Sealed With A Kiss: Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild, page 26
She gave him a playful shove. “Well, I know you didn’t let that fox fall asleep in your arms just to win me over, and that was completely adorable too.”
“I didn’t even know you were around then.”
“I—”
“I am so sorry to interrupt, but we have been waiting for a chance to say hello and decided we just needed to come over and introduce ourselves.”
Donovan gave Naomi a wink, then turned to face the four women who had approached. “No problem,” Donovan said, flashing them one of his best grins. He moved in next to Naomi, looping an arm around her waist.
“My name is Sara,” the woman said. She turned to indicate the three women behind her. “These are my best friends, Roni, Kate, and Alexis.”
“Hi, ladies,” Donovan greeted.
“Nice to meet you,” Naomi added.
“We’re here for a girls’ weekend,” Sara said. “We all went through our OB-GYN residency together and now we’re here for Alexis’s bachelorette party.”
“Wow, that’s amazing. Congratulations on all of it,” Naomi said.
“Very cool,” Donovan agreed. “How’d you decide to celebrate down here?”
“I took a swamp boat tour with Owen a couple of years ago and enjoyed it so much, I told these girls that we had to come back,” Sara said.
“Owen makes a great impression,” Naomi agreed with a grin.
“He does. And the addition of the animal park is so fun,” Sara said enthusiastically.
“We love the animals,” Roni said. “All of them. Though the llamas are my favorites.”
“Actually—” Donovan and Naomi both started. Then they grinned at one another and Donovan gestured for her to go ahead.
“They’re alpacas,” Naomi finished the statement.
“Right, alpacas,” Roni said. “They’re adorable.”
“But even besides the otters and penguins and gumbo and beignets and everything, this trip has been even better than we imagined because we get to meet you,” Sara said. “Would it be possible for us to get a photo with you?”
“Of course you can,” Naomi said, reaching for the phone Sara was holding out as Donovan slipped his arm out from around Naomi’s waist. “Here, I’ll take it. You all get in there.”
“Oh,” Sara said, hesitating and glancing at her friends. “Um.”
“You’re great,” Alexis said, jumping in. “We’ve loved the videos of your animal rescues and everything. And you two are so cute together.”
“Thanks,” Donovan said. But he gave Naomi a puzzled glance.
“But we were hoping for a photo with Naomi,” Alexis said.
Naomi was startled. “Me?”
“Oh yes,” Kate assured her.
“It’s just that we all loved Zoey At the Zoo,” Alexis said. “I watched it all the time. It was the best. And then when we got here and saw you the other day and Kate said she thought it was you and we started talking and realized we were all huge fans, we were completely starstruck.”
“I learned so much about animals from your show,” Kate told her. “I especially loved the polar bear and for my birthday one year I asked my parents if I could adopt one. You know those programs where you send in a monthly donation to symbolically adopt a wild animal? And they sent me a stuffed animal and a tote bag and stickers and stuff. I carried that bag around until it fell apart because I was so proud of that.”
“Oh, we did that at our local zoo, but we adopted an elephant,” Roni said with a big grin.
“My older sister became a veterinarian because of your show,” Alexis added.
Naomi was having a hard time swallowing. They’d recognized her? This hadn’t happened to her in… years. She’d almost forgotten what it felt like. But these women were so genuine and sweet and Naomi realized that it felt good. These women had enjoyed her show. They’d watched faithfully. They’d been influenced by it.
There had definitely been drawbacks to being famous at such a young age. But there had been good things about Zoey At the Zoo too.
She finally managed a smile. A genuine, bright smile.
“We’re just huge Naomi Williams fans. Sorry,” Sara told Donovan.
“No offense,” Kate said quickly. “We could get a photo with you too.”
Donovan chuckled. “No offense taken. I’m very happy to take the picture.” He reached for Sara’s phone.
The women looped their arms around Naomi and everyone leaned in with big smiles. Donovan took several shots and then handed the camera back to Sara.
Sara pulled the photos up and flipped through them.
“Oh my gosh, these are so good.” She looked up at Naomi. “Thank you so much. I’ll post a couple on Facebook with our other ones.”
“Great. You should tag me.”
“Oh I will. I’m so glad you’ve liked the others.”
Naomi paused. “The others?”
“You’ve seen the others I’ve tagged you in, right?”
“Your other photos? You’ve tagged me?”
“Of course.” Sara opened the Facebook page for Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild on her phone and scrolled down.
Naomi saw a few photos of Sara and her friends along the fence next to the alpacas, one of Kate feeding a lemur, and one of Alexis holding Slothcrates, the sloth.
But then she stopped on one photo in particular. “I love this one,” Sara said. “It’s so sexy.”
Yeah, that photo wasn’t of Sara, Kate, Roni, or Alexis. It was of Naomi. And Donovan. Kissing.
It was the one that had been captured next to his truck yesterday without their knowledge.
“You took that photo?” Naomi asked.
Sara nodded and smiled. “I wasn’t sure if I should just post it, but all of the posts have to be approved by the page administrator, so I guess they liked it too. It’s so...” She sighed. “Just swoony.”
“We didn’t realize anyone had noticed us.”
“We’ve definitely noticed you. You’re great together.” Alexis gave them both a big smile. “I don’t know if it’s because we’re here for my bachelorette party or what, but the romance around here is palpable. All of the couples around here just seem so crazy about each other. It’s like watching one of those reality TV shows where everyone falls in love.”
Naomi bit back a sarcastic retort. It was interesting that she and Donovan were supposed to be establishing their relationship on screen for the show, but these women were appreciating their private candid moments more.
She looked at Donovan. There was no question she had very real feelings for him. She shouldn’t be surprised that they were obvious to people watching them together.
“Again, thank you so much. This has been a thrill,” Sara told her.
“It was really nice to meet you all,” Naomi said.
“Stay tuned on our page,” Donovan added. “We’ve got some exciting stuff coming up.”
“Oh, absolutely,” Kate said. “And we’re telling everyone we know.”
They moved off back to their table and Naomi turned to Donovan. “Well at least one of our goals for this whole thing is working out. We’re definitely attracting more visitors to the animal park’s page.”
He laughed and slid an arm around her waist, hugging her up against his side. “I’d say a lot more than that is working out.”
“And—”
Just then three kids came running into the restaurant.
“Mr. Landry, Mr. Landry!”
Naomi and Donovan spun to watch them head straight for Fletcher.
Naomi didn’t know the little boy or one of the little girls, but one of the girls was Sophia Abar. She knew Sophia because Jordan had talked about her all the time when she’d first met the little girl. Sophia had also been in Fletcher’s third grade class this past year.
Sophia had been coming to the petting zoo regularly since her father had died last summer and she’d bonded with one of the alpacas. She was one reason Jordan had started the program using animals to help kids deal with both physical and emotional issues. They used the alpacas and even some of the goats and bunnies in everything from physical therapy to grief counseling with trained professionals now.
“Samuel, Katie, Sophia, hi,” Fletcher greeted the kids. He pivoted on his seat to face them. “What’s up?”
“We need your help!” Samuel said.
“Something bad happened!” Katie added.
Fletcher frowned. “Like what?”
“Come on. We’ll show you!” Katie reached out and grabbed Fletcher’s hand, pulling.
“Can you tell me here?” Fletcher asked, getting to his feet. He glanced at Zander.
Zander hadn’t moved, but he was listening and watching intently.
“No.” Samuel looked around the big table full of adults he didn’t know. He dropped his voice to a loud whisper. “We’ll tell you outside.”
Fletcher nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
Jordan frowned. “Can I come?”
“No,” Samuel said, shaking his head. “Mr. Landry only.”
“Okay.” Jordan sat back, obviously trying to look casual. “That’s cool.”
They all returned to eating, but they were a little quieter, and they kept casting glances toward the front door.
After a few minutes. Jordan said, “That was weird, right?”
“Don’t worry, if he’s not back in a couple minutes, I’ll go check on things,” Zander said.
But Zander didn’t even have to get out of his seat. Fletcher came back through the door a moment later, striding toward the table with a frown.
“Zander, need you.”
Zander shoved his chair back and stood without any more explanation from his older brother than that. Zander definitely came off as laid back and even annoyed at times when duty called, but he actually took his job very seriously and would always step in to do whatever he could. Badge or not.
“Anything you need from any of us?”
Fletcher looked at Donovan. “Might have a dog in trouble.”
Donovan stepped forward. “Let’s go.” That was all he needed to hear.
Naomi also straightened. If Donovan was going on an animal rescue, she wanted to be there with him. Not that he needed her help, especially with Fletcher and Zander there. But she really did want to learn as much as she could from him.
“Do you need any of the rest of us?” Zeke asked.
Zander shook his head. “We’ll call if we do.” He looked at Fletcher. “What’s going on?”
“The kids think there’s a dog trapped in someone’s yard. I’m thinking it might be a situation like with the seal where it got trapped by some storm debris. But it’s Denny Jenkins’ place.”
Zander scowled and Naomi sighed.
“Does that mean something?” Donovan asked.
“Denny can be kind of an asshole,” Zander said.
“And a drunk,” Fletcher said. “Sophia lives across the street from Denny. She’s heard the dog crying and said she hasn’t seen Denny in a couple of days. She got Katie and Samuel to go over with her, but they couldn’t get into the backyard.”
Zander frowned. “Good. Those kids don’t need to be gettin’ into other people’s yards. Who knows what they might run into.”
Fletcher nodded. “I told them the same thing. But I suspect they did sneak in there and saw the dog in trouble. They’re just not wanting to confess they were there.”
“And why’d they come get you?” Donovan asked.
“I was their teacher this last year. And I suppose most of their parents are at work right now. Or they didn’t want to risk getting grounded for messing around at Denny’s.”
“And because they knew where to find you,” Zeke said with a little chuckle.
“Well, I’m not sorry that it’s common knowledge that helpful people can be found at my place,” Ellie told them, coming to the table with a coffee pot for refills. “Get going and see what’s going on with this dog.”
As they passed Rachel and Brent’s table, Donovan said, “We got a call for possible rescue.”
Rachel straightened. “What is it?”
“A dog. We’re actually not sure what’s going on, but we’re going to go check it out.”
Brent slumped back in his chair. “Just a dog? That’s okay. We’ll pass.”
Naomi frowned. “Seriously? Just a dog? What the hell is that?”
Brent looked up, seeming surprised. “The idea is that Donovan is a wildlife rescuer. Every other person watching this show will have a dog of their own. That’s not exciting.”
She put a hand on her hip. “You don’t think that them having a dog of their own won’t make them even more invested in watching us rescue one? It’s a surefire way of making people care and relate even stronger to what we’re doing.”
Brent shrugged. “Not interested.”
“Then maybe you need to—”
Her reply was cut off by Donovan’s low voice in her ear. “Fuck them.”
She pulled in a deep breath. He was right. Fuck them.
Brent was a way for her to get this show produced and to do great things for animals and to keep Donovan here. She didn’t have to agree with Brent on everything and she definitely didn’t have to respect or like him.
“Fine. Stay here. But I’m right,” she told Brent. Then she turned on her heel and walked out of Ellie’s.
The kids were standing by Fletcher’s truck when they headed across the parking lot.
Fletcher stopped to talk with them. He could be heard saying, “No, you can’t come with us. But I promise to let you know what we find.”
Then, as Fletcher turned toward Zander’s truck, Samuel said, “Come on! We’ll go to Sophie’s house and watch from across the street.”
Fletcher sighed.
Zander was already starting the truck. “You can’t keep the kids out of their own front yard.”
“I know. As long as they stay across the street and don’t come over and try to get involved, it will be fine.”
“Well, I trust they’ll listen to their teacher, if he tells them to stay out of the way,” Zander said, turning out onto the street.
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Fletcher said wryly.
“We’ll bring my truck in case we need any supplies,” Donovan said, pulling his keys from his pocket.
“Meet you there,” Zander said with a nod.
Denny lived on the far edge of town.
They pulled up in front of Denny’s house, behind Zander. Donovan killed the engine.
“Wait here a second,” Zander called. “Let me go check things out.”
Fletcher, Donovan, and Naomi stayed by the trucks and watched Zander first go to the front door and knock loudly as well as call out to Denny. There was no answer. He moved to the front living room window and tried to peer inside.
No one came to the door, so he moved around the corner of the house and tried knocking on the side door. When that also produced no answer, he disappeared around to the back of the house.
“So Denny’s not a great guy?” Donovan asked.
“He’s kind of a dick,” Fletcher said. “Quick temper. Big mouth. Full of himself. I don’t know that I think he’s an animal abuser, but he’s not really that warm, cuddly type either.”
A couple minutes later, Zander came back around the house.
He didn’t look happy as he approached the truck.
“You want to come check this dog out?” he asked Donovan.
Donovan started forward without word.
Fletcher and Naomi followed. Zander didn’t say anything about them not accompanying them. Naomi assumed since she was with a law enforcement officer, it wasn’t actually trespassing.
“Denny’s not answering and there are no vehicles here so I’m going to assume he’s not home. The dog looks like he’s been here on his own for a little bit,” Zander said grimly. He opened the back gate and motioned for them to step through.
The fence around the backyard was high and enclosed a space that was more dirt than grass. There were two old cars and a pickup parked behind the house. There were also several miscellaneous items like old lawn furniture and plastic crates, but it was hard to tell if they’d been tossed around by the recent storm, or by just human carelessness.
Their attention, however, was immediately drawn to the dog that was chained to the front bumper of the truck in the middle of the yard. It was an adult German shepherd. He was dirty and as Donovan started toward him, the animal started barking and growling ferociously.
“Yeah, he’s not happy to see us,” Zander said. “I really hope if those kids were sneaking in back here that they kept their distance.”
“They would have told me if they’d gotten bitten or anything,” Fletcher said.
Donovan was scowling deeply. “He’s acting like this because he has no idea if we’re friend or enemy.”
Zander nodded. “He’s also not in great shape. His food and water dishes have been knocked over. Hard to tell for how long. And that chain is really short.”
Naomi and Fletcher hung back, letting Donovan and Zander take the lead, but it was easy to see, even from a distance, the two metal bowls that were now lying upside down and the chain around the animal’s neck that was only about five feet long and seemed to be too tight.
“My God, where has he been sleeping?” Naomi asked, looking around. There was no shelter of any kind. Not a kennel or a doghouse.
“He’s probably been going underneath the truck,” Fletcher said.
“That doesn’t give him protection on all sides,” Donovan said, tight, his voice rough.
He was approaching the animal slowly but the growling and barking had intensified.
“You guys just stay back there,” he instructed. He dropped to the ground and sat, facing the animal and extending his hand. The dog couldn’t reach him yet, but it was definitely a position of submission.
“It’s okay, buddy. I know this sucks. I really want to help you. I’m a friend.” Donovan’s tone was soft and easy as he spoke to the dog.
Naomi was holding her breath and she lifted a hand to cover her mouth as she made herself breathe and stay quiet.
She looked over at Zander. His jaw was tight and he was clearly angry. A quick glance at Fletcher showed a similar expression. She focused back on Donovan. He’d started to scoot forward on his butt, a few inches of the time. He was still talking softly to the dog, his hand extended, trying to show the animal that he was not a threat.
