Page 156 of Huckleberry Hill
“Maybe.”
Goldie was in the stall next to us, and she nickered. Tempest perked her head up.
“I think they want to meet each other,” Declan said.
I scrambled to a stand and then I picked up Tempest and walked out of the stall with her. I trekked to Goldie’s stall and held the goat up for the mare to inspect.
The two of them sniffed each other and then my heart melted right out of my chest when the two of them touched noses.
“I’m pretty sure Goldie just became a surrogate mother to a goat,” Declan said with a soft laugh.
I patted Goldie’s neck and then brought Tempest back to her stall. I set her down. “I don’t want to leave her.”
“I know. But my cabin isn’t set up to house-train a baby goat. Not yet anyway.”
“Not yet?” I raised my brows.
Declan leaned down and gave Tempest a good side scratch. She pressed against his leg. “Yeah, a litter box, some wood shavings, some positive reinforcement—she can be an indoor house goat.”
“Declan.” I sighed.
He looked at me. “I just want to make you happy, Hadley. That’s all I want to do.”
A week of pure bliss went by. I gave my nights to Declan and my days were spent at Sweet Teeth. The fervor hadn’t died down. In fact, it had grown, amplified by word of mouth and customers posting their own videos of how good the treats were on social media.
Gracie was in the process of hiring some extra help, and I was grateful because as much I loved helping her out, dragging my butt out of bed at the crack of dawn and driving to town was hard on me. I’d always been a morning person, but lately I’d been tired and the caffeine jolt in the middle of the afternoon just wasn’t doing anything to pick me up.
Plus, attempting to house-train a goat when neither Declan nor I were there full time was a chore. During the day, Tempest was either in her stall or her pen. She needed a routine and at the moment, she didn’t have one. After an accident in the middle of the night, my good-natured boyfriend had grumbled and insisted that she had to go back to the barn. He took her while I cleaned up the mess on the wood floor.
“I have to be up in three hours,” I moaned, collapsing back onto the bed.
“I have to be up in two,” he said.
“Oh, so it’s a contest now of who suffers the most?”
He turned off the lamp. “Let’s not argue—let’s just go back to bed.” He pulled me against his chest, and I fell asleep.
His alarm woke me up and in my frustration, I hit him with a pillow. He wrestled it from me and somehow it ended with him inside me.
The two orgasms he gave me before finding his own release had me sedated and mellow. I drifted off again, but my alarm never sounded and when I woke up naturally at ten a.m., I was completely horrified.
I looked at my phone; I had a few missed calls and texts from Gracie. I scrambled to the bathroom and reached for the toothbrush Declan had given me and called Gracie.
“Hey, are you okay?” she asked. “I couldn’t get a hold of you, and I was worried.”
“Sorry,” I said around the toothbrush. “My alarm never went off. I’m getting ready as we speak. I can be in the truck in ten minutes.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I have more than enough help now. I was just concerned.”
My heart rate began to slow. “Did Muddy go in today?”
“Nope. I let her off the hook, too. You guys were my knights in shining armor coming to my rescue the way you did.”
“Call me Dame Hadley,” I joked.
“Okay, sorry, but I gotta hop off now.”
“Happy baking,” I said and hung up.
