Treat Me (One Night with Sole Regret #8)(37)

Making gobbling noises, Amanda grabbed the tips of Julie's tennis shoes. Julie squealed, "He's getting me, Daddy!"

Jacob scooped her up against his chest and squeezed. "I've got you. I won't ever let anything hurt you."

They watched a mischievous trio of bear cubs climb and tumble around their large enclosure, and Julie completely emptied Jacob's wallet into the collection box for an aged black panther with a lame leg.

"She's very compassionate," Amanda said as they sat on a bench and watched Julie talk to the pacing cat, telling him everything was going to be all right.

"I think she gets that from you," Jacob said, sneaking an arm around her back and stroking the bare skin of her shoulder with his fingertips.

"From me? How would she get that from me?" She inched closer to him on the bench until their knees touched.

"What do they call it, nature or nurture?"

Amanda lifted a questioning eyebrow at him.

"She's around you a lot," Jacob continued. "It's only natural that she's picked up some of your characteristics. She's shaped by more than her genes."

Amanda smiled. "You don't think she gets her compassion from her mother?"

They shared a hearty laugh over that idea.

"What's funny?" Julie asked, wriggling her slight form into the nonexistent space between them.

"Nothing important," Amanda said. "Are you getting tired?"

Julie shook her head. "Can we ride the train now?"

"Don't you want to feed the goats first?" From the diaper bag Amanda had been hauling around for over an hour, she pulled the three sacks of animal food they'd purchased at the main entrance.

"Yes!"

Julie was very careful to make sure each goat in the fenced corral got exactly one pellet. She giggled as their lips wiggled over her palm to collect her offering. Jacob watched closely, wondering if goats carried rabies. They sure didn't smell very clean. 

A big brown goat butted his way between his fellows and stole another goat's pellet from Julie's outstretched hand.

"No!" Julie shouted, waving a chastising finger at the crazed-looking animal. "That's not yours."

Brown-goat didn't look the least bit ashamed, and Jacob had to admit the animal's oblong pupils weirded him out. Did they all have bizarre eyes like that? Or just the crazy, rabid ones?

"What is it with their eyes?" Jacob asked Amanda.

She opened her mouth to answer but was cut off by Julie's piercing scream.

Jacob's heart slammed against his breast bone, and expecting to find his little girl with fewer fingers, he couldn't help but laugh at what had her so upset.

Brown-goat, having identified Julie's stash, had gone straight for the bag in her hand, biting into the brown paper and tearing off a chunk. The animal seemed satisfied with his meal until he swallowed and went back for a second bite.

"No!" Julie screamed. "You're a stupid, stupid idiot!"

"Julie!" Amanda admonished. "That's a terrible thing to say. You should never call anyone stupid or an idiot."

Amanda went still and her head jerked, turning her stunned face in Jacob's direction. She grimaced, her brows crumpled with sympathy. What the fuck? Why was she looking at him all apologetic-like?

"My mom does it," Julie snapped, throwing the remnants of her bag into the pen.

She crossed her arms over her narrow chest, stuck out her lower lip, and stomped off toward a mesquite tree in the center of the clearing surrounded by the petting barn's fences and the reptile shed. Brown-goat snatched up the bag and scattered the remaining tan pellets in all directions.

"Sorry," Amanda called to Jacob's back as he went after Julie.

Why was she sorry? Because she'd shouted? Because she'd upset Julie? Or was it because she thought stupid was his trigger word? Yes, Tina called him stupid on a regular basis, but Amanda didn't have the same opinion of him, did she?

Jacob squatted beside Julie and watched her kick at a tree root.

"Are you mad?" he asked.

"Yes," she grumbled.

"What about?"

"That stu-" She glanced at her Aunt Mander and adjusted her word choice. "That greedy goat taked all the food." Her eyes welled with tears. "Now the nice goats don't get any."

And wasn't that the way of the world? But that wasn't something he wanted her to simply accept. "Do you want to feed the nice goats my bag of food?" he asked, holding his full bag of pellets out to her.

"But the stupid-I mean, that brown goat-will just take it all again."

Jacob couldn't resist stroking her soft hair. "I have a plan to outsmart that brown goat."

Julie perked up, and it warmed his heart that she didn't even question his ability to outsmart a goat. "What is it?" she whispered, obviously not wanting Brown-goat to overhear his plan.