Omaha. But tornadoes had been part of their emergency planning.
“That building,” she said, pointing to the larger building set off behind the penguin house, “is where my office will be and the other side is storage, including the freezer where the penguins’ food will be kept.”
“So… is it finished?” Evan asked. “It looks complete.”
“It does. It looks like they’ve checked every box on the list I sent. They even got the lava rocks in here.”
In the distance she could hear the lemurs chattering and parrots squawking. There was the sound of a vehicle on the dirt road that ran in front of the entrance, but it was far enough off that it was hardly disturbing.
The sky overhead was bright blue, there was just a slight breeze, and the temperature was already seventy-four degrees and she could feel that it was going to get warmer.
It was going to take her some adjusting as well. Louisiana was much hotter and more humid than Kansas. Certainly the Great Plains had heat and humidity in the summer, but by this time of year the autumn air was cooling off.
“So, now that you’ve seen it and it’s complete and they did a great job, do you feel better?” Evan asked.
She took a deep breath and thought about his question. “Yes,” she answered after only a few seconds. “How the penguins adjust is still a question, but I’m so grateful that I had a place like this to relocate penguins. I’m grateful for the space, but I also really appreciate having someone like Griffin here in person. I do know more about penguins than Griffin does, but I know he’ll be willing and able to get his hands dirty if needed. Or to just listen to me bitch about my penguins being little prudes.”
Evan laughed. “You know I’ll always listen to you bitch about your penguins not putting out.”
She nodded. “I know.”
Evan and Cori had been very supportive of Jill taking on this project and this crazy move and everything else that went with it. But honestly, her phone calls, emails, and video calls with Tori, Charlie, Griffin, and even the other owners—Sawyer, Maddie, Owen, and Josh—as well as Jordan, their educational director, had made Jill truly feel welcomed and like her penguins had the backing of the entire Landry clan.
Jill knew that Griffin understood the enormity of the project she was undertaking and he would take it seriously. Griffin was an animal advocate first and foremost and had done a lot of work with conservation efforts working on a tiger propagation program at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. He was enthusiastic about this program for professional reasons first.
But he was now a part of the Landry family and the Landrys thought bringing penguins to their animal park was really damned cool.
Of course, that had added another layer to the pressure on Jill too. She knew that this was also the family business. The way they made their money. And that mattered to Griffin, her biggest professional ally here, because it was personal for him.
So yeah, bringing the penguins here was much more than just a favor to a friend.
Jill blew out a breath. “Okay, tell me this is going to be fine,” she said to Evan.
“This is going to be better than fine.”
So she had some conflicting pressures—the private group that needed the penguins to thrive and reproduce and the Landry family who wanted to expand their business—but surely there was a way to make this all happen.
“Right, one step at a time,” she said. She looked around again. “I kind of thought the guys who were working on the enclosure would be here this morning.”
They knew she was coming to town today. Granted, she wasn’t supposed to be here until this afternoon, but she’d expected at least the main contractor to be here to be sure everything was finished. He’d been great about communicating with her via text, sending her multiple questions, answering hers, and following up.
She crossed to the gate that led into the enclosure. She definitely needed to be sure the storage area was ready to go. She had big shipments of supplies coming in tomorrow, not the least of which was a truckload of fish. She supposed her office chair could wait, but it wasn’t like fish could just sit on a truck for an extra day.
She pulled on the gate but it was locked. Which was good. And bad.
“Dammit.” She looked at her phone. “I need to go,” she