“And that should be pretty easy, right? You know her better than anyone.”
Fletcher nodded. It sure sounded easy. “I’ve never not gotten things right. But fuck, now it’s a full-time gig. That’s just…” He sighed. “A lot.”
Griffin laughed, startling one of the otters who scampered off his lap and dove into the river. “Well, yeah. But at least this time she did pick you. And you don’t have to worry about her pushing you away while you’re making out.”
Right. She definitely hadn’t pushed him away this morning...
“Zebras!”
Griffin and Fletcher both looked up as Zeke joined them in the otter enclosure.
“We’re not getting zebras,” Griffin said.
“Have you talked to your girlfriend lately?” Zeke asked.
Zeke scooped one of the otters from the ground and cuddled her against his chest as he took a seat on the log that sat along the riverbank. He stroked the otter’s fur and she chittered to him happily. “Yes, Baby Ruth, you know you’re my favorite.”
Fletcher was relieved to see Zeke. He’d been in his head about Jordan all day. Distraction was exactly what he needed and Zeke had perfected the art of distracting people from anything but him. He was a very typical youngest child, even if he was youngest by only two minutes.
“Charlie told you we’re getting zebras?” Griffin’s tone was more one of resignation than surprise.
Zeke grinned. “Fiona’s in town. We’ve got peacocks and a porcupine now. And I think we’re getting a couple of red pandas before zebras. But she said we should start working on the pen and barn.”
Griffin sighed. “Zebras don’t really do that much. They’re kinda like horses.”
“But they look cool as fuck,” Zeke said. He looked at Fletcher. “Can you believe we’re going to be living on a wildlife refuge?”
It was true that the guys’ houses sat on the edge of the land where the new lemur and sloth enclosures had been built and where Fletcher assumed Charlie intended to expand the animal park. But he didn’t think any of them had really thought a lot about what that might mean.
“Is it a refuge if the animals aren’t endangered?” he asked
“Lemurs are endangered, right?” Zeke looked at Griffin. “What are some other endangered animals we could get?”
“That’s not really how it works,” Griffin said.
Zeke shrugged. “I’m just saying, we have all this land and these animal-crazy women. If anyone were going to run an endangered wildlife refuge it would totally be Fiona and Charlie.” He grinned. “Women who are crazy about animals are pretty hot.”
Fletcher lifted a brow at his brother. “You’re going to ask Fiona out? I thought she had a boyfriend.”
“She does have a boyfriend. For now. But I don’t think she’s interested in me anyway.”
“A woman who is not interested in you?” Fletcher said dryly. “I didn’t know those existed.”
Zeke nodded, pretending to be sad. “Every once in a while. But I think Fiona is into Knox.”
“I think they just annoy each other,” Griffin said. “Fiona likes to push buttons.”
Fiona and Griffin had spent time together in Zambia working on an actual wildlife refuge before Griffin had needed to come back to the States when his parents died. Fiona had, apparently, come back about a year later.
“Naw, it’s more than that,” Zeke said. “Knox is easily annoyed. By almost everyone and everything. But he doesn’t really let people know. He just deals with it. But with Fiona, he can’t let it go. He saw her purple truck and purposely went into Ellie’s. I mean, if he wanted to avoid her, it would be really easy. It’s not like the girl sneaks around.”
That was true. Fiona Grady was someone who got noticed wherever she went and seemed to really like that.
“Well, Charlie’s taken,” Griffin said. “Guess you have to find your own animal fanatic.”
Zeke nodded. “Hanging out around this place can’t hurt.” He slid a glance to Fletcher. “I guess Jordan’s pretty into everything. They said she was the one who made the final decision to go with red pandas as our next acquisition.”
Fletcher had been hearing Jordan’s name for twenty years. On a very regular basis. And yet, his heart thumped hard when Zeke said her name this time. Why was that? It was weird.
Maybe it was because of the way Zeke made it seem that Jordan’s involvement with the animal park had something to do with Fletcher. Which it did, he supposed. Jordan was his wife. The animal park was going to be her new job. Not only was she going to be working with his family, but she was going to be teaching again.
It wasn’t a traditional classroom, that was for sure. He could admit that he had envisioned getting her a substitute teaching job at the school and thinking that she might look at area schools in the spring to see if there would be any open positions. But ever since Charlie had arrived at his doorstep that morning telling him that she and Jordan had talked about the animal park and Jordan taking over as educational director, it seemed a great fit.
Jordan was a science teacher. Animals, plants, their habitats, the food chain, the circle of life—that was all her thing. And she was creative and passionate about teaching. It would be great, not just for her but for the animal park.
And yes, if Jordan was excited about something, so was he.
But that part wasn’t new. That had always happened. It was how he’d learned to make macaroons of all things. It was how he knew that Joseph Lister was the scientist who was known for coming up with the idea of antiseptic treatments and that John Bardeen discovered superconductivity which led to the invention of the MRI and CT machines. It was why he’d read Little Women and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Jordan Benoit—dammit, Landry—could get him interested in nearly anything.
Especially her.
“Fletcher?”
He looked over at Zeke. His brother’s tone indicated that he’d said Fletcher’s name more than once. “Yeah?”
“So you’re in to help build something for the red pandas?”
Fletcher shook his head. “Sure. On weekends.”
“Yeah, Mitch and I will get the design sketched out and the supplies and we’ll get started as soon as we can, but if we could get some extra hands on the weekends that would be great.”
“Count me in.”
“Even with the new wife at home?” Zeke asked. “Figured you’d be a little busier than usual now.”
Fletcher glanced at Griffin, but Griffin didn’t say a word. And somehow Fletcher knew that he wouldn’t. He’d confessed a lot to the other man and he appreciated knowing that Griffin would keep his confidence.
“It’s Jordan,” Fletcher said. “Hell, she’ll probably be down here with a toolbelt and hardhat with us.”
“True.”
Griffin stretched to his feet. “Okay, I gotta get going.”
Zeke set Baby Ruth down and got up as well. “Yeah, me too. I’m going to Ellie’s for some dinner and then I need to go over and talk to a guy in Bad about redoing a big kitchen. You know that old strip club over there? The guy’s grandson is remodeling it. Making it a community center.”