Treat Me (One Night with Sole Regret #8) (12 page)

“Up, Daddy!” Julie said, lifting her arms to him. “I can’t see his face.”

Jacob lifted her onto his shoulders, and she reached out to grab the wire cage as she peered inside.

“He has fingers,” Julie said.

“All primates do,” Amanda said. “And where most animals have sharp claws, primates have flat fingernails.”

Julie shifted against Jacob’s neck as she looked down at Amanda. “Can I put some nail polish on them?”

Amanda chuckled. “I don’t think he’d hold still long enough.”

This was why Jacob had wanted to bring Amanda along today. One of the reasons. She was so smart. She knew things about animals and stuff. Julie could learn new things from her, where Jacob mostly felt like an escort on such excursions. And he’d never tell Amanda, but he liked learning science-type things from her as much as Julie did. He’d been terrible at school, not because he hadn’t wanted to learn, but because he got absolutely nothing from books. As far as he was concerned, books were only good as paperweights. And even when he’d paid attention in class and understood everything the teacher explained, when it came to tests, he hadn’t bothered trying. He couldn’t make heads or tails out of them. So he’d focused on the only thing he was good at: singing. He was so glad that Julie was smart like her aunt and hadn’t inherited the brick her father had for a brain.

“Why is his cage so small?” Jacob asked.

“Most of the exhibits are small here,” Amanda said. “This is a rescue zoo. So you’ll find animals that other zoos didn’t want or couldn’t keep, injured animals that need to be isolated, exotic animals that someone had thought would make a good pet but couldn’t keep, and retired service animals.”

Jacob scowled. “Like dogs?”

“Monkeys,” Amanda said. “Every animal here has a story.” She pointed to a little sign on the cage that explained the lemur’s origins and how he’d come to the zoo. Beneath it was a collection box. Amanda read the sign to Julie—and Jacob, not that he was willing to admit that.

“Just because he didn’t get along with other lemurs doesn’t mean he should be kept in such a small cage,” Jacob said, staring intently into the creature’s intelligent eyes as it nibbled on an orange wedge.

“They do the best they can here,” Amanda said. “All the funding comes from paid admissions and donations. They don’t get any financial assistance from the government. That’s why I volunteer.”

Jacob reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He took out a twenty-dollar bill and stuffed it into the slot of the lemur’s collection box.

“What are you doing, Daddy?” Julie asked.

“Giving this lemur some money.”

“Can I give him some money too?” she asked.

Jacob pulled Julie from her perch on his shoulders and handed her another bill. She stuffed it into the collection box and smiled up at him with pride. Jacob stroked her silky hair and kissed her on the forehead. “It’s nice to give when you can.”

Which reminded him of something Owen had said the day before. He fleetingly wondered if Owen’s plans to dump Lindsey on his mom had worked out.

They continued around the zoo. Amanda shared interesting facts about all the animals. Julie insisted on shoving a twenty into every collection box. Feeling a bit light in the wallet but full in the heart, Jacob wandered the small zoo, having to stop every so often to dig sharp stones out of his sandals.

The tortoise exhibit had low walls, and Amanda said it was okay for Julie to touch the hard shell of a roaming creature when it got close.

“Why is there so many turtles here?” Julie asked.

“These are tortoises,” Amanda said. “Turtles live in water.”

“Why
do
they have so many tortoises?” Jacob asked. There were over a dozen of them crawling about in their dusty pens, and he was pretty sure others were hiding out in the central shelter and thus weren’t visible.

“Tortoises live a long time—some of these are over fifty years old. So when they’re bred in captivity, it doesn’t take long to have a surplus population, and when other zoos run out of room, they send them here.”

“This turtle is as old as Grandma?” Julie said, looking up at Amanda with wide eyes. “I mean, is this
tortoise
as old as Grandma?”

Amanda laughed and touched her hair. “This tortoise is even older than Grandma.”

While Julie reached over the wall, trying to get a hand on the mossy green back of the land tortoise, Jacob took the opportunity to move in close to Amanda. He was enjoying her company so much. It didn’t seem fair that he couldn’t openly display his affection.

When she turned to look at him, he couldn’t resist stealing a kiss. Her hand moved to his shoulder and instead of pushing him away as he’d anticipated, she drew him closer.

“Daddy, I can’t reach him,” Julie said with a grunt of exertion.

Amanda pulled away, but not before Julie spied their unusually close proximity.

“What are you doing?” Julie asked, her slim blond eyebrows drawn together.

“Amanda . . . uh . . .” Jacob racked his brain for a plausible explanation.
Amanda is utterly delicious
didn’t seem like a good enough reason.

“I had something in my eye,” Amanda said, rubbing at one lid with the back of her hand.

Jacob was glad the woman was brilliant. “And I was helping her get it out.”

Julie pursed her lips and shifted them to one side. Jacob didn’t know if she’d actually seen them kissing or had just seen them standing inappropriately close.

“Can I pet the tortoise again?” she asked.

Jacob scooped her up airplane style and made zooming noises as he shifted her over the wall. She giggled, both arms extended, and managed to skim a hand along the tortoise’s back.

“Is it okay to do this?” Jacob asked Amanda as an afterthought.

Amanda nodded. “Just don’t drop her in there. Tortoises like to nibble on little girl toes.”

Making gobbling noises, Amanda grabbed the tips of Julie’s tennis shoes. Julie squealed, “He’s getting me, Daddy!”

Jacob scooped her up against his chest and squeezed. “I’ve got you. I won’t ever let anything hurt you.”

They watched a mischievous trio of bear cubs climb and tumble around their large enclosure, and Julie completely emptied Jacob’s wallet into the collection box for an aged black panther with a lame leg.

“She’s very compassionate,” Amanda said as they sat on a bench and watched Julie talk to the pacing cat, telling him everything was going to be all right.

“I think she gets that from you,” Jacob said, sneaking an arm around her back and stroking the bare skin of her shoulder with his fingertips.

“From me? How would she get that from me?” She inched closer to him on the bench until their knees touched.

“What do they call it, nature or nurture?”

Amanda lifted a questioning eyebrow at him.

“She’s around you a lot,” Jacob continued. “It’s only natural that she’s picked up some of your characteristics. She’s shaped by more than her genes.”

Amanda smiled. “You don’t think she gets her compassion from her mother?”

They shared a hearty laugh over that idea.

“What’s funny?” Julie asked, wriggling her slight form into the nonexistent space between them.

“Nothing important,” Amanda said. “Are you getting tired?”

Julie shook her head. “Can we ride the train now?”

“Don’t you want to feed the goats first?” From the diaper bag Amanda had been hauling around for over an hour, she pulled the three sacks of animal food they’d purchased at the main entrance.

“Yes!”

Julie was very careful to make sure each goat in the fenced corral got exactly one pellet. She giggled as their lips wiggled over her palm to collect her offering. Jacob watched closely, wondering if goats carried rabies. They sure didn’t smell very clean.

A big brown goat butted his way between his fellows and stole another goat’s pellet from Julie’s outstretched hand.

“No!” Julie shouted, waving a chastising finger at the crazed-looking animal. “That’s not yours.”

Brown-goat didn’t look the least bit ashamed, and Jacob had to admit the animal’s oblong pupils weirded him out. Did they all have bizarre eyes like that? Or just the crazy, rabid ones?

“What is it with their eyes?” Jacob asked Amanda.

She opened her mouth to answer but was cut off by Julie’s piercing scream.

Jacob’s heart slammed against his breast bone, and expecting to find his little girl with fewer fingers, he couldn’t help but laugh at what had her so upset.

Brown-goat, having identified Julie’s stash, had gone straight for the bag in her hand, biting into the brown paper and tearing off a chunk. The animal seemed satisfied with his meal until he swallowed and went back for a second bite.

“No!” Julie screamed. “You’re a stupid, stupid idiot!”

“Julie!” Amanda admonished. “That’s a terrible thing to say. You should never call anyone stupid or an idiot.”

Amanda went still and her head jerked, turning her stunned face in Jacob’s direction. She grimaced, her brows crumpled with sympathy. What the fuck? Why was she looking at him all apologetic-like?

“My mom does it,” Julie snapped, throwing the remnants of her bag into the pen.

She crossed her arms over her narrow chest, stuck out her lower lip, and stomped off toward a mesquite tree in the center of the clearing surrounded by the petting barn’s fences and the reptile shed. Brown-goat snatched up the bag and scattered the remaining tan pellets in all directions.

“Sorry,” Amanda called to Jacob’s back as he went after Julie.

Why was she sorry? Because she’d shouted? Because she’d upset Julie? Or was it because she thought
stupid
was his trigger word? Yes, Tina called him stupid on a regular basis, but Amanda didn’t have the same opinion of him, did she?

Jacob squatted beside Julie and watched her kick at a tree root.

“Are you mad?” he asked.

“Yes,” she grumbled.

“What about?”

“That stu—” She glanced at her Aunt Mander and adjusted her word choice. “That greedy goat taked all the food.” Her eyes welled with tears. “Now the nice goats don’t get any.”

And wasn’t that the way of the world? But that wasn’t something he wanted her to simply accept. “Do you want to feed the nice goats my bag of food?” he asked, holding his full bag of pellets out to her.

“But the stupid—I mean, that
brown
goat—will just take it all again.”

Jacob couldn’t resist stroking her soft hair. “I have a plan to outsmart that brown goat.”

Julie perked up, and it warmed his heart that she didn’t even question his ability to outsmart a goat. “What is it?” she whispered, obviously not wanting Brown-goat to overhear his plan.

“We’ll dump the pellets into our hands, and Aunt Mander can take the empty bag over there.” He pointed to the far end of the corral. “And make Brown-goat think she has all the food.”

Julie scrunched up her face and giggled into her tiny hands. “That’s a good trick, Daddy.”

Surprisingly, his trick worked. Brown-goat was so accustomed to being fed out of a paper bag that he was distracted by the bait long enough for Julie to make sure all the nice goats had several pellets each.

“Thank you, Daddy!” Julie said, hugging him as tightly as she could. “You saved the day.”

Smiling, he squeezed her back. He wished she would stay this size forever. She’d eventually become a teenager and his ability to outsmart goats wouldn’t seem quite as heroic to her.

A loud train whistle sounded, its playful tone carrying across the clearing. “Can we ride the train now?” Julie asked.

“Do you want to look at the snakes first?” he asked, pointing at the small building across the way that was labeled as the reptile house.

Julie’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. “No, thank you,” she said in a squeaky voice.

He didn’t care much for snakes either. “Let’s go find that train.”

He beckoned Amanda with a wave and found her staring at them while Brown-goat nibbled on the empty bag she was still clutching in one hand. She relinquished the bag to the goat and hurried to catch up.

“Ready for a train ride?” he asked, and Amanda nodded, tripping over her feet as she slowed to walk beside him. He took her hand—an automatic reflex on his part—and was surprised when she didn’t yank it away.

At the ticket booth, Jacob peered into his empty wallet. Well, shit, Julie had completely cleaned out his cash supply with her donations.

“Do you take credit cards?” he asked the clerk in the tiny booth.

“I’ve got this,” Amanda said, shifting in front of him and handing bills to the cashier. “It’s my treat.”

“Amanda . . .” he tried to protest.

“How many hundreds of dollars did you donate to this place today?”

“Julie donated it,” he reminded her.

“
You
donated it.” She peeked at Julie around Jacob’s shoulder. Julie was engrossed in talking to the green parrot in a nearby cage—
pretty bird, pretty bird
they echoed each other. Her eyes shifting to Jacob’s, Amanda slid a hand up his neck and rose up on tiptoes to kiss him. “Julie didn’t get her compassion from me. She got it from you,” she whispered against his lips before turning to the cashier to get her change.