“Yeah, they had him cornered.”
“They? How many?”
“Just three.”
Jill gasped. “Three? There were three alligators stalking my penguin?”
“Honestly, that’s good. There could’ve been a lot more.”
“But he’s safe?”
“I mean, we still need to get him down now.”
Jill realized there was something strange about the perspective of what Zeke was showing her.
If Ferdinand was in a tree, why was Zeke seemingly on the same level rather than looking up…
“Zeke, are you up in the tree too?”
“Well, someone had to come up here to get him down.”
Of course he’d been the one to climb up.
“And why haven’t you gotten him down?”
“I’m waiting for Donovan to get a handle on the second alligator. He got away from him. So now he’s loose and stalking both of us. And he’s pissed.”
Jill closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “So my penguin and my fiancé are both hanging from a tree being stalked by an alligator? Is that right?”
“Yeah, but…wait, did you just call me your fiancé?”
She nodded. “It makes the most sense, doesn’t it? Of course, I’m starting to think that with you and this family, making sense is not the primary criteria for anything.”
Zeke gave her a big grin in spite of hanging from a tree with alligators underneath him. “Yes, I will marry you, Jill.”
“Then how about you get down from that tree safely with my penguin so that we can celebrate that.”
“As soon as they get this alligator under control.”
“How long will that take?”
“Naomi is live streaming it so Donovan’s taking his sweet time and making it dramatic.”
“Are you telling me that Donovan is showboating for the camera while my penguin is hanging from a tree?”
Zeke turned the phone so she could see Donovan.
Her eyes widened. Donovan was not showing off. He was trying to get behind a very large alligator while the thing hissed and thrashed. His head was in the loop of cable at the end of the long pole Zander was holding.
“Uh, Zeke. Is that my alligator pole?”
“Do not try this at home,” he told her firmly.
Hell. No.
Suddenly Donovan lunged forward onto the alligator’s back, immediately leaning onto the top of the gator’s snout to keep its mouth shut.
Jill shrieked.
“A gator’s chomping power is immense but a man can overcome their strength to open,” Zeke said quickly. “Now that he’s holding the thing’s mouth shut, we’re good.”
“Holy crap,” Jill muttered. She was riveted to the scene.
Donovan wrapped the gator’s mouth so it couldn’t open, then he and Zander carried the thing to Zander’s truck.
“He’s going to relocate it down the way,” Zeke said. “That will give us time to get down.”
“I can’t believe I missed seeing all of that in person by just minutes!” Jill exclaimed.
Zeke grinned into his camera. “You know you’re getting touched by the crazy, right?”
“It was kind of inevitable, wasn’t it?”
“Indeed it was.”
An hour later the alligators had been moved to another location and released, Zeke and Ferdinand were both down from the tree, and they had an amazing video for the Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild website.
Charlie was ecstatic. The more of this kind of stuff to go along with the Gone Wild name, that had initially been tongue-in-cheek, the more visitors they were going to have, tickets they were going to sell, and donations they were going to get.
Ferdinand was a little ruffled, a pun Donovan made at least three times, but only had a couple of scrapes for Jill to treat. He was back in the enclosure with the rest of the penguins and Zeke and Jill headed home to…do laundry.
They did actually throw Zeke’s dirty clothes into the washing machine, but they also made very good use of the top of the machine and the spin cycle.
Afterward they sat at his kitchen table with grilled cheese sandwiches. They were slightly overdone but definitely short of being burnt.
Zeke watched her as Jill took the first few bites. Then he said, “You’re not sending those male penguins away.”
Jill paused with her sandwich in front of her mouth. She frowned. “What?”
“After I kicked that guy out of the park and hung up with you, Donovan told me that you were thinking about sending the male penguins away so they could find mates somewhere else. You’re not doing that. And you’re not pulling out of the program.”
Jill swallowed and set her sandwich down. “I’m not?”
“No. Dammit. You are not giving up on those birds because of the baby. You can have it all, cher.” He reached out and covered her hand. “I’ll make sure you do.”
God, she really did love him. “I am pulling out of the program, Zeke.”
“Jill—”
“And I’m starting my own program.”
He paused. “What?”
“I’m keeping the penguins. And I’m getting some more. I just want the penguins to be…whatever they’re going to be. If they want to mate, great. If they don’t, great. If we have baby penguins, great. If we don’t, great. I just want them to be safe and healthy and a part of Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild. I don’t need a big, private, national program. I just need you all. And so do they.”
He was staring at her. But his love for her was so obvious Jill felt like it was wrapping around her. Like a hug.
“There is another member of the private program who is feeling in over his head. He called while I was at the airport on my way home and asked if I would take his penguins. He’s got ten. And I said yes. He’s going to give me money to keep his penguins and I think I can make a very convincing pitch to A.J.’s attorney about letting me keep the money to support ours.” She squeezed his hand. “I do have the best penguin habitat of any of them after all.”
“That’s…”
“Perfect,” she filled in. “It’ll be perfect. However it all ends up.”
“Yeah.” His voice was gruff. “And there’s a chance Columbus and Magellan will find mates then, right?”
“There’s a chance. And if not, then—” She shrugged. “We’ll still have lots of penguins for everyone to look at.”
“You’re going to let everyone see the penguins now?”
“Yep. Everyone. The town. The tourists. If nothing else, we can let our penguins be educators and ambassadors for endangered species everywhere.”
He shook his head. “Damn, girl. I’m so glad I knocked you up.”
She laughed. “Me too, cher.”
He gave her a huge grin at her use of the endearment. “So…”
She lifted an eyebrow. “So what?”
“You’re really not mad?”
“About you losing my penguin and risking his life and your own?”
“Uh…yeah.”
“How can I be mad? I know if you’ll all do what you did for my penguin then you’ll definitely do it for my kid. And I suspect that you’ve probably been stuck in a tree before and it will happen again. Whether or not there’s penguin or kid involved.”