Page 36 of Take My Love

I’ve built houses, fixed plumbing in old-ass houses, torn out ancient flooring, and knocked down walls without breaking a sweat. I shouldn’t be this nervous to milk a goat.

Emily stands, moving past me, and I sit on the stool.

“If that’s uncomfortable, you can sit on the stand next to the goat. You have longer legs than me, so…” Her cheeks flush, and I notice how close hers are to my knee.

“I’ll give this a try.” I smile in return.

Once my hands are in position, I do as she said. I pinch theteat at the top and slowly squeeze. But nothing happens. I try again, making sure my grip is tighter before squeezing again.

“Try it faster.” Emily leans in, wrapping her hand around one of mine and does the motion for me. She pulls our fingers up, then squeezes down. “It should be one fluid motion from top to bottom. Like this…”

She repeats it, but this time, I do it with my other hand too, finally getting the milk to come out.

“There ya go. Now try ’em at the same time.”

She steps back slightly but close enough to brush my body with hers.

This time when I do it, milk squirts into the bucket. “How’s this?”

“Good, now try doin’ every other and see which one you like.”

The rest in between is nice, but I think I prefer doing them at the same time.

“You’re gettin’ the hang of it,” Emily praises, patting my shoulder. “In the event the teats point in different directions and the milk isn’t gettin’ into the bucket, you’ll wanna make sure it’s centered underneath and regrip a little so they shoot toward the middle. If that doesn’t work, you’ll have to do ’em one at a time and move ’round to the other side.”

“Now do this twenty times in a row and you might be worth keepin’…” Posey taunts, coming behind me.

“It’s the biceps,” Emily hums, giving my upper arm a firm squeeze, and my spine straightens at the unexpected touch. “I bet these can do a lot more than milkin’ goats.”

“Do that again and you’ll get written up for sexualharassment.” Posey’s sharp tongue has my eyes bouncing between them, but I quickly avert them back to my hands.

“I touched his arm, so what?” Emily asks defensively.

“With words of sexual insinuation. Touchin’ him without consent can make for an uncomfortable workplace for all employees.”

“That’s ridiculous. I was praisin’ him for doing a good job, especially his first time.”

“This isn’t a kink club, you don’t need to praise?—”

“Maybe y’all should take this conversation into the office,” Ian interferes, carefully wedging himself between Posey and Emily.

Considering I’m enjoying Posey getting riled up over me, I’d rather they stay and see what else she has to say.

“It’s fine. I don’t wanna file a report or cause any issues. I didn’t take offense,” I blurt, hoping to fizzle out the flame.

“See? He knew I wasn’t being suggestive.”

Well…

“My office, Emily.”

Posey walks out, and Emily follows, sighing and rolling her eyes. I’m left with Amaya and Ian.

“Now what?” I ask once the milk starts dripping.

“Now you’ll bring it over here to be filtered by one of the other employees and get the goat down. Bring her back to the pasture and grab the next one.”

“Sounds good.”