“We are not having five.”
“Okay, I guess, like the fried chicken, I could probably recruit some other women to pitch in.”
“You’re not as funny and charming as you think you are.”
He laughed. “Then it’s a good thing I have a washer and dryer.”
Her eyes were watery, but she nodded. “I’m going to spend one more day here with my family and friends and then I’ll be home.”
There was a beat of silence on the phone. Then he said, “You called Autre home.”
She sniffed. “I know. And I meant it.”
“Good. Now tell me that you love me.” His voice was rough.
“I love you, Zeke. Very, very much.”
“I love you too.”
“I’m so glad.” She smiled.
“And so, all of that considered, I feel like now is probably the best time to tell you that…we lost Ferdinand.”
Jill froze. “You…what?”
“We lost Ferdinand. He wandered off. Went exploring. Just like the real Ferdinand, right?”
He gave a little chuckle but Jill knew that even he didn’t believe she was going to let him off the hook that easily.
19
“What do you mean by lost?”
“I mean, while I was chewing that guy’s ass, Ferdinand wandered off. Apparently, I was making a bit of a scene. And so everyone else was paying more attention to me and making sure I didn’t punch the guy and didn’t notice the penguin waddling off.”
Jill wasn’t sure what exactly she was feeling. She was aware that she should be feeling panic. But strangely, she wasn’t.
“Obviously, you’re all going to go look for him.”
“They already are. And I’ll join them in a minute. But I wanted to tell you about it as soon as possible.”
“And when I was in another state and couldn’t kill you?”
“That too.”
“Okay. Well…keep me informed.”
Jill realized that she was possibly just in shock.
But she didn’t feel in shock. She supposed that somewhere in the back of her mind she’d realized that losing a penguin was a risk. But sitting right beside that thought was the realization that the people there in Autre were probably more panicked than she was. And that they would do everything they could to find Ferdinand and make sure he was safe.
“No tips on where to look?” Zeke asked.
Jill laughed at that. “You know the area far better than I do.”
“But you know penguins.”
“I know penguins in captivity and what they’re like on the Galápagos Islands. I would say it’s unusual for anyone to really know about penguins on the Louisiana bayou.”
Zeke blew out a breath. “Fair enough. So you’re not breaking up with me?”
“Would that do me any good?”
“Are you asking if I would just leave you alone and be fine with the mother of my child never speaking to me again? The answer to that would be no.”
“I figured. So it’s probably better that I just forgive you for this, since I know you didn’t mean for it to happen, and give you a chance to fix it.”
“That’s very reasonable.”
“Thank you. Hey, Zeke?”
“Yeah?”
“Go find our penguin.”
She knew he noticed the “our”.
“Yes, ma’am.” His voice was a little huskier. “And, maybe hurry home?”
“I’ll be there soon.”
They disconnected and Jill sat back in her chair with a sigh.
“You’re a lot calmer than I would’ve expected.” Her mother eyed her curiously.
“I figure there’s not much I can really do. The best people are down there. They know how to get around the bayou, and when they find him, if he’s hurt, Donovan and Griffin are there.” She lifted a shoulder. “Ferdinand is in good hands. I don’t need to be there.” She thought about that with a little frown. “You know, that’s kind of a nice feeling.” It felt strange, but good, to be able to turn it over to other people and trust that it was going to be okay.
“Still,” Holly said. “When you needed your appendix out, I couldn’t perform the surgery, but I still wanted to be there in the waiting room. And I definitely wanted to be there when you opened your eyes.”
Jill looked at her, studying her mother’s face. Her mom had been a good mom. She may have given Jill some strange ideas about motherhood, but it wasn’t entirely her mom’s fault. Jill had taken from it what she wanted.
Jill had very much enjoyed being able to focus just on being a penguin expert. It had definitely been easier. A lot like doing her laundry all in one load and cereal for dinner. It was possible that she had just not let herself think about doing anything else because the way she was doing things was easy.
“I love that you’re here and I love the good news you shared,” Holly said. “But I know you want to be there when they find Ferdinand.”
“I’m sure I won’t be able to get a flight right away, anyway,” Jill said. “I’ll call and see when I can move my flight to, but it’s not a rush.”
But she did feel her heart pounding. She needed Ferdinand to be okay.
“Why don’t you just use our plane?” The question came from Ava Carmichael.
Jill looked over. It seemed that the rest of the pie shop had been listening in.
“Your plane?”
“Yeah, we have a private plane. We’re happy to fly you back to Louisiana.”
“You have a private plane?” Jill asked. Her eyes flickered to Evan, who had come back in at some point.
He chuckled. “Don’t let the blue jeans fool you. They’re still billionaires.”
Two hours later Jill landed on the small landing strip outside of Autre. Apparently, Bennett Baxter, Kennedy Landry-Baxter’s husband, also had a private plane and he landed it here often.
She called Zeke via video. He answered after only two rings.
“Hey, Kansas.”
“Hey, I just landed, can you come get me?”
“I’m so glad you’re back.”
She took her suitcase from the pilot and thanked him. Then she said to Zeke, “Yeah, come get me.”
“That’s going to be just a bit of a problem.”
Jill stopped walking. Then sighed. “Why, what’s going on?”
“I’m just a little…tied up. I’ll send Michael.”
“Have you found Ferdinand?”
“We did actually.”
Relief flooded through her.
“Is he okay?”
“We think so. A bit freaked out, but not hurt.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Zeke, let me see Ferdinand.”
Zeke grimaced. Then he switched his camera and she saw Ferdinand on the screen. In a net. And he was hanging in midair.
“Zeke, why is my penguin hanging in a net, from a tree?”
“It was Donovan’s idea to keep him up away from the alligators.”
Jill felt her heart thunk hard against her ribs. “Alligators?”