Page 71 of Love Off-Limits
He grinned. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. You’re right. That makes two correct guesses.”
His hand bumped against mine and he caught it, lacing our fingers together.
“Only one more to go.”
Chapter Twenty
Tyler
It took twice as much strength to close and latch the door to the goat barn against the force of the wind. I thought summer thunderstorms in Charleston were bad, but it had been a long time since I’d seen such an angry sky; the clouds rolled and tumbled into the mountains, thunder shaking the ground.
I pulled the hood of my rain jacket a little closer around my face. It was a borrowed jacket—something I’d found in the closet of the bunkhouse, likely left behind by a farmhand. It was a little big, but it was better than nothing.
“Are the animals all in?” Kelly shouted over the storm as she approached, a walkie-talkie in her hand.
I nodded. “The chickens are. Goats, too.”
She nodded. “And Penelope’s doing okay in the pen with the other kids?”
My heart lurched. “Penelope isn’t with the other kids. I thought Mrs. Hawthorne had her.” I’d been out in the fields all morning, covering the most mature apple trees with hail netting, and digging trenches around the strawberry fields to prevent flooding. Mrs. Hawthorne had volunteered to handle Penelope’s feeding, so when I hadn’t found her with the other goats, I’d assumed she’d kept Penelope with her.
Kelly shook her head. “She fed her, but she left her here. You’re sure she’s missing?”
Penelope was the only snow-white kid we had. I wouldn’t have missed her. “I’m sure. How would she have gotten out?” The thought of tiny Penelope lost out in the storm somewhere was enough to make me feel sick.
“I’ve seen them climb on top of each other and try to scale the fence before. My guess is she was probably looking for you.”
“Oh, great. That’s just—”
“Stop,” Kelly said. “That isn’t going to help. I’ll—” She stopped when a message came through on the walkie-talkie. Chatter blasted through, but it was too muddled for me to understand. Kelly must have gotten the gist of it though because she swore under her breath. “I’ve got to go take care of this. As soon as I can spare anyone, I’ll send them to help you search.”
I nodded, wanting to kick and scream and demand thateveryonesearch, but there was a lot going on at Stonebrook right now, and the storm was bearing down on us quick. Wherever Kelly was headed, it had to be important for her to prioritize the way she was.
“If she got out of the yard, she couldn’t have gone far. I’d start in the east pasture then work your way back here. Look toward the forest line. There are a few places she might try to hide down that way.”
I nodded, my heart in my throat.
“If anyone can find her, Tyler, it’s you.”
I wasn’t all that convinced. Stonebrook was enormous, and Penelope was very small. I ran toward the east pasture, belatedly realizing I’d have probably done better on a gator. But it was too late to turn back now. I pulled my raincoat tighter as the rain fell even harder. The forecast had worsened overnight, so even though we’d done minimal preparations the day before, we hadn’t anticipated hail. It didn’t help matters that since it was a Saturday, half the farm crew was gone.
I jumped the east pasture fence and inched my way down the hillside. Thunder cracked overhead and I winced, suddenly aware of the fact that the tallest thing in my immediate vicinity was me. I picked up my pace, tugging my hood forward and cinching it tighter around my face.
I searched for half an hour before I found her huddled beneath the branches of a rhododendron where the east pasture met the apple orchards. She bleated when she saw me approaching but made no move to come forward. “Hey, baby girl,” I said, scooping her into my arms. “What are you doing way out here?”
She shifted and I spotted a smear of blood on her back leg. A gash ran from hoof to hip. It didn’t look deep, but the stark contrast of red against her white coat was still unsettling.
Another crack of thunder sounded overhead, and lightning flashed in the distance. “Okay. Time to go, Pen. Let’s go get you warm.”
Halfway back to the barn, Olivia pulled up next to me in a gator. “What happened?” she called.
“I don’t know. She broke out of the pen sometime in the past few hours. I found her at the edge of the pasture. She’s got a gash down her leg.”
“Get in. I’ll drive you back.”
The rain pounded around us as we drove the short distance to the barn. Inside the barn, we immediately heard the ping of hail falling on the metal roof overhead. “I’m more concerned about getting her warm than I am about her leg,” Olivia said as she walked toward the supply room. She grabbed a heated blanket off the top shelf. “Go plug this in. There’s an outlet on the far wall, and there should be a milk crate big enough to hold her. Put some hay in the bottom, then nestle the blanket into that. That should keep her warm and contained. I’ll gather some things to clean her leg and text Mom. She’ll want to come check on her as soon as this weather lets up.”
