Going Au Naturale at Hallow’s Cove (Hallow’s Cove)

1. Brooks

Chapter one

Brooks

Why was there a cow at my window?

I mean, I did live on a farm, so it wasn’t that unusual, but she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. I pushed myself up and stretched, my muscles slightly sore from putting up the new fence in the western field. It was supposed to hold the cows, but obviously we missed a spot.

I let out a long sigh. We would need to wrangle the ones that got out and get the fence finished. Maybe I could ask Bryce to help me with that this morning.

I stood up and made my way to the kitchen. My hooves clicked on the wooden floors of my farmhouse. I always made sure I took the time to enjoy the quiet mornings before I made my way to the main house.

It was always bustling with people. I grew up there with my parents, my grandfather, and my four siblings. There was never a quiet moment back then.

Now, I lived in a house I’d built on the south side of the farm. It still wasn’t perfect, and there were a lot of things I wanted to add, but I built it with my two hands with the help of a few of my brothers, and I loved it.

I ran the coffee machine and watched as the dark liquid dripped down into the pot. As I waited, I checked the calendar I had pinned to my fridge.

I paused when I read tomorrow's date.

Visit from the Organic Certifiers of Stonebridge.

Was that tomorrow? I swore they were coming next week. I went to my kitchen table that doubled as my office and flicked through the forms until I found the letter with the date on it.

Yup, tomorrow was the day, and I was not as prepared as I wanted to be. I knew the farm was well qualified to be certified organic. We didn’t use artificial pesticides, and the animals on our farm were well taken care of.

Even though the certification was just a stamp on the label, it was a stamp that could help our sales.

Though we did pretty well for a small, family-run farm, we needed to do more. Being able to charge more and attract more customers would help. With all my siblings growing up and most having families, one bad year could put us in trouble, and I never wanted to worry about that.

A knock came at the door, making me jump. It was still dark outside, so I knew it could only be one person. I opened to see Gabe, one of my best friends, standing there, his circular glasses on, pushed up high on his nose.

“Mornin’,” I said, leaving the door open for him to come in. “You know you don’t have to knock.”

Gabe came around often in the morning—he’d been doing that since we were children since I had to be up early to help with the farm chores. Being a gargoyle, he could only be awake at night, and I was one of the only people in town up at the same time as him.

“I always knock,” he asserted.

“Fine, have it your way.” We’d been through this before. “I’m gonna go get dressed. There’s coffee ready.”

I heard him clank around the kitchen as I went up and threw on a pair of jeans and a Henley and grabbed my worn brown hat. When I went back down, I set it on the table and grabbed myself a cup.

“How’s the shop doing?” I hadn’t been going into town in the evening lately. Spring was a busy season for us.

“Fine. It’s always a bit slow in the winter, but it’s getting better now. How’s the farm been?”

“Busy as always,” I said with a sigh. “But I’m feeling pretty prepped for Blossom Fest this year, and we have the organic auditor coming tomorrow.”

“Are you ready for it?” he asked, his tone taking on that therapist tone he developed in school.

I rolled my eyes, as I often did when his questions turned clinical. “Yes, and I had a good childhood.”

It was his turn to roll his eyes. “I’m just saying, I know how big a deal this is for you.”

I looked down into the black abyss of my mug, my own reflection looking back. I wanted to change things.

My entire family had pretty good genes, so much so that people thought I was still a teen well into my twenties. My hair was still blond as ever, but I was starting to pick out the fine lines around my mouth and eyes and I could feel my bones growing tired. I didn’t want to hope things would work out while I broke my back every day.

I needed a strategy, a long-term plan that would keep this place going long after me. And this was a great first step.

I sighed. “It is, but I truly feel ready. The farm is in great shape, and I’ve delegated all the tasks I needed to give this my undivided attention.”

“Then I’m excited for you.” We both looked toward the window and didn’t say anything for a while. That was our thing. Quiet support. In the winter, we were able to spend more time together because it stayed darker longer, but now the sky was already beginning to lighten.

“Well, it’s getting late… um… early,” Gabe amended. “I’ve gotta go but let me know how it goes.”

“I will.”

Gabe left after that. When I stepped into the living room and headed for the porch, Chicken was there waiting.

“Hey bud,” I said, rubbing the top of his head.

He preened under my touch. Chicken was a harlequin duck. We had a small flock of them, but for some reason, Chicken never showed any interest in them. He’d find ways to escape the coop and would end up on my porch every morning. I worried he would get eaten by a bobcat or something out there, so I let him in, and he made himself at home.

Now he had a dog bed in the corner, a few plastic balls, and a drawer full of duck treats.

“Let’s go, Chicken; we have a big day ahead.”

Well, he didn’t. He would go back to the coop for the day with his flock. Though he didn’t sleep there, it was good for him to spend time with them.

I grabbed my duck jacket before leaving and was glad I did. The air was still crisp in the morning, biting at the tips of my fingers.

I picked up Chicken and carried him to my old, rusty—and dependable—truck and made the drive from my house to the main farmhouse, where my parents and grandfather still lived.

Most of my other siblings lived somewhere on farm property, with the exception of the youngest, who had just turned eighteen, and my one sister in Stonebridge. It wasn’t a long way away from here, and she moved as soon as she could afford it. We were all happy for her, and she came home to visit on holidays and such.

As usual, the first thing I did when I got there was drop Chicken and let all the ducks out before heading to the farmhouse. It was large and blue, with big windows and wind chimes rattling off the wrap-around deck. Every time I saw it, it brought back memories of running around that porch chasing Bridget with a frog and of Beau, always looking out for her, sticking his foot out to trip me, making me lose my frog.

I could almost see our small footsteps worn into the walkway. And the ones of my parents, and their parents.

This house could be mine one day. My parents offered to move out when I took ownership of the farm, but even though I had fond memories of this place, it wasn’t my place. I never had any alone time back then; not that I did now, but at night I got to go to a place I built with my two hands and relax.

Sometimes it got a bit lonely, but I had Chicken and Gabe and single-night partners I could take for a ride every once in a while—with all the work I had, that was all I had to offer.

I was… content.

I opened the door to the same everyday madness. My mother was in the kitchen, making enough pancakes and bacon to feed the family. My brother Beau and his kids were already there, as usual. He ran the farm Butchery, so he was always here bright and early. His kids were three and six and way too energetic for five a.m.

Blake, the youngest, was coming down the stairs, clearly still wiping the sleep from his eyes, probably woken up by the rowdy kids in the living room.

“Morning,” I said, shoving my fingers in his hair and giving them a shake.

He batted me away, irritation evident in his features. He had darker hair than me, and while he kept it shorter, there were still the same Hoffman curls piled on top of his head.

“Morning, Uncle Brooks,” Nia, Beau’s daughter, said. She was three and adorable, with her mom’s black hair and fur. Beau’s wife, Mandi, was a rabbit shifter, so while both of their kids still had their horns, they also sprouted large ears every once in a while, especially when excited like this.

I picked her up and swung her around as she screamed shrilly. “Morning, Munchkin.”

“Don’t rile her up too much,” Beau warned me, sipping his coffee deeply. “Mandi will kill me if I bring her back all crazy.”

With the way they were running around and the extra chocolate chips I was sure my mother slipped into their pancakes, I didn’t know if that was possible, but I swung her once more before setting her down.

“Wash your hands,” my mother said, emerging from the kitchen, and they ran up to do it. “Breakfast is almost ready.”

“Hey, Mom, thanks for breakfast”

“Hey yourself, and you don’t need to thank me every morning,” she said, kissing my cheek. “Pop said Millie was in the yard this morning. I thought you guys finished that fence?”

“Me too. I’ll head into town to get supplies to fix it and have Jared round them up. We’ll have the people coming for our organic certification here tomorrow.”

“Oh, that should be nice.”

“No, it won’t,” my grandfather’s voice called from behind me. “We don’t need some government official here sniffing in our business.”

I sighed. I was hoping to avoid him today. He’d been against getting certified since I started the process, but he needed to realize times had changed since he ran things.

“We’ve talked about this,” I said. “It’s not the government; it’s one of their contractors. This will boost our sales through the roof.”

Hoffman Farm wasn’t your average family farm. We did everything from raising animals to growing wide fields to beekeeping to body care products. We basically kept the whole town fed, including all the tourists, and even exported.

Though we were considered a family-run small business, it was on a larger scale with a lot of moving parts, and we needed all those parts to continue moving. One poor year could kill it all.

“I still don’t like it,” he grumbled.

“They shouldn’t be here long.” Though I didn’t know if that was fully true. We had a lot of land and business to go over.

By the time we sat down for breakfast, Bailey had made her way in with her fiancée, Cleo. It was surprising to see them so early. Bailey always said her bees liked to sleep in, and so did she.

Everyone chatted the way we did every day until Beau and the girls left, Bailey and Cleo stuck around to finish, and Blake went upstairs to get ready for the day. He was a jack of all trades but an especially talented mechanic. He took care of all the machines we used, and he was damn good at it.

Then, I got up and helped my mother with the dishes until she all but threw me out, and I was surprised to see my father on the porch, sitting in one of the rocking chairs.

“Morning, Pop,” I greeted, taking a moment to sit with him. The sun was bright in the sky now, and it was time to get to work, but it was nice to take a moment and enjoy the vast fields and beautiful sky.

“Morning, Brooks. How’s everything?”

“Good. We have the organic people coming tomorrow.”

He nodded. My dad handed over ownership of the farm to me the year after Beau and his wife had their first kid. He and my mom decided they wanted to be there for their grandkids more and take it easy.

I’d been working to take over the farm since I was old enough to collect eggs from the coops, so it felt right. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’m glad to see how you’ve handled everything,” he said. “You’re doing a good job.”

I blinked. My father was a very caring man but odd about expressing it. It always happened out of the blue.

“Thanks, Dad. You taught me well.” And that was true. He’d taken me under his wing at an early age, so it happened seamlessly.

“Well, I’m going out to the west field to look at that fence, so I know what supplies I need. Then I need to do a last-minute sweep of everything.”

“You need help?” he asked.

“If you could help round up the cows, I would appreciate it.”

“That I can do,” he said as I left.

It was a usual early spring day for me. I made sure fields were prepped, seeds were ready, and animals were fed. I loved working with my hands and with the earth. Something about it felt so gratifying, and even more so when my whole family was involved, even though my job had now turned into a lot of managing.

By early evening, I still needed to run into town to grab some extra planks from Rick’s to fix that fence. The hole turned out to be larger than I thought.

“Hey,” my sister Bailey called as I headed toward my truck. “Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Could you run this honey to Jake? He wanted to try a new flavoring for his moonshine, and I think this will add a good sweetness.”

I took the box. “Sure thing. Ready for the market to start this year?” I asked. The bees were finally coming out of the hive again and producing, so Bailey could make more products.

“Yep. I’ve got a new body butter recipe that I think will be a hit for the Blossom Festival.”

The Blossom Festival happened every year and was a big selling day for us. Production would need to be monitored so we could be prepared. I’d also need to see if Lerana would have any time to come help Ma bake for the event. With the festival, we’d need all the extra hands we could have.

I put the box in my truck and drove to town, windows down, turning up the radio coming through my speakers, probably a bit too loud. But I was alone, with the breeze through my hair. It always made me feel alive.

Until I noticed a car pulled off to the side of the road. It had to be someone coming up to the farm who had gotten stuck in the mud, but I didn’t recognize the car. Either way, I put my hat on and pulled my truck over to help.