Page 41 of Talk Birdie to Me

Geena had said that. But she’d been hungry, and he brought pizza along with the bird food. She wouldn’t turn down Renaldo’s, regardless of who brought it.

If Cody was going to bring that pizza every time he checked on Gary, then maybe this arrangement would turn out better than she’d expected.

Still, she didn’t want to admit that.

Or discuss this with her family anymore.

She looked from Taylor’s mischievous grin to her mother and father’s inquisitive expressions, then said, “Can we eat now?”

11

“All right, team. Listen up.” Cody stood before the group with his hands behind his back. He eyed each individual, one at a time, making sure he had their full attention. “The mistakes of the past are in the past. Today is a new week. A new day with a clean slate. Everyone understand?”

There was a low hum of chatter.

Cody waited for them to settle before jumping in with his plan for that early Monday morning. He needed everyone on board and paying attention. They were going to get through this and right the ship. Together. As a unit.

Silence stretched out for a few moments. His answer came soon enough.

“Shit stain!”

The sweet voice came from the Amazon parrot, the new apparent ringleader of the aviary. Cody sighed and hung his head while the rest of the parrots cackled, whistled, and laughed in response.

At least now he knew who to separate out next. Hopefully, that would do the trick. Otherwise, they’d have to put them all in separate cages or empty out the whole aviary while they retrained the bunch of them with new vocabulary.

He’d get someone to set up another cage for the Amazon in the meal prep room. The bright green bird looked nothing like Gary, so if the intruder made a reappearance, this parrot should be safe.

Unless he was off base about the reason for the break-in.

Maybe his judgment was being clouded by the fact that Gary’s owner was in jail. The intruder could have been someone completely unrelated to that. Someone just looking to score an expensive bird to resell.

Was there some local black market for exotic animals he didn’t know about? It would have popped up recently if there was. That kind of thing was always on zoo radar, mostly because they ended up with the castoffs after local authorities or animal control confiscated an animal when someone bit off a more exotic pet than they could handle. Legally, at least.

Still, just because he hadn’t heard of anything like that didn’t mean it didn’t exist. Could be a new thing.

He was overthinking this.

Overthinking was not his strong suit.

But he had to carefully consider this particular parrot’s safety. Which meant getting Mitch to put a new lock on that door. Something beefy this time. Something difficult to break into. Just in case.

He sent a quick text to Lauren, who was enjoying the day off with her girlfriend. Cody wouldn’t normally bother her on a day off, but he knew she’d get a kick out of this update.

The chuckle bunch is at it again.

He left the aviary, heading toward the main building near the front of the zoo to find Mitch and change that lock. He’d grab someone to set up a cage later. Mondays were slow, so it shouldn’t be a problem to get the Amazon moved into Gary’s old spot.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, but the text he found wasn’t from Lauren.

I’m ordering food for Monday. Your favorites from Toby’s. Potato salad and rice dressing and ribs.

Those were his favorites. And he had a childhood filled with memories of Toby’s prepared meals for every special occasion, since his mother rarely cooked. Especially not for holidays if she could help it.

What’s next Monday?

There was a long pause, then his phone rang.

“It’s Memorial Day, Cody.” His mother sounded as exasperated as he did talking to that gaggle of pesky parrots. “You are off, aren’t you?”

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