Page 25 of Wishes on Wildflowers
This would almost befunny if someone weren’t bleeding. Nathan shook his head, trying to squelch the tiny grin that wanted to creep across his face as he examined the goat’s side. It didn’t look all that serious, but he could see whyJasmine wanted a second opinion. After all, it wasn’t her goat, just one she was taking care of for a friend.
He opened the first-aid kit he’d pulled out from beneath the seat of his truck. “Let’s see…” he mused. Animals were probably okay with Polysporin, weren’t they? He couldn’t think of any reason why not, so he squeezed some onto a sterile gauze pad and wiped it on the goat’s flank. The cut didn’t look deep enough to need stitches, which was a good thing, since that was something he wouldn’t tackle. He glanced at Jasmine, who stood beside him with her arms crossed and a worried frown on her face. “She’ll be fine, I think. Did you figure out what caused it yet?”
Jasmine nodded. “A board had come loose in her pen. I think she’s been pretty bored the last few days. Eden usually lets her roam around the backyard when she’s home, and she hasn’t been home much. Now she won’t be home at all.”
Nathan glanced around the yard, where no tufts of green grass poked through, nor any flower shoots. Yep, it certainly looked like a goat’s playground. “Mind if I come back in a couple of hours to have a look and see if she’s doing any better? It could have closed up by then, and she’ll be fine. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about her.”
Jasmine’s gaze shifted to meet his. “Really? You’d do that for Eden? You don’t even know her, not really.”
Nathan patted Pansy’s knobby head and grinned at Jasmine. “No, I’m not exactly doing it for Eden. I would do it foryou,though.”
“I, ah, thank you. I tried everybody else I knew already, and no one seemed to be picking up their phones.”
So he was a last resort, was he? No surprise there. She’d certainly made sure he had a good grasp of where he stood with her. It had been less than twenty-four hours since she’drun from him at the wedding reception. He cast her a side-eye, but she was rubbing her small hands across the goat’s head.
She was a massage therapist. He could see that even in her absent-minded handling of the animal’s knobby skull. He should try again to get a massage. Nathan shoved the thought aside, but it didn’t want to go. He’d bet she was real good at whatever she did, no matter what it was.
“Yeah, I don’t mind doing it for you.”
She jerked her hands and tucked them in her armpits. “Okay, thanks. Let me know when you can come back.”
“I’ll pick you up on the way, if you like. You’re in Bridgeview Manor, right? It’s on my way.”
She shook her head. “A ride won’t be necessary. I think I’m going to go home long enough to grab my overnight bag, and I’ll sleep here tonight. Eden told me I could, but I hadn’t planned on taking her up on it.”
That made sense. He watched as she reached for the bucket and the basket hanging on hooks on the tall fence. Jasmine held out the wire mesh basket toward him. “I know veterinarians charge quite a lot for house calls,” she said. “But I can offer you half a dozen fresh eggs, if you like.”
He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. She wanted to repay him, did she? Not that he’d really done anything yet. “I’ve got a better idea.”
Jasmine swung her head and looked at him sharply. “What’s that?”
“When I come back, I’d like to collect on something that was denied me yesterday.”
She backed up a step, the containers hanging by her sides. She narrowed her gaze at him. “Oh?”
He hesitated for a moment, unsure of her response. Buthe’d spent way too many recent nighttime hours remembering how she used to feel in his arms long ago to give up quite this easily. He licked his lips. “I have some great tunes on my phone. How about a dance right here in the moonlight? It’s not a full moon, but there should be plenty to see by.”
She stalked over to the back steps of the house and thumped up them. She juggled the basket of eggs into the same hand as the one carrying the milk pail, opened the back door, and stepped inside. The door thunked closed.
Nathan scratched his head. She hadn’t exactly saidno, had she? He glanced over to make sure the gate to the street had snapped shut when he entered a while back then followed Jasmine into Eden’s house without knocking.
She stood at the counter, arranging cheesecloth in a sieve over a glass gallon jar. She lifted the bucket, but the whole set-up was high for a woman of short stature.
Two long strides brought him to her side. “Here, let me.” Without waiting for a response, Nathan lifted the bucket and poured the creamy milk slowly through the sieve. “I can’t say I’ve ever had goat’s milk.”
“Well, you can have some of this if you like.” Jasmine lifted out the sieve and set it in a bowl before screwing a lid onto the jar.
Nathan stepped closer and placed one hand on the counter on either side of her. Her floral scent teased his nostrils, and her long dark hair brushed against his forearms as he leaned just a little closer. He probably shouldn’t be doing this but, at the moment, he didn’t really care.
“That’s not at all the payment I asked for,” he murmured into her ear.
He wouldn’t have thought it possible for her body tostiffen further, but it did. “I’m not sure how many ways I have to tell younobefore you’ll believe me.”
Nathan was pushing it. He knew it, but he didn’t want to stop. He drew his hands a little closer together on the countertop until his arms touched hers. “When you can convince me that you really mean it.”
“I mean it.” Her voice was breathless.
“Try saying that again with more feeling.”
