Chapter 2 #2
“I’m not allowed in that field,” Gennie said, pointing her sword toward the white boxes in the distance. “It’s for the bees and Noah says bees are too busy making honey to be nice to me.”
“He’s right about that,” Shay said, tossing a smile over her shoulder.
Shay had always had one of those faces meant for smiling. Not every face was meant for smiling but Shay’s was one of them. The corners of her lips were always tipped up as if she was waiting for a reason to smile.
And when she aimed those smiles in my direction…well, the adolescent version of me had lived and died by those smiles.
I stared out at the bees. I wanted a few of them to come sting some sense into me.
“That’s the greenhouse Noah uses for his secret projects,” Gennie said, sword angled toward the glass building set apart from the other hothouses. “I’m not allowed in there.”
“No one’s allowed in there,” I called. “And they’re not secret projects. They’re just things I don’t want anyone interfering with until they’re ready.”
“Sounds like a secret project,” Shay teased.
They jogged down a gentle hill, still hand in hand, crossing into land formerly belonging to the McIntyres. It was quiet down here, insulated by trees from the wind that screamed in from the bay. The goats seemed to like it well enough.
“And that one, with the big white dot near her eye, is Dottie. I named her Dottie. Because of the big dot,” Gennie explained.
“Makes sense,” Shay said.
She glanced back at me, several paces removed from the enclosure and my arms folded over my chest as if I could fortify myself against this woman. I stared off into the distance.
“People come here and do yoga with the goats,” Gennie continued. “Someone always screams when a goat climbs on them.”
“Goat yoga,” Shay said. “Wow. This place has really changed.”
“The yoga studio in town approached us and—” I held out a hand, wishing for a simple way to explain that yeah, this place has fucking changed in the past decade and a half and if you hadn’t left and forgotten all about me, you’d know that .
“Their students clean out the farm stand after every class. It’s good for business. ”
“Good for business,” Shay repeated as she looked me over. “Okay.”
I would’ve responded to that loaded look, would’ve said something about how someone had to pay attention to the business.
But Gennie scaled the fence and dropped into the goat pen, sword and all, and yelled, “I named this one Lacey. See? This one. She doesn’t have any lace though.
It’s just a cool name. And that one’s Cagney.
Noah said I had to name her Cagney even if I think it’s a dumb name. ”
“Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s dumb,” I called.
“Is she allowed to be in there?” Shay asked me.
“They’re harmless. Worst they’ll do is knock her over and she’d just enjoy that.” I shrugged. “Anyway, do you get the impression that I could stop her?”
“Fair,” Shay murmured. After a few minutes of listening to Gennie’s explanation of each goat’s name and watching her attempt to pick up the smallest of the group only for that goat to lick her face until she fell down giggling, Shay glanced over at me again.
“I can’t believe you’re here. With goats and a greenhouse with secret projects and a kid . ”
There were so many things I wanted to say to her and most of them were not kind.
But more than any of that, I wanted to tell her that I couldn’t believe she was here.
I hated that. I didn’t appreciate her draining me of all the resentment and contempt I’d built up over the years with little more than a smile from her.
Instead, I called, “Gennie. You’re gonna lose that sword if you’re not careful.”
“Okay,” she replied, wrestling the sword away from Dottie. “We have to see the puppies now. Shay wants to meet the puppies.”
I glanced over at Shay, a brow raised. “She’ll keep you here all night if you’re not careful.”
“You have that many puppies?” she asked with a laugh. “You’re good to worry but you don’t have to rescue me. Not from your little girl. She’s a real sweetheart, Noah.”
I could’ve corrected her. Could’ve mentioned that Gennie was my niece and I was her legal guardian and I didn’t have a wife waiting at home for me. That none of this had happened the ordinary way.
But once again, all I could do was watch while Gennie skipped off toward the dog run with Shay at her side. Here I was, thinking I’d beaten the worst of my shyness out of me years ago only for Shay to bring it roaring back.
With an annoyed shake of my head, I studied the goats. “Would it have killed any of you to be rude or offensive? You have no problem doing that during yoga. You ate that woman’s hat the other day, Lacey, but now you’re playing nice? That’s some very convenient bullshit.”
The goats bleated their outrage back at me.
I yanked off my hat, ran the flat of my hand over my forehead, and marched across the field.
I was fully aware that I could’ve gone back to work and left Gennie and Shay to visit with the dogs.
I didn’t have to hover. I didn’t have to supervise.
Gennie knew her way around the farm, and Shay—well, I didn’t give a fuck about Shay.
That wasn’t true but I preferred it to the alternative.
When I reached the dog run, it was the sound of Gennie’s laughter that hit me first. It was deep and infectious, the kind that came from the belly and forced a smile to my face every time I heard it. She didn’t laugh like that often. She didn’t laugh much at all.
I found her up against the fence, a pair of old golden retrievers nosing at her pockets. Odds were high she had food stowed in there. It was a wonder the goats hadn’t gotten there first.
“Can dogs eat bagels?” she asked through her laughter.
“Just a little bit,” I told her.
Shay watched while Gennie broke the bagel she’d been saving since fuck if I knew when into crumbs and fed the dogs from the palm of her hand.
Some of the other dogs circled, sniffing at the newcomer and accepting the head scratches she doled out.
Most of them were content to laze in the sun, others peeked out from inside the kennels.
Not a lot of running took place in this dog run.
“Noah,” Shay started, gesturing to the old-timer leaning against her leg, “when did you get all these animals? I don’t remember you guys having”—she waved at the dozen or so dogs—“anything like this before.”
“We have them so they don’t die,” Gennie replied, still focused on distributing bits of bagel.
Shay gave me a what the hell does that mean grimace.
I peered at the bunkhouses where some of the farm crew lived. Easier than making eye contact with Shay. “We take in elderly dogs that have trouble finding homes. Give ’em a comfortable place to live out their days.” I tipped my chin toward the bunkhouse. “The guys like having dogs around.”
“And we have chickens too,” Gennie said, “but they’re dumb bitches.”
“Imogen,” I cried. “We just talked about calling things dumb and you know that other word is not acceptable.”
Gennie cut a glance toward Shay. Her voice lowered, she said, “But they’re not smart.”
Shay pressed her knuckles to her mouth and choked down a laugh which triggered a laugh in me. I had to turn away, clear my throat, and mentally flip through this month’s expenditures to pull it back in.
When I shifted back, Gennie was on the other side of the run, trying to coax an ancient basset hound from inside the kennel. Unless she had a pork chop in one of those pockets, I knew that dog wasn’t going anywhere.
Then again, it wasn’t completely impossible that Gennie didn’t have a pork chop on hand.
“What don’t you do?” Shay asked. “When do you sleep?”
“Infrequently.” I nodded toward Gennie. “Less since she came along.”
“I’ll bet,” Shay murmured.
Another silent moment settled between us as we watched Gennie playing with the dogs and it frustrated me to no end that Shay could still go quiet and watch the world.
It would’ve made my fucking day for her to experience an ounce of my awkwardness.
After all this time, I felt like I deserved that much.
I couldn’t be the only one struggling to string words together here.
Couldn’t be the only one with flashes of heat climbing up my neck and around the tips of my ears. It couldn’t just be me suffering.
“This really is amazing, Noah,” she said.
I nodded and called to Gennie. “It’s getting late. You still have chores to do.”
“With the stupid chickens,” she muttered to the basset.
“I heard that,” I said.
“But I didn’t say dumb or bitches,” she replied.
Shay smothered a laugh, saying, “She’s a firecracker. Oh my god.”
I pushed away from the fence and stepped toward the path leading up to the house. “Those trucks should be gone by now,” I said. “Sorry about the inconvenience.”
“Oh. Thank you.” She lifted a hand to her face, toyed with one of her earrings.
“It makes so much sense now—and thank you for helping with that. I should’ve known there would be a good explanation.
After that drive, and I ate too many Cheez-Its, and I just—the name on the trucks was unfamiliar and—”
“Yeah, I get it. Things change and you haven’t been around in a while.”
Shay took a step backward, grabbed the pendant at the base of her neck again. She zipped it back and forth as she peered at me. “I’m shocked you’re here at all. This place wasn’t kind to you and—”
“Come on!” Gennie ran up and saved me from having to survive the rest of that comment on my own. She took hold of Shay’s hand, saying, “The chicken house is a mini version of our house. It has a mailbox too but it’s only big enough to hold one egg.”
“Only one egg?” Shay asked. The disbelief in her words made Gennie’s eyes sparkle, the girl’s answering nod coming as a whole-body quiver. “You have to show me that.”