“So what should I do?” she asked. Maybe he would be able to tell what she was thinking. Maybe he could give her an opening for charming him into putting that very nice, smirky, sarcastic mouth against hers and…
“Nudge ’em,” he said simply.
Now she blinked at him. “What?”
“Nudge them,” he said again.
“Just…nudge them? As in, push them?” She narrowed her eyes. Were they talking about goats? Or were they maybe talking about grumpy farmers who needed more than a subtle flirtation to make a move?
“Sometimes that’s all they need.”
Okay then. She was going to keep that in mind.
“So…” He nodded toward the goats.
She blew out a breath. Okay, so for right now they were talking about goats.
Charlie approached the smallest of the animals. He—or she—looked up at her. “Hello, I’m Charlotte. Would you please accompany me across the street back to your barn?” She heard the man’s snort even from the distance between them. That made her smile even though she was still stuck with the problem of herding goats.
The goat, of course, didn’t move a step.
“I would very much enjoy it if you would grant me the pleasure of your company across the street at your barn,” she told the goat.
This time the goat didn’t even lift his head.
Charlie propped a hand on her hip. “I don’t feel that we know each other well enough for me to actually put my hands on your body so it really would be easier if you would just head in the general direction of your barn.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Suddenly the man was back beside her.
He bent and lifted the goat and Charlie couldn’t help but think this had worked out very well. She hadn’t had to touch the goats, but she hadn’t been entirely unhelpful to him.
Okay, that wasn’t true. She had been completely unhelpful to him. But she hadn’t left him out here with the goats alone and she hadn’t gone back inside the bar and told her rowdy cousins on him.
The man pivoted and pressed the goat to her chest. Instinctively her arms went up and around it. He let go.
And just like that, she had her arms full of goat.
Charlie gasped, partially in surprise and partially because it only took her a millisecond to think about the fact that she now had a barnyard animal up against her Alex Perry cocktail dress.
“Oh my God, you have to be kidding,” she said to the man.
“When nudging doesn’t work sometimes you have to get hands-on.”
Charlie blew out a breath. She was tucking that away in her idea of how to handle him too. But she was preoccupied at the moment.
And not so sure she wanted to kiss him after all.
No, that wasn’t true. She still wanted to kiss him. Especially now that he was standing closer.
Even if she had to kiss him over the back of a goat.
Which probably meant she really wanted to kiss him.
She’d definitely rather do it without a goat between them though.
She could throw a fit, of course. He was probably expecting that.
She could put the goat back down. She could stomp off in a huff. She could still sic her rowdy cousins on the guy.
But in spite of the fact that she was holding a goat and she didn’t even know the guy’s name, she wanted to stay out here with him.
“If I am going to literally carry goats back to a barn,” she said, noting that the man seemed to be waiting for her to throw exactly the kind of fit that she had just entertained in her mind. “You’re going to have to keep talking to me.”
“What is it that you think we need to be talking about?”
“Whatever I want.”
“Why do you get to pick?”
“My eight-hundred-dollar cocktail dress is now going to smell like goat,” Charlie told him. “I think that’s only fair.”
“Eight hundred dollars? Jesus. Maybe that’s what’s making it look so good.”
Okay, now she was shocked. “Did you just say I look ‘so good’? As in, you just gave me a compliment?”
“Well—” His gaze roamed over her and, in spite of the goat in her arms, he seemed to like what he saw.
Charlie felt her body heat.
“I think I gave the dress a compliment,” he finally said. “I mean, if you’re willing to pay that much, you must have something pretty awful to cover up. And it’s doing a fine job of it.”
She felt her brows climb. But she also felt the urge to laugh. That comment was a lot more in character for him than an outright compliment. And it was weird that she already thought she knew his character, wasn’t it?
“Is this where I’m supposed to offer to prove that there’s nothing horrible under this dress?”
His gaze flew back to hers, he straightened slightly, and took a breath. “No. Hell no.” He shook his head.
Her eyes widened as he took a step back.
“I mean, no, sorry,” he went on. “That’s not what I meant.”
Oh, now he was flustered. She kind of liked that, too.
Gruff, accidentally charming, sweet with animals, funny even if he didn’t mean to be, and chagrined about possibly being ungentlemanly.
Who was this guy?
