Screw it. Isha can help me.
I pictured him fetching Miranda, my thirteen-foot Burmese python, and laughed out loud. Poor Miranda would have to stay caged today. I never handled her without another adult around to help me. Though docile as fuck, she was heavy, and curious. I could only imagine Isha’s reaction if she wrapped herself around his leg.
In fact, as I set the shop up, and checked on the animals I was planning on displaying, Isha was on my mind in every capacity I could think of. I’d considered not responding to his Grindr message last night, but my resolve had crumbled milliseconds after I’d opened it. Like it or not, he was under my skin, and until this goddamn party was over, there was nothing I could do to change that.
Not that going back to that fantasy land where we were casual Grindr hook ups would help either, but whatever. At this point, I just needed…something.
Isha arrived twenty minutes before the party was due to start. Delilah skipped right up to me and attached herself to my leg in much the same way I’d pictured Miranda might to Isha.
I caught his eye. He nodded, and I lifted Delilah and dropped her onto my hip. Handling kids wasn’t usually in my remit, but this kid was gorgeous. She hadn’t even spoken and I was already under her spell.
Isha and Tam set up the cake and party bags while I took Delilah around the room we’d be using for the animal display. “Are you going to help me?” I asked her gravely. “Cos I think your dad is afraid of my pets.”
“Daddy said they weren’t pets. He said you had to sell them to make money.”
“Some of them,” I conceded, “but most of the animals I use for parties are permanent residents.”
Delilah’s brow creased.
“That means they stay with me forever,” I clarified.
“Oh. So they are your pets?”
“I suppose they are. They all have names, so that counts, right?”
“What about the white snake? She doesn’t have a name yet.”
“Because she’s not staying, remember? Her new owner will name her.”
Delilah used my shoulder to scratch her cheek. “Can we play with her today?”
I hadn’t been planning on bringing the blue-eyed ball python out. She was beautifully calm, but the best way to test any animal was to surround it with excitable children, and I didn’t know her well enough to take that risk yet. “Maybe after the party, if you don’t have to rush off.”
“Jude?”
I spun around, Delilah still in my arms. Isha was staring at me with an odd expression on his face. I didn’t know him well enough to interpret his behaviour either, and yet here I was, carrying his daughter on my hip as though I’d known her for years. “What is it?”
He shrugged. “Nothing. Just checking D’s not talking your ear off.”
“She’s not.” But I set Delilah down all the same, and kept my gaze on her as she flitted around Isha and back into the main shop. “Are you okay?”
Isha blinked. “What?”
I ventured closer and folded my arms across my chest to keep my hands from twitching. “You seem a little tense.”
“Wouldn’t you be? Birthday parties aren’t exactly my forte.”
“They don’t need to be. You paid me to handle it for you.”
“I know.”
“Is it the animals? Me and Delilah kind of figured it would be funny to get you to hold some of them, but I won’t do that if it freaks you out.”
The intensity in Isha’s gaze amped up. “You think I won’t do something that scares me?”
“Mate, I have no idea what you’re capable of.”
I stepped around him, and walked back into the shop.
