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I pulled on one glove, then the other. “I’m meeting Chris at the zoo.”
She smirked. “Right. Date night.”
I tucked my chin into my blue scarf, hiding from wind, and shoved my hands into the pockets of my black pea coat. “We aren’t dating. You know that. It’s just movie night.”
“You can’t be friends with a guy who made you come repeatedly. That’s not a thing.” Batting the hair out of her eyes, she shot me a glare. It had been months, but she was still annoyed with me and my year of solitude.
I pulled my shoulders back. “I can and I am.”
“That’s insane.” She shook her head.
“Then I’m insane.” I shrugged. “But I gotta go. Love ya.” I gave her an air kiss and took off left as she went right.
I walked quickly the rest of the way to the zoo. Winter had truly set in, and as I pushed through the door into the zoo’s quarantine areas, I couldn’t have been happier to escape the icy wind coming in from the harbor. I waved to the guy at the security desk and said a quick hi toDean, the vet tech on shift for the night, before I headed into the puffin’s temporary home.
Chris was crouched behind the large indoor pond, with one of his denim clad knees pressed into a large rock for balance.
“No one thinks it’s weird, Pop. For fuck sake, I don’t break in. She gave me a set of keys. And they all know me by now. I’ve signed six hundred autographs for the staff here.”
I chuckled. As much as he griped about it, I’d never seen him turn down a request for an autograph. And he never left home without at least two Sharpies in his pocket. Last time, he even had rose gold.
“Hey, guys.” I shuffled up behind Chris.
He tipped his head up and frowned in that way he always did. “Tell Pop no one thinks I’m stalking you.”
“If anything, they think he’s stalking Puff, Mr. Damiano.” I crouched beside Chris and was immediately hit with the bourbon and leather scent that never failed to make my stomach flip. I teetered a bit, and Chris wrapped an arm around me to steady me. On the screen of Chris’s phone, his father gave me a warm smile.
“I keep telling you to call me Bo.”
Chris looked so much like his dad. The only differences were the wrinkles around his dark eyes and the hair that was so peppered with gray it was more white than black.
His dark eyes sparkled behind the thin-rimmed glasses he wore. “I’ll let you two enjoy your night. Just wanted to see my grandson. It’s been a while.”
“Don’t call him that. He’s a bird,” Chris grumbled.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at how closely his argument mirrored my dad’s.
“It’s not funny, Blondie.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Chris.” Bo chuckled. “And if you’d provide me with an actual grandchild, maybe I’d stop referring to your bird as your child.”
Chris sighed and shook his head. “Bye, Pop.”
His dad just grinned and waved at us both.
When the call had ended, I grinned. “He makes me laugh.”
“Me too. Most of the time.” Chris helped me to my feet. “Just not when he starts in on the grandkid shit. I’m nowhere near there.”
“Don’t be too hard on him. You’ll be a great dad someday, and I know he sees it.”
Chris shrugged. “He always says my sister and I are the best part of his life and he wants me to get to experience the joys and stress of having my own kids.”
“My dad says he’s too young to be a grandfather.”
Chris shook his head. Although he never made negative comments about my dad in my presence, nor did he let anyone around us, I knew that relationship was still strained.
“Puff seems to like the new birds,” he said.
