Page 11 of Dreams and Reptiles

Alberto Gonzalez was a great kid, a grad student hoping to specialize in exotic animals. I’d gotten his name from the vets at the university I’d connected with when I was planning to start up the sanctuary here, and he’d been with me for the past six months, staying in his own room at my place when I was on shift. It worked out great for him, as he was working on a thesis project about the giant tortoises, and he’d done an internship in Ecuador with marine iguanas. We didn’t see a whole lot of each other, but I trusted him with my crew, and he always had great ideas to improve their care.

The truth was, I hadn’t considered how much work this place would take, and since I was still working with the fire department, I needed the help Berto could give, as well as my buddies Rog and Arnie, who had helped me with a lot of the construction projects. They were more than happy to work for beer and pizza, but I knew I was going to need to hire someone else eventually. I wasn’t a spring chicken anymore, and these reptiles, as much as I loved them, were demanding little escape artists. I was going to have to up my game if I was going to keep them safe and healthy.

John Wayne moseyed back toward me, eyeing the gate, and exhaustion hit me.

“I’m too old for this shit.”

CHAPTER

THREE

Francis

“I’m too old for this shit, Francis.”

Anne Lau—formerly Liang, because, yes, she changed her name legally the moment the divorce was final—sat in the middle of my kitchen floor in a pair of black Bermuda shorts and a pink knit tank top with her legs spread, her house slippers dangling from her turned-in toes, and a comically annoyed expression on her face.

“Well, you look damn good for an old woman, Mom.” I was tired too. We’d been unpacking all day, first the three bedrooms upstairs, then the one downstairs, and we made up the new beds I’d ordered for us with fresh linens. Then we ordered food and beverage deliveries. We organized the kitchen while we waited for the deliveries, and when they arrived, we cooked together. We ate sitting on the floor since I didn’t have any furniture. That was next on our list.

“I didn’t say I was old. I said I was too old for working this hard. I thought you were going to bring me out here and pamper me, not work me to the bone.”

“I will, I promise,” I said, patting her shin. “As soon as I get some damn furniture. At least I’ve got beds for us, and they’re good ones too. I swore the minute I moved out of Max’s I was going to get a high-quality bed for my back. I’ll never sleep on crap again.”

She snorted. “I’m too old to sleep on crap. I’m glad you did that for yourself.” She looked around the vast room, and I noted the twinkle in her eye. “You really have a beautiful home. It’s a lot, though. I can’t imagine you being in this big house all by yourself.”

I shrugged and stretched my back. “I won’t be all the time. I’ve got my first retreat booked in two and a half weeks. A group of romance writers from the Bay Area. And then we’ll have the first bi-weekly dance social a couple days before they arrive. I booked a paint and sip… I can’t remember when. I’ve got it all scheduled. I just need to make this place into a welcoming, relaxing, and inspiring retreat by then. No problem.”

As soon as my offer was accepted on the house, I started brainstorming, put together a business plan, and by the time escrow closed, my website was live. Almost immediately, I got hits! I decided to start small for the first couple of months, and then I’d evaluate how much I could handle.

She heaved a huge sigh. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to stay and spend more of your money.” Then she straightened and gave me a sad expression. She took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’m sorry. I know it’s uncomfortable for you.”

“It’s fine if it’s you.” I shook my head. “I want a fresh start here, you know? I don’t want to tell people where my money came from.”

“Then don’t. It’s none of their business. Tell them you were damn good with your investments, and you’re independently wealthy. You don’t owe anyone anything. That was the problem with your father. He was more worried about what people thought than his own family.”

I sucked in a breath and fidgeted. My face got hot. I hated talking about him. I’d tried to please him my whole life, only to have him shun me when he felt I’d shamed the family.

“Mom, I’m so sorry⁠—”

“I don’t want to hear any more of that, Francis. I told you. I had my own issues with your father, ones I was willing to overlook until he put his reputation before his only son.” She cupped my face in her hands. “You did nothing wrong. Nothing. Do you hear me?”

She didn’t know the entire story, only that in my position as a senior analyst for one of the top finance companies in Silicon Valley, I’d discovered some discrepancies in my managing director’s business dealings. Things went horribly wrong when I tried to discuss it with him. Eventually, not knowing what else to do but not wanting to see our clients lose huge sums of money, I went to my uncle Kyle, who was one of the officers in the company, and I gave him the documentation.

“Horribly wrong” turned nuclear, and I was fired… and worse. Max and his girlfriend encouraged me to get a lawyer, and my lawyer said I had a slam-dunk case of wrongful termination, with a sprinkling of other charges to go with it.

It might have been a slam-dunk case in a court of law, but in the Liang family, I was in the wrong. And I still hadn’t been able to shake the notion that I was to blame, that I should have just sucked it up, let it go, and been a good little finance bro.

“Francis? Honey, you have that look. I hate that look. I want this place to make that look go away.”

I rubbed at my face and sighed. “Me too, Mom.”

It was early, but we were beat.

“I’m going to go soak in that giant tub upstairs,” she said. All four of the bedrooms in the main house had en suite bathrooms with killer showers, and the one she’d chosen, which was on the opposite end of the house from my room, had a gorgeous soaking tub in an alcove with frosted glass windows all around.

“I can’t thank you enough for being here,” I said, hugging her and kissing her temple. She’d agreed to stay with me for the week, help me get the place set up, do some shopping, and then she and Auntie Judy would spend some time looking at the cottage and thinking about it.

I could tell she was considering the move. It was in the way she looked around the place with an appraising eye. How she’d lingered on the front porch with her head tilted to the side, looking at the cute stone house on the other side of a pond with a fountain. We’d fiddled with the panel in the shed that housed the solar battery and figured out how to turn it on. We both gasped and jumped up and down when water shot toward the sky.