“It’s a colony or a waddle, not a flock.” If she was so insistent on mocking me, the least she could do was to get her vocabulary correct.
“Uncle Alex.” Dolly tugged at my shirt.
“Just a second, sweetie. I’m talking to Miss Zina.” I refocused my attention on the feisty woman in front of me. “I’m not worried about the penguins, I’m concerned about someone trying to break in and mess with them.”
“Oh, gotcha. Lacey said she’s got some state-of-the-art security setup around the house.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t monitor the warehouse, does it?”
“Uncle Alex?” The persistent tugging on my shirt started to get to me. I wrapped my hand around Dolly’s and gently pulled it away from my shirt. “I’d prefer to be close by. Do you have any other suggestions on where I should look?”
“I’ll have to think about it,” Zina said, a hint of a smile playing across her lips.
I focused on those lips for a moment. Full and ripe and begging to be kissed again.
“Uncle Alex?” Dolly pulled her hand away.
“What is it?” I finally looked down in time to see the toilet paper she’d wrapped herself in start to disintegrate.
“I had to go potty.” She looked up at me, tears threatening to spill over her long, full lashes.
“I’m sorry, sweetie.” My heart squeezed. To hell with it. Then I glanced to Zina. “Please tell me there’s a bathroom nearby?”
“Of course. Let’s go up to the house and get you cleaned up.” Zina held out a hand for Dolly to take.
I sighed. Thank God she was here. I wouldn’t know what to do with Dolly if I’d been on my own. I’d had plenty of experience around animals and their offspring, just not much experience around human kids.
“You coming?” Zina looked back at me over her shoulder. She moved toward the door, Dolly shuffling along beside her, leaving me no choice but to follow.
We crossed the drive and trekked toward the house. The Victorian-style three-story towered above us. We climbed the steps to the wraparound porch, our feet thumping on the wooden stairs. I paused, waiting for Gramps to catch up.
“Y’all go ahead inside and I’ll wait for Gramps.” I gestured toward the door, hoping that Zina would have time to take care of Dolly’s issue before Gramps made his way across the drive and the lawn to the house.
Zina rolled her eyes as she fit the key into the lock on the door and pushed it open. “Come on, Dolly. There’s a bathroom on the second floor where we can get you cleaned up.”
Dolly cast a glance back at me before letting Zina lead her into the house. Poor kid. She’d be in safe hands with Zina though. All I’d do was make it worse. I’d never had to help a kid with a wet pants issue before. Never even changed a diaperexcept on a penguin who’d had a debilitating case of diarrhea. Served it right for digging through my bag and downing all of the chocolate bars one of the Swiss scientists had brought back from a recent trip home.
I held out a hand to help Gramps up the stairs, but the old man brushed it away.
“I remember coming here back in the day.”
“Oh yeah?” I humored my grandfather.
“The parties they’d throw here.” Gramps settled into a wicker chair on the porch, his face lighting up. “Your grandmother and I met at one of those parties.”
“Really?” I hadn’t heard much in the way of family history over the years. I’d never been interested, and by the time I realized I ought to pay attention, my mom had taken off, my dad had passed away, and I figured the info was lost for good. Char had the family pictures and photo albums, but I’d never wanted to pore over them the way she had when we were little. Now I wished I had. It would be nice to have some sense of history.
“Your grandmother came down those steps like an angel.” Gramps lifted a shaky finger to point to the grand staircase just inside the front door. “It was love at first sight.”
I followed his gaze to the steps, where Zina came down, followed by Dolly, who was dressed in some sort of flowy wrap. The two of them giggled at something, giving the impression they’d just become the best of friends.
“Everything better?” I asked. Dolly had been a sight to behold in sparkles and toilet paper. But now she seemed to be wearing a towel or a sheet of some sort.
“We found a short robe to put on her, but I think she’ll probably want to go home and change, especially if you’re dead set on apartment hunting this afternoon.”
I reached for Dolly’s hand. “Thanks for your help. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Oh, I bet you could. You seem like the kind of guy who can step up when necessary.” Her eyes held a glint of humor, but I could read between the lines enough to know that she was telling me not to fuck this up. Like I needed any added pressure from her. I was already feeling the overcommitment closing in on me from all sides.
