Flipping Love You (Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild #3) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,118

the Landrys was training her for motherhood in many ways.

“I think we should all get even louder,” Noah announced, scooping one of the girls up, making her gasp and giggle as he propped her on one shoulder, then grabbed another, putting her up on his other shoulder. “But we should go outside to be loud. Let’s go be loud penguins outside. We’ll have our own parade.” Which was also funny. Noah was easily the quietest of these three guys.

“Yes!” all three girls said at once.

Loudly.

The girls and their dads exited the building with Brynn tagging along with the Autre penguin parade still on Cori’s phone.

Cori turned her attention on a customer who’d just come in and Ava headed to answer the bakery’s phone.

“Do you like it?” Holly asked again.

Jill focused on her mom.

“Do I like what?”

“The animal park.”

“Oh. Yes. I actually like it a lot. It’s nice to have free rein. And to be able to do whatever I want.”

Her dad, who’d been very quiet up to this point, looked at her thoughtfully. “Is that really true?”

“Of course. You know that I didn’t always agree with the zoo director and the Board of Directors in Omaha.”

“But it’s a lot to do all alone.”

It was.

Her gaze flickered back to the laptop screen.

But she wasn’t alone.

“I have something to tell you both,” Jill said. She took a deep breath. “I’m going to have a baby.”

Her parents both jerked back slightly and stared. They said nothing for several long seconds.

Her mother seemed to recover first. “I see.”

Jill noted her look of disappointment. “I know you think this is going to derail everything.”

“Of course it will.” Holly shook her head. “But there’s nothing to do about it now. Will you be turning the penguins over to someone else? Will you be coming back here?”

“No.” Jill shook her head. “I’m staying in Louisiana. With the penguins. And with the baby’s father.”

Her mother frowned. Disapprovingly.

Jill knew what she was thinking. Now that Jill was pregnant and wouldn’t be able to focus everything on her career, she was going to have to focus fully on being a mom.

“That was fast,” her father said.

“I know.” It had all happened very fast. “But I’m in love with him. And he loves me too. We are definitely going to raise the baby together.” Jill reached for the laptop and turned it to face her parents more fully. She pointed at Zeke. “That’s him. Zeke. Ezekiel Landry. He owns his own construction business and he’s an accountant. And obviously, he helps me whenever I need anything.”

She smiled, watching him. He was talking to a man she didn’t recognize. He actually looked a little upset at the moment. She frowned. What was going on? No one else was supposed to be in the park right now, but it was possible someone had wandered in. In Autre, people would generally assume putting up a “We’re Closed” sign would suffice in keeping people out.

Maybe the guy had come in uninvited and gotten a little close to the penguins. It would be like Zeke to be protective. Possibly overly so. But that also made her smile.

“So you’re going to keep working with the penguins?” her mother asked.

Jill felt the knot that had been in her stomach for a week, tighten. “Yes. But not in the same way.” She swallowed. “I’m going to keep them in the animal park, but I’m pulling them out of the endangered penguins program. They’re just going to be penguins. No propagation program. No research. Just a group of penguins living a happy, protected life.”

The penguins were happy. So they wouldn’t have chicks. So what? They were safe and healthy. They shouldn’t be shipped off to another program, uprooted again, separated from their waddle. Maybe Jill had been stressing them out, but she was their human, the one they knew. And without the pressure of the program hanging over her, she could relax and then so could they.

Sure, she was potentially going to have to give a few million dollars back to A.J.’s estate but she hadn’t discussed all of this with his attorney yet. If that was the case then, she’d have to find a way to fundraise a lot of cash.

Holly actually looked sad and reached for her hand. “I’m so sorry. I…I really wanted you to have everything you wanted, Jill.”

Her mom’s words hit her. “That’s the thing. I do have what I want. I have work that matters. Just because it’s not a formal program doesn’t mean