I glanced down at my black Armani suit, and then back at him. “In a pet shop? Do I look like I’ve got a lizard in my pocket?”
“Um…” The man blinked and shook his head. “Never mind. Sorry, man. You caught me off guard. I’m Jude Harrison. This is my shop. You want to come through so we can look in the diary?”
He pointed at the door he’d come from. Beyond it, I could see more tanks and weird shit, but I wasn’t about to let this bloke—Jude—know that the idea of following him into a snake pit made my skin crawl. “Lead the way.”
I trailed after him, bracing myself as he preceded me into a room that turned out to be pretty much the same as the front of the shop, minus the equipment displays. Despite myself, my gaze was drawn to the tanks, but most of them appeared empty.
“So how old is your kid?”
“Hmm?”
Jude was rummaging under a counter, treating me to an unobscured view of a smooth strip of his back. “Your kid. I don’t do parties for under-fives, and over-tens only in smaller groups.”
“He’s eight,” I said. “At least he’s going to be. And it’ll only be for about five kids. He doesn’t have many friends.”
Jude straightened and dropped a thick black folder onto the counter. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
“He doesn’t think so either.”
“Smart kid.”
“Don’t tell him that. He won’t forget.”
A glorious ghost of a smile brightened Jude’s face. He had blue eyes, flecked with jade. The kind of eyes I could’ve lost myself in if I didn’t focus on the task at hand. “So,” he said. “Before we look at dates, I need to know that your son is the kind of child who can handle being told to stand still and be quiet. The animals I bring out for parties are as tame as reptiles get, and used to being handled, but I won’t have them startled or mistreated. Any kid in my shop needs to understand that what I say, goes.”
The stern edge in his tone excited me, though I couldn’t say why. “To be honest with you, he’s a little shit for his mother, but he does what I tell him. And he’s a different kid when the context is something that interests him.”
“I get that.” Jude opened his folder. “I usually ask that parents bring their child to meet me before the party so we can get to know each other a little before all their mates are around. Is that something you could accommodate?”
“For sure.”
“Awesome. What dates did you have in mind?”
I thought back to the email from Mina that I’d only got round to reading ten seconds before I’d climbed out of my car. “Anytime around the twenty-seventh.”
“Of this month?”
“Yeah. Sorry. I know it’s short notice.”
Jude didn’t answer. Kept his gaze down as he flicked through his diary. He had a strong jaw with just the right amount of scruff, high cheekbones, and a perfect chin.
So perfect I wanted to press two fingers to it and coax him into looking at me again.
Focus.
“I can do the thirtieth?” Jude said. “It’s a Sunday and we’re usually closed, but I can make an exception if you’re okay with doing it around lunchtime?”
“Brilliant. I’ll take it.” I reached for my wallet. “How much? I’ll pay upfront.”
“Five kids at twenty quid a head, that’s a square hundred.”
“A hundred quid?”
“Yes, but you can pay instalments if that’s easier, spread the cost.”
“It’s not that…I was just expecting it to cost a lot more. The last party my daughter had at a roller disco cost me a grand.”
Jude snorted. “Lucky her. Bet you didn’t get much for your money.”
