“Because goats are fucking cool,” he says. “And you look like the type of girl who’d be into that.”
I laugh, surprised. “Do I?” I ask.
Ozzy lifts a brow. “You had asked a man you had only known for two hours if he was a toy guy.”
My face goes hot. I slap the edge of the counter lightly. “That was?—”
“Bold,” he supplies, amused.
“—a question,” I finish stubbornly.
Ozzy’s grin turns softer. “A brave question.”
My stomach flips again. I look away fast. “Okay, fine. Put petting a goat on the list.”
Ozzy writes:
Goat encounter (Salem vs. goat: who wins?)
I bark a laugh. “I would win.”
Ozzy looks up, eyes gleaming. “I think the goat would humble you.”
“I will fight a goat.”
“I would pay to watch that.”
I glare at him. “You would enjoy that.”
“Yeah,” he says without shame. “Very much.”
I shake my head, smiling despite myself. And then it hits me how normal this feels. How easy. Sitting in a kitchen, warm, making a stupid list with a man who keeps looking at me like I matter. It scares me. Because I want him. And wanting things has never ended well for me. I swallow, grounding myself. “Ozzy,” I say quietly.
He looks up immediately, attentive.
“What if they come for me again?” I ask, voice small despite my best effort. “What if they find us?”
Ozzy’s expression turns serious. “They won’t,” he says.
I shake my head, panic rising. “You don’t know that.”
Ozzy steps around the counter and crouches slightly so he’s closer to my eye level, not towering. His voice is low and steady. “You’re right. I don’t know that.”
My throat tightens.
“But I do know this,” he says, eyes locked on mine. “If they try, they’re going through me. And I don’t lose.”
The words are simple. But the conviction behind them is lethal.
My breath catches. I nod once, because I don’t trust my voice.
Ozzy’s gaze holds mine for a beat longer, then he straightens slowly. He doesn’t touch me. But he’s close enough that I feel the heat of him. Close enough that my body remembers last night—his arm around me, his chest solid under my cheek, his voice in my hair telling me I’m safe.
My pulse skitters.