“Okay, you need to calm down,” Evan told her. “These penguins have belonged to you for a month. And you’re just now getting moved to where you’re going to settle them. Give yourself a break.”
Jill took a deep breath and blew it out.
“You’re going to be fine. There’s no one better for this,” Evan said reassuringly.
“I don’t know…I mean, I do know that.” It was a fact that she knew more about penguins than anyone else that was a part of this program. But… “These people are intimidating. They’re so enthusiastic, for one thing,” she said. “They’ve all already hatched new penguins. This is the only waddle that hasn’t had a baby.”
“I love that groups of penguins are called waddles,” Evan said.
Jill had to smile. Evan knew lots of random penguin facts because of her. She appreciated her friend’s interest in her passion.
“Anyway, these people have a lot of money and they are really into this program,” Jill said.
“You should love that,” Evan told her. “You are really into saving penguins. You should love that all of these people are too and are willing to put their money into it and, even more, take these penguins in and take care of them personally.”
“I know. And I do. But they are definitely looking to me to be the expert.”
“You are the expert.”
“Yeah. With a bunch of celibate penguins.”
Evan just chuckled at that.
Of course, all of that was definitely part of why she was feeling the pressure, but it was also weighing on her because a very dear friend had entrusted these birds to her, that he’d loved so much.
She hadn’t slept well for four weeks now. In fact, last night she’d slept harder and deeper than she had since the penguins had come into her life.
She honestly was thankful to Zeke for that.
Jill looked around.
“Okay, the enclosure is right in the middle of this ‘animal park’, but it’s pretty quiet here.”
“Show me around,” Evan encouraged.
She took a deep breath and focused on the structure in front of her.
The habitat itself was really beautiful. “Wow, Evan. This looks…amazing.”
Of course a couple million dollars and instructions not to spare any expense probably had something to do with that.
She’d admittedly been skeptical when Griffin and Charlie had assured her that they had people who could handle this construction job, but it turned out they’d been right.
“It looks like it from my side too. Is it what you wanted?” Evan asked.
“It is. I can’t tell if it’s finished.” She paced along the section of clear wall that looked into the enclosure.
She’d sent sketches and photographs with what the habitat should include and it looked like they’d done everything.
She switched the camera again so Evan could see.
“It’s an oval shape,” she told him. “About two-thirds of the perimeter is a clear wall, while the other one-third is made up of trees, rocks, and shrubbery. They made it look exactly like my sketches.”
“It looks great,” Evan told her.
She pointed. “It’s an island of sorts. There’s a moat between where I’m standing and the main land area the penguins will occupy. The moat is twenty feet across and thirty feet deep. The wall will keep the penguins inside, and other stuff out. Like humans. And wolves and bears. And alligators.” Jill shuddered thinking about all of the things that could make a snack of her penguins. “So that gives them additional space to swim. The water in it and the pond on the island is temperature controlled. So is that building.” She showed him the structure where the penguins could be kept in inclement weather—extreme heat, cold, or hurricanes, for instance. Yeah, she hadn’t had to worry about hurricanes in Omaha. But tornadoes had been part of their emergency planning.
“That building,” she said, pointing to the larger building set off behind the penguin house, “is where my office will be and the other side is storage, including the freezer where the penguins’ food will be kept.”
“So… is it finished?” Evan asked. “It looks complete.”
“It does. It looks like they’ve checked every box on the list I sent. They even got the lava rocks in here.”
In the distance she could hear the lemurs chattering and parrots squawking. There was the sound of a vehicle on the dirt road that ran in front of the entrance, but it was far enough off that it was hardly disturbing.
The sky overhead was bright blue, there was just a slight breeze, and the temperature was already seventy-four degrees and she could feel that it was going to get warmer.
It was going to take her some adjusting as well. Louisiana was much hotter and more humid than Kansas. Certainly the Great Plains had heat and humidity in the summer, but by this time of year the autumn air was cooling off.
“So, now that you’ve seen it and it’s complete and they did a great job, do you feel better?” Evan asked.
She took a deep breath and thought about his question. “Yes,” she answered after only a few seconds. “How the penguins adjust is still a question, but I’m so grateful that I had a place like this to relocate penguins. I’m grateful for the space, but I also really appreciate having someone like Griffin here in person. I do know more about penguins than Griffin does, but I know he’ll be willing and able to get his hands dirty if needed. Or to just listen to me bitch about my penguins being little prudes.”
Evan laughed. “You know I’ll always listen to you bitch about your penguins not putting out.”
She nodded. “I know.”
Evan and Cori had been very supportive of Jill taking on this project and this crazy move and everything else that went with it. But honestly, her phone calls, emails, and video calls with Tori, Charlie, Griffin, and even the other owners—Sawyer, Maddie, Owen, and Josh—as well as Jordan, their educational director, had made Jill truly feel welcomed and like her penguins had the backing of the entire Landry clan.
Jill knew that Griffin understood the enormity of the project she was undertaking and he would take it seriously. Griffin was an animal advocate first and foremost and had done a lot of work with conservation efforts working on a tiger propagation program at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. He was enthusiastic about this program for professional reasons first.
But he was now a part of the Landry family and the Landrys thought bringing penguins to their animal park was really damned cool.
Of course, that had added another layer to the pressure on Jill too. She knew that this was also the family business. The way they made their money. And that mattered to Griffin, her biggest professional ally here, because it was personal for him.
So yeah, bringing the penguins here was much more than just a favor to a friend.
Jill blew out a breath. “Okay, tell me this is going to be fine,” she said to Evan.
“This is going to be better than fine.”
So she had some conflicting pressures—the private group that needed the penguins to thrive and reproduce and the Landry family who wanted to expand their business—but surely there was a way to make this all happen.
“Right, one step at a time,” she said. She looked around again. “I kind of thought the guys who were working on the enclosure would be here this morning.”