Page 13 of No More Secrets
“Oh my god! What is that? It tried to bite me!”
Carter dragged Summer out from behind his back and anchored her to his side. He was trying not to laugh. “You’ve never seen a goat before?”
“They’re not exactly wandering around the streets of Manhattan!” She was embarrassed and startled. Plus, the thing had yellow eyes. What animal had yellow eyes?
Carter leaned down to offer the goat a friendly scratch on the head. “This is Clementine,” he said, as the yellow-eyed monster rubbed her head against him affectionately. “Clementine, meet Summer.”
“Nice to meet you, Clementine,” Summer said tentatively. “Why’d you eat a hole in my jeans?” She felt it with her finger. High enough on the hip that the blue lace of her underwear was now visible. Her investment in the denim from the right designer that hugged all the right places now seemed like a rather large waste.
“That’s how she says hello.” Carter held up his ripped sleeve. “This was ‘Hello and why haven’t you fed me yet?’”
“So she’s not trying to rip off limbs?”
Carter laughed. “No. She’s just attention seeking. The only person she’d try to rip limbs off of is Jax. They share a mutual hatred of each other.”
Clementine made a bleating noise and became marginally cuter. Summer tentatively reached out her hand and let Clementine nuzzle it. “I guess she’s not so bad, minus the pants-eating.”
Carter eyed her jeans. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s all part of the experience. I have another pair with me.”
Summer pulled her phone out of her back pocket. “I guess this is a good way to start documenting my first day here. Come here,” she said, tugging Carter down.
“You’re not seriously taking a selfie with a goat.”
“I’m taking a selfie with you and a goat,” she corrected. “It’s for the blog. I can see you judging me, Carter. Smile.”
He glanced at the screen and heard the click. “I’ve never taken a selfie before.”
“Your first one? I’ll text it to you,” she promised. “Are all of your animals so ... free range?” She stowed her phone back in her pocket and glanced over her shoulder to check for new biting threats advancing on them.
Carter’s eyes twinkled. “Free range doesn’t mean no fences. Clem escaped, which means either there’s an open gate somewhere or someone left a bucket too close to the fence and she jumped it.”
“There you are!” A young man, more boy than man, jogged across the driveway. “Shit. Sorry, Carter. She got past me again.”
“No problem, she just came to introduce herself,” Carter said, giving the beast another ear scratch. He made the introductions and Summer learned that Colby worked part-time on the farm and part-time in town at an HVAC place.
“It was nice meeting you,” Colby said. “I’m gonna get Clementine back to her home before she can wreak any more havoc.”
“Make sure you move the bucket away from the fence,” Carter called after him.
He led the way to the Jeep and they headed down the dusty lane toward the main road. “I’ll show you the horses first since that’s a big part of our operation here. Joey runs most of that side with some help from Colby and the others.”
He turned onto the main road and headed south. Fields of what Summer assumed was corn flanked the road on both sides.
“Is this all Pierce land?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, turning the Jeep onto what looked like a paved driveway. “And these are the stables.”
They rounded a bend and the corn opened up to riding rings and a large metal and stone building. Beyond the barn were green, green pastures. Summer counted more than a dozen horses grazing.
“Wow.”
“Come on,” Carter said, unbuckling his seatbelt. “I’ll show you around.”
They went inside first, where he gave her the tour of the indoor riding ring, with its sawdust floor and high timber ceiling. Next came a tack room so spotless and organized a surgeon would have given it the nod of approval. There was an office that looked barely used and a closet full of supplies and snacks, where Carter grabbed an apple. And then came the stalls, twenty of them in all.
“This is amazing,” she breathed.
