‘F’ but he won’t tell anyone what it stands for,” Fiona told Jill. She tucked her hands in her back pockets and peered up at Knox. “But I’m going to get it out of him someday.”
Knox rolled his eyes. “I’m here about the donkeys.”
Fiona smiled. “You met them?”
“Yes. All five of them,” Knox said.
“Aren’t they sweet?”
“Not the word I was looking for. I also noticed both camels.”
“And the two horses, I presume.”
“Why are you annoyed about those?” Jill asked. “Donkeys and camels and horses should get along fine with the alpacas and—”
“I’m not annoyed,” Knox said.
Fiona looked surprised. “Oh. Damn.”
He almost smiled. “Donkeys, camels, and horses don’t even need any special licensing in Louisiana.”
“We’ve done all the paperwork for everything else,” Fiona said. “Every animal I’ve brought to Autre is obtained legally and fully licensed. And they’re doing great here. They’re happy and well cared for and—”
“Causing an increase in traffic which is causing more congestion and tearing up the roads not to mention the increased number of people who are generating more litter and, even when they do manage to get stuff in the trashcans, they’re filling them up a lot faster,” Knox said.
“We’ve put up signage and enlisted the help of the church youth group to do garbage clean-up once a week and all the waste from the animal park is recycled or composted.”
“We?” Knox asked her, instead of commenting on her solutions.
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