Flipping Love You (Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild #3) - Erin Nicholas Page 0,51
a car wash. Pass the hat at the next crawfish boil. Whatever.”
Knox blew out a breath. “Maybe I’ll just keep going to get the goats.”
Finally, Zeke asked, “What the hell is going on?”
Jill tried not to be grateful he’d asked. But she kind of wanted to know now too. Dammit.
Michael looked over. “Just discussing what to do about our friendly neighborhood goat gang and Benny.”
“Again? Already?” Zeke asked.
“This morning.”
“Where did Benny take them this time?”
“The Methodist Church,” Michael said. “Right into the sanctuary too. The door was propped open because the cleaning ladies were there.”
“And four people showed up here with their bingo cards all at the same time so Ellie and Cora had to give out beer and fried pickles at nine a.m.,” Zander added with a grin.
Zeke laughed. “And which of you got the call?”
They all looked at Knox. Who gave a heavy sigh as if he was very put upon.
“Why are they his problem?”
Jill was as startled as anyone to hear her voice ask the question.
They all looked at her in surprise.
Zeke recovered first. “These four—” He pointed to Knox, Zander, Bailey, and Michael. “All get the calls at different times. And they rock-paper-scissors to see who has to actually handle it. They are all public servants—”
The public servants all rolled their eyes.
“So we all think it makes sense. Zander is the sheriff, Michael is fire chief, and Bailey is with Wildlife and Fisheries. And then Knox gets all the random calls when people don’t know who else to call.”
“Or when they don’t want to deal with Zander,” Michael said.
They all nodded their agreement. Including Zander.
“I work very hard to make it so people never really want to deal with me,” Zander said. “That way the calls I get are actually important.”
“It was Pastor Carson who called this morning,” Bailey said. “So Knox couldn’t swear at him.”
“I never swear at citizens calling my office for help,” Knox said.
“Not out loud anyway,” Zander said.
Knox didn’t deny that.
“I guess he knew better than to call 9-1-1 for it and figured the city manager’s office would be able to handle it,” Michael said.
“Sure, goat herding is right in my job description. Page three, paragraph two.” Knox’s tone was dry.
“But you did take care of it,” Bailey said with a laugh. “They call you because you always take care of everything. They all know very well that eighty percent of what they call you about is not your job, but you’ll get it done.”
“What was I supposed to do?” Knox asked. “I can’t call any of you because you’ll tell me it’s not your job. If I call Griffin, he’ll just tell me they’re not his goats. I can’t call Fletcher when he’s at school. He can’t leave a classroom of third graders. And Jordan will just say Benny’s doing her job and what a good girl she is.”
“Jordan’s great with alpacas, but the goats don’t listen to her worth a shit anyway,” Zander said.
They all nodded at that as well.
“You could call Tori or Josh or Sawyer or Maddie about the goats,” Bailey said. “They are their goats.”
“I’m not calling Tori about the goats,” Knox said with a sigh. “She’s got a newborn and…”
Bailey leaned in. “And what?”
The big guy shrugged. “It’s Tori.”
“And she’s so sweet that you wouldn’t want to upset her by being upset about her goats,” Bailey filled in, with a knowing smile.
Knox rolled his eyes, but he didn’t deny it. So, the grumpy guy had a soft side.
The rest of them laughed.
“Why not call Sawyer or Maddie or Owen?” Zander asked.
“They’re always out on the bayou. What are they supposed to do? Turn around with a boat full of tourists to come back to deal with the damned goats?”
“Good point.” Bailey gave Zander a look and they both grinned.
Knox was clearly put out, but he was also reasonable about the whole thing. “She never herds them back to the barn.”
“Are these the same goats Zeke tried to kill last night?” Jill asked.
“They are,” Michael confirmed.
“Were you just waiting for Benny to show up to take care of the goats?” Jill asked Zeke.
She felt his fingers grab the tips of her ponytail and give a playful tug, but he answered, “I saw something dart out in front of me and I swerved to miss it.”
“But once you knew it was a goat, and that there were more of them, you were thinking Benny would come and round them up so you didn’t have to actually take them