“Caroline, get out of my truck.” Before I kiss you. He did not add that part, of course, but he had the strangest impression she knew what he was thinking.
“Okay, see ya, Zander.”
She slid off the seat, slammed the door shut, and he watched her walk toward the sloth enclosure.
He had a feeling that she was going to see him. And that that was an even worse idea now than it had been last night.
And last night it had been a very, very bad idea.
Caroline had only been at the sloth enclosure for about five minutes marveling at the quirky, interesting animals when she heard someone approaching. She turned expecting to see Donovan Foster. Instead, it was a beautiful woman with long, dark hair, carrying a baby on her hip.
“Good morning,” the woman greeted.
“Hi. I'm Caroline. I'm just waiting for Donovan.”
“Yes, I remember you from yesterday. The wedding dress and lion cub in the bar.”
“Yep, that was me,” Caroline said with a wince.
The woman laughed. “I'm Tori Landry. I'm one of the vets here and my husband is part owner in the swamp boat tour company. And this is our daughter, Ella.”
Caroline smiled at them both. “It's nice to meet you.”
“Thanks. I see you've met Slothcrates and Slothparilla.” Tori came closer. “I'm here to do a little checkup. Do you mind?” She started to hand the baby to Caroline, and Caroline reached out instinctively.
Ella gave her a big grin and a little, “Hi” as Caroline took her into her arms.
“Well, hi, sweetie.”
Tori laughed. “This kid has been passed around more than any child, probably in the history of the world. There's absolutely no stranger danger on her radar. But considering that she's never more than two feet away from a relative around here, I'm not too worried at this point.”
“She's adorable.”
Tori gave her daughter a smile that was full of pride, love, and a touch of awe. “Thanks. I'm madly in love with her if you want to know the truth.”
“I think that's exactly how you're supposed to feel,” Caroline told her.
Tori ran a hand over Ella's head, then turned toward the sloths. “Well, let's see if we can help Slothparilla get used to this mom thing too.”
“Her name is Slothparilla?” Caroline asked, grinning.
“Yep. Sarsparilla is a climbing vine that’s found in the rainforest in South America, among other places.” Tori laughed. “So it has a lot in common with sloths.”
Caroline moved closer to the enclosure as Tori opened the door and stepped inside. Both sloths looked toward her, blinking slowly. She talked quietly to them as she approached and reached out to stroke first one, then the other.
“What’s that?” Caroline asked as Tori withdrew what looked to be a small teddy bear.
Tori held up the stuffed animal. “Slothparilla is pregnant. Sloths take about four months to gestate and she is right about two months now. We're going to have her hang onto this little baby sloth so she gets used to the weight and sensation of it on her body, as well as having us moving around and handling it so we can more easily care for the live baby once it’s born without causing her stress.”
The little stuffed animal was indeed a sloth rather than a bear. “That's so cute. Is that the size the baby sloth will be?”
“Yes, almost exactly and it weighs about eight ounces which is what a newborn sloth should weigh.” Tori reached over and gently laid the stuffed animal on the belly of the female sloth as she hung from the branch. “Baby sloths are born with full fur and their eyes open and the ability to climb from the very first minute. They cling to their mothers for the first few months and they actually stay with their mothers for the first year or two before moving off on their own but usually only to a nearby tree.”
Tori repositioned the stuffed sloth and stroked her hand over Slothparilla a few times. “You're going to be a good mom, aren't you, sweetie?”
Caroline watched the interaction, completely enchanted. “It's amazing that in this tiny town in Louisiana you get to work with sloths.”
“Oh, believe me, I think about that every day. I came here from Iowa. I used to work with horses and cows and dogs. I came down here and we went from fairly normal things like alpacas and goats to having a family of otters and then Charlie showed up and suddenly we have red pandas and sloths and peacocks and penguins.” Tori shook her head, laughing. “It's amazing and I already felt lucky living here, but adding in all of these animals is like a dream come true.”
Caroline watched her, and then looked down at the baby in her arms. She thought about what Zander had told her about how bad things even happened to good people in nice places like Autre. She thought about how close the mysterious guys in the bayou cabins had come to Autre and how determined Zander was to protect the town and the people here. Tori was a Landry. So was baby Ella. They were part of his family, and his life included them and all of these animals and this amazing little petting zoo that was actually a haven for abused animals behind the cute sloths and endangered penguins. She completely understood why he felt protective.
“Well, I can't wait to see all the animals and see what all you do here,” Caroline said as Tori came out of the enclosure and shut the gate behind her. “I've been watching the animal park grow online.”
Tori grinned. “It's been amazing. Thankfully we've grown with people just as much as we have animals. I don't know how we would possibly be doing this without everybody on board. It's truly a family project and that makes it all so much better and even more meaningful.”
“Hello, ladies!”
They turned to find Donovan coming up the path toward them. Ella immediately starting pumping her legs and reached out her arms, opening and closing her fists as he came closer. “D! D!”
“Ella Bella!” Donovan took the happy baby and brought her up to his face for a big wet kiss on her cheek. She squealed happily and kissed his cheek in return.
Tori laughed and rolled her eyes. “She's got every single man in this town wrapped around her finger.”
“You’re a motherfucker!”
Tori winced as Caroline spun around at the voice that had just come from behind her.
“Shut the fuck up!”
“Except for the swearing parrots,” Tori said.
“You have swearing parrots?” Caroline asked. Stupidly. Obviously the voices were parrots and she spotted them immediately. The brightly colored birds were now perched between the sloth enclosure and the lemur enclosure next door.
“We do,” Donovan said, settling Ella on his hip. “But they’re only naughty with new people. They test to see if they’ll get a laugh. If they do, they’ll keep going. If not, they stop. They like the attention.”
“Are you worried Ella’s going to pick that language up?” Caroline asked, trying not to laugh and egg the birds on
Tori lifted a shoulder. “If she doesn’t hear it from the birds, she’ll hear it from her uncles down on the swamp boats. Or at Ellie’s.” She grinned. “Either way, I intend to blame it on the birds when my mother hears it for the first time.”