Page 40 of Talk Birdie to Me

“Who was the previous owner?” her father asked while he pulled out buns and condiments for their brisket sandwiches. “Why would he give this bird to the zoo?”

“Are we sure it doesn’t bite?” her mother asked.

“I’m not sure of anything, except he hasn’t bitten me yet,” Geena said. “His owner went to jail, and there was no one to take Gary.”

“To jail?” her mother and father asked in unison.

Great. She definitely should have fudged that detail.

“It’s not like Gary’s a criminal. Just his owner,” she said. “And he’s just in jail for tax evasion or money something or other.”

“Tax evasion,” her father stopped his food prep to narrow his eyes at Geena. “Who was this owner again?”

“I don’t know,” Geena said. “Anthony something?”

“Montesano?” her father asked.

“Maybe. I don’t know for sure.”

“Because there was an Anthony Montesano who went to jail for tax evasion,” her father said. “It was a big thing all over the local news.”

The name suddenly clicked.

He’d been a client of her accounting firm. She was pretty sure James had handled the account, but she wasn’t a hundred percent positive. She’d have to ask him if he remembered the guy having a bird.

Then she remembered something else.

Just before their split, Ricky had worked for a guy who had gone to jail. He wasn’t a criminal attorney, so he didn’t have anything to do with the trial. He handled contracts and money stuff. They weren’t speaking much at that point, so she never asked about it.

But her lawyer pointed out payments to a man named Anthony Montesano.

That had to be the same guy.

Right?

Last night, during their call, Ricky asked if there was a bird in the background. He’d sounded shocked, but could there have been more to that question if he knew his client had a parrot?

And Cody had mentioned the bird’s owner was a Tony something. Could be this same Anthony guy.

She couldn’t think of any reason all of this was connected. Still… this couldn’t all be a coincidence. Right?

Geena made a mental note to ask her lawyer if they could get any more details on that payment and if he might be the Anthony Montesano her father was thinking of.

“It’s none of my concern,” Geena said. “He’s in jail. I have the parrot for safekeeping. Temporarily. End of story.”

She hoped that was the end of it. She was tired of defending her decision when she hadn’t been fully on board with the plan to begin with.

“Fine,” her mother said. “We’ll switch topics. When do we get to meet Cody, the zoo man?”

“Oh, good grief.” Geena downed the rest of her wine and counted from five again before answering. “You won’t. We aren’t dating. We had one date that went horribly, then he brought me a bird and pizza from Renaldo’s.”

“Renaldo’s?” Her father wandered away from the food to join them. “You didn’t say it was Renaldo’s pizza.”

“That’s ‘marry me’ pizza,” her mother said in a hushed tone.

Geena sighed. “It’s only ‘marry me’ pizza for you two. For everyone else, it’s just good pizza.”

“Didn’t you say you’d never eat with him again?” Taylor asked.

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