Fiona frowned. Then nodded. “Yeah. We.”
“Your park is in Florida.”
“My other park is in Florida.”
He looked at her for a long moment. “I see.”
Fiona lifted her chin. “Good.”
Jill looked back and forth between them. Wow. She wasn’t so sure they needed a match or gasoline. There were sparks all over. Even while they were talking about traffic and composting.
“If you’re not annoyed by the new animals and you’re not here about paperwork, why are you here?” Fiona asked.
“Tell me about the new animals.”
“What about them?”
“Why are they here?”
“Why not?”
“Fi,” Knox said.
Fiona’s eyes widened at the use of the short form of her name. “What?” Her voice was softer.
“Tell me about the animals and why you brought them here.”
“Fine. We…rescued them.”
“You and Colin?”
“Yeah.”
“Who’s Colin?” Jill asked.
“Her boyfriend.”
“My friend.”
They spoke at the same time. And Jill noted that their description of Colin was different. In an important way.
“And business partner,” Fiona added.
Knox didn’t say anything to that. But he was watching Fiona intently.
“Anyway, yes, Colin and I rescued them. We got a call about a farm where the animals were being neglected and abused. The cops went in, but they took us along to actually take care of the animals.”
“You do that a lot,” Knox said. It wasn’t a question.
But Fiona narrowed her eyes. “You looked into me.”
“Of course, I did. Long before there were camels here.”
She pulled in a breath, but finally said, “Yeah. We do it a lot.”
“You don’t run an animal park. You run an animal sanctuary.”
“It’s both. We have a few cool animals that people come to see and learn about. Like our giraffes. Those ticket sales help us support the ones that need a sanctuary instead.”
“And you brought these animals here instead of keeping them yourself?”
“We can’t keep them all. Unfortunately, there is always a need to recruit new places that will take in rescued animals. And we actually rescued these here in Louisiana.” Fiona put her hands on her hips. “Some of the people I work with in Florida let some people in Louisiana know that I had a connection to a place that could be a new sanctuary.”
“Fortunate that they’d already built a barn and big pen for the zebra Zeke wants so much.”
Fiona smiled. “It was really serendipitous that he’d already built the pen and barn, wasn’t it?”
Knox studied her. Finally he asked, “Do the Landrys know you’re turning their animal park into a sanctuary?”
She smiled. “Yeah. I mean, I did also bring them flamingos and they’re just for fun. But”—her voice softened—“these people were on the path already. I just nudged them a little.”
“Why them?”
“They’ve got the space and the resources. And the hearts.”
Knox nodded. “I agree.”
“You just think it’s good because the sanctuary animals won’t be on display so they won’t cause increased traffic and trash.”
He didn’t deny it. Instead, he pulled the driver’s side of her truck open. “Can we….talk?”
Jill and Fiona both arched brows.
“Talk?” Fiona repeated.
“Yeah. I’d like to talk.”
“About?”
“About the animals you’ve rescued.”
“The donkeys and camels?”
He gestured toward her truck. “All of ’em.”
“All of them? All the animals we’ve rescued? It’s been a lot.”
“Good thing you like to talk.”
“I like to do a lot of things. Especially with big, hot, growly men.”
“Is eating ice cream one of those things?”
She paused, clearly surprised. Then grinned. “It is.”
“Then get in the truck.”
Fiona looked at Jill. “I guess I’m going out for ice cream.”
Yeah, Jill wasn’t so sure that was what she was going out for.
She watched Knox help Fiona up behind the wheel, then round the huge purple vehicle and climb up on the passenger side.
As they drove off, she thought back to eating ice cream with Zeke.
And she suddenly wanted more.
And she wanted more of whatever was going on between Knox and Fiona too.
Jill knocked on Zeke’s door two hours later.
“You really have to stop knocking, cher,” he told her when he answered.
“I have something to ask you,” Jill told him.
Zeke had something to ask her too. Actually, a number of somethings. Did she want to spend the night with him, how was she feeling, was she allergic to anything besides strawberries, was the strawberry allergy genetic and would their baby have it, did she like the name Magnolia, had she really liked the crawfish or had she just been faking it for Ellie’s sake, and about a million other things.
Instead, he tucked his hands into his back pockets and just waited.
“I’m going back to Kansas. I’m leaving tomorrow. I want to tell my friends and family about the baby.”
He looked at her with surprise. “That’s great.”
It really was. If she was going to tell the people in her life about the baby, then she must’ve fully come to terms with moving forward. Maybe she was going to ask him to go with her. He mentally went over his projects for the next few days and decided that he could definitely rearrange and go along.
“So I wanted to ask if you would take care of the penguins for me.”
Okay, he definitely had not been expecting that.
“Really? Are you sure? Why not Griffin or Tori or Donovan?”
“I will definitely let them all know and maybe have them check in, but the penguins really just need someone to show up and feed them and talk to them and hang out. Donovan will definitely be spending time up there. But they all have other stuff going on. Not that you don’t,” she said quickly. “I know you do. And this is kind of a lot. You don’t have to spend all day there, like I do.”
“It’s not too much to ask. This is what we do. We help each other out.”
“It would mean a lot to me. I guess…” She took a deep breath. “I know that everyone else understands that the penguins are important and I know they would take good care of them, but there’s something about you that’s different. I feel like you…”
He stepped forward. “I’ll take better care of them because I’ll be doing it for you. Not just because I like you and respect you and admire what you’re doing and want to support you like they all would, but because I’m in love with you.”
Her eyes went wide and she sucked in a little breath.
He lifted a hand and cupped her cheek. “Are you really shocked?”
She wet her lips, but didn’t say anything.
“It’s why you asked me. Maybe you hadn’t put it in those words in your head, but you understand that I feel differently about you than they all do. We’re not just neighbors and we’re not just friends with benefits, and we’re not just two people who accidentally got pregnant together. I will take better care of these penguins than anyone else but you. Because for me it’s about more than the penguins. It’s about you.”