Page 6 of Dreams and Reptiles

A little thrill zipped through me.

The emergency number might bring a certain firefighter to my house.

I hadn’t seen Kendall on my visits to the town the past couple of months, and I chose not to pester Derek about him. He was already worried that my move to Foggy Basin was too spontaneous or that my super-hot kiss at Pride had short-circuited my rational brain. I assured him he could keep his firefighter boy toys. I had to throw him off the scent.

The creature had made its way to about ten yards from where I was standing. Not danger close, but concerning. What if it fell in the pool? Could it float? Tortoises weren’t the water ones, right? I was an economics major. I had an MBA. Life science was so long ago. Although I’d experienced my dinosaur era when I was a kid…

I blew out a breath and did what all grown-ups did when they hadn’t a clue how to proceed. I pulled out my phone—and as God as my witness, I conjured help out of thin air. I heard a shout, and, a second later, a man in pajama pants and flip-flops vaulted over the low fence between the properties and ran towards us.

“Jay Dub, you rascal!”

The man stopped short when he noticed me, and, my stars, that smile hit me like I worried this creature would any second.

“Do my eyes deceive me? Is it my favorite saucy cousin?”

I gave him a little finger wave.

CHAPTER

TWO

Kendall

This damn tortoise was going to be the death of me.

Not only had John Wayne broken out of his indoor enclosure at some point in the night, this time he wasn’t hanging out at the back door like he usually did. No, this time he’d gone AWOL. I checked everywhere I could think of, and it wasn’t until I heard voices that I thought of checking the outer fence. By fence, I meant the divider between my property and the neighbor’s. It was really just decorative pieces of rustic-looking wood nailed together. A sneeze would knock it over. I’d have to put up something much more secure, or my new neighbor wasn’t going to like me very much.

I’d seen the moving truck come earlier in the week and drop off stuff and a car. I tried to be all neighborly, but instead of gaining intel, I’d ended up in a friendly conversation in Spanish about my iguanas, tortoises, and chameleons with the movers. They said the homeowner would be coming in a few days, but that was about all I could get from them.

I’d thought of calling Derek, since the sign in front of the property was from his agency, but I’d worked extra shifts this week and had all the prep to do to finish the last of the indoor enclosures. I was also expecting the reptile stork to bring a delivery today, and having a loose, gigantic Aldabra tortoise wandering around didn’t bode well for my next guests.

I spotted movement and took off running in my damn flip-flops. I’d forgotten to put my Vans by the back door, and though I knew better, I had no time. I hopped the dinky fence and went running for John Wayne.

And caught a glimpse of the man of my dreams.

I was either the luckiest bastard on the planet or about to be in a world of trouble.

Francis Liang had been fodder for my fantasies since Pride two months ago. We’d shared a dance and a mind-blowing kiss after a day of flirting. I’d tried not to allow myself to get too preoccupied with the what-ifs, choosing to trust in fate that I’d see him again, but I’d had more than a few dreams about him.

Seeing him now? In a pair of cut-off sweatpants, Crocs, and a loose white t-shirt, he was way hotter than I’d remembered. I hoped I’d run into him in town, that maybe he and Derek would come visit. I’d seen Derek… and so had my buddies. They were crushing hard on the guy. But I’d apparently missed the times Francis had come to town. Caring for my reptilian friends took up most of the time I wasn’t working at the Foggy Basin Fire Department, and I hadn’t been out much.

What was he doing way out here?

I called out to him, and he gave me a finger wave.

“I was just about to call animal control, but it seems you two are acquainted?”

“Yeah, this is John Wayne. Jay Dub, this is Francis.”

Francis looked down at my sneakiest tortoise and smiled, but it wasn’t the saucy one I remembered or the relaxed one when I’d had to say goodbye after I’d kissed him thoroughly.

No, this one was obviously an attempt at playing it cool while being concerned.

“John Wayne?”

“Yeah. You know, the famous movie cowboy? His previous owner named the guys and dolls after movie stars from the forties and fifties.”

“I’m familiar. And you’re familiar with this creature, as in…”