Page 49 of Chasing Kaylee Kringle

“Have you ever considered selling life insurance?” Rick said dryly. “You could list all the ways someone could die—”

“Make fun of me all you want, but these are my conditions. Take it or leave it.”

Rick held up the list again. “So, no Hawaii or Australia?”

“Hawaii is so hot and humid, and their mosquitoes are the size of cats. And everything in Australia can kill you. No, thank you.”

He kept reading. “Do something that matters.” He met her gaze over the top of the paper and smiled warmly. “I think you’ve got that covered.”

“How, by making coffee?”

“Putting bad guys away.”

Kaylee’s face flushed. “Like you said, it’s the right thing to do. I’m thinking of something else, smaller.”

“You let me know when you figure out what that is.” Rick went back to the list, ticking off each item as he read it. “Cut down my own Christmas tree. Learn how to drive a snowmobile. Try to master the two-step.” Rick quirked a brow. “I don’t think we have time to head down to Texas and visit any honky-tonks.”

“There is a Christmas dance at the community hall, smart-ass. At every dance in this town, they are always swinging around the dance floor.”

“Sounds like you’ve got this figured out.” Rick spotted number nineteen and grinned. “Wait.”

“What?”

Rick folded up her list and handed it back. “I think we can check one off your list right now.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Kaylee

Maybe we should knock on the door and tell him what we’re doing?” Kaylee tried to keep her voice to a whisper as Rick led the way through the brush to the back end of the McNally farm. All was quiet, and when they reached the edge of the fence, Kaylee could see the barn. The door was open, but there were still half a dozen goats lying around the pasture.

“You wanted to milk a goat, but sneaking onto a farm to milk a goat? Now that is bucket list–worthy.”

“Except Mr. McNally’s border collie will chase us up a tree if he’s in there.”

Rick paused, waiting. “I don’t hear any barking.”

“He’s stealthy.”

“We just need to get to the barn, so why not take the path?” He followed the fence to its end and rounded it, walking backward with a smile. “See? No fence-jumping, no dogs chasing. We’ll go inside the barn, find yourself a nice little lactating mama, you can pinch her nipple, and we’ll scram.”

“‘Pinch her nipple’? Seriously?”

“What would you call it? Squeezing her udders? Stroking her teat?”

Kaylee guffawed. “You’d better stop right now, or we’re definitely getting caught.”

Rick jogged along the path in front of her, and she shook her head, watching the neighboring pasture. He seemed determined to accomplish their feat, and his enthusiasm was contagious. Although it might seem stupid, this was as close to being wild as she got, and the fact that he understood that and didn’t mock her anymore for it made her soften toward him.

They reached the barn, and Rick ushered her inside, and she giggled as she took large strides into the barn. She fell into step with him as he looked into every stall, mumbling, “No. No. No. Yes!”

He stopped in front of one of the stalls, where inside was the brown mama and her little baby from the other day when McNally’s goats got loose. Kaylee could still picture Rick holding the squirming baby as its mama reared back, ready to stomp his head in. If she hadn’t gotten hold of the old girl and pulled her back, he would have had a hoofprint stomped into his forehead, and that wouldn’t do because even though she’d wanted him to hightail it out of town, she kinda liked his face.

Fine, it was more than his face. She liked nearly everything about him, even his stubborn streak.

“Aren’t you worried about getting arrested as a federal agent?”

The goat bleated at them as he held the stall door open for Kaylee. “We’re not gonna get caught. You are going to squeeze, she’s gonna squirt, and we’re gonna run.”