He walked to the wall and squirted some into his hand, going all the way up to his forearms with the liquid.
“They decided to continue funding the prison despite the city’s desire to quit,” Bayou said as he readjusted his watch on his wrist. “The city wasn’t happy with the decision, by the way. They also weren’t happy with my decision to go over their heads when I didn’t like their answers.”
“Good,” Hoax muttered. “I don’t understand their reasoning for wanting the prison gone, anyway. The prison was here before we were. It’s like asking someone to move a road because it’s too close to your house.”
I walked up beside Bayou and said, “Here, hold him.”
“No, no, no.” Bayou shook his head vehemently. “I don’t want…”
I thrust the baby into his arms, and he froze.
“Really, I don’t…”
I walked away and grinned at Hoax who was smiling like a loon now.
“What’s wrong, Bayou?” Hoax teased. “They won’t break.”
“It’s not that I don’t want them to break,” he murmured, looking down with wide eyes at the baby in his arms. “It’s that I don’t want to fuck it up.”
The rest of his words were said under his breath, making it almost impossible to hear him.
Hoax must’ve, though, because he walked over to his cousin’s side and squeezed his shoulder.
“Now that you’ve held the baby,” my mother said from her position beside Pru. “You’ll want one of your own. It’s biologically coded into your genes,” my mother teased. “It’s called baby fever.”
Bayou scoffed. “Even if I wasn’t worried about other things, I don’t have time for a kid.”
“You never have time for a kid,” my father said, walking over to Bayou. “Switch me.”
Bayou switched with him, and the new baby in his arms opened his eyes.
“He has your eyes, man,” Bayou muttered almost to himself.
“Yeah,” Hoax grunted. “For now. I’ve been told they’ll change.”
“Fifty percent chance,” Bayou said just before his watch beeped. “I have to go. If I don’t leave now, I’ll never get any of my work done today.”
He walked over to where I was standing and handed Dean back to me, looking so relieved to be rid of the baby that I nearly laughed.
“I’m assuming you won’t be at work?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I’ll be there. As much as I’d like to stay here until they wonder if my sister and I are in a polygamous relationship with Hoax, I do have to pay bills. I have mouths to feed.”
He frowned. “How many and what kind of mouths?”
“You only thought I had a zoo,” Pru laughed, wincing the moment she did and placing her hand to her abdomen. “And you agreed to allow her to move into your rental.”
Bayou looked nervous for a few long seconds as he waited for me to explain.
When I only smiled brightly at him, putting on my best innocent face, he narrowed his eyes.
“Please tell me you won’t be bringing any pigs,” he pleaded.
I smiled at him. “No pigs.”
He looked relieved.
Little did he know that I did have a skunk—though it was domesticated, it was still a skunk.
Bayou turned to my sister. “What does she have?”
He almost seemed nervous now.
“A skunk, a baby goat, and two birds.” She paused. “But they all live at my dad’s, so you don’t have to worry.”
His eyes locked on mine. “What kind of birds?”
“The kind that are probably illegal,” I admitted.
I mean, technically, it wasn’t illegal any longer.
His eyes went wild for a few seconds. “Keeping wild birds in cages against their will is unethical.”
I shook my head. “I don’t keep them in cages—at least one of them I don’t. Honestly, they stay in the backyard. I’ve tried to set them free so many times that it’s unreal. They just keep coming back.”
“What kind of birds?” he asked.
I looked over at my father, who was studiously ignoring us as he looked at the baby in his hands.
“A…hawk.”
Bayou opened his mouth and then closed it.
“Those are dangerous to have as pets. You have to have a falconer’s permit issued through Texas Parks and Wildlife. You have to…”
“Birdie’s got all that,” Dad mumbled. “She started this program suddenly when she was sixteen. All of a sudden decided that that was what she wanted to do after finding a nearly dead red-tailed hawk out in the woods. It was a baby that’d fallen from its nest. She nursed it back to health out in the woods for months.”
“Like a real-life baby Hiccup,” Pru murmured as she closed her eyes. “The hawk was badly injured, and she thought Dad would just put it out of its misery. Therefore, she took care of it, nursed it back to health, and the hawk bonded with her. When Dad found out, he got pissed. Then he got pragmatic when he realized that they couldn’t just get the bird to go away, that it followed Phoebe relentlessly. So Dad started her apprenticing with a falconer, and at the age of nineteen Phoebe got her own falconer’s permit.”
I smiled, remembering those times.
Phantom, the hawk that I’d nursed back to life, had only come to be because of Bayou. He had no clue that he’d changed me in such a way that I was saving birds because I knew that he liked them.
“Oh.” Bayou paused. “You said two.”
“She has a mockingbird that she nursed back to health, too.” Dad looked up. “Didn’t you have somewhere you needed to be?”
Bayou nodded. “Tell me the mockingbird’s story.”
“Much the same as the first,” Dad said. “Found it outside next to the birdfeeder almost dead. One of the cats got it. She found the bird and fed it, thinking it probably wouldn’t live, but the little bugger survived.”
“You live in an apartment,” Bayou said. “How does that work?”
“I keep Phantom at my dad’s place, also.” I said. “I go out there every day for hours and work her. It would be nice to have her near me, though. That’s also why I want to rent a house with some backyard space.”
“Where does the mockingbird stay?” he questioned.
“My dad’s backyard,” I answered. “He comes to visit me at my apartment sometimes, though. They’re very intelligent creatures.”
“How far away are you from your dad’s place?” he pushed.
“About a mile,” I said. “I think he followed my car home one day. That’s at least all I can come up with. I’m not really sure if that’s actually the case or not.”
Bayou looked like he had a hundred more questions. “You’re going to be late.”
He winced. “I have to go.”
Then he was gone without another word.
Dad was the first to speak.
“I remember him having a fascination with birds,” Dad said. “I should’ve put two and two together back then.”
I shrugged.
But, speaking of Phantom…
“I do have to go myself,” I admitted. “I have to take Phantom out and work her. I also have to go get cleaned off. I think I have blood on my shoe.”
Pru snorted. “You do not.”
“I have blood…and other juices,” I told her, lifting my foot.
“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘pee,’” my mother said.
I walked over to where she was standing next to Pru’s bedside still and handed her the baby.
I tilted my head at her curiously. “Why were you so quiet?”
“The man is intense,” she said. “Are you sure you want to go there?”
My eyes widened. “Yes.”
I didn’t pretend to misunderstand her question.
“He doesn’t want any kids,” she persisted.
My mother knew that I wanted a whole slew of them.
&n
bsp; “I’ll work on him,” I teased.
“Seriously, one day when he has a kid, I’m going to live it up. I’m going to remind him of the moment, and never let him forget his words.”
I turned to Hoax. “What if he decides that kids aren’t for him?”
Hoax smiled. “At one point in time, I thought kids weren’t for me either.”
He looked down at the little boy in my mother’s arms, eyes filled with tenderness.
I walked over to where my purse sat on an empty chair.
“I’ll be back through about three in the morning if you want anything. Otherwise, don’t text me until at least ten.” I pointed at my sister.
Pru grinned. “Yes, ma’am. We all know how important your sleep is.”
I scrunched up my nose at her.
“Sorry not sorry,” I said as I walked over to my dad and lifted up to press a kiss to his cheek. “Love you.”
He winked at me. “Love you, too.”
I did the same for Mom, Pru, and then Hoax. Though he didn’t get an ‘I love you’ from me.
“You don’t love me?” he teased.
I shook my head. “That’s why a polygamous relationship with you and my sister would never work. I will never love you. My heart already belongs to someone else.”
And had for ten years now.
Chapter 6
If bedbugs are found on beds, who the hell came up with the name ‘cockroach?’
-Things that go through Bayou’s mind
Bayou
It came out of nowhere.
One second Phoebe and I were talking outside in the parking lot, and the next I was going to dinner with her.
I had a hundred questions for her, and all of them stemmed from the fact that she was a damn falconer. Jesus Christ, it was like a goddamn sickness in my soul. I just had to know more.
“Do you have any other hawks besides Phantom? Any other breeds of birds?” I asked, leaning back in my seat.
“Just the one at the moment,” she answered, leaning back herself. “The other two that I had I returned to the wild.”
“You had two others?” I asked.
“Yes,” she agreed. “A part of the apprentice program is you have to capture birds of different ages. A young bird, a juvenile one, and an adult one. The younger ones are more malleable and willing to be trained. The adult hawk is more wild and unwilling to adapt. Phantom was a baby when I got her. She was a piece of cake compared to the other two. I still see them every once in a while, too.”
I couldn’t stop myself from asking the next question.
It was a compulsion that just wouldn’t be satisfied unless I asked.
“Can I see him?”
“Her,” she said instantly. “And yes.” She paused. “But I’d like to finish my dinner first, if that’s okay?”
I nodded once, impatience singing a tune in my soul.
“Are you not going to eat yours?”
I looked down at my barely touched plate of food and winced. “Yeah.”
I practically force-fed myself. The normally delicious hamburger, French fries, and side salad would’ve been music to my ears. But now the only music I could hear was the anticipation at seeing a hawk so up-close and personal.
I’d always been fascinated by birds.
That was why, glancing at Phoebe’s wrist, I’d been so attracted to Fancy for the first time. The hummingbird on her wrist had drawn me in like a moth to a flame.
At the age of six, I’d nearly been run over by a car because I’d seen a Blue Jay be hit by a car. In my attempt to save it—its wing had been broken as it’d been clipped by the car—I had escaped from my mother and had made a mad dash toward the hurt bird.
My grandfather, Dixie, who’d been with us had scooped me up just as a car had been aimed straight at my tiny body that’d been crouched on the ground. The bird had died, being smooshed in the commotion, and I’d been reprimanded by my family members to always be aware of my surroundings.
I took a bite of the burger and started to think about something other than birds. It was a trick I’d learned from my therapist when I was younger. At first, I’d start by solving math equations in my head, and eventually a number would spark a different thought path that would lead me to thinking about something else. And, other times, I’d solve hundreds of equations and still be fixated on my original train of thought with no end in sight.
This time, though, I was able to divert my attention.
And it was all due to the woman sitting across the table from me, laughter in her eyes.
“What?” I asked, reaching for a French fry.
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “I just think it’s cute that a grown man such as yourself could dissolve into a curious little boy that wants every single scrap of information he can find about a topic that he’s passionate about. Had I known this was what it would take to get you to talk to me, I would’ve brought up the hawk to you long before.” She paused. “Honestly, I’m quite surprised that you don’t already have your falconer’s permit.”
I shook my head. “I don’t have enough time to devote to that kind of endeavor. I’ve read that it takes hours and hours, and I work a full-time job, sometimes more than full-time, and I have responsibilities with the volunteer fire department, the MC, and a boy’s and girl’s club in Kilgore at least twice a week.”
Her mouth fell open. “You volunteer?”
I nodded. “I do.”
“You don’t strike me as the type,” she admitted.
I wasn’t offended. I didn’t strike anybody as the type.
“I’m aware,” I said dryly. “You should’ve seen the first time that I walked into that boy’s and girl’s club. Swear to God, I thought the director was going to try to hide all of the kids behind her.”
Phoebe started to giggle, her hand covering her mouth and her eyes shining. “Oh, I’m sure that you thought you’d just walk in there and everybody would be cool? Did you wear that?”
She gestured at my uniform.
“No.” I shook my head. “I wore normal, everyday clothes. Blue jeans and a black shirt. I even changed my motorcycle boots for work boots. I looked about as unintimidating as one could look.”
It was after another ten minutes of discussing his boy’s and girl’s club that he volunteered with that I finished off the last morsel on my plate, and then reached for my purse to offer to pay.
Bayou waved me away. “Don’t even think about it.”
My brows rose. “Think about what?”
His lips quirked as if he was about to smile. “You know what.”
I blinked innocently at him. “Sorry, but you’re going to have to spell it out for me. I’m just a wee female who doesn’t have the same education as men.”
He snorted and handed forty dollars to the waitress. “Keep the change.”
The waitress winked at him. “Have a good night.”
When we stood and made our way to our vehicles, I could feel Bayou’s warmth against my back. He was so close that I could reach behind me and touch him.
“Do you know how to get to my dad’s place?” I questioned.
I was fairly sure that he’d been there once or twice before with Hoax, but I wasn’t absolutely sure.
And, if you were unfamiliar with the area, it could be kind of hard to find at first.
“Yes,” he answered, his words right in my ear.
I licked my dry lips and headed for my truck. He went to his bike that was one parking spot over from mine.
When he got to his bike, he swung on and glanced a look over at me. “Your truck tire is low.”
I looked at the tire he was staring at and sighed. “I think I ran over a nail or something. I haven’t actually found the source of the leak just yet, but I planned on taking it over to my dad anyway. I might have him look at it while I’m there.”
I got in the truck and started it up, revving it up as I did.
Bayou’s eyes raised in question.
I shrugged and rolled down the window. “It’s the only way I can keep it alive. I have to give it gas when it first starts or it doesn’t like to obey my commands.”
He shook his head and then made a ‘round up’ motion with his finger. I took that as ‘lead the way’ and started forward.
By the time I was at the parking lot entrance, he was behind me. By the time that we arrived at my dad’s place, I might’ve been just as excited as he was.
***
Bayou
She lifted her hand and the hawk launched itself from its perch and flew toward her. The hawk was on the larger side for the red-tailed hawk’s breed, and I wondered if that was due to being given good food on a regular schedule, or because it was just bigger in general.
I’d been doing some research on the healthiness of birds in captivity compared to their wild brethren.
“How much does she weigh?” I questioned.
“She weighs in at about two and a half pounds, last time I checked,” she answered immediately. “Looks heavier, huh?”
I nodded once, my heart pounding.
The glove she was wearing looked heavy-duty and thick, but seeing those claws digging into the glove, where her skin would be if she wasn’t wearing them, made me frown.
I didn’t like the idea of her being hurt, even inadvertently.
“Have you stopped hunting her for her to molt?” I questioned.
“Will you shut her mew?” Phoebe gestured to the bird’s enclosure.
I walked to the door and closed it instantly, then turned back to her.
“And to answer your question, we’re right at the time where I’d stop. I normally do it mid-September. I was going to take her out hunting tomorrow for the last time…but she won’t mind doing it today,” she answered.
If it wasn’t uncool to fist pump like a child, I might’ve done it in that second.
“This takes a while, though,” she pointed out hesitantly. “Like an hour at least. If we’re lucky. It could take upwards to three if we don’t find anything.”
I shrugged. “I don’t care.”
Her smile that she shot my way was radiant. “Okay, then let’s go. But stay back because she needs to be following my cues, not yours. Ready?”
One Chance, Fancy Page 7