Ryan’s phone rang the minute he got out of the car. He pulled it out of his pocket, fumbled as it nearly escaped his hands, and eventually managed to swipe the screen to answer.
“Great news,” his lawyer’s voice crackled over the less-than-amazing line. One bar of signal wasn’t ideal for a cross-country call.
Ryan could barely remember the last time he’d seen one bar. Some time in the dark ages, maybe.
“I’ve finally got the signed papers from your ex.”
Ryan’s stomach tightened, an automatic reaction whenever he thought about the messy divorce he’d been navigating for well over a year now. Laura had kickedhimout, servedhimpapers, and then… dragged her heels. Just to make him suffer a little more, he assumed.
He still hadn’t quite worked out what he’d done wrong.
“So that’s… good, right?” Ryan asked, pinching the bridge of his nose as a tension headache threatened to settle in.
The smell wasn’t helping, either. Theoretically, he’d known that swamps smelled awful, but this was enough to make him lightheaded.
He’d get used to it.
He’dhaveto. At least until his divorce settlement was finalized, he had nowhere else to go.
“It’s what we were waiting for. Everything should be over in just a couple of weeks now. You’ll have your settlement no later than the middle of next month. Sooner, maybe.”
Ryan nodded, even though he knew Melissa couldn’t see him. She’d been great through this whole thing, even when he’d been sitting in her office crying for half an hour because it was all too goddamnmuch.
“Great, okay,” he said. “So, do I need to… do anything?”
“Just leave it with me, I’ll call if I need anything urgent and email otherwise. How’s Florida?”
“I saw an alligator,” Ryan reported, because that was the most interesting thing that’d happened so far. Since he wanted his lawyer to believe he wasn’t atotalidiot, he wasn’t about to reveal that he’d just spent the last hour driving around aimlessly.
Melissa laughed on the other end of the line. “I hear they’ve got those. I just wanted to update you on the situation as soon as possible, so I’ll let you go back to settling in. I’m only a phone call away if you’ve got any questions.”
“Thanks,” Ryan said, the tension finally easing out of his gut. Things were going his way for once.
When the settlement came through, he’d be able to afford a place of his own. Maybe not tobuyit, but he’d definitely be able to come up with a deposit, and rent, and furnish it. And then he’d have time to look for a real job, maybe even back in New York.
Laura had gotten most things in the divorce, he really didn’t want to give her an entirecityas well.
Not that he had much to go back for. Hell, the risk of running into her in the street or something was almost enough to make him swear off the entire northern half of the country for life.
Hurtdidn’t begin to describe how he felt, but it was the only word he had for it. Everything hurt, and it didn’t seem like it was going to let up any time in the near future.
“You’re welcome,” Melissa said. “Talk to you soon.”
Ryan sighed as he stuffed his phone back in his pocket, and then headed around to the front porch of the little weatherboard house.
He stopped dead as he approached it, doing a cartoonish double-take at what he saw there.
A man with dark, scruffy hair was sitting back on a rusted porch swing, sipping a glass of what Ryan assumed to be iced tea.
With a tiger.
An actual fuckingtiger. The kind he’d only ever seen in the zoo.
A tiger just… sitting there, peacefully, basking in a patch of sunlight while the man calmly scratched behind its ears.
He stood as still as he could, something in the back of his head telling him that was what he was supposed to do. Was their vision based on movement?
Maybe that was dinosaurs. Ryan wasn’t an expert in any kind of animal, living or extinct. He barely knew how to look after a goldfish.
