Page 22 of Crocodile Tears
“This is the most insane thing I've ever said yes to,” I muttered. “Why are we doing this again?”
Deacon shrugged. “I just do what Cody tells me.”
“Great to see you still think for yourself.”
“I know when to defer to people with more knowledge and skills than me about something,” he corrected. “Which is why I have appointedyouas the interim director of my charity, which, you have to agree, was a smart move.”
“You’re trying to flatter me so I go through with this buffoonery, aren’t you?”
“Yep.”
We turned the corner to the aviary, and I passed the carrier to Deacon as I unclipped the carabiner of keys from my belt. Cody huffed and puffed behind us as he caught up. “I didn’t realize we were doing cardio first.”
I ignored Cody and pointed to the carrier in Deacon’s hand. “Don't shake that.”
Deacon chortled, giving me a look of disbelief. “I’m not a toddler.”
I flashed him a mocking smile. “Then stop acting like one.”
“I'm sorry I sprung all of this on you. I know it’s a lot.” He cocked his head at me. “But the best way to show people I’m getting hands-on with this is to do something hands-on. We want them to know we’re taking the conservation trust seriously, don’t we?”
“Your strategic use of the word ‘we’ is noted,” I said flatly.
“We need to make a show of it. Politic a bit. I need to kiss some babies, you know?”
“So call that British model you were dating.”
He clenched his jaw and a golf-ball-sized muscle popped out because of course it did. At least it was satisfying getting under his skin.
“Whoa,” Cody said, waving his hands between us. “I’m calling an audible here. Let’s just focus up, okay, team?”
Deacon ignored him and leaned in toward me, his temper flaring. “Kate and I never dated. We barely even met.”
I whirled on him as I unlocked the door, holding the airlock gate ajar with my boot. “What?”
Deacon let out a mirthless laugh as if disappointed in me. “It was all publicity. The photos we took in one day with a bunch of outfit changes. They were fed to the media over months to make it look?—”
“Uh, uh, uh,” Cody said, slicing a hand between us. “Those are Harrow team secrets. Cone of silence, m’kay? Unless you want her to sign an NDA, something I would highly recommend at this point.”
“So this is what it takes to be your real self around people?” I scoffed. “Contracts, legally gagging them into keeping your secrets. Do you really not trust anyone anymore?”
“Don't answer that,” Cody said, taking out his phone. “Right,director,” he added pointedly at me. “You ready to launch your new charity? Shall we get this show on the road or what?”
I let out a bracing breath and ushered Deacon and Cody into the aviary. “Careful where you step,” I instructed as I latched the door behind us. “And if you don’t want bird poop in your hair, don’t stand directly under any perches.”
“The things I do for you,” Cody said to Deacon as he clapped him on the back.
We moved to the center of the aviary, and I put Eddie's carrier down on a tree stump. I could feel the terrible grinding of my logic and my emotions, stuck between several rocks and even more hard places.
This temporary director role would’ve been an absolute gift if it had come from anyone else. It would be great for my CV. I didn't plan on working at Prickle Island Zoo for the rest of my life, but if I’d only had one job since I’d been fifteen, who elsewould ever employ me? Especially when that employer was my mother.
Plus, when else would I havemillions of dollarsof conservation money to allocate as I saw fit? This was a really big deal despite how much I hated that it had been given to me by Deacon. And I still wanted to do a good job, wanted to make a difference, and maybe doing a deal with the devil to get there would be worth it.
Great, now I’m sounding like the Madigans.
But no matter how much I loathed Deacon, I couldn't bring myself to run this thing into the ground just to spite him. The charity deserved a chance, and I wanted to build it into something at least semi stable before I passed the baton off to whoever the permanent director would be.
“Okay,” I said, dusting a hand down my cargo shorts. "I am going to get him out and pass him to you.” I tipped my head to Deacon. “Then all you have to do is throw him up in the air and he'll fly off to a perch and it'll be some majestic bullshit when you play it in slo-mo or whatever it is you plan to do, got it?”
