Page 35 of Home Hearts Hooves

“I thought I spotted a baby goat over there with Preston,” he says, opening the gate for me to pass through.

“Do you want him?”

“For real?”

“You love the minis; this guy’s a Nigerian dwarf.”

“Seriously, a Pygmy?”

“That’s what Doc says.”

“Hell yes, I want him.”

He reaches out to take the baby goat from my shoulder, and the second he touches him, the thing starts screaming and buryinghishead into the crease of my neck.

“How about you hold on to him for a while?”

“I can’t walk around the fair with a baby goat on my shoulder.”

“Sure you can.”

I try to remove him to pass him over again, but the thing just screams louder, and even though he’s small, this scream is as loud as the goats’ back on the ranch when they get going. I give in, leave him where he is, and make my way back over to Preston’s stall.

“So, Doc. It looks like this guy has a new home,” I say, and Preston hands over the completed paperwork.

“Knew Connor would want him. I’m surprised he didn’t take him right away, though.”

“Yeah, he wanted to, but he cried.”

“Connor cried?”

“No, the baby goat did.”

“He probably likes the way you smell,” Preston says, and I catch the slightest blush rise to his cheeks before he turns away and fiddles with some papers on the small table behind him.

Since we decided to be friends, even though seeing him still has my stomach doing cartwheels, I can get out full sentences without sounding like I was just kicked in the head by a farm animal.

“I guess. I probably smell like the ranch. It would be familiar to him.”

“Maybe,” Preston says before he’s suddenly on edge. He crouches in front of Poppy. “Hide the bunnies,” he whispers, and she looks past him, and I follow her gaze to see the murder twins on their way over with their grandma, Agnes Fields. A woman who has never once been known to say no to those Collins boys since they learned to ask for things.

Poppy starts corralling the bunnies into a covered section. It’s noteasy,they’re fast and good at jumping over her small hands.

I step over to the vegetable stall beside Preston’s. “I’ll pay for these in a second,” I say to the kid behind the stall as I grab a bunch of mini carrots and toss them over to Poppy. With a treat in hand, she manages to get the last of them into the covered part, she tosses in the carrotsandthen blocks the opening with an upside-down bucket that she sits on.

“All clear,” she calls to Preston just as they arrive.

The boys climb over the small fence in a rush of energy and start petting the puppies, all the while looking over into the other sections to see what they have on offer.

Their grandmother glaresmy way. I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s not like the woman has ever liked me or my brothers. But she holds a particular disdain for Alan and me, seeing as we’re guys who like screwing guys.

I throw her a thin smile and then focus my attention on Poppy.

“Have you been over to the cuddle corner yet today?” I ask, and she shakes her head.

“No time. Preston needs me here,” she says.

“If you want to go check it out, I can help here for a while?”I ask, and she jumps up from the bucket, then quickly sits again when it starts to move as the bunnies being held captive,for their own safety,tryto escape.

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