Page 156 of The Goat in the Bedroom
“You chose me first,” he reminded me. “That day at the rugby match. You decided we were going to be friends.”
“Best decision I ever made.”
Jules's voice carried across the yard. “Dad, she has a PhD and her own rescue shelter for animals. She's perfect for you.”
“Maybe we should save Bridger,” I suggested.
“Nah,” Gryff said. “Jules is unstoppable when she's matchmaking. Remember when she tried to set up Isak with that sports journalist?”
“They're dating now.”
“Exactly. Resistance is futile.”
Someone had brought out a speaker and music filled the yard. Our mismatched, chaotic, perfect family danced and laughed as the stars came out. The baby goats had discovered the buffet table.
“Hey, Artie?” Gryff said.
“Yeah?”
“Wanna make actual human babies at some point?”
I looked at him, this man who'd given me everything. “Yeah?”
“I mean, the goats need more friends.”
“That's your reasoning? The goats need friends?”
“Also I love you and want to have a family with you and think you'd be an amazing mom.”
“After the next Olympics?”
“After the next Olympics,” he agreed. “Though at the rate the Kingmans are reproducing, our kids will have, like, thirty cousins.”
“Good. They'll need allies to handle the goats.”
Stevie Kicks chose that moment to escape the pen, making a beeline for the dessert table with her siblings in hot pursuit.
“Goat breach,” someone yelled.
“Code Dragon Donkey,” someone else shouted.
The entire party descended into chaos as everyone tried to catch the baby goats. The goats ate half the cake before anyonecould stop them. Jules's professor ended up holding Stevie while Bridger explained the family's expansion.
It was perfect.
I was an Olympic gold medalist. I was married to my best friend. We had five goats and a house full of love and a family that was absolutely insane.
Eight years ago, I'd moved to a new country, no friends, and only a broken family to my name.
Now I had everything.
“No regrets?” Gryff asked later, after everyone had gone home and we were sitting on the beach, gold medal still around my neck, watching the waves.
“Only one,” I said.
He looked worried. “What?”
“We should have gotten more goats.”
