in medical school,” Bailey said with a nod.
Jill sent Zeke a questioning look. Then regretted it. She didn’t care who Chase was. Well, she shouldn’t. He was one more person in this huge list of people that seemed to interact on a regular basis around here.
But she was curious, she had to admit.
“Chase is Bailey’s fiancé. He’s at medical school in D.C. They are both perfectly normal, successful, competent people. When they’re apart. But whenever they’re together, they are accident-prone, klutzy, and one or both of them ends up bruised, bleeding, or limping.”
Jill’s eyes widened and she looked at Bailey. In spite of not wanting to be interested in the stories that seemed to be swirling just under the surface with this group she was.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
Bailey nodded. “Since falling in love with Chase, I’ve gotten very used to staying in and taking ibuprofen.”
Jill didn’t press for more details, but dammit she kind of wanted to.
She was amused to watch the men, including Donovan, all make a fist, pump their arms three times, and then choose a sign for rock, paper, or scissors.
Knox and Zander both chose paper, Michael and Donovan chose scissors.
Knox and Zander groaned in unison then turned to face one another. Again, they did the fist pump and chose their sign.
This time Knox went with rock while Zander went with paper.
“Whoo-hoo!” Zander crowed. “Paper beats rock.”
“I hate everything about this,” Knox informed them.
He pushed to his feet and Jill watched as his big frame unfolded.
The guy was huge.
He ran a hand through his long hair, adjusted his glasses, straightened his dress shirt, and looked at them all.
“And after I get the goats back to the barn, I get to figure out where in the budget we can possibly divert funds to pave the road that leads to the petting zoo. The fish market is complaining that the increased traffic along the dirt road is kicking up too much dust in the air. Your family’s petting zoo is a pain in my ass.”
Zeke grinned. “And, of course, you asked them about their increased profits over the past three months from visitors to the swamp boat tours and petting zoo who stop at the market on their way out, right? And the fish we’ve agreed to buy from them for the otters?”
“I didn’t have to ask,” Knox said. “It’s obvious. They put up a whole new stand. And now the whole farmer’s market wants to relocate down there.”
“Exactly.”
Zander got to his feet as well, and shook his head. “You don’t think I’m happy about it, do you? Do you know how many parking tickets and fender benders I’ve had to respond to? Things were a hell of a lot quieter when most of the visitors to the swamp boat tours came on buses from the hotels in New Orleans. Now all these people in the surrounding area want to drive down here themselves. Everyone who lives here can see the bayou on their own but not everybody has a lemur in their backyard.”
“You do realize that we’re going to have to talk about alligator deterrence around the animal park,” Bailey said. “The more small animals you bring in, the more potential for alligators to start coming closer, looking for food.”
Jill felt how wide her eyes went now. She glanced at Zeke. It wasn’t that she thought Zeke could fix any and all issues with alligators stalking the small animals of a petting zoo, but for some reason her instinct was to look at him first.
“Don’t worry, Kansas. We’ve got protections around the pens that are close to the bayou for sure.”
“Alligators would definitely stalk goats.” Jill frowned and looked around the group. “Especially baby goats. And you have llamas, right? Alligators could take down a small llama.”
“They’re alpacas, actually,” Zeke told her.
“Still.”
They could also hunt and eat a penguin. The habitat seemed very secure from what she’d seen this morning, but when they went back over she was going to look at it with new eyes. Being from Kansas and Nebraska, alligators were not something that she thought about on a regular basis.
“Yes, we’ve taken all of that into consideration,” Bailey said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you. It’s just something these guys need to be aware of when we’re talking about impacts the animal park is having on the town and local area.”
“Absolutely,” Jill agreed. “These are all important considerations. The more animals you bring in, the more scents and sounds the alligators