“You,” Lance replied succinctly, but before Tanner could object, he explained its purpose. “See, a couple of years ago, Parker broke his ankle while goofing around at a neighborhood football game. It was the middle of the summer, and he hated using crutches but wanted to hang out with some friends in town. So, when I saw him continually jumping around on just one foot, I got him this knee scooter. He totally loved it! You basically just rest your injured leg on it and go wherever you want.”
Oh, hell no! Lance’s cute little sales pitch didn’t mean squat. He’d hated using crutches and canes, so he sure as hell wasn’t about to—
“Look. You want to keep the leg, right? So, you have to take care of it. This frigging amusement park is huge. Your leg is barely healed. I’m not saying you need to use a scooter every day, but for days like this? With having to keep track of two kids running amok?”
Any protests that Tanner could possibly make faded away. Lance had touched on something he couldn’t dispute. The same point had been made by Dr. Williston when she’d recommended injections. Keeping his fucked-up leg required him to avoid undue stress and strain, thereby keeping the muscles healthy and joints supple. Ridiculous looking as it was, the knee scooter would help. He sighed in resignation.
“Remind me again why I invited you?” Tanner muttered with a mock frown.
“I assume it’s my charming personality and dazzling smile,” Lance replied, pulling his sunglasses from his collar and slipping them on as he relaxed in his seat.
“Delusional personality, more like,” Tanner growled as he pulled out of Lance’s driveway. Although he kept his eyes on the road heading to his sister’s house, he caught Lance’s smile in his peripheral vision and felt a twinge of pleasure deep inside.
At first, Tanner was reluctant to use the scooter and mostly just rolled it along beside him. But as they traveled from one animal enclosure to another, weaving through the Saturday crowd, he realized it was a godsend and put it to good use. He’d forgotten just how big the fucking zoo was. Without the scooter, he’d have been in agonizing pain by the time they reached the giraffe enclosure. And the day was still young.
“Uncle Nanner,” Lucy, the younger of his two nieces, called out, pulling on his pants leg. “Do giraffes lose their spots?”
Sometimes Tanner had a tough time understanding her, but he was getting better.
“Nope. They keep ‘em forever.”
“What if they don’t like the color?” Clara, her older sister, asked while staring up at the giraffe closest to them.
“I don’t think John the Giraffe is bothered by the color of his spots. It’s not really a fashion choice,” he replied, snorting.
Clara and Lucy both scrunched up their faces in confusion.
“Then why does he have spots?” Clara asked.
“It’s for camouflage,” Lance replied.
“Camflace?” Lucy said, stumbling over the word. Lance looked down and smiled. He reached out and twirled one of her blond curls around his finger before sliding it behind her ear.
“Camouflage,” he repeated slowly.
“Clamflage,” she repeated.
“Cam-ou-flage, stupid,” Clara corrected impatiently, muttering the last word under her breath.
“Hey!” Tanner snapped in disapproval. “We don’t use that word.”
“Sorry,” Clara said, and patted Lucy on the head like she was a dog. Tanner bit back his laughter.
“What’s camouflage?” Lucy asked, finally getting it right, as she gazed in fascination at a mother giraffe and her baby.
“It’s when you use different colours to blend into the background so you can hide better. Like when a chameleon changes colour. The spots on giraffes help them to blend in with the trees on the savannahs of Africa.” Lance explained things patiently, never talking down to them. Tanner found he loved his approach. He remembered all too well how annoying it had been when adults had used baby-talk when he’d been a kid. No wonder his nieces had taken to Lance so quickly.
Lucy laughed and Tanner gave her a quick poke in the ribs.
“What’s so funny?”
“She’s too tall to hide!” Lucy explained. “Like when daddy hides behind the tree in the backyard!”
The image must have been especially funny because Clara giggled right along with Lucy.
“Alright, that’s enough of making fun of Miss Giraffe,” Lance said. “How about we join the line over there to give her something to eat?”
Both girls squealed and ran to get in line to feed the giraffe some fresh acacia leaves, listening in fascination as the zookeeper explained why the giraffe’s tongue was blue. When Lucy got scared during feeding time, Lance put her up on his shoulders. That made Clara jealous, so he had to give her a turnon his shoulders as well. At first, Tanner was envious of Lance’s ability to carry them around like that, but it didn’t last as he realized just how much fun Lance was having playing dad.
