by Cassie Cole
“I do?”
“Sure. It helps that we’re in the golden hour right now, the ideal lighting conditions to take photos. The light contrasts well in your hair and skin. I won’t have to tweak these or add a filter or anything. You’re a natural.”
He said it confidently, but his cheeks reddened a touch as if he was embarrassed to compliment me. It was adorable.
“The photos you took of Jake and David look great, too,” I said.
He nodded. “Jake’s a handsome guy. Out of the three of us, the women always loved him the most.”
“I bet.” I gave a start. “Wait. That’s not what I meant. I was trying to say that you are a gifted photographer.”
“No need to be weird about it. My brothers are good-looking dudes. That’s just a fact. They get ogled by all the ladies. It’s been that way my whole life.” He winked at me. “I’ll leave you to it.”
He began to walk away.
“Hey,” I called.
He turned around.
“You’re not too shabby yourself,” I said. “You’re much cuter than either of them. I’d ogle you any day.”
“I appreciate your attempt at flattery,” he said, but based on the way his cheeks reddened and how he grinned it was clear my attempt had succeeded.
I worked until the sun went down and I could barely see. Even then it felt like I had barely made a dent in my to-do list. There were so many things that still needed to be done around here.
“We should hire someone,” I told David back at the house. He was seated in a leather chair in the foyer, going over a stack of financial documents.
“I’m not sure that’s feasible.”
“We could use the help. This zoo is too big to be managed by just four people.”
“It seems like we are getting by okay.”
“For now, sure,” I said. “But what happens if an animal gets wounded, or sick? That will occupy most of my time. Can you, Jake, and Anthony pick up the rest of the duties without me?”
David rubbed his hard jaw. “We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. But I hear your concern.”
I went upstairs and took a shower. On the way back to my bedroom I passed Jake’s closed door. The sound of shouting drifted into the hallway, only slightly muffled by the door.
“It’s the plan I came up with,” David insisted. “We’re sticking to it.”
“Dad would have hated it!” Jake shouted. “You’ve been here a few days and you’re already dismantling everything he built.”
“This place is bankrupt! What do you expect us to do?”
“I expect you to try harder,” Jake growled. “Not just give up like this. Is this her plan?”
“This is my plan. And it’s a good one.”
Jake laughed bitterly. “There it is. The oldest brother making decisions without anyone’s input. Like always.”
“And there you go again, criticizing everything without offering your own solution! If you find a way to contribute a solution, come let me know.” Floorboards creaked as David stomped toward the door.
I hurried on to my room so they wouldn’t know I was eavesdropping. The door opened and slammed closed so hard the walls shook, and David stalked down the hall angrily.
15
Rachel
After David and Jake’s argument had safely died down, I went to the kitchen to get some dinner. The room smelled like roasted meat and spices. Anthony was crouched down in front of the oven, peering inside.
“There you are!” he said happily. “I’m making a big dinner. Chicken and potatoes. I figured we could all eat together, seeing as we’re working together now.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” I said. “I was planning on eating in my room. You don’t have to go to any extra effort for me.”
“No extra effort at all! It’s the same amount of food being cooked either way. Come on, I insist. I’ll be offended if you don’t join us.”
The food did smell more appetizing than another TV dinner. And the company would be nice. “Okay. I’d love to join.”
While Anthony finished preparing the food I set the table in the dining room. On one wall was a hutch filled with fine china and glassware, and on the other three walls were various photographs of Crazy Carl and his animals. In one of the photos he looked younger, and he had normal hair instead of his cherry-red mohawk.
David brought me a beer. “When was this photo taken?” I asked.
He glanced at it and laughed. “That was before we were born. Seventies, or early eighties.”
“He looks downright normal in this! When did he turn into Crazy Carl?”
David’s smile faded. “He liked to say it was when we were born. How having kids made him lose his marbles.”
“That’s a shitty thing for a father to say,” I said softly.
“Yeah. Add it to the pile.”
Jake appeared in the doorway and stopped. “The fuck is she doing here?”
“She’s having dinner with us.”
“Anthony said it was a family dinner.”
Anthony emerged from the kitchen with a big roasting pan filled with potatoes and chicken. “Dad always said the zoo employees were practically family. And trust me, this food is good. It would be super rude not to let her have some, even if her company wasn’t delightful.”
“I can go…” I offered.
“No.” David gave Jake a pointed stare. “You’re staying. My brother is being rude.”
Jake shrugged like it was no big deal.
“Hats off at the dinner table,” Anthony told Jake.
“That’s a dumb rule,” he replied.
Anthony blinked. “Yeah. But it was dad’s rule.”
After a moment, Jake removed his cotton beanie. His auburn hair was messy underneath.
We all sat down and passed around the serving dish. The potatoes were cut into wedges, which were golden and crispy, and the chicken breasts had been baked in some sort of cream sauce. Anthony returned from the kitchen with another dish of broccoli. My stomach rumbled as I piled my plate high.
“This is amazing!” I said after one bite. “And I’m not just saying that because I’m starving.”
“Anthony always was a solid cook,” David said.
The youngest Haines brother beamed. “Aw, it was nothing. Just whipped a few things together.”
David’s plate held only chicken and broccoli. “You should try the potatoes. They’re better than French fries.”
Jake snorted as if that was a joke.
“David doesn’t eat carbs,” Anthony explained. “Which is crazy since all the best foods in the world are carbs!”
“Really?”
David nodded. “I’m on the keto diet. Ketogenic. I get all of my calories from protein and fat.”
“Ice cream,” Anthony was saying to himself. “Rice, pasta. Bread! How can someone go without eating bread…”
“You’ve got a diet like a big cat,” I said. “All protein and fat.”
He popped a piece of chicken in his mouth. “And like the big cats, I have to supplement my diet with vitamins. But aside from that, humans eat too many carbs.”
“We need carbohydrates for energy,” I said with a frown.
“You’d be surprised,” David said. “Twenty or thirty carbs per day is plenty for most people, unless you’re an athlete or marathon runner.”
Hunched over his plate, Jake snorted. “That’s our older brother. Always finding ways to feel superior to everyone else.”
“I’m not telling anyone how to live their lives. Just explaining the macro breakdown that works for me.”
Jake rolled his eyes.
“You three are definitely brothers,” I said. “Not just because you bicker. You all look alike, too.”
“If you want to get technical,” Jake said, “I only share half my genes with them. Thank fuck.”
“Huh?”
“We’re half-brothers,” David explained curtly. “We shared the same father, but we were each f
rom a different mother.”
“Oh. Where are your mothers, then?”
An awkward silence stretched, and I regretted asking the question.
“My mother’s a drug addict,” David said with the same tone as someone describing the weather. “Gave birth to me then split. Haven’t spoken to her in twenty years. Jake’s mom stuck around a little longer, but she joined a religious cult down in Puerto Rico.”
“The children of the rising light,” Jake said bitterly. “I get a card from her every fourteen months. On my birthday.”
“Every fourteen months?”
“Her cult keeps a different calendar than us,” Jake said dryly. “Apparently my birthday is the forty-third of nocturne, whatever the fuck that means.”
I turned to Anthony. “What about you?”
“Nothing as exciting as those two,” he replied with a smile. “Mom died in a car accident when I was a baby.”
I gasped. “Anthony!”
“Aw, you don’t have to react like that. I was less than a year old. I never even knew her.”
“She was nice,” David said while staring at his plate. “Cheerful. Like you.”
Anthony shrugged and resumed eating.
It seemed like a touchy subject so I switched gears and asked, “How is the GoFundMe page coming along? Did the photos help?”
“Oh, yeah!” Anthony said around a mouthful of broccoli. “It looks great now! It totally helps having action shots of everyone working in the zoo. I’d like to do some videos too, but for now photos are fine. Next I need to take over the zoo’s social media presence. Start asking for donations there.”
“Good work,” David said.
“While we’re on the subject? We’ve gotten a lot of Facebook posts asking when we’re going to open the zoo back up.”
Jake stabbed a piece of chicken extra hard and angrily bit it off his fork.
Anthony glanced at him and said, “We should give an update. So people know what’s going on. What our plan is.”
“Good idea,” David replied. “I’ll come up with an official statement. Oh, and speaking of the plan. I got an email an hour ago from a sanctuary down in Florida. They might take three of the tigers.”
Jake tossed down his fork, scraped his chair back, and went into the kitchen.
“That’s awesome,” I told David. “Which sanctuary?”
“The acronym started with an E. E-C-something?”
“The Endangered Cats Animal Preserve?” I asked.
“That’s the one.”
I laughed. “Small world. That’s an hour outside of Tallahassee. I used to visit there all the time. Tried to get an internship there last year, but they rejected me.”
“Their loss!” Anthony said with a friendly smile.
“Hopefully they’ll handle the transportation too,” David said. “But for now, it’s a good start on moving all these animals to better homes.”
I smiled as I finished off my beer. It was nice to see that David’s plan for this place was gaining momentum. It wasn’t just an empty promise to get me to work here.
Jake returned from the kitchen with a bottle of Jack Daniels. “Needed something stronger than beer,” he muttered while opening the hutch behind the table.
“I’ll take one too,” I said, trying to be friendly. Jake looked surprised, but then pulled two glasses out of the hutch and slammed them down on the table. He filled them with three fingers of whiskey, then slid one across the table, sloshing brown liquid over the edge.
“Thanks.” I took a sip. Fire burned down my throat and warmed my belly. Jake drank his entire glass in one long gulp, then refilled it from the bottle.
The rest of the meal passed quietly. A dark mood had fallen over the table, and the only sound was that of forks scraping against plates.
“So the three of you are half-brothers,” I said into the silence. “Was your dad a polygamist like those guys on Tiger King?”
Anthony grinned at me. “I thought you hadn’t watched it.”
“You haven’t seen Tiger King?” David said, surprised. “It’s nuts. It’s totally accurate, of course. Big cat owners really are crazy, our father included. How did you not watch the show?”
“I may not have seen it,” I told Anthony, “but I read the Wikipedia page. What’s with all of them being polygamists?”
“I don’t know, but dad wasn’t one,” David replied. He leaned back in his chair. “He just couldn’t keep wives for very long.”
“Charming enough to get a ring on their finger, but not sweet enough to keep them,” Anthony said. It sounded like he was quoting someone.
I let out a relieved laugh. “Alright, just wondering. That would have been crazy. Some weird relationship where everyone shared one partner…”
Jake looked up. “Hah!”
“What?”
He looked around the table. “Y’all don’t want to tell her?”
“Tell me what?”
Jake shook his head and poured more whiskey for himself. “All this time and you’re still embarrassed about it.”
I looked to David, then Anthony. “What’s he talking about?”
David kept a cool expression, but I could tell this was a sensitive topic. “About six years ago… The three of us shared a girlfriend. She worked here at the zoo. Lara.”
“Really!”
Anthony looked uncomfortable.
“Yep,” David said simply. “Anthony was a senior in high school, and Jake and I were in our early twenties. That’s about the gist of it. We don’t need to discuss it.” He gave Jake a pointed look which went unnoticed.
“Lara was great,” Jake said. The whiskey was making him more conversational than I had ever seen him. That, or he liked embarrassing his brothers. “Worked with the tigers. Sexy little thing, always wearing short-shorts with her ass hanging out when she worked at the zoo. We all had a thing for her, and it just so happened that she had a thing for us. Instead of choosing which brother she liked the best, she decided to have all three.”
“That just sounds like three times the opportunity to be sexually disappointed,” I teased. The whiskey was going to my head.
Jake leaned across the table and grinned. “No problems there. We made sure Lara was always satisfied.”
Anthony laughed nervously. “Heh. That’s real funny. Memories, am I right? I’m going to see if dad has any cookies or dessert or anything…”
“How would that work?” I asked. “Logistically, I mean. Did the four of you go on dates together?”
“We spent time with her individually,” David said.
“Not always,” Jake said, gesturing with his whiskey glass. There was a naughty look in his eyes. “We did some group activities too.”
It was clear what he meant by that. My imagination jumped into the driver’s seat and I pictured David, Jake, and Anthony in bed with a woman. Taking turns kissing her, caressing her, bending her over and putting their lips all over her body…
The thought made me tingle.
“No cookies in here!” Anthony called from the kitchen. “Um. We’ve got some ice cream and chocolate syrup if anyone wants that…”
“Baby brother’s still embarrassed about it,” Jake told me. “Like we did something wrong. You ask me, Lara’s one of the few things the three of us ever did right.”
“If it was so great, then what happened?”
“Dad fired her,” David said in an emotionless voice. “He found out she was with all three of us and accused her of trying to sleep her way to the top. He put her on a Greyhound bus back to New York. One morning we woke up and she was gone.”
“New Jersey,” Anthony said in the doorway to the kitchen. He had a gallon tub of ice cream under one arm and a stack of bowls in the other. “Lara was from New Jersey.”
Everyone was quiet as he opened the ice cream. I accepted a bowl and ate it slowly, grateful for something to distract me from the awkward silence.
“I can’t picture the three of you s
haring anything, much less a girl,” I said.
“Why not?” David asked.
“Because you all fight too much.”
Jake snorted and swirled his whiskey around in the glass. “Things used to be better back then. Between the three of us.”
“What changed? Did it have to do with Lara?”
I realized from their expressions that I had pushed them too far. For whatever reason, that was too personal of a question to discuss tonight. Which was surprising since they had just admitted to me that they shared a girlfriend.
“The zoo is going good so far!” Anthony said with false enthusiasm. “It seems like we’re all falling into a groove. Right?”
Jake threw back his whiskey. “If you say so.”
I was having fun with them. It was nice to sit around the table and get to know the three brothers I would be working with for the duration of my contract. I didn’t want it to end just because I had asked a personal question, so I quickly tried to think of something more funny.
“Well, this talk about Lara just begs the question. “Which of you did she think was the best kisser?”
The three of them laughed in similar, but different, ways. “I think we all know the answer to that,” Jake said smugly.
David scoffed. “We all know it’s not you. Lara always complained that you kissed with too much tongue.”
“I wasn’t talking about a kiss on the lips,” Jake said, giving me a mischievous smile. I felt my cheeks grow warm as I imagined exactly what he meant.
Levity returned to the table as the three brothers joked and teased each other about who was the best kisser. By the time my bowl was empty there was no clear answer.
The whiskey was sitting warm in my belly and everyone was smiling again. Even Jake. Maybe the argument I had overheard earlier was an isolated event, and everyone would get along after spending some more time together. Like a transition period.
David rose from the table and stretched his muscular arms over his head. “It’s past my bedtime. I’m turning in.”
“Me too.” I got up and lingered next to him. He moved in to give me a hug. Arms outstretched, making it clear what he intended.
