Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
T he flavors of chocolate and butterscotch blended on Leni’s tongue as Chevy fed her another bite, and she swore no cookie had never tasted so good.
They’d gotten dressed, just in case Lorna and the kids came home early, and she was sitting on the kitchen counter, the tall cowboy nestled between her legs as he stole kisses from her in between bites of cookie.
His mouth tasted like vanilla and sugar, and she wanted to kiss him forever.
Forever?
That thought caught her by surprise.
What did kissing Chevy forever look like?
It would mean staying in Woodland Hills. His family, the ranch, were here—there was no way he’d leave them.
But could she really come back here? For good?
She had a life in Washington, an apartment, three plants, her favorite Thai food takeout place.
And what about her job?
What about NASA?
Chevy’s brow furrowed as he looked at something out the window behind her. “Did you know you have a cow in your backyard?”
“What?” She whipped her head around, all thoughts of her rhododendron and chicken Pad Thai forgotten, to see a reddish-brown cow chewing its cud while standing in her sister’s flowerbed.
“Is it yours?”
“Lorna hasn’t even let Max get a dog yet. You think she’d have a pet cow?”
Chevy held up his hands. “Hey, this could be some newfangled hipster thing your sister is doing to save the environment by not using a lawn mower.”
She playfully punched him in the shoulder. “That’s not our cow. And I think my sister would take offense at being called a newfangled hipster.”
“She has a jar of that kombucha crap in her fridge, sells fancy seven-dollar coffee drinks, and has avocado toast on the menu in a coffee shop in the middle of the mountains.”
“Touche.” Leni let out a groan as the cow pulled up one of her sister’s gorgeous geraniums. “Not the geraniums,” she called out as she knocked on the window. “Lorna just planted those this summer. Why can’t it be eating the dandelions?”
“I love that your concern is more about which flowers it’s eating than over why you have a cow that doesn’t belong to you standing in your yard.”
“What should we do?”
“Figure out who it belongs to and take it back.”
“I solve complex problems in my job that can involve aerodynamic fluid flow or propulsion and combustion, but nothing in my skill set has prepared me to solve either of those options.”
He chuckled. “Then it’s a good thing your boyfriend is a cowboy who runs a cattle ranch. I consider myself fairly proficient in all things heifer related.”
She offered him a side-eye. “Are you including me in that proficiency?”
He let loose a belly laugh as he lifted her off the counter and set her on her feet. “I wouldn’t dare.”
“Not if you wanted to live to see tomorrow.”
“Why don’t we start by seeing if she’s carrying a brand. That might tell us what ranch she’s from.”
“How do you know it’s a she ?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Remember that heifer proficiency we were just talking about? You stick to rockets—let me manage the bovine.”
Gladly . Besides, she was still thinking about how easily he’d thrown out the word boyfriend a few seconds ago.
Her phone buzzed as she followed him through the door. She pulled it from the front pocket of her shorts and saw her sister’s name as she tapped the screen. “Sorry Sis, I can’t talk right now. There’s a strange cow in our backyard.”
Lorna gasped. But apparently not for the reason Leni thought she would. Not because she’d told her a cow was in her yard. “I just saw on Nextdoor this morning that someone was missing a cow. Is it reddish brown with a white spot in the middle of its forehead that’s shaped like the state of South Dakota?”
Leni blinked, not able to keep up with all the craziness in her sister’s comments. “South Dakota? You know I’m terrible at geography. And I’m not close enough to the cow to see what state appears to be on his forehead.”
“South Dakota is the one that’s like a rectangle except the bottom right corner is broken so it looks like some of the Dakota is spilling out.”
“Thank you for that social studies lesson. What do you mean you saw it on Nextdoor?”
“You know, it’s like the app for people to stay in touch with what’s happening in their neighborhoods.”
“I know what Nextdoor is. But I thought people usually posted about their missing dogs or lost cats or to get a recommendation for a good plumber.”
“Well, apparently in Woodland Hills, people also use it to post about their missing heifers.”
Leni laughed as she put her sister on speaker. “It’s Lorna. She said someone posted on Nextdoor that they were missing a cow.”
He reached for his phone. “Oh nice. I’ll pull up the app.”
“Don’t bother,” Lorna told him. “I already did. It looks like the cow belongs to Berniece Buckley. If it’s the one with South Dakota on its forehead.”
Leni shook her head. “Is there more than one missing cow on the app?” she asked her sister as Chevy mouthed ‘South Dakota?” at her.
“Hmm,” Lorna said, sounding distracted as if she were scrolling through her phone. “Not today.”
“Phew. Well, that’s sure a stroke of luck,” Leni said, not even trying to disguise the sarcasm in her voice. She pointed to the white spot on the cow’s forehead. “Does that look like South Dakota to you?”
He squinted at the spot. “Yeah. I can see that.”
“Yay.” Lorna’s cheer came through the speaker.” This says her name is Babydoll, and she loves carrots, dandelions, and molasses.”
And apparently geraniums.
Leni turned to Chevy. “So can you watch her while I go whip up a batch of carrot pancakes covered in molasses?”
Chevy ignored her as he got closer and crooned to the cow. “Hey Babydoll. You ready to go home?”
The cow took a few steps toward him then nuzzled her head into his shoulder.
“I’ve got some carrots in the fridge you can use. Do you think you can you catch her?” Lorna asked. She was really invested in this cow thing.
“We don’t have to. She’s currently cuddling into Chevy’s shoulder. He just said her name, and she’s practically crawling into his lap. I swear that man’s charm knows no bounds.”
“Aww. That’s so sweet. Take a picture,” her sister instructed through her laughter.
Leni lifted her phone and snapped a picture of the cow cuddling up to the cowboy. Then she flipped the phone screen and got a couple of selfies of the same shot but with her in the foreground.
She made a mental note to make sure she got another selfie of just the two of them. She didn’t really want the only current pic she had of her and Chevy to have a heifer in it.
Lorna laughed harder when Leni sent her the picture of Chevy and one of the selfies with her making a goofy face. “Max, look at this picture of Aunt Leni with a cow in our backyard.”
Max’s excited voice came through the phone speaker. “There’s a cow in our backyard? Can we keep it?”
Lorna laughed harder. “No. We can’t keep it. It belongs to a lady named Berniece, and she’s missing it. Aunt Leni and Chevy are going to take it home.”
“How are they going to do that?” Max asked.
Good question, kid.
“Hey Chevy, how are we going to get this cow home?” she asked after she’d hung up with her sister.
“Seems like we have a couple of choices. I know the Buckley place. It’s probably a fifteen-minute walk if we go back through the woods and cut through downtown. Which is how I’m assuming she got here. Or I can go back to the ranch and hook up a trailer to take her home in. Probably take me thirty or forty minutes.”
“The trailer sounds like the easier way to transport a cow, but if we can get her home in half the time, it makes more sense just to walk her back. I’m sure Miss Berniece is probably worried.”
“I agree. I think I’ve got a halter and a lead rope in my truck. And I might even have some alfalfa cubes—our cows love those. You keep an eye on her while I grab some stuff.”
“What do I do if she tries to leave?”
Chevy looked at the cow peacefully munching on another geranium. “I don’t think you have to worry, but just holler at me if you get into trouble.”
“Lorna said she had some carrots in the fridge. Grab those on your way back through. And my purse too. It’s the little black cross-body bag sitting on the kitchen table. It’s got my wallet in it.”
“You gonna try to bribe the cow to walk home?”
“Ha. Not with what’s in my wallet. I never have cash. I just want my sunglasses and my lip gloss.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Hey, a girl wants to look her best when she’s walking a cow through the center of town.”
Ten minutes later, they had made it through the wooded area behind the house and were cutting through downtown. Chevy had easily coaxed the halter on Babydoll then clipped the lead rope to it.
Thanks to a mixture of carrots, alfalfa cubes, and a few more of Lorna’s geraniums, they had lured the cow through the woods. But now she was just following along behind them as they walked in the bike lane of Main Street.
They had to look hysterical—just a normal Monday afternoon and a nice couple taking their cow for a walk downtown.
Lots of people waved and several stopped to say hello to Babydoll and mention that they’d seen the Nextdoor post and had been on the lookout for her.
Leni and Chevy also got several looks, especially since they were holding hands as they walked. She was sure the news of them being back together was burning up the gossip lines, and everyone in town would know about it before they reached Berniece’s.
Her small farmhouse was just on the outskirts of town. It was only equivalent to a few blocks, but they had to walk down the highway, and a familiar truck slowed as it came toward them.
There were no other cars on the road as the truck stopped, and Dodge poked his head out the window. “What the heck, Chevy. I know Murphy’s old, but are you already looking to upgrade him or are you just test-driving a pet cow?”
“Very funny. Keep driving brother, or you’ll get home tonight to find this cow in your bedroom.” Chevy waved him on as they both laughed.
Leni had texted her sister when they got close to the library, and Lorna, Elizabeth, Maisie, and all the kids had poured out the doors to pet Babydoll. The cow seemed to eat up the attention, and all the apple slices the kids gave her.
But no one was more excited to see Babydoll than Berniece. She was ninety if she was a day, but she practically ran down the porch steps, wavin’ and a hollerin’ as they were coming up the gravel driveway. She was a tiny thing. Leni guessed she wasn’t much taller than five feet, but she still stood up straight in a pressed pink apron over a yellow floral housedress and pink ankle socks with sneakers. She hurried out to greet them and threw her arms around the cow’s neck.
“You naughty little thing,” she said, scolding the cow. “You had me so worried.”
The cow snuggled its big head into her tiny shoulder.
This cow was quite the cuddler.
Berniece hugged the cow one more time then turned to Leni and Chevy. “I’ve gotten five phone calls from folks telling me you were on your way. I was going to make you some Rice Krispy treats to thank you, but then I saw you were already walking down the highway. I can’t thank you enough for bringing my Babydoll home.”
“No thanks are necessary, Miss Berniece,” Chevy said.
“Oh now, call me Berny. Everybody does.”
“All right, Miss Berny. Would you like me to take Babydoll back to the barn for you?”
“Oh, that would be wonderful,” Berny told him. “Her stall is the first one on the right. And I’d be much obliged if you filled her water bucket and dumped a half a bale of hay into her trough, while you’re in there.”
“I’d be happy to,” Chevy said, leading the cow toward the barn.
After all the carrots, apples, alfalfa cubes, and geraniums she’d eaten, Leni wasn’t sure how hungry the cow was going to be for hay.
She and Berniece made small talk about the weather and the recent thunderstorm and how great it was because they really needed the moisture. Leni had almost forgotten how talking about the much-needed moisture was a staple in any Colorado conversation.
“Now, I want to give you kids a reward,” Berny told them when Chevy came back from the barn.
“Oh, there’s no need for that,” Leni told her.
“Don’t sass me,” the older woman said, taking two five-dollar bills from her apron pocket and handing them each one. “Now, I want you two to buy yourselves some ice cream. On me. And Babydoll.”
Leni started to protest, but Chevy dropped his arm around her shoulder. “We certainly will, Miss Berny. We’ll stop at the Tastee Freez on the way home.”
“Oh, they have the best chocolate and vanilla twist cones,” Berny said.
“Would you like to come with us?” Chevy asked, grinning as he waved his five-dollar bill. “I’ve got enough for two cones.”
Berny stared at him for a moment then an impish grin crossed her face. “You know, I think I will. I usually take a daily walk into town anyway, but I haven’t had a handsome fella invite me out for an ice cream in a long time.”
Chevy held out his elbow. “Then let’s go.”