by Juliet Chase
“The neighbor complaints, remember? They could as far as I’m concerned, but your gran is trying to appease the neighbors and their lawyers by promising to keep them inside. It’s not good for them overall, but they won’t have to put up with it much longer.”
He scratched the current cow behind the ears absent-mindedly, and she head-butted his arm with affection. They were just so cute—how could people resist them?
Luckily, not all of the cows needed to be milked, as some were clearly retired to being just pets, and others were too young. As Tess carefully fastened the pasture gate after the last cow was taken out, she looked down at her shoes, now ruined for anything more upscale than another dairy barn. When she got back and could see across the length of the building, there were more cows beyond in a separate enclosure at the back. “Mike? What about those? Don’t they need to be milked too?”
He looked back as he carried the last bucket of milk into the cooler, and then grinned when he saw where she was pointing. “Well you can try…” He took pity on her. “Tess, they’re bulls. Or they were once. Now they’re mini oxen.”
“Oh.”
“We’ll muck out in here and then let them out in the pasture when the cows come back in, then clean up their space, all right?”
“I guess.” She was tired, achy from the long drive and tense with worry over Gran, who seemed to have slipped over a ledge, mentally if not physically.
Mike grabbed two pitchforks from the wall of the barn and handed one to Tess. She glanced between the pointy prongs and the trampled piles of muck on the floor, and ground her teeth. Mike showed her how to rake and scoop it into the wheelbarrow, and she soon got the hang of it. That was until she started moving faster, hoping to be done with the nasty chore. She felt her foot slip in the gooey mess, and screamed in outrage as her body gave in to the momentum and gravity and her butt landed right in the pile of manure she’d just scraped together. Mike came running at her scream, but he slowed down and turned his head away when he saw she was basically okay. He didn’t turn fast enough, though, for Tess to miss the grin that was spreading across his face.
“Oh, go ahead and laugh. One of us needs to. But at least come over here and give me a hand up.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He snickered and extended the requested hand. Back on her feet, Tess felt the damp penetrating the back of her jeans, along with the smell, and grimaced.
“You want to take a break and go change?”
“Yes, but I’m not going to. I only brought a few changes of clothes, and I’m not going to use them all up now. Let’s get this over with so I can forget this happened.”
They went back to work, and luckily there were only a few more wheelbarrows full to dump.
When everything was ship shape, Mike found some flashlights in an equipment bin, and together they led the cows back in from the dark pasture. Once the cows and oxen were fed and watered, Mike hung the pitchforks back on the wall.
Despite the clammy sensation on the back of her jeans, Tess decided it was time to get some answers. “So, what was your original plan when you came here tonight?”
“I really thought Callie would have sold off some of the herd—she knew she couldn’t handle them all, nor is there room. I didn’t think she’d run away.”
“Me either. So when you said ‘confiscate,’ you didn’t mean it?”
“No, I meant it. It’s just that we can’t exactly put cattle in the animal shelter—they’re small, but not small enough for a dog kennel. So I have to find foster situations for at least thirty of them, and if your Gran isn’t here that means I have to find spaces for forty-five, which is going to be a lot harder.” He glanced around the barn with concern, but smiled when the cow in front gave Tess’s hand a lick.
“I thought you said she could only have five?”
“That’s the attorney’s area based on the neighbor complaints. I’m just concerned right now with how many can be housed safely in this barn. It didn’t start as a full-scale dairy barn—this was more of a truck farm kind of structure. Maybe one cow and a couple of horses and a tractor, that kind of thing. Even though these gals are small, they still need space to move. Callie and Nate will have to fight out the rest.”
“Nate? Who’s Nate?”
“The county’s attorney.”
Oh, this just kept getting better. “Well, what did Gran say when you told her the cows weren’t healthy like this?”
“She agreed with me, but, you see, she doesn’t want them sold for meat. They’re pets to her. But she keeps breeding them to keep them fresh for milking, which means more cows. She might be able to get a few families to take the females for milk, except that then they’re faced with the same problem. And it’s a lot harder to get someone to take one of the males as just a pet—most people want them for meat. This is still largely a farming area, so most people can deal with that no problem, but not Callie. She insists anyone taking a cow can have it for free, but they have to sign a no-slaughter agreement that extends to any offspring. People don’t want to have to deal with that when they can get a cow from a lot of different places, even mini ones, without those restrictions.”
Looking around the mass of really cute animals now happily chewing their cud, Tess could see Gran’s point. There were way too many of them, but she didn’t want any of them eaten, either.
“So did Gran have a plan?”
“Several,” he replied dryly. “None of which worked out. She failed to convince the regular dairy farms to take any on loan, because they aren’t set up for the smaller size, and she refused to let the high school’s farm club have them when they wouldn’t sign the agreement.”
“What if you can’t find a foster farm?”
“Then… I’m not sure. If it were just a neglect case in terms of food and water, someone would be hired and your grandmother would be charged the expense, but because this is overcrowding and she’s had her fair share of warnings, it might come down to euthanasia—but I’m hoping we can find a farm willing to take them.”
“Will you at least give me a few more days to find Gran and try to sort this out?”
“Yeah, it will be a few days before I can get anything to happen anyhow. I’d have to get a warrant to seize the animals, since you’re here.”
“Since I’m here! What do I have to do with it?”
“You’re feeding and watering them.” His lips curved up ever so slightly. “If there were nobody here to do it then I could take them without a warrant. Hey, is that why Callie ran off—so someone would come rescue her and take the heat?”
Tess raised an eyebrow in warning. Clearly there was a lot about Gran she didn’t know, but she was still family.
Mike nodded and courteously changed the subject entirely. “Listen, I’m guessing you didn’t have dinner when you arrived. Do you want to go grab something in town? My treat—you didn’t get the best welcome to the island.”
Tess looked into his kind brown eyes and wished she didn’t feel conflicted. He’d been really helpful, and he was kinda cute, but Gran would consider it consorting with the enemy. Plus she was tired and stinky. This was not an opportune moment to start her new plan of getting out more. “I’m sorry, Mike, but I’m beat and I need a shower. I spotted some soup in Gran’s cupboard, which will do me for tonight. Some other time?”
He took the brush-off with aplomb. “Sure thing. Here’s my card. If your grandmother does show up, call me immediately. That’s my cell in the lower right—it’s not going to help her to put this off any longer. I’ll be by in the morning to teach you how to milk, and we can talk about next steps then, okay?” He smiled slightly at her yawn. “Get some sleep.”
As he headed back to his truck, Tess had a sudden thought. “Mike?”
“Yeah?” he called back, turning around.
“What time in the morning?”
He paused and then grinned evilly. “Around about five a.m.”
Tess closed her eyes and groaned to drown out his chu
ckling. Hell.
The next morning, Mike did stop by a little after five, as promised. It was still dark when Tess heard feet crunching the gravel in the driveway. A peek out the window from behind the curtain showed the moon highlighting his open face. She came out onto the cottage’s little porch to meet him, padding out in her bare feet. He was at least sympathetic enough to bring coffee with him, which he handed to her. Tess accepted the paper cup gratefully, still dressed in the tank top and flannel sleep pants she’d worn to bed. She’d meant to set an alarm, really she had, but… Daisy danced around them both, excited to get such an early start to the day.
Tess dragged a reluctant Daisy back into the cottage so she’d be out of the way, and grabbed her shoes while she was inside. Then she headed over to the barn, where Mike already had the overhead lights on and a cow up on the milking stand.
The cows were all wide awake. How did they do it? Tess sighed again and pulled her hair back with the elastic band she’d stuck in her pocket, ready to learn the fine art of milking.
The lesson with Mike went okay. He was patient with her and went over everything until she got it. It took Tess several tries to get the hang of it but she was glad she wasn’t squatting on the floor while she tried. He put his warm hands over hers to show her the correct motions. He was sweet and all but try as she might Tess didn’t feel the slightest tingle. It was just as well—she didn’t need any distractions right now. When she got herself settled in her new hometown she’d try to be more open to a dating life again.
“Sooo… how’d you become animal control? Is there a special school for that?”
“There’s training—some of it’s related to police work, code enforcement, investigation and that sort of thing, and some to animal behavior and the like. When I got out of the Navy I’d had enough of people for a while. Working with animals seemed like a refreshing change, and I found I liked it. When there’s a problem, it’s usually the people and not the animals causing it. I think you’ve got the hang of it now. How do you feel?”
“Tired, but yes, I think I’ve got the rhythm.”
“Good—listen, I’m sorry to abandon you to it but I have to get to work. I’ve got a long list of inspections today, and that’s in addition to any problem calls that come in. Will you be okay on your own?”
Tess felt guilty on her gran’s behalf for causing this particular problem. “Sure, I’ll call if I hit something I can’t figure out. Thanks for your patience and your help.” She smiled with what she hoped was bravery, but suspected might look more like pissed-off frustration.
“Good. I’ll try to stop by tonight, but if not then tomorrow morning. Give me a call if you need anything. Hopefully we can get this situation resolved in a day or so. Oh, I almost forgot—I ran into Nate at the coffee shop this morning. He said he’d try to stop by later today.”
“Nate? Oh yeah, the attorney.” Oh, goody. She nodded, and Mike headed out to his truck. The darkness had receded slightly into a blue-grey dimness. Pale pink and yellow wisps were just beginning to lighten the horizon. He gave a cheery beep of the horn as he backed out of the drive, his headlights briefly blinding her.
The cow next in line gave a bellow, as though to remind Tess she was waiting. Tess turned back and opened the gate. It was going to take her awhile to get an efficient process, which was going to mean some impatient cows. She rubbed this one’s nose lightly. They’d been through a lot lately.
Tess wasn’t sure when she was going to have time to actually look for Gran between the cows and all the people coming by. Where could she have gotten to? Tess mentally set aside some time for detective work in the house as soon as the cows were taken care of.
Milking and mucking out didn’t take as long as it could have, or at least that was what she told herself as she made her way across the yard to the cottage. She let Daisy out onto the porch and then surveyed her clothes. She hadn’t bothered changing out of her nightclothes once Mike arrived—why waste her clean jeans when the flannel was just as washable? And while she hadn’t fallen this time, she still had managed to get muck on much of her person, and generally smelled of cow. She didn’t want to have to clean the cottage of it again too.
She glanced around surreptitiously. No neighbors in sight. No houses on the far hillside. It seemed daring, but safe enough. She peeled the pants down and stepped out of them, shivering a little in the early morning breeze. She tried to roll and fold them at the same time so the dirt didn’t spill out.
Daisy had started barking like crazy, which in hindsight Tess blamed for not hearing anything else. Because just as she started to pull the hem of her tank top up over her ribs, someone cleared his throat.
“I don’t know about where you’re from, but in these parts we generally do that inside.”
Tess could feel the blush working its way up her entire body before it blazed into her cheeks. She closed her eyes and turned, pulling the hem down as far as it would go, which wasn’t nearly far enough to begin covering the hot-pink bikini panties she’d thought were so cheerful when she’d put them on the night before.
She opened her eyes to a tall man with dark hair in a smart grey suit, grinning as he rubbed Daisy’s tummy with the toe of his perfectly polished black loafer. To give him credit, his striking silver eyes never left hers, but then he’d already had plenty of time for an eyeful. She glanced past him to the black truck parked behind her Subaru. There was no mistaking that vehicle.
“You!”
“Me?”
“You tailgated me on Highway 20!” Was it only yesterday?
He looked a little confused by this accusation, but brushed it off with a shrug. “I’m Nate Hale. Mike said he’d tell you I’d be stopping by?”
Oh, shit—the attorney gunning for Gran. It would have to be the strange, primrose-hauling guy from the day before. Tess shivered in the still-cool air of the morning and could feel her nipples pebbling under her tank top. She didn’t have enough hands to cover them and continue trying to pull down her shirt. She said something that came out like “Gahhhh” and ran inside the cottage. She’d never dressed so fast in her life, pulling on jeans, a bra and two t-shirts, to make up for the previous lack of coverage, before returning outside. She grimaced, knowing that since she hadn’t showered she’d be doing even more laundry today, as no doubt the muck had already penetrated.
Nate was still standing where she’d left him making friends with Daisy, the traitor. Although she supposed it wouldn’t do for her dog to have bitten an attorney. Then Mike would just have to come back again for an even worse infraction. Nate smirked slightly when he looked up at her return, and she saw a long dimple show up on one side of his mouth. She wondered if he knew how engaging he looked when he smiled like that. She decided he probably did, damn him. She strode down the steps as though nothing had happened.
“Hi, I’m Tess, Callie’s granddaughter.”
“Nice to meet you, Tess.” The dimple appeared again, and Tess knew he wasn’t going to forget how he’d found her. “Like I said, I’m Nate, and as Mike probably told you, Callie’s in a bit of hot water right now.”
“Yes, but where do you fit in?”
“I have to uphold the law. I’ve been trying to work out a solution with Callie so this can stay out of the courts, but she’s… stubborn. She’s got to downsize to five cows or less, and she’s still facing fines for non-compliance.”
Yep, Gran was stubborn; he had that nailed. She tried not to be intimidated by his totally corporate sleekness, but it was hard, and she was pretty sure that was the intent behind it anyway.
“Look, I’m due in court in Mt. Vernon in a couple of hours, so I can’t get into to it all now. Why don’t you give me a call this afternoon”—he handed her his business card—”and we can discuss it then. I thought I’d just stop by to put a face with a name. And I’m glad I did.” He smiled slowly, the dimple re-emerging. “Pink is my new favorite color.” He turned and got into his truck. He waved at her jauntily as the sam
e Cajun music cranked up and he drove away.
Daisy sat in the drive and whined while looking down the drive after him, and thumped her tail. Tess rolled her eyes, still mortified that she’d stripped in front of a total stranger. And now Daisy was actively flirting with him. Not that the two were comparable, but it would have been nice if Daisy had warned her they had company. Or maybe that was what she had been trying to do.
CHAPTER FOUR
Tess was a gaggle of nerves when she went back in the cottage. Still sleepy from getting up so early, but wired from the most recent encounter, she wasn’t sure which end was up. She fished around in the cupboards until she found the makings of a pot of coffee to drown her sorrows. She fed Daisy and debated calling her mother, but decided she didn’t have enough information yet to call in the cavalry, although she really wanted to. As the adrenaline wore off, she discovered she was starving. The fridge didn’t hold much in the way of breakfast foods, so she settled for scrambled eggs and toast. It was not the most satisfying of meals, but then this was shaping up to be a day like that. She couldn’t believe she’d taken her clothes off in front of a strange man. Was it worse that he’d seemed to like it? No, she’d have been even more dismayed if he had seemed oblivious. It was a toss-up, though, and her preference would have been for it not to have happened at all.
She did finally get her shower in that morning, grimacing slightly at her grandmother’s fondness for pink in the cottage’s one little bathroom at the end of the hall. Gran had painted the paneled walls shell pink, and both the window and shower curtains were absolutely smothered in pink cabbage roses. The towels were fuchsia, and pink enameled plaques from the 1940s hung on the wall. It was sugary, to say the least, like being inside a heavily frosted cupcake.
Combing her hair, she waited for the mirror to clear, but finally gave up and just washed her face, leaving it without any makeup. It wasn’t like the cows were going to notice. Freshly dressed in her last pair of clean jeans and a black t-shirt, she escaped the pinkness of the bathroom and set off to figure out the laundry situation. She had a feeling she was going to be running through clothes at an alarming rate. Since she was at least a foot taller than Gran, there wasn’t much point in trying to borrow anything, either. She found the washing machine in a small utility room off of the kitchen. Thankfully it was an old-school setup, with just a few dials to turn. When she tossed her dirty clothes in the washer, the pink panties ended up on top and she blushed all over again. How long had he been standing there? Did it matter? He’d seen pretty much everything, whether he saw her clothes actually come off or not.