out for a little while, but she finally pushed me back and said she couldn’t do it because of Jason. We spent the night in that bed together not even touching. But…I’ve wanted her ever since.”
Fletcher couldn’t believe he’d said even this much to Griffin, a guy who didn’t know him well. Should he talk to one of his brothers instead? Or cousins? A bunch of them were in serious relationships now. Or his grandmother? Ellie always had great advice. Or maybe he didn’t admit this at all. Maybe he’d figure it out on his own, eventually.
But spilling his guts to a guy like Griffin, who not only had not known him since he was born, but who was the opposite of a gossip, sounded like a great idea. He needed to get it out, talk it through it seemed, but doing it with a guy who wasn’t much of a conversationalist unless you were an otter was perfect.
“I basically gave her a choice between me and Jason that night,” Fletcher went on. “And then, I did it again four months ago at the weddings.” He blew out a breath. “She said no both times.”
Griffin tossed another fish into the river. “And now you married her in a whirlwind, crazy trip to Vegas after she’d been embarrassed on national television and wasn’t sure what to do next.”
Fletcher looked over at Griffin. The guy wasn’t so bad at this heart-to-heart thing after all it seemed. “Right. So is it really that strange that I’m thinking we need to slow the hell down? Catch our breaths? Be sure this was all really what we want?”
“You’re not sure it’s what you want?”
Okay, he knew. “Fine. What she wants.”
Griffin was quiet for a minute, feeding and petting otters. Fletcher had to admit that having the little animals crawling on him and running his hand over their soft fur was actually quite soothing.
“You really willing to let her go if she decides it’s not what she wants?” Griffin finally asked.
Fletcher felt his heart squeeze hard and it took him a second to answer. He shook his head. “Not without trying everything to make it what she wants first. I’ll do my damnedest to make it perfect for her.”