She made everything in his life better, and now he was lucky enough that she was going to live with him as his wife for the rest of his life.
Assuming that he quit acting like a jackass and figured out how to work through these rough patches when he felt like a failure.
Something bumped against his shoulder and he looked over to find Chewie looking at him.
“Hey, man,” Fletcher greeted.
He didn’t interact with the little alpaca much one on one. He didn’t think he’d ever hand fed or given treats to the little guy. So Chewie was not over here because he thought Fletcher had something for him.
He was probably over here because he thought Fletcher looked sad.
That was Chewie’s thing—to cheer up sad humans.
With a sigh, Fletcher reached his hand out and rubbed the alpaca’s snout. His brown curly coat was soft and his nose was velvety. The alpaca nuzzled him back, and Fletcher actually felt some tension leave his shoulders.
Amazing.
“So what do I do?” he asked the animal. Maybe it wasn’t completely crazy to be asking. Griffin talked to the otters all the time, as everyone knew.
Chewie pressed against his hand again and Fletcher rubbed his nose a little harder.
“Yeah, I just have to raise some money, how hard can that be?” Fletcher gave a short laugh. “Right, there’s gotta be someone with a hundred thousand dollars just stuffed in their sock drawer.”
But as he continued to pet the alpaca who seemed content to just stand by the fence with him, Fletcher’s wheels began to turn.
He could fix this. They just needed funding. They had everything else. The knowledge, the heart, the passion were here.
Now all they needed was dollars. And it wasn’t a million dollars or anything. It was a hundred grand. They could come up with that.
He didn’t have the money, but he had an idea.
And a phone number.
Jordan stood staring at the door of Ellie’s bar.
Fletcher had just walked out.
She knew he was feeling like he’d failed her and Sophia and everyone else and the one thing Fletcher didn’t handle well was not being able to fix everything for everyone he loved.
She started in the direction of the door, but she only got two steps before she felt a big arm band around her waist and lift her off the floor.
“Oh no you don’t.” Zeke turned and set her down, standing between her and the door. “You’re not going after him.”
“I need to talk to him.”
“No, you don’t. He needs a chance to think.”
She looked past her brother-in-law to the door, then sighed. “I don’t know what else to say anyway.”
“There’s nothing to say. He’s pissed because he’s passionate about this and his first try to fix it didn’t work. He not only likes to be the go-to guy, he likes it to be easy. But this is good for him. If you’d told him you were still having trouble in geometry, he would have kept working with you until you had it, you know.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Fucking geometry.”
Zeke laughed. “But it’s true. And very symbolic. You needed help, he jumped in to save the day, he did—partially—but you let him think he’d solved it all and he sat back and didn’t have to work at it anymore. Don’t do that this time. Let him deal with having to try again. Give him a chance to think about this and figure out another plan.”
Jordan was staring at him.
“What?” Zeke asked.
“That was very…insightful.”
“And almost…wise,” Zander added.
“I can be insightful and wise,” Zeke said, seeming offended.
“Since when?” Owen asked. “Last week you jumped off the roof of a house.”
“It was on fire.”
Michael, the firefighter and paramedic in the group, sat forward. “What?”
Zeke held up a hand. “I jumped down to get the fire extinguisher. It wasn’t on fire. A rag on the roof caught on fire from… never mind. Not important. I jumped on the scaffolding, not all the way to the ground anyway.” He frowned at Owen. “You make me sound like a dumbass.”
“I make you sound like a dumbass?” Owen asked.
“Anyway, as much as it pains me to say this,” Zander said. “Zeke’s right. Fletcher needs a chance to fix this. Not because he always gets everything right, but because he doesn’t and he needs to realize that’s okay and taking another run at it is fine. Maybe three or four runs. Nothing wrong with tryin’ again.”
Owen and Michael exchanged looks.
“What the hell is your grandma puttin’ in the beer now?” Michael asked. “You’re all actually getting smarter.”
Zeke looked smug. “And we’ve all gotta be gone when Fletcher comes back in here for help. He’s gotta do this on his own. Zander and me have been fixin’ shit for him for too long and making him look like a big deal.”
Jordan sighed. “It was like three chapters in geometry and two things on the driving test.” She was never going to live any of that down.
“Still, we’re headin’ to Bad. Who’s comin’?” Zeke asked.
“What’s Bad?” Donovan asked, already getting out of his chair.
Donovan Foster had arrived in town yesterday. This time it was more than a visit to his brother. He was here to help Griffin with a black bear that had been wounded by a trap. Bailey and her partner had brought the tranquilized animal in to Griffin for surgery. He’d immediately called Donovan to come and help with the rehab.
According to the rest of the guys, unlike his brother, Donovan was up for anything, any time.
“Town up the bayou,” Zeke said. “It’s probably the one place Fletcher won’t look for us. Or Jordan. He’d find us down by the water and he’d definitely think to check Trahan’s.”
Trahan’s was their favorite bar in New Orleans. It was owned by two of Owen and Josh’s best friends. It sat on a busy corner in the French Quarter and everyone from Autre made regular trips up there. But that was kind of far to go tonight just to avoid her husband while he worked things through.
That wouldn’t take long.
Would it?
Ten minutes later, Jordan was sitting next to Zeke in the front seat of his truck with Naomi and Charlie and Donovan in the backseat. Griffin was planning to join them when he was finished at the otter enclosure a little later.
They walked through the doors of Bad Brews, the bar and restaurant in Bad, Louisiana, twenty minutes later.
“Zeke Landry, what the hell are you doing here?”
Marc, one of the owners of the bar, greeted Zeke.
“Decided to do some charity work and give money to the poor town up the road from us.”
Marc flipped him off, but then laughed. “You want to sit at the bar or you want a table?”
Zeke looked at Jordan. “Need to get this girl drunk fast.” He pointed at Naomi. “And need to keep that girl off the karaoke stage.”
Marc laughed. “Hey, Jordan, hey, Naomi.”
“Hi, Marc,” Jordan greeted. “I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“Well, you’ve been a little busy. From what I hear,” Marc told her. “But no worries about karaoke tonight. Sabrina’s on stage.”