Page 8 of The Run Home
Shae’s snicker had me breaking eye contact and glaring in her general direction. I didn’t dare give the goat my back, in fear of another ramming. A slightly smaller goat trotted over and now I was officially scared. I could probably fend off one, but fight offtwo? Not even twenty years in the big leagues could prepare me for a tag-teaming goat gang.
Except this goat didn’t give me the staredown. It just came over and rubbed itself against my leg like a giant cat. The mean one lurched toward me like it was going for round two and I shouted obscenities in its face. It backed off, but I also took a step back. Sadly, the other goat was right behind me, still rubbing my legs. I stumbled over it and had to put a hand down on the ground to keep my balance. Shae’s laughter had turned maniacal.
“What the fuck, Shae? Help a guy out!” I barked, trying to fend off the friendly goat and not succeeding when it plopped itself on me, pushing me to the ground. “I’m getting love bombed by a goat here.”
I tried pushing the goat away from me, but it didn’t budge from my lap. Looking up, I saw Shae doubled over in laughter. Then an ominous honk came from behind me. The honk was followed up by at least a dozen more honks. My eyes went wide and I watched as Shae straightened up, only to look behind me and burst out laughing all over again.
Look, I had taken a line drive to my shin before. Been hit in the wrist by a ninety-five-mile-per-hour fast ball. Flipped through the air as someone slid into third and took my legs out from under me. I’ve even looked into the sullen eyes of a teenager who thinks her life is over. And never ever have I been as scared as when those honks surrounded me and the flapping began.
I jumped to my feet, goat in my arms, and I ran. I barely got my legs over the fence to step onto Shae’s property whenthe geese started pecking through the fence slats I’d just nailed in place. Shae was fucking hyperventilating with laughter while the girls back in the house were shrieking so loudly I could hear them over the honking.
“What the fuck is going on?” I wondered out loud. How had I gone from my chic condo in the best part of Dallas to getting assaulted by farm animals?
“They’re…really…obsessed…with you,” Shae managed to say around her guffaws of laughter.
Then the goat in my arms turned its head and swiped its rough tongue across my cheek.
What the actual fuck was I doing here?
CHAPTER FOUR
Shae
Rage waslive and well within me when I stormed outside to give Boon a piece of my mind. How dare this egotistical man parade around in front of my window, hip gyrations and smirky smile ten times the wattage it was when we were in high school? The man had aged well, that was for sure. And it made me want to break things. We’d gone toe-to-toe, just like all those years ago, proving that some thingsdon’tchange.
And then I saw him get sideswiped by a goat and the rage flittered away to be replaced by a deep guttural laugh I hadn’t engaged in for the better part of my life. Seeing him get love bombed by Thistle and the geese was just icing on this animals-gone-wild scene.
The sound that blew out of my mouth when I saw him hop over the fence, goat in his muscly arms, fear in his golden-brown eyes, would have made me embarrassed if it had actually been heard over the crazed honking of the geese. As it was, I had to cross my legs to make sure I didn’t pee myself from laughing so hard.
The geese tried pecking at his legs through the fence. I knew from living next door to Timberwolfe Farms for my entire life that it was just a matter of time before they found a way through, over, and around that fence to get to what they wanted. So I ran.
At apparently the same time Boon made a retching noise and put down Thistle, because one minute I was looking at my friends’ hilarious faces through the window and the next my shins were colliding with something solid and the world tipped upside down. I landed in the dirt with a thud that rattled my teeth.
Even the geese gave me a moment of silence, which I appreciated. I was still trying to figure out what happened, and why I couldn’t seem to inhale oxygen into my lungs, when Boon’s concerned face hovered over me. I knew in an instant I had a concussion because he’d never shown me much concern before. I wasn’t sure he possessed the genes that enabled empathy. His sweaty and muscled torso took up my field of vision, blotting out the darkening sky entirely.
“Have I gone to hell?” I wheezed.
The smirk that had haunted my teenage years came out to play. “That’s one town over, but I have to agree these animals are the devil’s playthings.”
And then he scooped me off the ground and into his hard chest like I weighed no more than Thistle. The aroma of sweat and man and something so freaking good I thought I might have to bury my nose in his chest to draw it permanently into my lungs wafted over me. My arm landed around his neck and my hand plopped down on his chest. I was touching a half-naked Boon Wolfe.
“You okay?” he asked, voice so deep and rumbly I felt it more than heard it.
I stared at him, words lost to me. His gaze dropped down my face to focus on my lips. The flames of hell nipped at my skinand I knew my face had gone crimson. Time warped and I wasn’t sure how long we stood there, me in his arms, his gaze on my mouth.
“Are you okay, Shae?” one of my friends hollered from the house.
It broke whatever was happening here and Boon lifted his gaze away from my face. Immediately, he began to march me up to my house. Somehow my face was able to flush hotter, realizing my friends were watching…whatever this was. Little dots of sweat broke out across my top lip.
“Put me down!” I hissed, slapping his chest when what I wanted to do was skim those fingertips across his pecs and check out all the muscle he’d put on over the years.
No. No, I didn’t. Ew. Gross. Absolutely not.
I started struggling in his arms and his footsteps faltered.
“Knock it off, Fletcher, or I’ll drop you,” Boon huffed.
I thought about how I weighed considerably more than Thistle, the love goat, and knew that if I didn’t get out of his arms in the next two seconds, I would absolutely die of mortification.
