Page 49 of Own the Eights
He bristled.
Stupid Jordan! If anyone could ruin something as awesome as this, it would be him.
She pressed her fingertips to her eyelids. “I know it’s not lifting a gazillion pound weight or doing a thousand pull-ups, but it’s just yoga.”
“It’s not the yoga,” he sputtered.
She dropped her hands to her sides. “Then, what is it?”
He released a slow breath. “I’m scared of goats.”
Her jaw dropped. Who the hell was scared of goats?
She glanced into the fenced-off little goat haven. “Jordan, those are baby goats.”
His throat constricted with another hard swallow. “Those freak me out even more.”
She cocked her head to the side. “You’re like twenty-nine times bigger than a baby goat. You could probably eat one of them in a single bite.”
He shook his head. “I do not want to go in there, Georgie.”
She schooled her features. It was time for some tough love. “You’re going in there. You’re the one who said we had to crush it.”
He continued shaking his head. “I can’t. One of my earliest memories is of being chased by a baby goat.”
“Did you grow up on a farm?”
“No, I was little, like three or four, and my mom took me to a petting zoo. There was one asshole baby goat that knocked me down and tried to eat my shirt.” He bristled. “I can still feel the damn thing tugging on the sleeve.”
She had to turn this around. Crazy phobia or not, she needed him to complete this challenge. She glanced at the goats and pretended to study them carefully. “Listen, these do not look like asshole baby goats.”
“How do you know?” he asked, eyeing them.
Total honesty, she didn’t know the first thing about goats, asshole goats, or otherwise.
“We need to do this, Jordan. We need to beat the Dannies. I’ll be right next to you. And if any of those baby goats try to eat your shirt, it’s grilled goat chops for dinner. Any goat that messes with you will be toast or whatever goat food is called.”
She crossed her fingers behind her back like a six-year-old who knew she was telling a lie. There was no way she’d hurt a baby goat, and she hated lying, but she hadn’t gotten up that morning expecting to help a grown giant gladiator of a man overcome a goat fear. Whatever it was worth, this was the best she could come up with under the circumstances.
“Goat toast,” he said and nodded to himself.
“Yes, goat toast. Just remember, the sooner we start, the sooner it will be over.”
A baby goat bleated, and Jordan startled, then forced himself to take a slow breath.
“Okay, let’s do this, but Georgie?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you promise to stay by my side?”
She smiled up at this hulk of a man who was terrified of baby goats. “Yes, I’ll be by your side the entire time.”
He reached out and took her hand into his. “Thanks, Georgiana. I mean it. I know this is kind of weird.”
Kind of weird? Her trifecta covered their imaginary mouths, trying to hold back their laughter, but she no longer felt the urge to laugh.
She squeezed his hand and held his gaze. “You’re going to crush it. I just know it.”
