Ryan swallowed thickly. “Is that one…?”
“She’s fine,” Oscar reassured him. “Hatching is hard work. They need to nap sometimes.”
Ryan smiled at the thought of that. Alligators clearly had their priorities figured out. “She?” he asked, since Oscar had said it so confidently. “How can you tell?”
“I mean.. I’m guessing, but incubation at this temperature should mean they’re mostly girls. I can’t tell by looking or anything.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be the expert?” Freddie asked.
Ryan barely stopped himself from leaping to Oscar’s defense, saying thatactually,he specialized in mammals, but he stopped himself just in time.
It was a surprise that he’d wanted to, though. That he’d felt like hecouldhave.
Oscar had rewarded him for being brave a lot. Maybe he was starting to learn.
“No one could tell by looking just yet,” Oscar explained patiently. “And I’m not really an expert. The thing about knowing a lot about something is that all it does is make you realize how much youdon’tknow.”
“But I should try to find some room in the budget to get them little pink bows?” Ryan interrupted, hoping to lighten the mood.
He couldn’t quite tear his eyes away from the tiny alligators starting to hatch in front of him. Oscar had promised him the miracle of life, and he’d more than delivered.
Honestly, Ryan hadn’t spent a lot of time in his life thinking a whole lot about animals, but being out here was starting to change his perspective. Seeing them as tiny babies seemed to put alligators in perspective.
They were just animals. Just… living their lives as best they could. And these ones would grow up being fed and reared by one of the warmest, kindest people Ryan had ever known. With Oscar as their dad, how bad could they possibly turn out?
“I don’t think they’d entirely appreciate the bows, but on the other hand I’d love to watch you trying to put them on,” Oscar said.
The sound of something being dragged across the floor still wasn’t enough to distract Ryan from the tiny snout working on breaking out of its egg. It wasn’t until Oscar put a hand on his shoulder and guided him to sit on a fold-up chair he’d grabbed that Ryan realized what was going on.
“Oh.” He turned to look at Oscar, who was smiling fondly at him. “Thanks.”
“You seemed like you wanted to watch,” Oscar said, and Ryan got the distinct impression he wasproud.
He did want to watch this, at least for a while, but even if he hadn’t… the appeal of Oscar being proud of him would have been enough to convince him to do it. Oscar’s approval had come to mean a lot to him.
“I do. I… don’t want them to be alone,” he said, turning back to the tiny alligators.
He’d been alone. It was miserable, and scary, and maybe alligators didn’t really have any concept of that, but Ryan didn’t want them to be miserable on their first day in the world. He didn’t feel that way anymore, and he didn’t want anyone else to.
Even a miniature version of an apex predator.
Oscar rested his hand on the back of Ryan’s neck, squeezing gently. A tiny, reassuring gesture that told him he was getting this right. That his reaction had been what Oscar wanted to see.
That felt good, too. He was starting to grasp Oscar’s world, the way he cared about animals so much, and it was nice. It wasespeciallynice that Oscar seemed to like that.
The alligator who’d been napping woke with a start and began wriggling away from her egg shell again, her tiny scrambling feet making Ryan smile.
“I need to finish the tour,” Oscar said. “But I’ll come join you when we’re done.”
Ryan liked the sound of that. Right now, the thing he wanted most in the world was to sit here and watch the hatching while he held Oscar’s hand.
Freddie didn’t get to do that. It was silly to be uncomfortable with him being here.
“I’ll wait here,” Ryan promised.
