Flipping Love You (Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild #3) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,6

other living beings before.

On purpose.

And even if they were penguins, she was feeling intimidated and overwhelmed.

Killing a houseplant was one thing. Something she still felt bad about and why she’d stopped getting them.

Killing a goldfish was also pretty terrible and it had only taken her a weekend to give away the one she’d gotten impulsively two years ago.

She’d never even entertained the idea of getting so much as a gerbil or a bearded dragon or anything. And definitely not a cat or dog.

Now she had penguins. And while, yes, she knew everything about them, these were an endangered species. If she couldn’t keep them alive, it would be devastating. Not just to the general welfare of the penguins, but to her mentally and emotionally.

This was her passion in life.

This was what she’d dedicated her entire career to.

This was what she did instead of having friends, or dating, or going to concerts, or book clubs. Hell, she read research articles—or wrote them—instead of reading books.

Jill felt her heart hammering and her breathing coming in near pants now.

She was freaking out.

Yes, she worked with penguins all day, every day. Yes, including Christmas. Just ask her mother.

But that was in controlled environments. With other people around to help feed them and watch for problems.

No, she’d never forgotten to feed them and yes, she was always the one who caught problems first but she didn’t have to be.

Now, with these eight, she did.

She was on her own.

They were her responsibility. Just hers.

The woman who couldn’t even remember to change her shoes before an after-work meeting.

“Ms. Morris? Are you all right?”

Jill was staring at her penguins. All eight of them were now out in view and she watched them waddle and talk to one another and splash at the edge of the water and in spite of the adrenaline rushing through her veins, her heart swelled.

They were so beautiful.

And they needed her.

Her.

She was their best chance for survival.

She nodded. “I think so.”

“Will that all be possible?” William asked.

Without looking at him, Jill asked, “Are you asking if I’m willing to dedicate all of my time and energy to these penguins and making sure they are safe and stay healthy and continue to breed and multiply?”

“Yes, that is what I’m asking.”

She nodded. “It’s an absolute dream come true.”

1

One month later…

Zeke Landry pulled into Autre, barely pausing his motorcycle at the stop sign before he turned onto Bayou Road, the street that would lead past Boys of the Bayou Swamp Boat Tours and his grandmother’s bar, and would eventually dead-end at his house about a mile from the bayou.

The first stretch of the road in the main part of town was paved, however, and even had a couple stop signs. It ran past the grocery store, the fish market, the city park, and the convenience store and gas station that marked the beginning of the dirt portion of the road.

That was the segment they should’ve called Landry Road. Not only was the family’s swamp boat tour company there, and of course Ellie’s bar, but Zeke’s own construction company office also sat along that road beside his uncle’s auto shop. On past those businesses were several Landry family homes.

The Landry family had been in Autre for generations, and if you lived in Autre and weren’t related to one of them, the chances were you owed a Landry money, an apology, or a black eye.

Hell, even if you were related to them, you probably owed a Landry one of those three things.

Zeke waved as he passed his cousin Mitch in his truck, but he didn’t slow his bike. He was not in the mood for conversation. Which was, in itself, rare. Like most Landrys, Zeke loved to talk. But tonight, he was distracted. And, even more unusual, frustrated.

Zeke was not, by any stretch, the most patient or levelheaded of the Landrys, but he was pretty fun-loving and easy-going most of the time. Unless it came to one of his projects not going according to plan.

His work was straightforward. He built stuff. He tore stuff down. He rebuilt stuff.

Simple.

Or it should have been.

Someone wanted a building put up? Zeke put up a building. Four walls, a floor, and a roof.

None of this needed to be difficult. That was what he liked about it.

But every once in a while, something went off the rails. Weather blew in and screwed up a timeline. Supplies got backordered. There was a bigger problem with an old foundation than expected when they got down to