Big Gator: A BBW shape shifter paranormal romance (7 page)

             
Was
this for real?
 
McEvans
asked himself.
 
Was
that ASS for real?

             “
That's
amazing!” McEvans said.
 
Both
her AND her ass are kind of amazing,
came
the
intruding
afterthought. For the first time, he truly felt like maybe this was a
genuine lead.

             “
I
just want to get one thing straight,” Brandy said. “Like I said,
I don't want the reward.”

             “
You
must want something,” he proposed.

             
Yeah
– you.

             
“
I
want a job,” Brandy said.

             “
What
kind of a job?”

             “
I
want to be a herpetologist, and I'd like to work directly with you in
the gator pit.  I can wrestle a gator better than anyone else.”

             
McEvans
looked doubtful.  Brandy did not look like the most athletic of
women.

             “
Give
me an internship – but I have to get paid – I can't volunteer –
and you can trust me,” she said. “I know what you're thinking. 
I'm a big woman, but I can carry my weight, and I know what I'm
doing.”

             “
Uh
– okay,” he said.  “I just don't want anybody getting hurt
on my watch.”

             “
There's
something else if I bring her to you,” she added. “Shirley needs
her own space AND you can't keep her locked up.  You need to let
her go back to her home-base once a week for at least a couple of
days. Or, better yet, you can have her onsite every other week.
She’ll get used to that routine, I think.”

             “
That
doesn't make sense.”

             “
Yes
it does,” Brandy told him.  “She ran away, right?  A
woman needs space.
 
Shirley
needs
space. If you love that gator, set her free.  If she loves you
back, she'll come back to you.  I think she liked it here at
Animal Sphere, but she just needed a break.”

             
McEvans
studied her again.
 
She
seems so familiar,
he
thought.
 
Where
have I met her before?

             “
I
don't get this whole alligator-psychology thing you're trying to sell
me on,” he said. “But to tell the truth, I never thought that
gators had any kind of higher intelligence until I met Shirley. 
And it looks like I've lost her for good unless someone trustworthy
can bring her back.”

             “
You
can trust me, Jake,” Brandy said.  It was the first time she
said his name.

             “
Well,
if you say that you think you understand this gator and can bring her
back,” he said, “and if you have a way of letting me keep her
somehow in the long run without her leaving me again, then I'm
willing to take a shot.”

             
She
stood up and they shook hands on it.  The touch of Jake McEvans
hand in hers caused Brandy to catch her breath.  His hand was
callused and firm, and she wanted him to wrestle her again right then
and there.
Brandy
wanted nothing more than for Jake McEvans to just get up on her back
and wrap those manly hands around her jaws to keep them shut!

             
Outside
his office, on her way down the corridor, Brandy ran into Rachel
again.  She didn't seem to be in a good mood.

             “
So
what's the story?” she asked. “Can you really bring Shirley
back?”

             “
I'm
pretty sure,” Brandy said.

             “
Oh,”
Rachel replied.

             
Brandy
paused.

             “
Is
something wrong?”

             
Rachel
hesitated, then for some reason felt like she could talk to Brandy.

             “
I've
been with Jake for two years now,” she said. “And I've gotten
used to the long hours, and the travel, and the danger.  I get
it.  He works with wild animals.  He's very good at it, and
I love that he's a man with a passion...”

             
Her
voice trailed off.

             “
But?”

             “
But,”
she said, “I get this feeling – and I know it's crazy to be
jealous of an alligator – but when Shirley was around, it was like
he was in love with her or something.  It wasn't normal.”

             
Brandy's
heart fluttered.

             “
That's
crazy, right?” Rachel asked.

             “
It's
crazy,” Brandy assured her.
 
It
was, wasn't it?
 
“
Men
can get obsessive about things.  Just be glad he's not a
gambling addict or something.”

             “
If
she comes back, I don't know if I can compete for his attention,”
Rachel.

             
Brandy
felt bad for her all of a sudden.  But the reality was, as a
normal human male – a male who did not shift – McEvans would
never find her attractive as a woman.   He just couldn't
appreciate her size the same way he did when she was an alligator.

             
Was
she being stupid here?  Was she setting herself in the path of
an unavailable man?  Probably, but she had a concrete reason to
be here as well.
Brandy
was pursuing a career – this was a stepping stone to her dream
job.   She was a grown woman and could handle her emotions
around McEvans.

             
Brandy
felt itchy.  She had to get home and exfoliate.

Chapter 8

             
Brandy's
final paycheck from her old job never showed up as a direct deposit,
so she was going to have to go down to the office.

             
The
woman at the front desk was new, and she did not recognize Brandy. 
She said that all former employees were barred from the premises once
they ceased to be employed.  Brandy would have to wait in the
lobby.

             
Eventually
her former boss showed up with a check in hand.

             “
We
had to cut it for you the old fashioned way,” she said. “Company
policy.”

             “
Why
didn't you mail it to me?” Brandy asked.

             “
Company
policy.”

             “
Why
didn't anybody call to let me know that I should come pick it up.”

             “
That
was our fault.  Sorry about that.”

             
Brandy
had worked for five years at this place.  For the first year she
cold-called the cellphone customers of competitors, trying to get
them to switch providers.  Then she took customer service calls
and tried to help customers with their practical problems. Finally,
she became a low-level manager. It was all very boring, and it did
not pay well. There was no contract, there was no union.  She
was white collar, technically, but she could barely pay her bills. 
At the very least, she didn't have to pay for a cellphone.

             
Crap! 
She no longer had a free cellphone!

             
Her
boss had read her mind.

             “
We
wanted to know if you wanted to keep your number and your plan?”

             “
Uh,
I would need to know how much my plan would cost.”

             
She
had signed up for a deluxe calling plan.
 
Of
course she did – it was free!

             
Her
boss excused herself to go look up this information.  She came
back and delivered the bad news.

             “
Your
plan would cost $275 per month.”

             “
Seriously? 
Does anyone actually pay that as an individual?” Brandy asked.

             
Her
old boss stood there patiently.

             “
You
can have 45 days – through the end of the next cycle – to decide
what you want to do.  Then just give us a call.”

             
Brandy
walked out of the air-conditioned building into the humid heat. 
She pulled up internet access on her smartphone and looked up her
plan.  She had 2,500 free peak-time minutes per month.  She
never knew, because she never checked.  Who could possibly use
up 2,500 peak-time minutes per month even if they tried?

             
Brandy
decided to make the most of it.  She  was going to call
everyone she knew – all her 775 cousins. And all her aunts and
uncles. And all her distant relatives whom she hadn't spoken to in
years.  She was even going to call relatives she had never met
or spoke to ever in her life!

             
She
called Marianne.

             “
Are
you busy?”

             
Marianne
was at work.

             “
I'll
come pick you up,” Brandy told her. “Then we're going to the
health club.  We'll go for a swim, then grab an early dinner.”

             
Brandy
jumped in her car and headed over to Marianne's Gator Rescue site.

             
Marianne
tried to keep her facilities as natural and peaceful as possible.
Brandy walked through the front gate, past the main building, toward
the pond in the back.  High security fences kept predators at
bay.  Gator hatchlings were easy prey for common animals such as
skunks and even small snakes.  They were very, very vulnerable.

             
The
squeaking of the hatchlings was incredibly endearing. To Brandy and
Marianne, the hatchlings were cuter than puppies, although they were
a bunch of little troublemakers and neither woman wanted a batch of
her own.  The littlest youngsters floated around on lily pads in
the pond. A shifter hatchling could be identified by the fact that
all of them had deep blue eyes, no matter what color eyes they would
have as a human. A normal alligator has olive green eyes.

             
Marianne
told Brandy she had to finish up some paperwork in the office, but
that Brandy could stay and play with the kids.  The gators that
were hitting almost three years were kept inside, because any one of
them could shift at any moment.  That could not be seen in
public at any cost.

             
While
Brandy was splashing around with the hatchlings, Susan Quackenbush
showed up.  Susan was an unwed shifter mother who had gotten
herself in trouble.  Her roots were showing – a bad dye job
growing out – and her eye makeup was smeared.  The woman had
been crying.