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“You considering a career change to win her over?”
“I’m not counting anything out.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jaxon
The sun is warm on my skin, the drink in my hand is cold, and Barley is running around his enclosure and having so much fun I swear he’s smiling.
It’s a moment of peace I rarely find these days. Even in the middle-of-nowhere, I still feel the pull of responsibility. Lately, I’ve felt the pull of blue eyes and cobalt black hair.
But at this moment, I’m not thinking about any of that. It’s an easy sort of meditation after an early morning of fun.
As the sun rose, I wandered the woods in my Bigfoot costume and scared five different Bigfoot hunters. Word has gotten around that most sightings of me happen early in the morning and folks have been heading into the woods earlier and earlier.
I never thought I’d be an early riser, but with nothing much to do here at night, I’m up with the sun most days. Except for the mornings after my once-a-week midnight grocery run in Vance Vale. I sleep in on those days.
This morning I saw a man with a serious camera and a big bag that looked professional. He had a notebook and spoke into his phone, recording his observations like an actual scientist. If he is, it might be the end of my career as Bigfoot.
I can’t have scientists looking too close and blowing my cover.
The blast of a pop song breaks the quiet of the morning and startles Barley so much he lets out a bleat of dismay.
“It’s just my phone, buddy.” My mood sinks when I see the name on the screen.
Most men would probably block a woman who cheated on them, but nothing’s that simple in my world.
I breathe out, swipe to answer, and put the phone to my ear. “Hello, Lucia.”
“What the hell, Jax? Now, you’ve cheated on me with two women?”
Anger bubbles under my chest bone and I shove it down. Lucia doesn’t deserve anything from me, especially not my real emotions. “I’m confused. I thought you were the one who cheated on me.”
“You need to make a public statement, Jax. Tell everyone you didn’t cheat on me with both those skanks.”
“They’re not skanks. Don’t you always say women should support women?”
“They’re calling me an idiot, Jax. They’re saying I should have realized you were running around behind my back with two women. And the women...” She lets out a growl of frustration. “They’re not even as pretty as me.”
I run a hand through my hair. I could tell her my publicist thinks a statement from me would just stir up more drama and attention, but that’s not her business. “Maybe you should have thought about that before you cheated on me, Lucia, and then spread the story that I cheated on you.”
“You weren’t supposed to catch us, Jaxon. And if you’d just done what I asked and pretended everything was fine until we could break up amiably, my publicist never would have had to go public with the story about you cheating.”
“I wasn’t about to keep pretending I cared for you after I heard you tell Theo Landry you love him in your orgasm voice.”
She sighs heavily, like I’m the one being difficult. “I’m sorry if you were hurt by that, but this is my career at stake here. It would have been better for all of us if you’d just gone along with the plan. You can’t tell me you enjoy being known as a cheater.”
“I enjoy it more than seeing Theo balls deep inside of you. If you didn’t want this shit, you shouldn’t have cheated on me. You just couldn’t handle anyone thinking you might be the one who ended things. You can’t handle the idea of anyone seeing you as less than perfect.”
“Ugh, why can’t you be reasonable? I’m calling your publicist.”
Somewhere behind me I hear the maaa of a goat. Has Barley gotten out? “I’ve gotta go.” I hang up on Lucia and scan Barley’s enclosure.
The little guy is in the far corner, staring my way as though entranced.
At the sound of another maa-aa, this one closer, I turn and see Honey with a white goat in her arms. The goat is the same size as Barley and is straining toward the enclosure and my goat.
Honey pats the goat’s head.
