by Juliet Chase
“Can you write it down for me? Exactly what I need to get and how much to give her?”
“Sure.” Sarah fished a ballpoint pen out of her breast pocket and jotted down the information on a prescription pad. She handed the slip to Tess and then stood up and brushed straw from the knees of her blue scrubs. She gently rubbed Pointless behind the ears before gathering her kit and walking with Tess to the barn door.
“Hey, Tess, since you’re new here and all, do you want to get together sometime? I could really use some girl talk now and then—all my high school friends are married with kids, which makes them too busy to grab a beer most of the time.”
“Sure, I’d like that.”
“Great! How about next Thursday?”
“Okay, as long as it’s after milking.”
“Roger that. Why don’t you give me a call when you’re ready to head out and I’ll meet you in town?”
“Sure thing—hey, Sarah? Thanks for coming out so quickly.”
“No prob. Later.” And with a cheery wave, she was gone.
Tess closed up the barn and headed back in to the house. She spent some time playing tug-of-war with Daisy before deciding she’d better figure out how to connect to the Wi-Fi and get that email off to Gran.
She fished her laptop out of her oversized messenger bag that she’d stashed behind the couch in the living room. Putting it on the kitchen table, she looked around for a place to plug in the power cord. Every available outlet had a snazzy kitchen appliance attached. She opted to unplug the juicer, as she had no plans to juice ever and the location was the least likely to trap her with the cord if she got up suddenly.
Plugged in, she set about getting the Wi-Fi signal. Apparently someone had been overly helpful here, because all available networks were password secured. She clicked on the one named GuerseyGirl—that sounded like Gran. On her third attempt to guess the password, she got it: MiniCowsRule. Whoever it was that had made her set a password, and she knew Gran would never think of that on her own, had obviously not gone into what makes a good one.
She didn’t bother looking at her email inbox. She knew it was going to be bad. She hit Compose and kept the email short and sweet, reading it over once before clicking Send. She was worried. She hadn’t come here to make these kinds of serious decisions, and Gran was sure to be unhappy with any of her choices for one reason or another. Thankfully Sarah had agreed to put all her bills on Gran’s account, so she didn’t have that expense to worry about.
For dinner that night she decided to indulge a little and whipped up a salad and an omelet with some of the homemade cheese she’d found when she’d explored the cellar. Gran had really gotten serious about the cheesemaking, judging by the size of the round and the perfectly smooth yellow wax coating. The cheese itself was delicious, slightly nutty and just pungent enough to wake up all the senses. Not for the first time, Tess wondered why Gran hadn’t discussed more of this with her family. Did she think they’d disapprove, or not understand?
Her big trip into town to go to the feed store had to wait until the morning. When she’d looked it up online after dinner to get the address, she learned they’d already closed for the day. And Gran still hadn’t replied to her email by the time she was ready to leave the house around nine.
She found the building easily enough; it was just a few blocks behind the grocery store she’d been in earlier in the week. Finding the entrance, though, was a different story. Finally she headed into the adjacent hardware store, intending to ask only to discover that the hardware store, lumberyard and feed store shared the same staff and front door.
There was a small group of people clustered around the checkout desk, so she headed into the aisles to wander for just a few minutes. A small display of brass cowbells caught her eye, and she smiled in delight at the tiniest, just two inches across. That would look so cute on a calf. She rang it to hear it tinkle and then set it down again. She was heading back up to the front when the conversation at the counter started getting heated. She stopped in the nearest aisle and decided that the salt blocks were absolutely fascinating.
“Now you know that boy is destined for Olympia. Why he’s still hanging out around here I’ll never know. It’s not like he’s got kids in school or such.”
“Ha! He’s too smart to become a politician.”
“Somebody has to do it, might as well be Nate.”
Tess’s ears perked up.
“I heard that he told his ma he’d think about it next year, see who else is running.”
Nate was going to run for office? Tess felt disappointment hit her stomach. Why did she care? It wasn’t like she even lived or voted here. She was moving on, hopefully within the week. And it sounded like he wouldn’t be staying either, at least not long term.
“His mother would sure like to lord that over everyone at the senior center. She keeps saying he should be governor, but he’s kinda young for that, isn’t he?”
“I dunno, he’s about Jill’s age and she’s thirty-three…”
Tess decided she couldn’t stay in the aisles any longer. She headed for the counter with a purposeful stride. The older woman standing there chatting made way for her with a pleasant smile. Tess handed over the piece of paper Sarah had given her.
The clerk looked it over and then glanced at Tess over the rims of her reading glasses. “Are you sure this is all you need? That’s not very much for even one cow.”
“It’s for a mini cow.”
The two women gave each other a meaningful look.
“You new in town?”
“Sort of.” She didn’t really want to share her personal business, but on the other hand these two seemed pretty well informed—maybe they knew where Gran was hiding. “I’m Callie’s granddaughter. Any ideas where she may be?”
“She’s not at her place?”
“Or Walt’s?” the other woman chimed in with a smirk.
Okay, that had been a bad idea. Now it would be all over town. Tess gave her best noncommittal half-smile and grabbed the ten-pound sack of feed.
What did she care what the town gossips thought? She wasn’t going to be here long enough to bear the brunt of any rumors. She could already hear the two women whispering together before she’d pushed the door open with her hip.
As she was driving back through town, she thought she saw Nate’s truck parked in front of one of the many coffee shops. She slowed down but she didn’t see him anywhere. Someone honked behind and her and she blushed, embarrassed to find herself seeking him out. Was this some weird variation of Stockholm syndrome, or something where you liked the person who has seen you at your most embarrassing moment just to keep the pain fresh? There were umpteen reasons why spending time with Nate Hale was a bad idea, and not a single justifiable one to see more of him. That he wore a suit well and liked to tease her were hardly good reasons. She definitely did not need to seek him out.
She worried on her way back to the cottage that she was getting a little too attached to the town and the cows, and after only a week. She stiffened her resolve not to just take what life handed her anymore. Her thirties were going to be the decade of taking charge of her life, and getting somewhere. She’d have to do a bit extra to make up for lost time, so she needed to stay focused. Tess ignored the little inside voice that snidely pointed out that she hadn’t even decided yet what to focus on. Anyway, as far as she could see, life hadn’t actually handed her anything yet but a whole lot of cows to milk. If she started thinking there was something with Nate just because he’d flirted a little and made charming conversation, wasn’t she just repeating the mistake with Daniel?
Nate was definitely not running an alternate lifestyle camp; she was positive Sarah would have mentioned that. Besides, it sounded like he had big political plans, and she was pretty sure she didn’t have any of the necessary attributes to be that kind of arm candy. And she didn’t want to be. So he must just be flirting to pass the time until he started campaigning. Or worse, maybe this wa
s how he campaigned?
Anyway, with or without Nate, she didn’t think she wanted to live in this crazy town, even though it was pretty and didn’t have horrible traffic and she really liked Sarah, and her gran too, for that matter. Top of her list after she gave Pointless her special feed was to start doing some research on the web to pick her new home. If she knew where she was going, she was less likely to linger here. Though she wanted to visit some of the beaches before she left, and maybe drive down adjoining Whidbey Island. She’d heard it was absolutely beautiful, but hadn’t had time to check it out yet. And she should make a quick trip to the outlet mall, because there might not be one near wherever she was going.
CHAPTER SEVEN
A loud banging intruded into Tess’s very pleasant dream. She’d been exchanging witty repartee without missing a beat with a good-looking man who’d flirted elegantly. That he’d looked remarkably similar to a certain attorney was a detail she was prepared to overlook. Then out of nowhere, someone had started banging kitchen pans together. Tess crawled her way back to consciousness with a frown. The charming man was nowhere to be seen, but the banging continued.
She crawled out of bed and checked to see what she was wearing—not enough. She threw on jeans to go with the red t-shirt she had on, and walked down the hall toward the door. It had better be important. She’d dragged herself out of bed at 4:30 to do the milking, and then been so exhausted she’d gone back to bed. Daisy had jumped up too, and put her nose on her paws with a concerned look in her eye. Tess hoped that didn’t mean she was coming down with something. Daisy always got protective when her person was incubating a germ, but maybe today was the exception.
She pulled open the front door, running a hand through her hair in an attempt to civilize it as she did so. It was raining cats and dogs out there. A tall man was leaning against the doorframe, his arm bent to hold a cell phone to his ear, while the other hand was in a fist that looked like it was about to blacken Tess’s eye. She stepped back as a safety precaution, and only then did the man take his attention off his conversation and notice she was standing there.
“Dan, I’ll call you back in a few, okay? Someone’s here. No, I don’t know who it is. What’s your name, babe?”
No way was Tess answering to that. She leaned on the opposite side of the door and crossed her arms over her chest. She was prepared to stare him down.
He was tall, and had the black hair and blue eyes synonymous with an Irish ballad. Too bad he was so rude. Still on the phone, he was slow to notice her lack of an answer or her glare, but eventually he caught on.
“Later, Dan, looks like I put my foot in it.”
With that, he ended the call and gave Tess a crooked grin that she’d guess had won over many a pouting female. But she was not in the mood. He tried again.
“Hi there, I’m Brendan, Walt’s nephew. Are you a relative of Callie’s?”
Tess inclined her head with assent, but wasn’t ready to offer up any information.
“I see.” He morphed back into the business mode he’d been using on the phone. “I got an email from Walt saying there was trouble and he needed my help. Do you know what he was referring to?”
Tess just unfolded her arm and pointed at the barn.
Brendan gave her a look like he wasn’t sure if she was rude or mute, but his eyes followed the direction of her finger. He stepped off the porch and walked to the barn. Tess watched with interest as he opened the door just far enough to stick his head in.
And although he was speaking directly into the building, Tess had no problems hearing him. “Holy mother of God! What the hell is going on here?”
Tess grinned. When he came back to the little porch, she decided to go a little easier on him, and held out her hand. “I’m Tess.”
She gave him the short version of events to date. But when his cell phone went off for the tenth time and she saw him check the number with distraction, she delicately took it from between his fingers and walked it into the kitchen. She found the silent mode quickly and then stuffed it in a drawer between stacks of tea towels. There, that ought to disable any vibrate alert. And why did his phone work here when hers didn’t, anyway? That didn’t seem fair, but then he probably paid through the nose for his plan. When she went back into the living room, Brendan was still sitting there with his hand in midair as though the phone were still attached. He looked slightly panicked.
“Focus, Brendan. You can have it back later.”
“But… but…”
“Aren’t you a little young to be Walt’s nephew?”
“I’m the youngest child of his baby sister. So no, not really. Look, I really need my phone back. I’m head of security for an internet firm—if something happens, I have to deal with it immediately.”
“Uh-huh. What would happen if you were hit by a truck?”
“My directors would step in.”
“Then pretend you were hit by a truck, because those cows can get angry. They may look cute, but they’re determined. Like me.” She folded her arms and deliberately narrowed her eyes, lacing her voice with ominousness.
Brendan glanced toward the kitchen. He got up and started in that direction, but Tess pushed him down again.
“Look, we’ve got a real problem here. And either you’re part of the solution or you’re wasting my time. Which is it?”
He sat down again but didn’t respond.
“Great—I’ll teach you how to milk this afternoon, and you can take over tomorrow morning… at 4:30. Do you have a key to Walt’s place?” No way was she sharing Gran’s cottage with this anal-retentive executive.
“Yes, of course I have a key—and his power of attorney, I might add. Which I think I may be needing, at this rate. And no, I don’t have time to help you with the milking. I’m due back in Seattle first thing in the morning.”
“Wait a minute. You live in Seattle?”
He nodded.
“And I had to come all the way up here from Oregon? Why didn’t you come?”
“Possibly because both Walt and Callie knew I wouldn’t milk those walking footstools?” He turned on the charming grin again, but Tess was fuming. She wasn’t sure if she’d be as mad if her throat wasn’t hurting from the impending cold, but right then she didn’t care.
“You… you bastard!”
“Hey, I don’t have time for milking, which is why I don’t own any cows. Most people don’t. That’s what the grocery store is for. Hell, I don’t even like milk. So don’t judge. Why Uncle Walt let himself get conned into them, I’ll never know. I thought he was above being manipulated by a woman. Why don’t you hire someone until this is sorted out—or better yet, we sell the lot. They’re in Uncle Walt’s barn and I have authority to conduct his affairs if he’s unable to do so—which at the moment he isn’t, as he’s not even here. I can make some calls on the way back. I’ll bet there are several auctioneers that will do something tomorrow if needed.”
Tess was skeptical of this legal interpretation, and said so. “Here’s the card for the attorney who’s mad at Gran. Why don’t you give him a call and see if he says you can do that. If he says yes, then we’ll talk.”
“It’s Sunday.”
“That’s his cell phone on the back.”
“You took my phone away.” He was pouting like a three-year-old.
“There’s a landline right there.” She pointed to the table beside him and smirked.
Tess couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but after Brendan introduced himself and explained his idea, she could tell that Nate put the kibosh on it immediately. Brendan sighed with frustration and pushed up his shirtsleeves. “So what do you suggest, then? I can’t stay here. Oh, okay. Then you have my number, right? Presuming Tess gives me my phone back. Can’t you arrest her for that? Uh-huh. Well, let me know if anyone comes up with a bright idea.”
When he hung up, Brendan looked like the captain of a ship whose crew had mutinied. Tess could tell he was used to people jumping
at his command, and nobody was doing it now. In fact, they were even questioning his own ability to jump.
“Brendan, can you either leave Walt’s key with me or help me look around for clues? He didn’t tell you where they were going, did he?”
“No, he didn’t mention it. Look, why don’t you keep the key—there’s nothing of great value in that house anyway, so help yourself. I’d better get back so I can catch up on a few things in case I have to go bail Uncle Walt out somewhere later in the week. I’ll try to come back up next weekend, and maybe then there will be something I can help with.”
“You could help now—with the milking.”
“No can do.” He held out his hand with the palm up. “My phone, please?”
Tess sighed and went back into the kitchen. She didn’t think she could keep him prisoner, and what would be the point anyway? He seemed pretty useless.
She gave him his phone back and waved as he drove his snazzy little black sports car back out the drive. She turned back and realized she was now too awake and irritated to go back to bed. Maybe it was time to explore the rest of Gran’s property. She grabbed a jacket and an umbrella while whistling for Daisy.
Tramping through the wet grass with her dog bounding along side calmed her down considerably. They headed down to the path that bounded the lake, and then moved up the hill through the trees. The water quickly soaked through her shoes, but she kept on walking. The light drumbeats of the raindrops on her umbrella drowned out the sounds of distant traffic, giving her a sense of being comfortably alone. Once they were under the fir trees it was fairly dry, as the thick green cover caught most of the water. There was just a general aroma of damp bark and needles to indicate it was raining at all. She was still pissed off at Brendan’s cavalier attitude, but deep down envious of his ability to say no, and apparently without any guilt. She needed to learn how to do that.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Tess checked the ear tag of the cow she was about to milk. She was starting to learn how to tell them apart, but unless they had a distinctive marking somewhere she wasn’t always sure. This one was Lily. She’d quickly gotten in the habit of talking to the cows while she milked. It seemed rude somehow to be handling the cow’s private parts without at least chatting. She supposed that was silly, but the cows had proven to be very good listeners so far.