Page 10 of Dreams and Reptiles

And that little overshare probably ended any future dalliances with the adorable Francis.

“That’s… I’m sorry⁠—”

“No, I’m sorry,” I quickly added, before he had a chance to try to smooth over what had been an egregious admission. “You asked how long my grandmother lived here, not for my relationship resume.”

“True, but seeing as I was hoping I’d see you again when I moved here, I probably would have asked you all of this, and a whole lot more, when given the chance.”

“And now that you know?” We’d reached the fence, and I was working on getting John Wayne to come through the broken section.

Francis stepped the closest to John Wayne yet and placed two tentative fingers on his shell. His smile was thoughtful.

“I think… my mom is waiting for me to get started on the kitchen, and I need to see what state my belongings are in. I also need to set up a grocery delivery and start making lists. That will likely take the rest of the day… but we have some unfinished business to attend to, don’t we?”

The rickety fence was between us. He stood before me with the saucy smile that had snagged me those few short months ago. He was only a couple inches shorter than me, and I loved the way he lifted his chin to look at me with his lips pursed. He had me just as revved up as I’d been that night, when we danced together, as if we’d been doing this back and forth forever.

Was I out of my mind to even think of starting something with him? A younger, loaded guy who was suspicious of my reptiles and my next-door neighbor? This could go epically wrong in so many ways.

“Unfinished business?” I asked, ready to drop everything for another chance at the kind of happiness he’d given me that night.

“Mm.”

He let his lips fall open, and his gaze fell to my lips, and all I could think of was where I wanted to put my lips⁠—

“This fence. We have plans to discuss, yeah?”

My lips took the hint, and I stepped back. “Right. Repairing the fence.”

“You like stir fry? We could discuss the plans over dinner, say, tomorrow?”

So he liked to tease…

My lips twitched with anticipation once more.

“Tomorrow? I— Shoot. I’m on shift the next two days. But after?”

“After.” He held out his hand. “Your phone?”

I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to him like a well-trained dog.

He held it up to my face to unlock it, searched for my contacts, and tapped a few times. He handed it to me and took a few steps back, patting John Wayne’s shell for good measure. He looked me up and down and licked his lips. “See you later, neighbor.”

“Later,” I said, as I watched him walk across the field, a little more bounce in his step than before.

I looked down at my phone and burst out laughing.

Saucy Neighbor.

“Jay Dub, you are a genius. Hell, I should be paying you matchmaker fees right now.”

John Wayne grumbled and started moving at a quicker pace, now that he was on his territory. He sorta did walk like the legendary gunslinging actor, which made the name perfect for him. He headed straight for the water hole and joined his buddies there, probably to talk shit about my absolute lack of game when it came to our neighbor.

I got him back in the enclosure and sent a text to Alberto, my assistant, and let him know about John Wayne’s walkabout.

Berto: Sorry about that. Forgot to tell you I caught him breaking out yesterday. Thought I fixed it.

Kendall: No worries. He gave a fright to my new neighbor.

Berto: My bad. I’ll test the entire perimeter after I finish feeding everyone tomorrow. Also noticed Elizabeth and Richard ripped the screen on the inside of their enclosure. I put a temporary fix on it, and I bought some more screen. I’ll bring it tomorrow.