“Liv, this is Max,” Spencer said, making the introduction.
“Nice to meet you,” Liv said. “Spencer and I’ve known each other for years.”
“Hi,” Max returned. “Spencer and I have been sleeping together for just a few weeks.”
She heard Spencer’s choked laugh. And noted the way Liv’s eyes narrowed slightly. Well, good. That wasn’t a lie. They weren’t pretending right now. She and Spencer had slept together. And no matter what soft, mushy feelings he was stirring up inside her, or the confusing feelings she had whirling through her mind with his understanding and support, she had no doubt that they were going to end up sleeping together again at some point this week.
“Oh, well…” Clearly Liv didn’t know how to respond to that.
Which was fair. That was not typical conversation when at a bake sale booth in a cute little petting zoo.
“Max, Liv went to high school with all my cousins and we used to hang out in the summers when I visited.”
Max didn’t care. But she did care that Liv was beautiful and was standing behind a table of baked goods and clearly thought Spencer was great. “Did you bake all of this?” Max asked.
Liv looked at the table. “Not all of it. But a lot.”
Of course she had.
Max didn’t like being jealous. Ugh. It caused stomach aches. Who knew?
“We’re raising money for the little kids’ baseball and softball programs.” She glanced to her left and Spencer and Max followed her gaze. There was a little boy pushing trucks and cars around on the wooden floor.
“Yours?” Spencer asked.
“Yep.” Liv’s gaze was full of love. “That’s Tyler. He’s only five but he loves anything having to do with cars and balls.”
“I didn’t know you’d gotten married and had a baby,” Spencer said.
Well, good, that meant they weren’t on each other’s Christmas card list or Facebook friends, Max thought. And yeah, maybe Liv was married—
“Not married,” Liv said.
Well, damn.
“His dad was a lot of fun one weekend,” Liv said, her cheeks getting pink. “He’s stationed at Fort Bliss. He’s helping out and visits when he can, but we’re not in love or anything.”
Spencer nodded. “Glad to know you’ve got support. I’m sure your mom and dad are great.” He glanced at the little boy again. “He’s adorable.”
“Thanks. And yes, Mom and Dad are wonderful.” Liv smiled up at him. “We’re doing well.”
“That’s great.”
“Do you want to get something?” Liv asked. “I made the chocolate chip cookies, the peanut butter cookies, and the brownies.”
Of course, she had. Max’s stomach felt even sicker.
Then Liv looked at Max. “What’s your favorite?”
“I don’t really like cookies,” Max told her. Again, not a lie. Though she probably didn’t need to say it smugly.
“Oh, we have apples and dip too,” Liv said without blinking. “I wanted to be sure we had something healthier for anyone who didn’t want too much sugar. And we have gluten-free bars over here.”
“Apples would be great,” Spencer said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a few bills. He handed them over as Liv offered Max the apples.
She didn’t want Liv’s stupid apples, but what was she supposed to do? She took the sliced apples in the cute little container with the additional smaller container of fruit dip that she didn’t want from the woman that Spencer should absolutely ask out on a date and tried to smile.
She was sure it came out as a weird grimace instead.
“Mom!”
Everyone looked toward Liv’s son as the little boy called out. A goat was standing beside him, and the boy was cowering in fright.
“Oh, Tyler!” Liv gasped and crossed to him quickly.
Max thought the gasp was a bit of an overreaction. The goat was a baby, tiny, and it wasn’t doing anything but watching the little boy.
Then Spencer stepped in that direction and knelt next to the boy. He held the goat by the shoulders with one big hand, stroking its head with the other, talking softly to either the animal or the kid.
That was for sure an overreaction. He hardly needed to charge in and intervene.
“Hi, Max.”
Max glanced to her left. Jordan Landry had joined her. Jordan was married to another of Spencer’s cousins, Fletcher. She was also very pregnant. She ran the petting zoo with Charlie, and Max remembered talking with her for several minutes during the wedding. She found the other woman laid back and friendly and was able to give Jordan a genuine smile.
“Hi, Jordan.”
“I heard you and Spencer were in town.”
“Wow, that Landry grapevine works fast.”
Jordan laughed. “You have no idea.”
Max looked back to where Spencer was now sitting on the barn floor with a baby goat in his lap.
Damn, that was cute.
She picked up one of her apples and took a bite, chewing as she took in the sight. The little boy was looking at Spencer as if he was Captain America. And Liv was looking at Spencer as if he was Chris Evans.
Max thought Spencer was better looking than Chris Evans.
But crap, they made a cute little family picture. Liv was smiling and laughing about something Spencer had said. Tyler was reaching out a hand to tentatively pet the goat, clearly brave now that Superhero Spencer was there. Even the goat seemed enamored with Spencer.
However, Max knew how good it felt to have the man’s hand stroking over her body so she could cut the goat a little slack.
“What’s going on over there?” Jordan asked.
“Spencer’s dreams are all coming true,” Max muttered.
“What?” Jordan asked.
Max shook her head. “Nothing. Forget it.”
“Is everything okay?”
Not really at all, no. Max lifted another apple slice. “These apples are delicious.” She dipped it in the little cup of white fluffy fruit dip. “Did Liv make the apples?”
Jordan’s brows arched. “I don’t think Liv made the apples, no. But she might’ve made the fruit dip.”
Max sighed but still chewed. It was very good.
“Are those brownies pretty amazing?” Max asked.
Jordan nodded. “Liv is an amazing baker and cook.”
She’d figured. “Does she have a dog?”
Jordan’s eyes widened as if she didn’t know what was going on exactly, but she knew it was something weird. “A sweet German Shepherd named Dixie.”
“And Dixie is completely adorable?” Max asked. Though she already knew the answer was yes.
“Dixie’s a great dog,” Jordan said, a bemused smile tugging at the corner of her lips.
“And what does the amazing Liv do for a living?” Max asked, picking up another apple slice and this time scooping a massive dollop of dip out of the container. It was really, really good. She’d pay Liv for a bowl of just the dip and a spoon.
“Does she train seeing-eye dogs for the blind or something?”
“She’s a third-grade teacher with Fletcher.”
Max stopped chewing and stared at Jordan. Jordan’s husband was a third-grade teacher at the school here in Autre. He’d been named teacher of the year four years in a row. She knew because the certificates were hanging on the wall at Ellie’s bar.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Max said.
Jordan finally laughed. “Why all the questions about Liv?”
Max glanced over at the other woman. Anyone walking into the barn would assume the three of them were a family. “Because she’s perfect for Spencer.”
Jordan frowned. “That’s a strange comment from the woman he’s dating.”
“The one he’s sleeping with,” Max corrected. “We’re just getting to know each other. And it’s already obvious that we’re not each other’s type. Well, other than physically. That’s been pretty good.”
Jordan opened her mouth to respond, and Max had to admit that she would’ve loved to hear what the other woman had to say. Especially if it was in the form of advice. But just then, she felt something hard hit the side of her knee. She looked down. A goat was staring up at her. He’d head-butted her. “Hey! Ow.”
Jordan shooed the goat back with her foot. “He thinks you’re going to give him some of your apples,” she explained.
Max frowned down at the animal. “These are mine. And the dip is excellent but not goat-appropriate, and you shouldn’t eat the apples without it. And I’m grumpy. So I’m not sharing.”
“Beehh!” he replied.
Max shrugged. “Not sorry.”
“Jordan!” someone called from outside the barn door.
Jordan glanced in that direction. “Hang tight,” she told Max. “Let me go check on that. I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be here.” She wouldn’t want to give up her front-row seat for Spencer falling in love with the perfect woman.
“Beeehhh!”
The goat bleated at her again, and she frowned down at him. “Seriously. I know you’re very well fed. I saw the sign that says people can come in and pay for food to hand feed you. I’m guessing that happens like forty-seven times a day. You do not need my apples.”
“Beeehhh!”
“No.” She looked back at Spencer, Liv, Tyler, and their well-behaved goat.
Damn, Spencer looked cute holding that baby goat. And the way he was talking to the little boy was sweet. What was it about men and animals and little kids? Max wasn’t even the nurturing type. She liked crows. But still, watching Spencer hold a baby goat, pet its little head, talk softly to it, and smile as if he’d never had more fun in his life, made her heart do a little pitter-patter that she did not appreciate. She did not need to be reinforcing her crush on him while he was at that very moment, right in front of her eyes, realizing all of the little checkmarks Liv could put in the boxes on his list of girlfriend criteria.
“Ow!” Max felt a sharp pain in her knee as the goat head-butted her again.
“Beeehhh!” Then he did it again, harder this time, and her knee buckled slightly. But in the wrong direction.
Pain shot from the joint up her leg, and she gasped.
Suddenly the goat reared up on its hind legs, propping its front hooves on her thigh, she assumed reaching for the apples. Trying to get away from the goat and some weight off of her sore knee, Max shifted. The goat didn’t like that, and in the next second, she felt a sharp stabbing in her left hip.
The goat had bit her.
“What?” she gasped. “Ow!”
She shoved him away, spilling apples and dip all over the floor, and pressed a hand to the spot right below her hip bone and the curve of her butt. The goat leaped on the apples immediately, and Max took a deep breath. Just before she heard a low growling. She looked up to see a dog staring at her, growling low in its throat.
It was a German Shepherd. “Dixie?” she asked softly.
The dog barked, and the next thing Max knew, Spencer was practically on top of her.
“What happened?”
“The goat bit me!”
He looked confused. His gaze went to the goat happily chomping on apples at her feet. “You’re kidding.”
She scowled at him, then held up her blood-covered hand.
He grabbed it, turning it over and back, inspecting the alleged wound.
“Not my hand! My hip!”
Spencer muttered a curse and swept her up into his arms.
“Spencer!” Max started.
“My God, what happened?” Jordan exclaimed as she came back into the barn.
“A goat bit Max.”
“A goat bit her?”
“Do you have bandages?” Spencer snapped, setting Max down on top of a stack of hay bales outside the barn door.
“Ow!” Max’s hand flew to the bite that was now being poked by straw.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Spencer muttered, sweeping her back into his arms and looking around.
“My office is this way,” Jordan said, starting to walk as she typed something into her phone.
They headed across the barnyard to a separate structure between the goat barn and the alpaca pens. Jordan let them in, and Spencer shifted Max to one side so he could use an arm to clear space on Jordan’s desk.
“Hey!” Jordan protested. “I was going to do that.”
“She’s bleeding, Jordan,” Spencer said.
“I don’t think it’s a major artery, Spencer. I think we have a few seconds,” Jordan shot back. She restacked the papers and folders he had moved and put them on the other side of the desk. Spencer huffed out another frustrated breath.
“What’s wrong now?” Jordan asked.
Max’s hip throbbed, and her knee was aching, but she still felt herself smiling.
“Fuck, hell, damn,” Spencer muttered without answering Jordan’s question. He gingerly set Max down on her good foot, leaning her into him as if her left leg had been broken. She didn’t need the support, but he seemed riled up enough that she decided not to argue. Plus, he felt good.
He stripped off his shirt and spread it on the desk over the space he’d cleared.
Jordan and Max both stared at him.
Max was fairly certain that Jordan was staring at him because she was afraid he’d lost his mind. Max was staring at him because she really liked Spencer Landry naked.
