Free La Vie en Rose {Life in Pink} by Lydia Michaels Page A

played her mind wandered. This was not where she expected to be. Her calendar was crammed with appointments she wouldn’t keep, consultations, tastings, dance classes and more. She’d been so consumed with planning a wedding, she’d forgotten who she was before she got engaged. The real her was in there somewhere, but lost.
    “Do you believe in God, Riley?”
    She hadn’t expected him to answer anymore than she expected to ask the question out loud. He was so engrossed in the movie, but it was a quiet scene so he did. “Sometimes, but I think I’m wrong. My God’s a cross between St. Nick, Jesus, and Zeus from the Disney version of Hercules, but not as tan.”
    This made her smile. “You believe in a Santa God?”
    He chuckled. “Yeah, sort of. I imagine him sitting on a throne like the Abe Lincoln monument, but holding a trident and surrounded by clouds. But I know that’s not what it’s really like. It’s just what I imagine when someone says God.”
    She grinned, finding his version of Deity charming. “Do you think God has a plan for us, like everything happens for a reason?”
    “I don’t know, Em. If he does and you find the cheat sheet he’s only going to change it to smite you.”
    She also wasn’t sure the real God smote people. Maybe God wept with them and steered them toward something better, but if they made too much noise or moved too fast they’d miss the purpose of the struggle. “I think God’s a woman.”
    He was quiet for a long while. “You’re probably right.”
    She decided there was a bigger reason Becket was removed from her life. She just didn’t know what it was or if she’d ever find out.
    After the movie was over and they had themselves a nice cry—which Riley swore was allergies—he insisted she watch some stupid online clip about screaming goats.
    “I can’t believe I agreed to this.”
    Riley jumped onto the couch like an excited tween and opened his laptop. “I dare you not to laugh. As a matter of fact, I bet you crack up.”
    “At a goat? Puh-lease . Put your money on the table. I will take that bet as fast as I’ll take your money.” She straightened her shoulders and focused, not caring that it was four in the afternoon and she was still in her pajamas.
    “Fine. How much? Keep in mind, if you lose, which you will, I’m taking your money. Don’t expect sympathy.”
    “Twenty bucks.”
    He reached in his pocket and pulled out two tens. “Where’s yours?”
    “I’m good for it.”
    “Nope. Get it, because when I take your money I’m ordering food with it. None of this IOU garbage.”
    “Fine.” She went to her purse and dug out a twenty. Slapping it on the coffee table, she returned to the couch and crossed her legs. “This is going to be the easiest money I’ve ever made.”
    “You aren’t kidding,” he snickered. Once the clip was cued he hit play.
    Oh dear God. She hadn’t expected goats to look like that. She saw goats before, but never ones that looked so ridiculous. These were not the ones Mother Goose talked about. The poor creature had drooping ears that curled at the end like Pippi Longstocking’s braids and lips that looked like they’d been sucked into a vacuum for days.
    The first threat to her composure came as one goat mumbled in what honestly sounded like a human voice. That wasn’t how goats sounded, was it?
    Biting her lips to keep them sealed, she stared as the camera cut to a different breed. Oh the horror! The teeth and the floppy tongue, it was just too silly to watch with a straight face. Someone operating the camera started to giggle and contagious mirth slid into the slippery pit of her stomach where laughter was born.
    She silenced each tiny burst of snickers, refusing to let him win, but the longer the clip played the harder it became. Her eyes started to water as thick laughter clogged her throat.
    No! You are taking his money. Don’t you dare laugh!
    And then it happened. A goat, with bug eyes and a long messy