by Juliet Chase
“So, Lily, what do you think I should do about reinventing my life? Would you travel until you found a place that just felt right? Or analyze all the data for cost of living and climate and such?”
Lily made no reply other than the occasional swish of her tail.
“I’m thinking I’ll head someplace cheap for a while where I’ve never been, get some work done and build up my savings. Then travel. That will give me some time to refine my list of places I want to go. Maybe I’ll buy a used camper, and that way Daisy and I can go anywhere. Gas will cost more, but we’d make it up by not having to get hotel rooms. Especially with pet deposits. Oh, and I meant Daisy the dog, not Daisy the cow. You haven’t met her yet.”
When Lily was milked, Anemone took her place, and Tess kept talking. “So can you believe that Nate told people I was his girlfriend? Why would he do that? I’m sure he can’t have a problem finding women. Unless he’s gay and isn’t ready to tell people? But it’s a small town—they’d know that by now, right? Besides, the way he was looking at me when I was standing there almost naked, that doesn’t seem very likely. And why would he tell Mike he should stay away? That was rude.”
Anemone kicked out a back leg and bellowed. Tess realized she’d been squeezing rather tightly in agitation, and loosened her touch. “Sorry, sweetie. I’ll be more gentle. But you see what I mean, right? It’s not like he’s even asked me out or anything. Not that I’d go,” she reassured the small cow. “I don’t suppose it really matters. I won’t be here that long, anyway. I’ll miss you guys.” She scratched Anemone lightly on her brow ridge.
That was the last cow for this milking session. Tess cleaned up and looked around the barn. Now that it was back to a regular routine, it still smelled like a barn, but not the stench from when she’d first arrived. It was still too crowded. She was tempted to let them out to play in the pasture, but if the neighbors were really that upset…
Maybe she’d call Mike tonight and ask his advice. And maybe she’d casually inquire into his version of his conversation with Nate while she was at it.
A few hours later, Tess and Daisy leisurely walked back up to the house from the lake. They’d spent a pleasant hour after dinner walking along the shore. Daisy had taken a quick dip in the lake, undeterred by the water that was still coming out of the sky. She stopped to take one more good shake, and then rolled in a patch of semi-dry grass and dirt under a tree. Tess just rolled her eyes at the thought that Daisy would do just about anything to avoid being clean for more than a minute. When they reached the top of the path, Mike was standing there waiting for them.
“Hi, Mike—if you’ve come to help with the milking you’re too late. I got it done hours ago.” She accompanied that with a cheeky grin. She was proud of her newly developed milking skills.
“Nah, but I do have some good news. Well, and some bad news too, if I’m honest.”
Tess didn’t think she could handle any more bad news—even being faster at milking hadn’t really freed up much time to deal with anything else. “Good news first then, please.”
“I’ve found a foster farm for all the cows.”
“All of them? That’s fabulous!” She spontaneously reached up and hugged him. He looked bemused, but certainly didn’t resist her.
“Er, you might want to hang on for the bad news.”
“Why, how bad can it be if the cows aren’t here?” She narrowed her eyes, and her arms came down from around his neck.
“That’s just it. The foster arrangement is only on the condition that you come with the cows.” He took a step back, as though expecting her to go ballistic at any moment.
Tess was just confused. “They want me to sleep in the barn? For what? To make sure the cows don’t escape in the night?”
“No, no, nothing like that. You can use the guest room in the house, and Daisy is invited too. It’s just that they’re only in a position to offer space. There’s a big barn left over from when it was a dairy farm, and several pastures that are still fenced well enough for these little guys. But the owner doesn’t have time to feed and milk them.”
“I guess I can understand that. But Mike…”
“What?”
“I can’t stay here forever. I’m not getting my own work done, and sooner or later I’m going to have to go back down to Oregon and pack up my stuff. Beyond that I don’t know, but I can’t afford to become an unpaid milk maid, even if they are the cutest cows ever.”
“I understand, you’ll have to set your own limits, but seriously, Tess—with your grandmother on the lam and a shortage of people with both the resources and the time, they might have to be auctioned off or euthanized. It can’t go on forever. Right now it’s Callie who’s putting them at risk. Just remember that the next time she tries to guilt you into this.”
She worried her upper lip with her bottom teeth and knew he was right. But the cows were becoming family. They mooed with enthusiasm when she came in the barn. That was probably due to seeing someone that would milk them, but she liked to think some of it was personal too. Would someone else know that Sweetpea liked to face the door while being milked, while Daffodil tried to sneak in a face wash whenever she could. They might be mini cows, but their tongues were still huge.
“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind, and you can let these people know I’ll come with the cows and try not to get in their way. When is this happening and when are you going to give me directions etc.? Should I call them now?”
Mike’s face took on a panicked expression, and he started fiddling with the hat in his hands like it was the most fascinating thing on the planet. “I’ll get back to you with all the details; should be in the next day or so.” He started walking backward toward his truck, as though attempting to exit without her noticing.
“Hey, Mike, I’ve been meaning to ask you—why is there a huge blow drier in the barn? I found it the other day when I was going through cupboards looking for an extra halter.”
“Ah, that. Yes, well, you see, Callie…” He gulped as he tried to hold back laughter. “Callie thought her cows could be even cuter if they were mini fluffy cows.”
“Fluffy cows? Is that a new breed or something? But where does the blow drier come into it… you don’t mean she was blow-drying the cows?”
“Yep. She didn’t invent it. Fluffy cows are an internet craze, and a couple of the teenage girls at the high school tried it out on the class cow. It was really fluffy, like a giant plush toy. Callie found out about it and thought the mini cows would be even better with a ‘do.’”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Didn’t you stop her?”
“No ordinance against it. It might be emotionally traumatizing for the cows if they walked in front of a mirror, but it’s certainly not dangerous.” He was wiping tears from the corners of his eyes he was laughing so hard.
Tess made a vow to look it up on the web first thing, but she definitely wasn’t blow-drying a cow.
It was only after he’d left that Tess remembered she had been going to ask him about Nate. She couldn’t call him just for that; it would be too obvious and probably fan the rumor mill out of control.
CHAPTER NINE
On Thursday, Tess found herself eagerly anticipating her evening out. That seemed a little out of proportion for simply meeting a new friend for a beer. Maybe she really did need to reevaluate her lack of a social life, as well as where she lived. Or maybe it was just because this was her first interaction with another person since getting here where she could hopefully talk about something besides the cows. Although with Sarah being a vet, perhaps that was asking too much. She hurried through the afternoon milking, and showered and changed in record time. Daisy whined a bit at being given her dinner early and abandoned, but Tess stiffened her resolve. Daisy’s idea of girl talk was barking at the mailman.
As they had prearranged over the phone, she met Sarah in the small dirt parking lot behind the bar. The Laughing Salmon was on the main street through town, and shared a block wit
h a bunch of little boutiques and restaurants. It was hardly a scary dive, but she still felt a little nervous about just heading in by herself.
Sarah led the way into the building and headed confidently toward a round table in the back corner. Dark wood was everywhere—in the floor and tables, and in the brass-trimmed bar that ran the length of the room. Tess wondered if that made it even dimmer or if the dim light made the furnishings look dark. Either way, it was the sort of place that suggested negotiating secrets.
That was until Sarah handed her the little laminated card that had been in the condiments caddy, and she could see that it was all upscale microbrews. Sarah ordered the IPA of the day, but Tess couldn’t decide, rereading the descriptions that could have been blurbs for novels until they started to blur together. Hating to keep the poor waitress waiting, she finally opted for the one described as the liquid equivalent of eating chocolate cake with the sea wind in your face. She had to know what that tasted like. Maybe she’d have a chance to come back and try some of the others. Huckleberry ale sounded intriguing.
When the bear-like bartender brought their drinks over, Tess found herself sitting back in her chair a little, intimidated by his huge size. Long auburn hair and a beard added to the pirate effect, as did the array of tattoos running up and down his large arms. But his “Hey, sissy” directed at Sarah made Tess’s eyes widen. This was Sarah’s brother?
“Hey, Mick—this is Tess.”
Mick nodded in a friendly fashion in her direction, and then his eyes widened. He looked back at Sarah, raising one eyebrow.
“It’s okay, she knows. I told her everything.”
“Everything?”
“Well, okay, not the part about Nate’s mother. I didn’t want to scare her off.” She smiled apologetically at Tess.
“What does Nate’s mother have to do with anything?”
“Er. She has… social ambitions for him.”
“Oh, the politician thing?”
“You know about that?”
“I heard some things. It’s nothing to do with me.”
Mick and Sarah exchanged a look. Mick’s wide face beamed with innocence when he said, “I thought the two of you were an item now.”
Tess sat up straight and tried for her best assertive voice, the one she used when negotiating script edits with emotionally attached authors. “How can I convince you guys that I am not now, nor ever will be, his girlfriend?”
Mick looked puzzled as he swung a chair around and sat down with his arms resting on the back. “I don’t get it. Do you think he’s ugly?”
“Hardly.” Tess knew she couldn’t carry a lie so didn’t even try.
“You into women?” Mick asked doubtfully.
“Why do you guys always think that if a woman isn’t attracted to one of you that rules out the entire gender? For the record, no.”
“So you think he’s good looking, but you aren’t attracted to him.” Mick was rubbing his chin, while Sarah was grinning over the brim of her beer mug.
“Maybe if you saw him in his underwear?”
Mick’s jaw dropped while Tess sputtered and said, a little too loudly, “I don’t need to see Nate in his underwear.”
The bar went dead silent. Tess was mortified, and slid down in her chair, her face blazing in the thankfully dim light.
Sarah mouthed “Later” to her brother.
He nodded, and after a few minutes people picked up their conversations again, but much more quietly, like they were only half paying attention and wanted to be sure to hear the next thing she said.
Mick kept up his inquisition. “Seems to me that you’ve hardly had a chance to know him, so you’re mighty quick to rule him out. You could just be protesting too much.”
Tess gritted her teeth in frustration. What was with this town?
Mick stood up again. “I’ve got it—just the thing to get to the bottom of this and see if the two of you are really compatible.”
Leaving both women confused, he headed back into the kitchen and returned shortly with a small plate and two spoons. He set the plate down in front of Tess and offered the second spoon to Sarah, who just wrinkled her nose and shook her head. Tess looked down at one of the most perfect confections she’d ever seen. Delicate golden swirls of spun sugar were suspended over a caramel and pink pastry, with artistic dots of whipped cream surrounding it. Tess raised an eyebrow at Mick.
“Just try it.”
She saw Sarah sit back in her chair and felt both sets of eyes on her as she delicately inserted the spoon into the creation and raised it to her lips. It tasted like summer and sunlight, with a little sin mixed in. “Oh my God. That’s heaven! But you know that, right? I mean, it’s obvious.”
Mick’s head hit the table he was laughing so hard. Sarah just rolled her eyes and fished in her purse. She handed Mick a five-dollar bill. “Labor Day”.
Mick pocketed the money and nodded as he was wiping tears out of his eyes. “Good choice.”
Tess was even more confused. “What’s the big deal about dessert? Other than it being fabulous? I don’t get it.”
Mick wheezed with more suppressed gales. “The only other person who likes that is Nate. He called ahead for it this morning, but I can probably get another one ready before he gets here. Either way, it was worth it to know that you’re perfect for each other. Heck, I’ll make a special giant one for your wedding, just for the two of you! I can try to make it heart-shaped.” Delight spread across his bearded face.
“How did you get from dessert to a wedding? And how can you possibly know Nate’s the only one who likes that? I’m sure other people would, but if you don’t have it on the menu how would they know to order it?”
Sarah groaned dramatically. “Oh, we’ve all tasted it, and trust me, Nate was the only positive review. Mick wants to be a pastry chef.” Pride entered her voice. “He’s applied to one of those cooking talent shows on TV—we’re just waiting for the audition results. That was one of his early experiments—salted caramel and rhubarb. Blech.”
“Wait, did you just say Nate is coming here tonight?” She glared accusingly at Sarah, who just shrugged in innocence.
“Mick said it, not me. I’m definitely not Nate’s keeper. This is a small town, you know, even if it’s spread out—folks often end up in the same places.”
Tess gave up and went back to eating. She didn’t care what conclusions people jumped to; that was too good to waste.
Mick went back to the bar still chuckling, and Sarah kindly changed the subject to her plans for her summer vacation. They finished their beers leisurely while Tess kept a paranoid eye on the bar, in case Mick started sharing his predictions with the locals. Just when they were settling up, Nate walked in the door. He didn’t see them at first, having grabbed a seat at the bar, but after exchanging a few words with Mick, Tess saw him swivel the stool around and look across the dim room. When he spotted her, he gave her a salute. “Let’s get out of here,” Tess grumbled, and made a beeline for the door.
CHAPTER TEN
Despite having been out the night before, which didn’t actually go very late, Tess made it through the morning milking in record time. After washing up, she found herself standing in front of the kitchen sink just looking out the window, unfocused. Maybe she should get some of her own work done?
Guilt over the delay finally made her check her email inbox. There were fifteen emails regarding her now-overdue first draft of the script, twenty from her mother with an increasing volume of exclamation points in the subject line, a social media invite from Brendan and a bunch of other noise. Crap.
To delay having to respond to any of the emails, she grabbed the key Brendan had left for Walt’s place and headed over with Daisy at her heels. She unlocked the kitchen door and flipped on the light. Walt’s place was much less pink than Gran’s. Everything had a comfortable, worn look, like favorite slippers that fit just right but weren’t making a fashion statement. The kitchen floor was faded brown linoleum, and br
own plaid covered the living room furniture. Everything was picked up and neat. But it didn’t look like there was anything in the house that had been made in the last twenty years. There were no telltale maps or scraps of paper anywhere to be seen. Walt’s message light was also blinking, but Tess felt like that was rather too much of an intrusion of privacy. Gran was her gran, but Walt was pretty much a stranger, even if Gran slipped his name into almost every sentence.
She looked around the living room. A mantel clock clicked in the quiet. Framed photos lined the mantel and Tess looked through them, trying to get a feel for the man that would willingly disappear with Gran. They didn’t say much. She thought the mid-century wedding photo must be Walt and his late wife. They looked happy and very young. There were some of children that looked to have been taken in the late seventies, based on the striped shirts, but nothing that revealed too much. A more recent one of Gran and Walt together at some function was front and center.
Tess gave up. This felt too much like prying. Even if she did learn where they were, what good would it do? She didn’t think anyone was going to get a warrant for their arrest or try to extradite them from Canada, if that was where they’d gone. No, Gran would just have to come back in her own good time, and Tess was going to have to decide how much of hers she would contribute to the cause.
Daisy wandered around, sniffing as she went, but was most interested in a small chewed hole in the baseboard by the basement door. Tess called her repeatedly before finally half picking her up to get her out of the house. Leaving Daisy to see if she could find the hole’s owner from the outside, Tess headed back in to the cottage to deal with her crumbling career and agitated mother.