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Dani's brow crinkles as she nibbles on her lip. "Are six kids going to be enough? We could probably borrow some from Sunny's farm."
The six goat kids were left at the end of our driveway anonymously last week. Probably by someone who couldn't care for them. I'd come up with the idea of goat yoga classes as a way to bring in money for their care. "Six should be enough. Noah volunteered to film, so if you and Honey can just make sure the goats don't escape, we should be good."
Dani grins. "The easiest seven hundred bucks I've ever made."
"Don't say that until we get through the class. I've never done this before."
"It'll be great. The weather is a perfect seventy-five degrees, and it smells like fresh-blooming spring flowers out there."
After she leaves, I flip my laptop open and exit out of Ronald Phillips' socials. The past doesn't matter. What matters is the five-figure number next to his name in Dad's ledger books. Leather bound, old-fashioned ledgers where Dad kept track of every person he conned and how much money he stole from them like he was proud of it.
It's all here in the ledgers Dad left me, with a note in his chicken scratch scrawl saying only that he thought I might 'find them useful.' His final attempt to get me to join the family 'business.'
Like a scab I can't stop picking, I scroll through to check my socials. Before I moved to Catalpa Creek with my sisters, I had a pretty healthy number of clients, but after years of mediocre results, I'm making another big push to expand my reach through social media. I want to have multiple income streams for times when I can't work with clients because I'm sick or injured.
So I post pictures and videos, anything to get attention. So far, I'm getting nowhere, and I've had to work practically non-stop as a trainer to keep any kind of income coming in, because my regular clients in Catalpa Creek have been few and far between.
I hop from site to site and scroll, but there's no indication that I'm gaining new followers or even making much of an impact with the followers I already have. I've told my sisters I need the gym because I want to stay in Catalpa Creek, but that gym is my last chance of owning my own profitable business.
They think I'll have my inheritance from our father to live on, but that's only because I haven't told him I'm giving every penny of that inheritance to the people Dad stole from with my help here in Catalpa Creek.
With a sigh, I shut the laptop and head downstairs, pulling my hair into a low, loose bun as I go. I'm going to get that gymfrom the golden retriever best friend of the owner, I just have to figure out how.
***
The trouble starts when one of the kids eats a chunk of Katie Garcia's hair.
"Everyone move into child's pose," I say as I rub Katie's back.
"It's okay," she says, patting her gorgeous, thick hair that's now missing about two inches from the bottom center.
"I'll pay for your salon visit," I say. "I should have warned everyone to put their hair up before class started."
Katie is a college student at the local university and has been coming to my yoga classes since the start. She waves a hand in dismissal. "Please. I'll just get one of my roommates to even it out. I'm sorry I screamed so loud. I think I traumatized that little goat."
The hair-eating goat in question took off as soon as Katie screamed and is still racing down the driveway, Dani in pursuit.
"Thank you for being so understanding, but this is not okay. Your next ten yoga classes are free."
Katie's smile is beatific. I suspect she could teach me a thing or two about finding balance and peace. "That I will accept."
"He's on my back," Lulu Brown says.
Katie and I look over to see a small goat standing on Lulu's back while she's stretched out in child's pose.
"That is so adorable," Emma Jones says.
We all take a moment to appreciate the cuteness.
The little goat, enjoying his moment in the spotlight, poops on her back. Well, sort of. The poop hits her back and then rolls onto her yoga mat.
We all stare in shocked silence for a few seconds and then Katie laughs. Pretty soon, everyone is laughing, and when Honey hurries over with a pooper scooper, we laugh harder.
Once the poop is cleaned up, Dani returns carrying the hair eater. To my surprise, everyone wants to continue with the class, such as it is. We can't get into much of a flow with people stopping to snap pictures of the kids, but no one seems upset about it.
I let the class go twenty minutes longer than I'd planned to make up for the interruptions.
"Thank you," Emma says as she leaves. "This was my favorite class so far."
