could derail the entire project.”
She should’ve thought about this more.
Though thinking about more than she already had seemed impossible. This had been keeping her up at night ever since she’d met the penguins a month ago.
“The project is pretty much just to keep them alive and make sure they have more penguins, right?” Evan asked.
“Yeah.” Jill shrugged. “But they haven’t bred in all the time A.J.’s had them, Evan. They’ve been kept away from any temperature fluctuations, weather threats, predators, even changes in their diets. Their environment has been extremely stable. But they haven’t bred. They have to reproduce in the next year or they’ll—we’ll—be out of the program. Can you imagine? The foremost expert on Galápagos penguins in the United States inheriting eight of them and then getting kicked out of a program to save them because…she can’t?”
“Okay, you need to calm down,” Evan told her. “These penguins have belonged to you for a month. And you’re just now getting moved to where you’re going to settle them. Give yourself a break.”
Jill took a deep breath and blew it out.
“You’re going to be fine. There’s no one better for this,” Evan said reassuringly.
“I don’t know…I mean, I do know that.” It was a fact that she knew more about penguins than anyone else that was a part of this program. But… “These people are intimidating. They’re so enthusiastic, for one thing,” she said. “They’ve all already hatched new penguins. This is the only waddle that hasn’t had a baby.”
“I love that groups of penguins are called waddles,” Evan said.
Jill had to smile. Evan knew lots of random penguin facts because of her. She appreciated her friend’s interest in her passion.
“Anyway, these people have a lot of money and they are really into this program,” Jill said.
“You should love that,” Evan told her. “You are really into saving penguins. You should love that all of these people are too and are willing to put their money into it and, even more, take these penguins in and take care of them personally.”
“I know. And I do. But they are definitely looking to me to be the expert.”
“You are the expert.”
“Yeah. With a bunch of celibate penguins.”
Evan just chuckled at that.
Of course, all of that was definitely part of why she was feeling the pressure, but it was also weighing on her because a very dear friend had entrusted these birds to her, that he’d loved so much.
She hadn’t slept well for four weeks now. In fact, last night she’d slept harder and deeper than she had since the penguins had come into her life.
She honestly was thankful to Zeke for that.
Jill looked around.
“Okay, the enclosure is right in the middle of this ‘animal park’, but it’s pretty quiet here.”
“Show me around,” Evan encouraged.
She took a deep breath and focused on the structure in front of her.
The habitat itself was really beautiful. “Wow, Evan. This looks…amazing.”
Of course a couple million dollars and instructions not to spare any expense probably had something to do with that.
She’d admittedly been skeptical when Griffin and Charlie had assured her that they had people who could handle this construction job, but it turned out they’d been right.
“It looks like it from my side too. Is it what you wanted?” Evan asked.
“It is. I can’t tell if it’s finished.” She paced along the section of clear wall that looked into the enclosure.
She’d sent sketches and photographs with what the habitat should include and it looked like they’d done everything.
She switched the camera again so Evan could see.
“It’s an oval shape,” she told him. “About two-thirds of the perimeter is a clear wall, while the other one-third is made up of trees, rocks, and shrubbery. They made it look exactly like my sketches.”
“It looks great,” Evan told her.
She pointed. “It’s an island of sorts. There’s a moat between where I’m standing and the main land area the penguins will occupy. The moat is twenty feet across and thirty feet deep. The wall will keep the penguins inside, and other stuff out. Like humans. And wolves and bears. And alligators.” Jill shuddered thinking about all of the things that could make a snack of her penguins. “So that gives them additional space to swim. The water in it and the pond on the island is temperature controlled. So is that building.” She showed him the structure where the penguins could be kept in inclement weather—extreme heat, cold, or hurricanes, for instance. Yeah, she hadn’t had to worry about hurricanes in