Page 12 of Dreams and Reptiles

Mom was definitely thinking about it. I wouldn’t push, but I would love it if I had them close. This undertaking was a thrilling concept, but beneath my excitement was a fear of failure that would paralyze me if I let it. I couldn’t let that happen. With Mom here, I’d have to stay strong. She’d remind me of all I was capable of and not let me wallow. I just didn’t want her to sacrifice yet again for me, if staying in the Bay Area was what she really wanted. But I kinda got the sense that she, too, wanted a fresh start.

She held my face again. “I’m so excited for you. I want this next phase of your life to be full of happiness and fulfillment.” She patted my cheek. “And if that means a little fun with your firefighter…”

I groaned and stepped back. She did a little dance and trotted away from me and up the stairs to her room.

She’d roasted me for over an hour that morning when I told her about Kendall.

“Uh-huh, and so you’ve got a daddy next door?”

“I will literally vomit if you say that again,” I’d said to her.

But I’d told her about meeting him at Pride, how much fun we’d had.

“No reason you can’t have fun again, but I really do hope he keeps his dinosaurs to himself. There’s no telling what else he has over there.”

I went up to my room and stepped out onto my balcony. I had a clear view of the janky fence that marked our property line, but he had a lot of trees on the side of his house that I could see, which was probably good for his creatures. I thought about what Mom said.

He was so sweet with his tortoise. So gentle. His voice when he’d talked to him was so loving. It made me wonder what kind of a father he was. He hadn’t mentioned how old his daughter was, and I was so curious. Probably she was a teenager or older, and it sounded like they were going through some growing pains.

Regardless of how old Kendall was, he was undoubtedly older than me. Would that be too weird for him? Or for me? When I looked at him, I didn’t see a much older guy. I saw someone solid. Thoughtful and considerate, but playful and mischievous, bordering on naughty. Someone to have safe fun with, and that’s what I needed right now.

I was at peak curiosity, and I wanted to know everything about Kendall the reptile wrangler. My scorchingly hot new neighbor.

The next two days were a whirlwind of shopping for furniture, cleaning despite the fact I’d had a cleaning crew in already—it had to be to Queen Anne’s standards—organizing my office so I could hit the ground running, and ordering supplies for the various activities I wanted to host.

I’d had a moment of panic when I thought… what if no one came to my events? What if all of this prep work amounted to me living in this giant house, alone, with ludicrous amounts of arts and crafts supplies? If that happened, I supposed I wouldn’t mind if John Wayne the giant tortoise came to visit me. I would basically be a recluse who talked to himself, walked around with paint on his clothes, and yelled at flowers.

If the media ever got wind of it, they’d have a helluva story. “What ever happened to disgraced finance bro Francis Liang?”

But then I checked my new email for the business, Maison de Reve—I hadn’t been able to use my French for ages. Seemed like the perfect time to start—and found four new inquiries about fall weddings, two additional artists sent interest forms stating their wishes to book space to work on their portfolios, and I received three resumes for an in-person assistant position.

I would need someone on-site to help me with the events. I didn’t think I needed an admin assistant just yet, but someone local with a background in event planning would be fantastic.

A parade of delivery trucks showed up on the third day with furniture and supplies. As they brought in the pieces, I was pleased with how it all looked. For the main entertaining space, I’d opted for a large dining table that could seat sixteen with all the leaves in play and a large sectional sofa that left plenty of room for the dance socials. I also chose some casual furniture for the meeting space in the guest wing. The previous owner had left a variety of brand-new beds and dressers in the rooms, as well as white linens, which I appreciated. I might update them eventually, but they’d do for now.

For my personal use, I picked up a comfy, buttery-soft fabric sofa with a matching ottoman and end tables for the living area outside my bedroom on the third floor. I had a home-entertainment specialist coming out the next day to install TVs and speakers throughout the house and guest wing, but I wanted to have my own private place. If my plans were successful, the guest wing at Maison De Reve would be booked most of the time, and the rooms inside the main house would be used as needed. When my duties as host ended for the day, I wanted to be able to relax knowing Maison De Reve would be full of happy people.

Workers installed cabinets for the art supplies in the large room I’d chosen for my office, and an office-supply place delivered a desk and a good chair. I’d ordered folding tables and chairs for the guest wing before I moved, and those showed up in the melee as well. I planned to offer activities both on the main floor of my house as well as in the meeting area in the guest wing. The ballroom socials would be held in my great room, as it was the largest space, and the laminate floors would be the perfect surface. When the weather was nice, we could spread out onto the massive stone patio behind the house that looked out over the lake.

I was practically floating as the delivery men worked at assembling the furniture and filling up the space. Watching it all come together made me giddy. The buzz of activity didn’t stress me out, although Mom opted to head back home. She said she had some appointments the next day, and she’d be back by dinnertime.

“Francis? You here?”

I practically tackled Derek when he arrived late that afternoon, and I hugged the stuffing out of him.

“This place looks amazing! I can’t believe how quickly all this stuff arrived!”

“You know Mom. She sweet-talked the furniture delivery folks, and I’d already scheduled the other deliveries and the cabinet guys. Somehow they’ve all managed to work without running into each other.” I clapped my hands and rubbed the palms together. “What do you think? Is it inviting? Does it make you want to bust out a paint brush? Cook some delicious food? Dance the night away?”

“For sure the dancing part. I’m coming for the first ballroom social. I hope you’ve invited some eligible bachelors.”

“Speaking of,” I said, poking him in the shoulder. “You didn’t tell me that Kendall lives right next door.”

Derek’s expression turned confused. He looked out the wall of windows toward Kendall’s place and then slapped himself on the forehead.

“That’s right! I knew his place was next to the lake, but I didn’t… Dawg. He’s got a bunch of⁠—”

“Reptiles. Yeah. One of them broke through the fence and stalked me and Mom the day we got here. Okay, maybe not stalked,” I added, when his eyes bugged out. “A massive tortoise named John Wayne. Kendall came after him and, well, he knows I’m here.” I shrugged. “I told him I’d cook for him when he was off shift, but he hasn’t texted me yet.”