Page 45 of Reckless
14
Kelly
“So, what do you think of our boring day so far?”
Gage had talked me into spending our Saturday at an Amish village that gave tours. With the Amish not allowing photographs taken of themselves, there wasn’t much risk involved from the paparazzi or otherwise, and we were able to relax.
I slapped Gage playfully on the arm.
With the sun shining and the ground warm beneath our feet as we strolled toward a barn, it was almost impossible to have any worries. I’d even put on denim shorts, showing off legs that were winter white. Gage wore giant shades that covered his eyes, but that was probably a kneejerk reaction to being in a semi-public place.
“I love this place,” I said, taking in a deep breath. Gage took my hand, rubbing circles with his thumb. “Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to get back to nature, get into the schedule the earth dictates instead of making my own.”
“I definitely don’t get enough nature but going Amish might be too much for me. I’m not really the beard type.” Gage laughed, and I slapped him playfully. “I told you it’d be fine though, didn’t I? No one’s even looking at us.”
I nodded. “People are more likely to stare at the Amish way of dressing than look at us. They always get a lot of looks when I see them in the store. Sometimes I feel bad for them, but also in awe of their devotion. Have you ever been in a public place that hasn’t been documented?”
He stopped walking, pulling me to a halt. “How often have you been checking the Internet?”
I didn’t see any point in lying. “A lot…I can’t seem to stop myself. I’ve become one of those narcissists that searches my name and yours online, all the time. How do you keep from it?”
“Me? I’ll have you know that I have a team of people for that, thank you very much.”
“Oh, you do?” I had a funny feeling there was more truth than joke to that. “Wow, well I bet they weren’t too impressed with the pictures of me.”
“How could they not be? The photos showed a happy, beautiful brunette with blue eyes deeper than the sea.”
I threw back my head and laughed at his corniness. “A brunette the world thinks is trying to break up Gaged.”
“You are, aren’t you? I mean, thathasto be your end goal with this.”
“Oh, shut up.” We continued to the barn and stopped near a small enclosure attached when a tiny goat screeched for our attention. “Look how cute!”
I crouched down to pet him, and he immediately took over, licking my hand and making tiny, distortedbaasounds that came out asbaa-meh. Glancing around, I found the kind of machine that usually held gum or trinkets, only it was filled with feed pellets, and dug in my purse for a quarter.
Filling up my hand, I asked Gage, “Do you want to feed the baby goat?”
He laughed and held out his hand. “I better feed him first, make sure he won’t take off a finger. You need all your fingers for saving lives. Me, I only need my vocal chords for a living.”
I snatched my hand back, cupping it to my chest. “Pay the toll.”
His eyes widened. “Toll?”
“A kiss, or no baby goat food for you.”
His eyes narrowed for a second, then the next thing I knew, he’d wrapped his arms around me and bent me over backward, and I was at his mercy, some of the pellets escaping to drop into my hair. The kiss was deep. Long. Demanding. It made me think about the barn that had dark corners, and hay, lots of hay. If we weren’t at anAmishfarm…
Baa-meh!
He broke the kiss and stood me back up, holding on to my arms while my head spun. “I think that was worth a few pellets.”
I dumped half of it in his hands, my faculties not working enough to come up with a response.
Gage crouched and held out a few pellets in his palm, and the goat inhaled the food, licking it clean.
“Hey, do you remember the goats at the county fair?” I reminisced. “We snuck in there during the tractor pull.”
He snorted. “Yeah, and damn near burned down the barn with all the heat we generated.”
