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The best part of the prank, though, had to have been the goats. I wished I could have been there to see it. Somehow Gavin had brought in an entire herd of goats and set them loose among the squirrels. They’d wandered in and around the half-finished building, sniffing out the squirrel treats we’d planted and trying to head butt Preston’s crew.
I didn’t want to admit Gavin had one-upped us, but he’d nailed it.
I laughed at the mental image of the chaos as I kept spreading the peanut butter. Apparently the key was not just the peanut butter, or the birdseed we’d use with it, but the cookies from Nature’s Basket. Fiona called them squirrel crack. Something about the combination of the cookies stuck to the trees made the little suckers go nuts.
Pun intended.
It would distract them from looking for more of the similar treats we’d hidden all over Preston’s job site. They should have cleaned those out by now anyway, so a new stash would get them out of harm’s way.
“You didn’t tell me if it worked,” Gavin said. “Did he cancel on her?”
“It worked perfectly. He canceled and guess who just happened to have nothing to do last night?”
Gavin smiled. “Nice.”
“I finally got to hang out with her. She’s trying to friend-zone me, but that’s another issue. I can handle it. Thanks again for your help.”
“Yeah, why not? It was fun. I haven’t tried to pull off a prank this big in a long time. I was worried I’d be rusty.”
“It’s like riding a bike.”
“Exactly.”
“You gotta tell me. How did you get the goats in and out?”
“A magician never reveals his secrets.”
“Come on, man. Whose goats were they?”
He grinned. “Harry Montgomery.”
“He just let you take them?”
“It was fine. I left a note.”
I chuckled. It was probably a good thing Gavin and I had grown up as sworn enemies. We’d have gotten into a hell of a lot of trouble if we’d been friends.
“Well, I owe you one.”
He tossed an empty peanut butter jar on the ground. “Nah, we’re good. Skylar and I ran into that Preston guy in town the other day. I did not like the way he looked at my wife.”
“See? There’s something off about that guy.”
“Agreed.”
“Gavin Bailey gets it,” I muttered to myself. “I don’t know why she doesn’t get it.”
“This might be enough.” He stepped back and put his hands on his hips, surveying our handy work. “But if you want to be sure, you could do another tree up that way. Give them something else to do after they find this one.”
“Might as well. But you should get home to your family.”
“All right. Thanks, Haven.”
“You too, Bailey. See you around.”
I grabbed all the empty containers and put the trash bag in the back of my truck. I’d take it straight to the dump—had to get rid of the evidence. Like Gavin had said, what we’d done was probably enough. I didn’t need to make another squirrel lure. But we’d gone overboard on the prank, I figured I might as well go overboard on the clean-up.
Especially because Marigold wouldn’t want any animals getting hurt. Even squirrels.
