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She made a stinky, sour face. “Have you ever taken care of goats? If not, I’m siding with Jake.”
“YouTube,” was all I had to say.
“The instruction manual of go-getters. I’m more concerned with how much you’ll hate it.”
“It’s that bad?”
She nodded with an air of condolence. “But they’re cute as shit, so that helps.” Before either of us spoke, her eyes flicked to the door before sweeping the ceiling. “Ugh, Chase Patton just walked in.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Maravillo’s golden boy lives on admiration and applause, and he’s made an art form out of selling himself. Whatever it takes to win.”
“Win what?”
“Everything.”
“He wants our farm,” I said quietly, unsure how far away he was and unwilling to look.
“Then you’re double screwed. Dammit, he’s walking over.” She slapped on a winning smile. “Chase, hi. How are you?”
“Good as ever,” he said, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek before turning to me. “Well, look at this—Olivia Brent has made it off the farm.”
He didn’t say it in a snobbish way—he seemed to be genuinely glad to see me.
“Blame Presley. She’s very convincing.”
“Guilty,” she said, raising her hand shoulder height.
“Well, I’m glad you’re here. Maybe we’ll get a chance to talk without Milovic sulking around.”
I opted for the fake smile Presley had donned to cover my discomfort.
“Come on,” Presley said, sliding off her barstool. “Let’s go grab a seat.”
“Grab one for me too,” Chase added, smiling down at me.
I didn’t know how he did that—made me feel all squirmy and warm and uncomfortable with just a look. There was another guy who did that to me but for entirely different reasons.
The thought that those reasons weren’t actually that different flashed through my mind, and I let it zip away without acknowledging it again.
“Sure,” Presley said, taking my arm to drag me away.
Chase watched us the whole way, along with everyone else in the bar.
A cluster of people sat around a big table they’d made out of smaller ones, and at our approach, greetings rang out. Chairs scooted, and a couple of guys who used to be on the baseball team pulled up seats for us.
Chase was on his own, I guessed.
“You all remember Olivia Brent.”
They nodded and said their hellos with cheer. The group was composed of half cheerleaders, half misfits. Chantel, Courtney, Kendall, and Kaylee—the cheerleaders—and Amanda, Megan, Celeste, and Shannon, who had been goth girls. Now it seemed they’d all mingled. The guys peppered between them—husbands, by the look of it—were baseball players and burnouts. Stewart had almost burned the school down playing with a lighter and some hairspray when he was high. Now he looked like an accountant. Jared and James—twin baseball players—had once been the hottest guys in town, shortstop and first baseman for the high school team. Now they were forty pounds overweight and already balding.
They were a living testament to a simple fact of life—nothing turns out like you think it will.
Chantel, who had never spoken to me in school, smiled sweetly at me, her hand resting on her very pregnant belly and the other hooked in Stewart’s arm. “It feels like we haven’t seen you in a thousand years. I’m so sorry to hear about your grandfather.”
“Thank you,” I said, clutching my drink.
“How’s it going at the farm?” she asked. “I heard you and Jake had to split it. That can’t be easy—I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile.”
“It’s a rarity and generally at someone else’s expense.”
She rubbed her belly. “I don’t know how you stay so skinny with all that ice cream around. They’d have to cart me around in a flatbed if I lived on a dairy farm.”
“And all that cheese,” Amanda mused. Heads nodded in agreement. “I’d make meals out of wheels of cheddar. You’d have to fight me off.”
“Seriously,” Chantel started, “if you tell me you don’t work out, I might pitch myself off the roof over the unfairness of it all.”
“Please don’t swan dive on account of me. I don’t have magical metabolism—I’m lactose intolerant.”
They blinked at me. A laugh shot out of Stewart.
“You’re kidding. You inherited a dairy farm, but you can’t drink milk?”
“I mean, I could, but it wouldn’t be pretty.”
“Not even with Lactaid?” Shannon asked with a sad look on her face.
I shrugged. “Such is my curse.”
“That’s awful,” Chantel said with a wavering voice.
Stewart looked at her like she was a bomb about to go off. “You’re not about to cry over Olivia’s digestive system, are you?”
“No,” she shot, brushing the corner of her eye with her index finger. When Stewart started laughing, she nailed him in the arm. “It’s your fault I’m like this. You did this to me.” She gestured to her belly before hesitantly accepting a kiss on the temple.
Kaylee smiled and said., “My little boy, Braden, caught wind of a petting zoo, and I think his smile was bright enough to power the town, he was so excited. I mean, the Pattons have one, but the animals look depressed. You’re going to give them a run for their money.”
