Page 8 of Dreams and Reptiles

He smiled and bit down on his lower lip. “To help other people make their dreams come true.”

I was caught up in the idea that we had common ground. Was he really in that same place in his life? He was so young. He seemed younger than the day we’d met, even. I didn’t know how young, but I knew he was young.

We’d been staring at each other for a minute when John Wayne grumbled beside me. Francis jumped back a step, and the playfulness was gone.

“Since he belongs to you, I’m assuming you know how to get him out of here?”

My heart sank a little. I wanted to think his tone had more to do with fear than dislike, but I was fully aware of how much people didn’t understand reptiles and either feared or loathed them.

My ex-wife had never understood. I’d been warned multiple times not to bring “those things” home. My daughter Shay loved them, but she didn’t understand why I’d come all the way out here to do this. The few folks I’d dated since moving here had wrinkled their noses when I’d told them about my plans.

I wanted him to be different.

“Right. Well, seeing as he weighs three-hundred-forty-five pounds, it’s a bit of a task.” Of course, I knew how to move my big guys, but maybe I felt like testing my new neighbor.

“A task you feel will be successful?”

I gave him a shrug and an innocent smile. “Probably. You got any carrots?”

“I… carrots? I just moved in.”

“Bummer,” I said. “How about lettuce? Or bananas?”

That got him flustered. “Bananas? I⁠—”

The sliding-glass door behind him opened, and a beautiful, stern-looking woman with her dark hair pulled up into a bun reached an arm out with a bunch of bananas in her grasp.

“Oh. Thanks. Mom, this is Kendall, my new neighbor.”

Mom?

“Hi.” She raised an eyebrow, he took the bunch from her, and she slid the door closed to watch from the other side.

I waved. “John Wayne doesn’t bite.” I held out my hand, and Jay Dub watched the bananas as Francis handed them to me. I took one and handed Francis back the bunch. Jay Dub couldn’t seem to decide which yellow blob to follow. “Keep those out of sight? Thank you.”

I peeled the end of the banana and held it close to Jay Dub’s face, making him stretch out his long neck, eager for the sweet stuff. I spoke in a gentle voice, the one that seemed to have a hypnotic quality with my big boys. Or it could’ve just been the banana.

“With three or four folks, he can be picked up and placed into a mode of transportation, but since it’s just us, how about,” I said, walking backward with the banana a couple of inches from the big guy’s nose, “we take a little walk?”

Francis opened his mouth to speak, turned to look at his mom, who had her arms crossed and both eyebrows raised, and he took a step toward me.

“You said he doesn’t bite…?”

“Nope. He’s a gentle giant. All of my giant tortoises are.”

“And how many do you have?” His voice sounded tight. He stayed about three feet behind John Wayne as we made slow progress across the grass.

“I have three more like him. Then I have a pair of Galapagos tortoises, Greta Garbo and Mae West, coming later today actually. I’ve been asked to take on a pair of sulcatas, but they’re diggers, and, as you can see, they can be escape artists. John Wayne’s the biggest of all of them.”

“He’s kinda… I don’t know that cute is the right word?” His voice pitched higher at the end, but he continued to follow. “He looks…wise.”

“They’re super gentle, and they have funny personalities.”

“How did you end up with them?”

John Wayne had nearly finished munching the first banana, and he’d slowed his progress. I held out my hand to Francis, and he handed me another one.

“That’s quite a lengthy tale, neighbor. You sure you have time? You must be busy.” I wanted to give him an out. I needed to be realistic. What would this young… hell, super-rich guy want with an older man who puts out fires and enjoys playing in the mud with reptiles in his spare time?