Fall in Love Book Bundle: Small Town Romance Box Set

by Grover Swank, Denise

“While I think some tote bags would be a great addition to the gift shop,” Charlie said, “I think that we can do more. We need to find a way to combine the swamp boat tour company and the animal experiences more intimately.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Sawyer asked.

  “Well, the otters are probably a little more obvious,” Charlie said. “But we might need to figure out a way to help people understand what llamas have to do with the swamp.”

  “Actually, they’re alpacas.”

  Charlie turned as Griffin’s voice sounded behind her. For just a second, Charlie lost her train of thought. That never happened when she was talking about marketing plans and doing presentations.

  “Right, alpacas.” She gave Griffin a big smile. He’d told her they were alpacas the night they’d been in the barn together.

  He frowned.

  “I’m not really sure that alpacas do have anything to do with the swamp,” Sawyer said. He glanced at Tori with an affectionate smile. “We have alpacas because we have Tori, not because we live on the swamp.”

  Charlie pulled her eyes away from Griffin and focused on Sawyer. She nodded. “Right, which is why we have to try to make some kind of connection.”

  “But that’s why it’s funny,” Maddie said. “Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild. It’s tongue-in-cheek. Alpacas and otters and goats aren’t really that wild.”

  Charlie nodded. Maddie had filled her in on everything while they’d been chatting before Griffin showed up this morning.

  The petting zoo was a very only-half-thought-out project. The animals were more of a side attraction. Something to occupy tourists while they waited for their boat tours. But Charlie thought they could change that.

  River otters made sense. They had a connection to the bayou. In fact, the first otter, Gus, had lived under one of the Boys of the Bayou docks and had adopted the guys before they adopted him. Then he’d gotten a girlfriend, and they’d had babies, and the Landrys had decided to make him a more official space to raise his little family.

  But alpacas and goats were a little more of a stretch when connecting the two portions of the business together.

  “I get that. I think we need to get some turtles and frogs and other bayou animals in here. Or we can maybe even expand to some other Louisiana animals.”

  “Such as?” Griffin asked. He had his arms crossed and looked annoyed.

  “Skunks. Foxes.” She shrugged. “You’d probably know better than me.” Though she’d looked up some native Louisiana animals.

  “We’re going to bring in skunks and foxes?” Griffin asked. “Why not a black bear? Or an alligator?”

  “If you think we could—”

  “No.” He said it flatly and firmly.

  And just like the way his soothing, reassuring voice had made her stomach swoop, so did his firm, don’t-mess-with-me voice.

  “But it could—”

  “No, Charlotte.”

  Oh boy, and using her full name? Why did that make her hot?

  “You’re a zoo veterinarian. Surely you know the importance of people learning about animals and having a chance to interact with them.”

  “Wild animals need to be—deserve to be—wild unless there is a reason they are safer in captivity.”

  There was an intensity in his expression and tone that said he would not budge on this.

  She could, of course, remind him that he was a partner here in the veterinary clinic but not in the Boys of the Bayou.

  But she didn’t want to.

  She was always up for pushing her ideas and making her case. Sometimes she had to convince people to see things her way by laying out details and proof.

  There was something about Griffin’s adamant refusal here that made her nod instead. “Fine.” She looked back to Sawyer and Maddie. “Then if we’re going with the funny, tongue-in-cheek thing, we need to lean into it. We can get some other animals that kids can interact with, but that aren’t wild.”

  Her mind was spinning with ideas. How could they play up the “wild” joke? Make it funny and interesting rather than “what the hell is this all about?”

  “We can make a visit to the petting zoo a ‘jungle tour,’” she said, as the idea formed. “We give the kids plastic jungle hats to wear while they’re here.” She gasped. “Oh, and a field guide. They can do a tour of our animals, learning facts, earning stickers, taking little notes. We can share the wildest thing each animal does. I mean, even if it’s something not-wild-at-all, that will be interesting and fun. In fact, the less wild, the funnier.”

  She paced to the end of the counter, thinking. “Then once they’re done with the petting zoo, they stop over at a little ‘training center’ where they learn about more dangerous animals around here—alligators, snakes, bears, and so on. The ones that are actually wild.”

  She turned and paced to the other end. “And we emphasize why it’s important to respect wild animals and be careful when you come across one outside of a zoo.” She nodded. “Yes, we can turn this into something more educational that way. Oh!” She spun around again. “We can have a little station with a laptop or tablet set up where the kids from other places can learn about the wildest animals where they’re from!”

  She grabbed for her notebook and a pen, knocking the pencil holder off the front of the counter. Pens scattered, but Charlie bent her head over her paper. And kept talking.

  “Then they get on the swamp boats and can continue their tour by looking for and learning about alligators and herons and snakes and turtles and other things they might see out there, and what their wild environment is like.”

  She scribbled her notes, then stood back. Finally, she focused on the other people with her again.

  She grinned at them all. “The alpacas and goats will be gateway-wild-animals.”

  “Gateway?” Maddie asked.

  “We get kids excited about the animals that are cute and approachable, and it will pique their interest in learning about others. We’ll just get progressively more ‘wild’ with what we expose them to. Then when they get home, they’ll be more into learning about animals where they are.”

  Another idea hit her. “Oh! We can also set up an online forum. Kids can share experiences with us when they get back home too. Maybe they write us a little essay about wild animals where they live. Or draw us pictures.” She bent over her notebook again, writing furiously. “We can have monthly prizes for sharing with us! Stuffed alpacas and alligators and pigs! We can have a whole section on our website with animal facts!”

  She looked up. Her heart was actually pounding a little harder than it was before. She loved brainstorming. It was her favorite part next to that moment when a client said, “Wow, this is working! We’re so happy.”

  Sawyer was watching her with amusement, and Maddie was smiling. Tori looked excited. And Griffin…

  Charlie turned to look at him.

  He was staring at her as if amazed. Or horrified.

  Chapter 7

  “For an added fee, they can then have a true otter encounter where they can feed and swim with the otters,” Charlie said.

  “No.”

  She sighed at Griffin’s reaction. After all of that, all she got was a no? “Why not?”

  “Swim with them? We don’t need people tromping around inside the otter enclosure. That’s not safe or secure for the animals.”

  It was about the animals again. She had to admit, that was attractive. Even if he was objecting to her idea.

  “Is there a way to bring a couple of otters to a bigger pool to—”

  “No,” Griffin said before she even finished. “Transporting them back and forth would be stressful for them.”

  Charlie propped a hand on her hip. “What about feeding them?”

  “You want people tossing fish into them?”

  “I was thinking hand feeding.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because humans don’t listen to instructions and could do so
mething that’s dangerous to the animals. They could pass germs and disease. Feed them something they shouldn’t have. Any number of things.”

  Charlie felt her brows lift. Wow. He said that with a lot of passion.

  “But we could have a handwashing station and very closely monitor who is there and how they are interacting with the animals,” Tori said, stepping forward. “Just like at the barnyard. We’ll want people to wash their hands, and we’ll, of course, provide any feed they give the animals.”

  “People are going to be feeding the barnyard animals?” Griffin asked, scowling.

  “I think we could incorporate that,” Tori said, her voice even and calm. “At designated times and with a limited number of people.”

  “Who would be supervising?” Griffin asked.

  Charlie snorted. Then she shook her head. “Sorry.”

  “What’s funny about that?” he asked.

  “Well, obviously, you would be supervising,” she said. “No one else would do it right, would they?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “No. They probably wouldn’t.”

  Charlie grinned at him. She knew his grumpy, bossy thing was supposed to put her in her place, but… it didn’t. It made her want to poke at him. And make him smile.

  “I don’t really have time to supervise a bunch of tourists messing with my animals.”

  His animals? She knew the animals were actually, technically, Tori’s. But he clearly felt protective. That was… sexy.

  “We’ll do the feedings at designated times, and I’ll be sure, as your assistant, to keep those times free on your clinic schedule.” She smiled at him sweetly.

  He sighed.

  She was going to take that as not-a-no, which was maybe as close as she was going to get to an agreement on this. At least for now.

  Charlie turned to Sawyer and Maddie. “As it is now, people are only taking in the otters and petting zoo while they wait for boat tours, is that right?”

  Sawyer nodded. “Yeah. When the otter family grew, and we wanted them to have a safe space, we decided to build an enclosure and figured we could locate it down by the docks. It really was, initially, intended just to be a place for the otters to live. But people love watching them, and it’s right there so… Tori suggested bringing some of her other animals down there to a little barnyard as an added attraction and—” Sawyer shrugged. “Here we are.”

  So the petting zoo was kind of an accidental petting zoo. That was funny and pretty in character for her family, Charlie had to admit.

  “Of course, that means sometimes they’re over at the petting zoo instead of hanging out at Ellie’s bar and enjoying a pre-tour cocktail,” Maddie said with a grin. “Which annoys Ellie. She calls the otters ‘varmints’ who are stealing her business.”

  “We had to promise Ellie to really sell the bar on the tour, so the people stop over there afterward,” Sawyer said. “We’ve started extending the time after the tour before the busses leave.”

  Charlie nodded. Her grandpa, Leo, and her cousin, Mitch, drove the busses that picked tourists up and returned them to their hotels in New Orleans. “Good idea. Does Ellie have kid-friendly options?” Charlie asked.

  Maddie and Sawyer looked at one another. “She’s got soda and lemonade,” Sawyer said.

  She was going to have to work on her grandmother too, Charlie realized. “Well, we need a kids’ menu. Things that would make a family want to go in. Maybe coloring pages—”

  They all laughed. Even Griffin. She really liked the sound of his laugh.

  “Ellie’s bar is a… bar,” Maddie said. “She’s got food, but it’s gumbo and boudin balls and fried pickles. Stuff like that.”

  “Kids from other places should try local cuisine,” Charlie said. “It’s part of the travel experience. Especially when you can have it homemade in a family-owned, roadside spot.”

  But even as she said it, she knew Ellie’s wasn’t the kind of place most families would take their kids for lunch. For one, the building itself was pretty… ramshackle. It didn’t leak when it rained, but it also wasn’t anything anyone would call quaint or adorable. It was a big square building full of mismatched chairs and tables. The décor was a mix of photographs and sports team banners. It would need a makeover if they were going to make it into a tourist stop for anything other than a quick hurricane or beer before or after a boat tour.

  “You know Ellie’s not going to be into the idea of sprucing things up for a bunch of strangers,” Maddie said. “She figures people can take her and her bar as is or leave them.”

  Maddie was right. Charlie could maybe talk Ellie into letting Mitch paint the outside, and maybe… no, that was probably about it. The bar had been exactly as it was for as long as Charlie could remember. It was often full of people she knew and loved—and the best etouffee and bread pudding in the entire world—but she could understand why it might look a little dingy to outsiders.

  “Fine, then we put in a concession stand,” she said.

  Sawyer looked less enthusiastic about that, but it was Griffin who actually groaned.

  “What now?” she asked.

  “Trash, discarded containers, and wrappers that can get into pens. Goats will try to eat almost anything. People feeding the ducks popcorn…” He scowled. “No.”

  Charlie sighed. This guy definitely said that word a lot. It was her least favorite word in the English language. By far.

  “Maybe Ellie would be open to serving some people at picnic tables outside the bar or something,” Charlie said, also making that note. She’d talk to her grandma about it. Ellie was stubborn and truly liked things as they were with her business, but she was also the matriarch and, as such, wanted everyone to be happy and successful. Charlie could sell this to her. Probably.

  She couldn’t be any more difficult to win over than Griffin.

  And Charlie thought Griffin was at least a little won over by her.

  “We need to work on making this all one big package, one big experience,” she went on. “We need to make sure people know what to expect when they come down here, so they can plan their time. We need to pick people up earlier for their swamp boat tours, so they have time to spend at the petting zoo. Or figure in lunch and drinks after the swamp boat tour. The longer people hang out, the more likely they are to head into the gift shop too.”

  Maddie winced. “The gift shop could also use some work.”

  Charlie already had plans for that too. They would, for instance, have to sell duplicates of the jungle hats the kids could wear while in the petting zoo. And the stuffed animals she was going to put up as prizes for their online interactions.

  “We’re going to figure out a way to encompass all of that for people coming down to the bayou and spending the whole day versus just a few hours the way they do now,” she said.

  Ellie and the family already had a crawfish boil every Friday night, and often, tourists would opt to stay for that after their tour. Boys of the Bayou also ran some special tours for bachelor and bachelorette parties, sunset tours, even night tours a couple of times a week. They needed to expand to jungle-cruise-themed kids’ birthday parties, though. At least. She knew more ideas would be coming to her.

  “So there will be more people milling around for longer periods of time?” Griffin asked

  “Well, hopefully,” Charlie said with a smile. “If I do my job, anyway.

  Sawyer was clearly thinking this all through. “We’ll have to hire more people to manage the extra traffic for longer periods of time. And add lots more supplies to the budget.”

  Charlie nodded. “We will definitely need to hire more staff.” Someone was going to have to make the popcorn and snow cones and…

  “How do we pay for that?”

  Charlie reeled in her thoughts about what the concession stand could include. “With the profits. Like any business.”

  “The swamp boat company is going to have to support increased staffing and hats and stuff at the petting zoo?” Sawyer asked.


  “Increased business at the petting zoo will be supported by the proceeds from the petting zoo.”

  “We don’t have proceeds from the petting zoo.”

  Charlie stared at him. Then she looked at Maddie. Then she looked at Tori. “You don’t charge for the petting zoo?”

  “Do we charge people to stand at the fence and look at our alpacas and goats?” Sawyer asked. “No.”

  “All they do is look?” Charlie asked, looking at Maddie.

  Maddie shrugged. “What else would they do?”

  Charlie stared at her. “Have you ever been to a petting zoo? The word petting is kind of a giveaway.”

  “Of course,” Maddie said. “But in order for people to go in and interact with the animals, we would have to have staff and, as Sawyer pointed out, to have staff, we would have to pay them, and to pay them, we would have to have money.”

  “Which is where charging the visitors comes in,” Charlie said. “We charge them tickets for the petting zoo just like any other petting zoo. To do the ‘tour’ where they can wear the hat and get a keepsake booklet they pay a little more. Same with the otter encounter. They’ll pay for the concessions. And that money helps to support the petting zoo and the otter encounter.” She looked over at Tori. “How do you support the animals now?”

  Tori hesitated for a moment. Then shrugged. “With our love.”

  Charlie laughed and shook her head. “Love is wonderful, but it doesn’t really pay the bills.”

  “We would have to get decent staff to interact with the animals. Not just anyone can do that.”

  Oh good, more Griffin input. Honestly, she’d done easier presentations to billionaire CEOs. She was here to do a job that Griffin clearly didn’t want her to do. That was just great.

  Now she had reason to look at him again, though. Charlie gave him a smile. “Yes, Dr. Foster. We would have to get animal lovers and then train them to work in the petting zoo and the otter encounter. Which would be a great experience for any kids who’d like to go into veterinary medicine or other careers with animals. Just think of the amazing influence you could have.”

  Though billionaire CEOs probably didn’t feel as passionately about their products as Griffin seemed to about the animals in his care.