He thought about that. What she’d been doing seemed very different than what he did, but she had a point.
“Did it work? I mean, do those guys leave Autre alone?” she asked after a moment.
“They don’t come into Autre. They don’t try to recruit or do business here. That we know of, anyway. But it’s possible they got smarter. Or sneakier. Or both. And they still use those cabins. They’re several miles out, but they’re still way too fucking close for my liking,” he admitted.
“But you’re keeping them at bay.”
He nodded. “For now.”
“That’s big.”
“It’s what you’re doing, right?” he asked. “Your dad and brother haven’t been directly implicated in any crimes. No matter how close stuff gets to them, it’s never affected them directly.”
She sighed. “Yeah. I mean, that or they’re really good at covering.”
“Which do you think it is?”
“I think they’re staying just this side of that line,” she said after a moment. “But I hate how close they get.”
“I understand that.”
They both sipped, lost in their thoughts.
“Anything else?” she asked. “Other bad things happening in your sweet little town?”
“There are the usual things. There was a guy who was abusing his dog. We took care of that. There’s a guy who was hitting his wife. Took care of that. Bar fights. Couple guys with some addiction issues we help out when things get bad.”
“You help them out?”
“Make sure we’re checking on them. Make sure they’re eating. Make sure they don’t have any weapons around. Make sure they know they’ve got people who care. Sit with them. Talk if they want to.”
She was staring when he glanced over. “What kind of addiction issues?”
“One’s an alcoholic. One’s addicted to pain killers.”
“And you just…let them get drunk and high or what?”
“Sometimes. We just make sure they’re not driving or messing with guns or getting into things with anyone else.” He blew out a breath. “One’s a vet. He’s got bad PTSD. He deals with it. Goes to therapy. Has a therapy dog. But he struggles and some days he loses the battle. So, we’re just there when that happens. The other one lost his kid to cancer and his wife left. He really tries. He’s been to treatment twice. But again, some days are just too much and the best we can do is just be there until he’s through it. Make sure he doesn’t hurt himself or someone else.”
He was actually keeping a closer eye on Lionel “Sharp” Sharpton. He was a local guy, about thirty-eight. Zander was afraid he was getting mixed up with the guys who’d taken over the bayou cabins. Guys like that preyed on the desperate and Sharp definitely fit that description.
Caroline was quiet for a long time. Zander looked over. She finally just said, “Wow.”
“Bad things happen everywhere, princess. To good people who don’t deserve it often.”
She nodded.
“The guys I work with most—Michael, Spence, Wyatt, and Theo—all lost someone in a big explosion that happened here in Autre when we were teens. My cousins, Sawyer, Josh, and Owen, lost their friend and business partner, Tommy, to a bull shark attack on the bayou. A lot of people have been through a lot of bad shit. And they still turn out to be good humans who want to help others and have happy lives. I want to help them do that.”
“So you work to make Autre as safe and happy as you can. For them.”
“Yep.”
Neither of them said anything else until the sign for Autre came into view. Zander didn’t know what she thought of all of that and it didn’t really matter. It was all just what it was.
“Well, you missed otter yoga,” he said dryly as they pulled up to the stop sign at the corner where he needed to make a decision about where they were going. “Should I drop you back at the bed and breakfast?” He knew her answer would be no.
The smile she shot him told him that she knew that he knew her answer would be no.
“You know what I’d really like to do? I'd love to go see the lion cub.”
Now see? That was sweet. He liked that she was actually concerned about the animal beyond just wanting it out of her possession because it was illegal or wanting to get her not-beloved-ex-fiancé into trouble.
“Donovan should be around somewhere. I can get a hold of him and have him fill you in on how it's doing.”
“That would be really nice.”
He sighed. “I guess I'll take you up to the petting zoo. You can check out some of the other animals.”
“Yes, I'd love that.”
He was not, however, going to drop her at the barn where the goats, potbellied pigs, and alpacas—along with various other furry and feathered creatures—were. She would, for sure run into Jordan and Charlie there and he wasn’t quite ready for that.
Instead, he took her to the enclosures where the red pandas and sloths were housed. Those were far more fascinating than the goats and potbellied pigs anyway. And along with the red pandas and sloths were a collection of peacocks, a few porcupines, and if she continued up the path, she’d find their flock of flamingos as well as the colony of penguins. In fact, she could walk this entire loop and visit their camels, donkeys, and zebra as well as their tiger.
Out here it was also a little less crowded with Landrys. She might run into Jill, the primary caregiver for the penguins, but Jill was far less chatty than Jordan or Charlie. He also had no trouble with Caroline spending some time with Donovan and likely Naomi. They were not blood or marriage related to the Landrys. Though they were family in all the ways that counted. Still, Naomi was very respectful of other people’s privacy and Donovan didn’t know nearly as many family stories as the girls at the main barn would.
Zander pulled up next to the sloth enclosure and pointed. “I’ll have Donovan meet you by the sloths.”
“Oh my gosh! I see these guys online.” Her eyes were bright, her smile wide.
“Well, have fun,” Zander said honestly. The animal park had been kind of a pain in the ass for him. It brought a lot of strangers to town. But it made his family happy. Not to mention making them additional revenue. And now looking at Caroline’s face, he definitely felt a little more tolerant toward the whole thing. Dammit. This was what the stupid falling-head-over-heels-in-love-at-first-sight would do to a guy.
Resisting the urge to lean across her and shove her out of the truck, Zander said, “Have fun.”
“Are the penguins around here?” she asked, looking like a little kid on Christmas morning.
“Right up there. Just follow the path.” He pointed through the windshield.
“Oh my gosh, this is so exciting.” She pushed her door open and looked back. “You sure you can’t come with me?”
He wanted to. He freaking wanted to walk around the petting zoo that he saw every damned day and that gave him a huge headache most of those days. “No. I gotta go to work.”
“Well then, thanks for the coffee. And the ride. And for spilling all your secrets. They made me feel better. In a really macabre way that I should probably apologize for.”