doubtful about the idea that Brandy could help him find
'Shirley'. Yet, for some reason, he found himself unable to
just brush her off so easily.
“ I
don't mean to be impolite,” he said, “but we've had a lot of
folks trying to collect the reward, trying to pass off the wrong
gator as Shirley. Some of these gators are impressive in size,
but there's no mistaking Shirley for anyone else.”
“ I
told your girlfriend that I don't need the reward,” Brandy said.
They
were in McEvan's studio office now, and his administrative assistant
brought them both coffee.
He
gazed at Brandy for a second, sizing her up. Their eyes met and
then broke off, after taking a little bit longer than was
appropriate.
McEvans
was aware that he had been staring.
“ I'm
sorry, but you remind me of someone,” he said. “What was
your last name again?”
“ Guyette,”
she said.
Brandy
was feeling a little nervous now, because she could feel a palpable
mutual connection here between them, for some crazy reason, even
though she was in human form.
“ What
makes you so sure that you have an idea where Shirley is and that you
can track her down?”
Brandy
took a breath. There was no way this would sound good to
someone who wasn't a shifter, but it was the only plausible
explanation she could come up with.
“ I've
been around gators since I was a kid,” she said. “My parents,
believe it or not, used to take me swimming with them starting when I
was about 10 years old.”
McEvans
was momentarily dumbstruck.
“ They
did?”
“ Yes
sir.”
“ Well,
uh, that's not exactly the, uh...smartest thing.” He was
choosing his words carefully. Inside, he was screaming What
the hell kind of trailer trash parents throw their kid into
alligator-infested waters??!!
“ It's
an old Seminole thing,” Brandy lied. No,
it was a shifter thing.
She
felt pretty uncomfortable here, very aware that he was staring at her
like he felt sorry for her abusive upbringing. So she tried to
keep explaining.
“ Seminoles
invented gator wrestling, don't forget,” Brandy said. That
much was true. “ And
letting your kids swim with gators is safer than you think,” she
added. Not
true at all.
The
wheels of McEvan's mind were turning rapidly now as he pondered the
implausibility that Brandy swam around with alligators like she was
hanging out with friends in a jacuzzi.
For
a woman who goes swimming with alligators for fun, she's not missing
any limbs and she seems to have all her fingers. And, her toes
too – since she's wearing sandals. Go figure, McEvans
thought.
“ And
what does this have to do with Shirley?” he asked.
“ I've
gone swimming with her a couple of times, I'm pretty sure,” she
said. That
was sort of true, if she had a split-personality.
McEvan's
eyes widened.
“ How
can you be sure?”
“ Well,
because she's 13-feet long – she's HUGE,” Brandy said. “Plus
she's really smart, and she seems to like people. So I tried calling
her by her name – and she actually swam to me. But then she
took off after she got bored.”
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
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley