Chapter 14 Eve
EVE
Iwake to the sound of a rooster crowing.
This doesn’t strike me as odd until I realize I don’t have a rooster.
I blink, opening my eyes to the sunrise streaming through my bedroom window.
It crows again.
I groan as I throw my legs over the side of my bed and stand. I step into my slippers, throw a sweatshirt over my head, and plod downstairs, stopping only briefly to start a pot of coffee before I pull my coat over my shoulders and head outside, waiting to hear the rooster again.
When I do, I take off in that direction.
I walk up the dirt road, passing the backdrop and heading around the back of my house. As I walk, it crows again, and with a sinking feeling in my stomach, I realize this rooster must be penned up in my chicken coop.
I wave to Vic, one of the guys who’s been working here since before I was born, and he gives me a quick wave and a friendly smile before disappearing back into the sunflowers, whistling as he tends to them.
I let out a long breath as I quicken my pace, pulling my jacket tighter around my shoulders.
And when I come upon the chicken coop, yup, there it is.
There is a rooster waddling around in my chicken coop.
A chicken coop that has been empty for at least a decade.
My mind flashes briefly to Ryder, the hours we spent together last night and the family safe word we joked about being “rooster.”
Did Ryder steal Reed’s neighbor’s rooster?
I stare at him as he pecks around fresh feed on the ground at his feet.
Did Ryder steal Reed’s neighbor’s rooster, decide to make me an accomplice—or worse, pin the whole thing on me, and then… feed the thing?
The rooster’s attention turns to me, his head cocking to the side as he takes a few hesitant steps toward me.
“Hi, Rooster.”
When he’s sufficiently sized me up, he returns to pecking at the feed on the ground.
And seeing that the rooster seems comfortable and safe, I head back in the direction I came from, wondering what the hell I’m supposed to do with this thing. I dial Ryder as I walk, hoping he might have some sort of explanation for me.
And of course, he doesn’t pick up.
I let out a long breath, wondering if Ryder knows what he’s doing with the damn rooster. They’re not solitary animals, and unless he plans on moving here and getting him some hens to hang out with, he needs to find a better home than my unkempt chicken coop for Roo.
And yes, that’s going to be his name. Roo.
When I call Ryder and he doesn’t pick up again, I dial my next best option.
“Hi Evie,” Izzy says when she picks up the phone, her voice groggy with the early morning.
“Does your brother need a rooster?”
She’s quiet for a moment.
“Is this a joke I’m not getting because you’re calling me at the ass crack of dawn?”
I stomp up the stairs into my house, shutting the door behind me.
“No. I think Ryder left a rooster in my chicken coop. I’m fairly certain it’s stolen and he’s pinning a rooster heist on me.
And Roo needs friends, you know? So I’m hoping to cover up any wrongdoing by passing off stolen goods to someone who’s known for having chickens. ”
She shuffles around, presumably getting out of bed.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Your brother. Could he use a rooster? Free of charge.”
“But you just said it’s stolen.”
I head to the kitchen and pour myself a cup of coffee. “I don’t know if it’s stolen. I’m just assuming it is and Ryder isn’t picking up his phone, but regardless I’m not sure he understands that roosters need friends.”
“So are you, like, stealing already stolen goods and trying to pass them off to my brother?”
I blow on my coffee. “Look, can you just send him over? Let him decide if he wants to deal in stolen goods. If he doesn’t, I at least need a pretty fast lesson on how to keep a rooster alive and happy until I figure out where the hell he came from and what the fuck he’s doing in my chicken coop.”
She grumbles something under her breath. “Yeah, okay. I’ll let him know. But I’m telling him it’s a stolen rooster and that you’ll buy him a bottle of whiskey or something if he helps you.”
“Sure, sure. Whatever he wants. Help me.”
“Weird shit going on at that farm.”
“Don’t I know it.”
She lets out a long breath. “Hey, I was going to come over and paint some sunflowers later. Can I bring you anything for the gift shop?”
I blow on my coffee, closing my eyes as I breathe in the hazelnut aroma and rack my brain for whatever the thing was that Abby said we were short on last time we talked.
“God, I… coasters,” I say, the word jumping into my head just as I was about to admit I couldn’t remember. “Abby said we’re short on coasters. And more prints, if you want. They take up so little space and we go through them so quickly.”
“You got it. Let me know if the rooster thing gets any weirder.”
“I’m sure you can look forward to a story later.”
When Aiden arrives, looking cheery and awake as always, I pour him a cup of coffee and he drives us carefully along the dirt road that leads back to the chicken coop. He has a cage in the back lined with a fleece blanket, but his truck, as usual, is spotless.
You’d never know the man runs a full blown animal farm everyday. Always clean cut with a friendly smile on his face.
He’s technically Izzy’s half-brother, but they didn’t know each other well until they ended up at the same college and realized their respective moms were not actually huge assholes despite the picture their shared dad painted of each of them.
They’ve since foregone contact with their dad and forged the most adorable sibling relationship with each other.
“So tell me again how you came to own this mystery rooster that you’re trying to pawn off on me.”
From the passenger seat, I dial Ryder again because at this point I’ve texted him and called him more times than a crazy ex and I’m starting to get a little peeved that I’m the one taking care of his… rooster.
“I think it’s stolen. I’m not sure because the person who stole it is not answering his phone. But regardless, the rooster can’t stay here. He needs friends, right?”
Aiden nods, shrugging. “I mean, a day or so alone isn’t going to kill him, you know? I understand the rooster is likely stolen to begin with, but I’m a little apprehensive about just… taking him. Two steals doesn’t make a right, you know?”
I huff. “I know. And I get that I’m putting you in a bad position, but there’s a reason I don’t have animals here, you know?
I’m too slammed to take care of them, especially during busy season.
The rooster might be stolen, but he’s still a living being, you know?
He doesn’t deserve to be a second thought. ”
Aiden lets out a long breath. “My coop is heated.”
I pause. “Your chicken coop is heated?”
He nods as he opens the door and steps out of the truck. “Well, yeah. It’s too cold for them here over winter.”
I round the car as he opens the back door, pulls the cage out and lines it up with the opening of the coop. “Wow, lucky birds. Can I come live with you?”
“Sure, but you’re sleeping with the chickens.”
“I’d call that a fair deal.”
The rooster wanders toward us, seemingly curious at the newcomer. He side-eyes Aiden as he moves hesitantly closer, but takes a few quick steps back when another car approaches, far too fast for the dirt road.
The BMW comes to a quick stop behind Aiden’s truck, dust blowing out around the wheels.
“Hey, that’s my rooster!”
“Ryder!” I bark, turning toward him with my finger pointed at him just like my grandmother used to do to me whenever I misbehaved. I bunch my hands into fists because pointing is rude, Evie. “You cannot drive like that here. You’re going to kill someone!”
He pops out of the car shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Eve. I just—that’s my rooster!” he repeats, brushing past me and heading straight for Aiden, who’s now closing up his cage, rooster safely inside.
Ryder stops in his tracks a few steps away from Aiden.
From my vantage point behind Ryder, I can only see Aiden’s face.
But it quickly morphs from one of impatience to one of wide-eyed happiness.
“Yo,” he says, a laugh bursting from his chest as he takes a few steps forward and embraces Ryder in what can only be described as a bro hug, full of back slapping and shoulder knocking. “Ryder, dude, haven’t seen you in years.”
Ryder is laughing now too. “Man, you look good. Farm life is serving you well.”
Aiden nods. “Yeah, things really worked out better than I thought they would. And I saw you’re running your dad’s company now—nice, man. I take it from the dickhead car you drive that you’re doing well too.”
Ryder nods. “Better than I thought I would. But I'm trying to do things better than he did.”
Aiden nods as if in approval. “Nice. Good, I’m glad to hear it.”
I sneak up to the two men, the stress of having a rooster to take care of as well as a rogue BMW flying down my road slowly waning with all the laughter and manly back-patting.
“I take it you two know each other,” I say, eyeing the rooster at our feet who seems content wandering around his cage.
Aiden nods. “Yeah, this guy got me in all sorts of trouble when we were teenagers.”
“Um, you were the one who secured us fake IDs.”
“You were the one who suggested stealing a full keg would be easy.”
“Hey, no harm, no foul.”
“Yeah, no harm only because my mom donated her entire paycheck to the police station to get us out of there scot free.”
Ryder shivers. “Oh man, I still remember her grounding us for eternity after that. I didn’t even question her authority to do so. Just said thank you and went home with a pair of shriveled balls.”
I press my lips together to keep from laughing. “I hate to interrupt the reminiscing, but the rooster?”
“Right,” Ryder says. “Um, what are you guys doing with it? Didn’t mean to come in swinging, just didn’t recognize you at first and didn’t know if you were taking him to a slaughterhouse or anything.”
Aiden snorts. “Nah. Evie just doesn’t have time for chickens and didn’t want him getting lonely.”
“You couldn’t have waited a couple hours? He’s not going to get lonely that fast.”
“That’s what I said.” Aiden shrugs, as if he doesn’t know what to do with me.
I hold my hands up to slow everybody down.
“Okay, there was a rooster placed in my care that I did not consent to caring for. I don’t have the time to be checking up on him every other hour today, and considering I was pretty sure this rooster is the result of Ryder’s poor decision-making—which seems to be a lifelong affliction, apparently—I figured he needed a good home regardless, because he cannot live in a BMW or a Manhattan apartment. ”
“I wasn’t going to take him home with me. And I didn’t steal him, FYI. I bought him.”
I pause. “Fixing Reed’s problem was that easy? Buying the rooster?”
Ryder shrugs. “I bought the rooster and the neighbor’s agreement to not buy another rooster.”
“For how much?”
“Twenty grand.”
Aiden whistles.
I swallow. “You bought a rooster for twenty grand?”
“I bought a written agreement to not buy another rooster for twenty grand.” His eyes jump between the two of us.
“In the grand scheme of things, this is a pretty cheap way to get what we all want. I mean, Eve, that twenty grand protects the farm. It allows me to continue with the plan as we made it.”
I stare at him. “How do you know Reed isn’t going to reject your proposal for any number of other reasons?”
Proximity to my land being the big one I’m thinking of.
“Because he agreed last night. I brought him the bird and sent him a copy of the neighbor’s agreement to not buy another one. I took your suggestion to heart and greased him in the way he wanted to be greased.”
Aiden eyes me. “This whole thing was your idea?”
I hold up my hands, shaking my head. “Never did I ever suggest you buy a rooster for twenty fucking grand.”
Ryder shrugs. “What’s the issue here? That I overpaid for a bird? Who gives a shit? Reed agreed to approve my proposal. Twenty grand well spent, in my mind.”
The three of us are silent for a moment, but Roo decides to make his presence known by letting out a long crow that nearly has me jumping out of my skin.
Ryder snickers. “Yeah, he did that in the car with me last night and I nearly shit myself.”
Aiden shakes his head, laughing. “So what are we doing with the rooster? I can bring him back to the farm but I can’t give you twenty grand for him.”
Ryder waves him off. “Not looking to make my money back on the bird. If you have space for him where he can be happy and comfortable, that would be amazing.” He thinks for a moment. “And if you’re up for it, I can buy you a couple beers as a thank you?”
Aiden nods, reaching out for a friendly handshake. “It’s a deal, man.”
With that, Aiden loads the rooster into the back of his truck. He does a quick U-turn in the dirt and dips into the grass to pass Ryder’s BMW on the way out, waving as he passes us.
“Bye Roo!” I call out, and I swear I hear him cluck in response.
Ryder grins at me. “Aw, you made friends with the rooster.”
I snort and decide to ignore the comment as I head back toward the house. “Incapable of answering your phone?”
His brow furrows as he glances between his car and me, as if he can’t decide whether to move it or continue with our conversation. “Did you call me? Roo pecked it.”
I raise my eyebrows as Ryder takes a few quick steps to catch up with me. “The rooster killed your phone? Convenient excuse.”
“Seriously. I think he saw his reflection. I had to run out and get a new one this morning.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know what to do with you.”
His response comes quickly. “Celebrate. Reed agreed to the proposal we submitted. We can continue with the plan.”
I eye him, very aware that the plan’s proximity to my land wasn’t resolved.
It wasn’t close enough to be a huge problem, and if Mayor Reed is willing to overlook that in favor of a plan that does seem minimally invasive—at least compared to what I expected—I’m not going to make a huge deal about it.
I am, however, going to keep an extremely careful eye on Ryder’s moves.
On Reed’s interference or lack thereof. Because although this is probably the best-case scenario, the sunflower farm is being left in the dust again, the proximity of the new development conveniently forgotten the moment a totally irrelevant issue is corrected.
“I guess that’s a good thing.”
“A great thing.” When I don’t say anything else, he continues, “And by the way, Steve can come take a look at your wiring in a couple days if you’re able to either cancel a reservation or have them check in late.”
“It’ll take that long for him to look?”
Ryder nods.
I groan. “Well, it’s something I have to do, right?”
He nods again.
“Okay. Well, let me know what time works for him and I’ll see what I can do about reservations.”
He gives me a big grin. “Pleasure working with you, Evie Harper.”