Chapter 21
Getting Harriet into the little car proved challenging. She wasn’t a large goat, but she was stubborn. She fainted twice as Noah pulled her along with a rope tied loosely around her neck, and supplemented her protest with hoof dragging and piteous goat wailing.
The neighbor across the street come out of her house in her bathrobe, clucked her tongue, and went back inside.
“Hurry before someone calls the cops,” Harper urged. Noah glared at her while rolling Harriet over and trying to get her back on her feet. A child throwing a tantrum in a grocery store had nothing on that darn goat.
“If you think you can do a better job—”
Harper went silent.
When he lifted the goat to stuff her into the back seat, she jumped between the bucket seats and onto the front seat, planting her hooves on the steering wheel with her stubby tail wagging back and forth like a dog.
“Get in the back,” Harper snapped. Harriet toppled over, wedging her body into the space on the passenger seat floor. “Oh, come on.”
The goat had serious issues. She should have her own reality show.
“I’m starting to think this goat has devious motives.” Noah grumped and puzzled over how to fix this latest attempt by the goat to get her way. “I wonder if Estelle sent her along to sabotage our case.”
If she hadn’t worked up a sweat earlier while helping rope the goat with Noah, and smelled like a barnyard for her effort, Harper might have appreciated his humor. Instead, she gave him a “don’t mess with me” look and reached for a hoof.
“If anything, Harriet needs a veterinary mental health professional to look into her stalking issues.” She tugged. The goat didn’t budge. “I’ve given her no indication that I want to be friends.”
Noah laughed. “I know that was a joke.”
She tried to keep a serious face when she realized how silly her comment sounded. They were talking about a farm animal after all. Goats did not stalk people. Right?
Aggravated, she released the hoof and shook her head. “Why me? Why can’t the goat love you instead?”
He stared at the beast. “I think the more you fight her, the more she likes you. Perhaps you should give in and let her stay. I can get her a doggie bed for your bedroom.”
“Not a chance!” She lowered her voice. “Get in the car, Slade. We’re taking her back!”
With each mile they covered, Harper became more convinced that something untoward had gotten the goat to her house. There was no other explanation of her appearance in the backyard.
“I think you might be right after all,” she said to Noah in the backseat. “Harriet is not the dog that travels thousands of miles to reunite with the family that had dumped her off with new owners and fled. She’s a goat. Goats eat stuff and make baby goats. They do not follow scent trails over many miles to find someone they barely know, just to chew on her bathrobe.”
Harriet had managed to un-wedge herself at mile five and now had her head out the window. She watched the world rush by.
She’d be kind of cute if she wasn’t so irritating.
“I can’t fault her,” Noah said from the back seat. “I wanted to chew on your bathrobe, too. Or rather what’s under the checked flannel. But you said no.”
Distracted by the image, she bounced over a giant pothole and the car shook. Harriet fell back on the seat, feet jerking around, unable to find footing. Harper quickly righted the car before they ended up in oncoming traffic and narrowly missed a second pothole that she was sure was big enough to eat a Smart Car.
“Don’t say stuff like that,” she scolded and gripped the wheel. “Not while I’m driving. Not ever!”
Chuckles followed.
With some maneuvering, Harriet reclaimed her spot at the window and bleated at cows munching grass in a passing field. At least one of the car occupants was happy.
“We can’t ignore what’s between us,” Noah said lightly. “No matter how much you want to wish the attraction away.”
Her knuckles turned white. “This is not the time for this discussion. I’m driving.”
“For you there will never be the right time.”
The man had a point. She didn’t want to discuss anything personal. Ever. “Look, Noah. Our breakup led me down a path to crappy relationships and poor choices. I don’t want to come back around to you and make another mistake.”
She turned into the Covingtons driveway. “I just want to find the murderer and clear myself. Maybe even get my job back. Can’t we just do that and forget there was ever an ‘us’?”
Silence came from the back seat. She refused to look at him as she parked and pocketed the keys.
When he did speak, it was a quiet, “For now.”
Those two words were terribly unsettling.
* * * *
“I had a feeling you stole my goat,” Estelle said after they spent five minutes getting Harriet out of the car. The goat apparently knew the score and fought the removal. She wanted to hang out with Harper. “I should call the Sheriff. At least then you’d spend some time in jail, where you belong.”
Here we go again, Harper thought.
“Why in the hell would I want your goat?” Harper said, her tone sharp. “I have no idea how she got to my apartment. And I certainly never wanted to return here. One visit was more than enough for a lifetime.”
She dragged Harriet by the rope to the porch and tied her to the railing. “You should probably keep her tied, or penned up. I don’t want her back.”
Estelle glared. “Why are you still loose anyway? Willard texted and said the evidence is overwhelming.”
“Willard has no idea what he’s talking about.” She tugged Harriet’s teeth loose from her shoelaces. She forced confidence into her tone that she didn’t feel. “It’s only a matter of time before I’m free.”
“So you say.”
“It’s the truth.” Arguing with the woman was like arguing with a rock, and she already felt petulant after the conversation with Noah. “You can tell Willard that he can’t bully me and I’m not going to jail without a fight.” She glanced at Noah. “He may have money, but I have my own secret weapon.”
With that, she walked stiffly back to the car.
* * * *
Noah felt like a shit as he nodded to Estelle and followed Harper. He’d seen the desperation in her eyes when she’d looked at him and fully and finally understood why she was so adamant that they keep their relationship professional. She was looking at him as a barrier against a powerful family, bent on sending her to prison. They didn’t care if she was innocent. They wanted a scapegoat and she was perfect.
Damnit.
Distractions of any kind could be her downfall.
He climbed into the goat hair-covered passenger seat and faced her. She wouldn’t look at him. He saw her blink back tears. Strong Harper hung by a thread.
“I’m sorry, HJ,” he said and resisted touching her. “No more feeding off our history. I’m here to help you out of this mess and nothing else. You have my word.”
She swiped a knuckle under each eye, took a deep breath, and turned to face him. The hint of a wavering smile broke from her lips and the desperation was gone.
She touched his hand. “Thank you, Noah.”
In that moment Noah realized he loved her all over again.