Page 115 of Not Part of the Plan
Clementine, bored with the scene, bleated out an enraged battle cry and charged into the ring. Niko swore the goat’s eyes rolled back in her head. Jax shrieked like a five-year-old girl coming face to face with her favorite Disney princess and shoved Reva in front of him like a human shield.
Joey, peals of laughter wracking her body, fell off the bucket she’d been standing on. Waffles dodged her falling body and scuttled into the ring, determined to protect her human father from the demon interloper.
“Don’t let that yellow-eyed asshole kill Waffles!” Jax shouted, shoving Reva forward toward Clementine and reaching protectively for the dog.
“You can’t be serious. You’re not afraid of this sweet little goat, are you?” Reva wandered right up to the goat and stroked a hand down the fickle Clementine’s neck. This time when the goat’s yellow eyes rolled back in her head, it was in pleasure. “See? She’s just a sweetheart.”
“Do not let go of her,” Jax warned, backing away. “Joey, if you can stop pissing your pants laughing, I’d appreciate it if you could get a damn lead rope or something!”
“I think she’s going to need a few minutes to get back on her feet,” Niko announced, leaving the relative protection of the wall and stepping into the ring. He grabbed a rope off the hook inside the gate and stepped up next to Jax. “I’m here to collect this creepy-eyed lady and take her back to Carter’s.”
“Yeah. Great. Whatever.” Jax grabbed Niko by the shoulders and pushed him in the direction of the goat. “Stay where you are,” he hissed at the goat.
Niko, remembering his own experience being chased by Clementine, advanced slowly. “Now, let’s just stay calm. We’re just going to put this rope on your disturbing little neck, and you’re going to walk out of here real nice.”
Reva, amused at their caution, helped Niko hook the lead rope around itself on Clementine’s neck. “There that wasn’t so hard, was it, you big babies?”
Something like victory lit Clementine’s ghoulish eyes, and Niko looked over his shoulder at Jax. “Uh, she looks like she’s going to –”
His tentative warning was too little, too late. The goat lunged past Reva and under Niko’s arm. He threw himself over her bristly back and hung on for dear life, but no one was fast enough to stop a determined goat.
Reva’s “oh shit” sounded to Niko’s ears like it came in slow motion as Clementine met her target with a creepy ear-piercing bleat.
“Ah! She’s got me! She’s got me!” Jax screeched as the goat latched onto his jeans. “I don’t have any cookies, you psycho bitch!”
Niko and Reva wrestled whatever goat parts they could find while Joey sobbed with laughter behind the wall.
“I’m so pissed at you right now,” Jax yelled at his wife.
“Looks like they’ve got the situation under control,” Beckett called from the entrance to the ring where he stood with Carter.
“Get your asses in here!” Jax screamed while Niko tried to get Clementine’s neck in a headlock to pry her face off of Jax.
Carter took a handful of chips before passing the bag to Beckett. “Just another day on the farm,” he crunched.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Emma had taken her keys and bag with her when she’d left the brewery, but the idea of confining her pain to her car was too constricting. She needed to move, to walk, to breathe. Blindly she followed the dirt path that connected farm and brewery.
Spring was edging toward summer already with an explosive blooming of wildflowers in the field. The trees were full and green, the grasses in the meadows and pastures a riot of life.How could she feel so much pain while surrounded by so much beauty,Emma wondered?
But the icy feeling in her gut wouldn’t go away. Shehatedhurting people, and hurting Niko had been the worst thing she’d ever done. She wondered, for just a second, if her mother had ever been cognizant of the pain she’d caused others.
Emma trudged up a small hill, not bothering to look at anything but her own feet, and stopped when she realized she’d found the Pierces’ picnic pavilion, the very spot she’d surprised her sister and father almost exactly a year ago with the announcement she was moving to Blue Moon.
She’d been so excited about the possibilities, the future. How had it all gotten so screwed up? Emma buried her face in her hands.
“What is wrong with everyone?” she demanded to no one.
“Well, I like to think there’s a little something wrong with all of us.”
Emma clamped a hand over her racing heart. “Jesus, Phoebe. You just scared eight years off of my life.”
Phoebe slid off the picnic table she’d been perched upon. “Imagine my terror when a raving lunatic approaches shouting into the void.”
“Touché,” Emma offered a watery smile.
Phoebe patted the bench next to her. “Come sit. We don’t have to talk.”
