He bent at the waist. “Thank you very much. And I do actually. If you want some real home cookin’ and are willing to give me about an hour, I could get Amber over here with some fried chicken.”
“Amber will cook fried chicken for the woman that you’re now sleeping with?”
“I wouldn’t tell her that before she brought chicken over.”
Jill laughed and shook her head. “We’re not making Amber make us fried chicken.” She paused for a moment, though, and then said, “At least not today.”
She loved fried chicken. Her grandmother’s was the best she’d ever had, but she would bet some of the ladies down here in Louisiana could make some pretty amazing fried chicken.
“Jordan is my brother Fletcher’s wife. She grew up down here and she is a hell of a cook. I don’t know what she’s got, but I’m guessing there’s some pretty good leftovers in their fridge. I’ll be right back.”
Jill watched him go.
So he was able to pop into one house to get shoes for her, and now go to another to get food.
And for some reason, she had the impression that Jordan and Fletcher wouldn’t mind having their refrigerator raided. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise her to find out that Jordan made extra just so there were leftovers for Zeke to pilfer.
Autre was a very interesting place. It made her miss home a little bit, actually.
There were plenty of places she could show up to borrow shoes or food. Of course, all of those places would come with a million questions and definitely some judgment about why she needed to borrow shoes and why she didn’t have her own food.
Around here, that didn’t seem to be the case. Either they were just used to Zeke being the way he was, or they really didn’t mind. Or Zeke didn’t care if they were judging him.
Yeah, that was at least partly true. But she liked that about him. He was a good guy. He was clearly great at his job, judging by the penguin habitat—which was probably not something most contractors around here had on their resumes—and her bedroom and bathroom just next door.
He’d also been very sweet when she’d told him about her passion for the penguins. And he had a sweet reason for being a builder as well. He wasn’t just doing it because he didn’t know anything else to do, or because he loved building, or because he was trying to make money. He actually had some heart behind it. She liked that.
He was back five minutes later with plastic containers. She had to get up and open the door for him so that he wouldn’t drop any of them on his way in.
As her clothes finished washing and then tumbled in the dryer, they ate pulled pork, potato salad, green beans, and shared a pint of Coffee Toffee Caramel ice cream.
“Jordan is going to kill you for stealing the ice cream though, right?” Jill asked, dipping her spoon in to the carton for the last bite and licking it clean.
“Yeah, I’m definitely going to have to replace this.”
“You’re willing to risk her wrath to feed me?”
“Jordan doesn’t really do wrath. But yeah.”
“I can’t believe that you haven’t mentioned that you haven’t seen me up at your grandma’s restaurant.”
“I’m being good.” He paused. “But you know you can go in there anytime, right? They can make anything you want.”
“I know. And I explained to you that I’m not big on taking time to eat.”
He nodded. And she believed that he understood. He’d actually been leaving her alone for several days and she’d been surprised by it. If she were honest, maybe also slightly disappointed.
And if she was even more honest, she truly had started to wonder if he’d lost interest. It had been a relief at the same time. For one, it always made her feel a little crappy to tell people that she didn’t have time to do other things. For another, she wasn’t actually sure how long she could resist Zeke Landry if he tried to get her attention and take up some of her time.
“The next time you get hungry and you want someone else to cook for you, you call up there and you tell them that Zeke said Leo would deliver anything you wanted.”
Then he frowned. “No, don’t ask for Leo. He will talk your ear off. And he will crow to everybody else if he gets a glimpse of those penguins. Ask for…Mitch. Mitch or Paige. I mean they’ll definitely want to see the penguins too, but they can keep it on the down low, and they’d be happy to bring anything over you need.”
“I get the impression everybody’s pretty friendly. Wouldn’t any of them be willing to bring something over? Especially if they got to see the penguins?”
“Absolutely. But the rest of them would hang out and drive you crazy. And a couple of them would have a hard time showing up alone. They’d bring somebody with them. Mitch and Paige are pretty unassuming. You’d be able to get by with just one of them showing up and not overstaying their welcome.”
Jill smiled. “Okay. Thanks for the intel.”
They both sat quietly for a moment, then she asked. “What if I asked you to bring me food? Would you overstay your welcome?”
He looked at her for a long moment, his expression a mix of heat and amusement, and if she weren’t mistaken affection. But that was weird.
“I would stay as long as you possibly would put up with me, ask a million more questions about the penguins, kiss you, and probably try to get you naked.”
Her eyes widened. “Again, thank you for the intel.”
He chuckled. Just as the dryer buzzed in the other room.
14
She’d been in Autre for six weeks.
And she’d only done her own laundry twice.
And she hadn’t been to the grocery store even once.
Yet, she hadn’t run out of yogurt, milk, cereal, or peanut butter.
Not only had Zeke thrown her laundry in with his—and she didn’t know or really care if he’d done it or if his mother had because Jill really did like the ocean breezes dryer sheets—and kept her favorite items stocked in his house, but she had food from Ellie’s for dinner every night. Which cut down on the amount of cereal and bread she went through. It also had given her an addiction to remoulade sauce she hadn’t expected. And five new pounds.
Each evening the food was either on her desk at the penguin habitat…or on Zeke’s kitchen table when she went over to say hi.
And kiss him.
And get him naked.
And curl up next to him for the rest of the night.
Yeah, yeah, she saw Zeke a lot more often than she’d ever seen Dan.
But Zeke was less busy than Dan had been.
Turned out, so was she.
She was still obsessed with the penguins, of course. But after making sure they were clean and fed and not pregnant, it turned out she had some free hours in her day. So, when Griffin had asked if she’d help out with a few of the other animals, she’d said sure.
Working with lemurs was cool. She also really liked the porcupines and the red pandas.
But she was annoyed with the cats. All three of them that hung out in the barn. And one of the alpacas. And Gertie the otter.
Because they were all pregnant.
The alpaca wasn’t even supposed to be pregnant this time of year.
Jill blew out a breath.