Chapter 6
It turned out Nora’s cupcake shop didn’t have the breast cupcakes that they were famous for. Everything was Christmas.
The owner, Nora, was such a sweetheart, and Amy enjoyed going in every chance she got.
They walked back toward the truck, not sitting in the shop to eat since they had groceries in the car, with Amy licking the icing off her cupcake first, the way she always did when she ate one.
Jones ate the cake part first and saved the icing for last.
She said she put the kiss behind her, but she really hadn’t. She wanted to. She wanted to stop thinking about it, but the more she tried, the harder it was. Especially when she thought about what it would mean when Jones got married.
“So if you find a girl who will marry you, you know you and I probably won’t be doing stuff like this anymore?” She spoke the thought foremost on her mind.
“Sure we will. We’ll just have my wife with us.” He spoke lightly, and she knew he was joking. No wife was going to want to tag along with a man and his best friend when that best friend was a woman.
“I think you know enough about women to know that that would not be possible,” she said.
“I do. I’m kidding. I guess I never really thought about it before. It wasn’t an issue. And now... I don’t know, I guess I’m giving more credence to what your mom and Roland said. But not if you’re not interested. After all, who really needs ten million dollars anyway? Right? ”
She laughed and bumped his arm with hers. He took a step sideways and then corrected himself and bumped her back.
“We have the whole weekend. We don’t have to make a decision right now. I mean, we don’t even have to talk about it right now. You’re not going to get married to anyone else before Monday.”
“Sure. And if someone else pops up before then, we’ll just roll with it. And if no one else does...”
“So that makes me feel like I’m the last resort, and it doesn’t feel very good,” she said, and she wasn’t really joking. Even though she tried to keep her tone light. It was true. Like if he couldn’t find anyone else, he’d go to her, although she knew that wasn’t what he was saying at all.
“You’re my first choice. Honestly. I told you what I think about those other girls, I can’t stand the idea of them just...hanging around. You know? Like, I could spend a day with them, or maybe an afternoon, but I think I’d be happy when they left. With you, I never want you to leave. I know because... I’m not some sappy, lovesick man who can’t function by himself. It’s just because I enjoy your company.”
“Do you think that might be what people fall into after the really hot phase of their relationship burns out?” she asked, and she should have known he would have no idea what she was talking about.
“Say what?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I just heard people say that you know, you have strong feelings when you’re in love, and then you get married or whatever, and they just fade away and you’re left with a good friendship. You’re still attracted to each other, and intimate too, but just... Those crazy feelings don’t last forever.”
“Yeah. I suppose I can see how that’s true. So you think we act like an old married couple?”
“I don’t know. Maybe?” She wasn’t sure what she was saying, but she had to admit that she was warming to the idea .
“My phone just buzzed, hang on,” he said, balancing the very top of the cake part of his cupcake with all of the icing on it as he dug for his phone.
They were almost at the pickup, and they stopped right at the front of it, with her finishing off the cake part of her cupcake and him checking the number.
“I think this is forwarded from the office,” he said before swiping with his pinky finger, trying not to drop his icing.
“Jones Quebedeau,” he answered.
Amy didn’t try to listen. Jones would tell her everything after he was done. Instead, she put her hand out, with her brows lifted, offering to hold his icing for him. He stopped mid sentence, his eyes getting big, his mouth opening, and he mouthed, “no!” as he turned and put his back to her, protecting his icing.
He was right. She probably would have licked it.
She looked around the parking lot, pulling her jacket a little tighter as she saw folks hurrying to and from the store, stocking up on baking goods to make Christmas cookies and pies as the decorations of Whisker Hollow fluttered on the lightpole at the side of the parking lot. The sky was overcast gray, like it often was in November, and the temps weren’t terrible. They warmed up to almost sixty.
Still, jacket weather. At least for a Southerner like her.
Although it was warmer down here than it was on top of the mountain. It almost always was.
“I’ll be right there,” Jones said as he turned, using his pinky to swipe up again and holding out his icing to her so she could take a bite.
“Are you sure?” she asked, her eyes reminding him that he had just yanked it away from her.
“I thought you were offering to hold it. You and I both know exactly what would have happened if that had been the case. I would have had nothing. ”
“You don’t even like the icing,” she said.
He grinned sheepishly, acknowledging her words, before wagging the icing and the top part of the cupcake that he held in his hand. “You want some?”
“Wow. I even get the first bite,” she said as she took a bite, and he laughed.
He was able to shove the rest of the icing in his mouth, and they stood there eating before he swallowed and could speak.
“How do you feel about putting a uterus back in?” he asked, licking his fingers, before looking her in the eye.
“I feel good about it,” she said. Then she laughed. “It could be ninety degrees out, or it could be snowing. So, since it’s about sixty, which is not terrible, I say, yeah. Let’s go put a uterus in.”
He laughed. “I figured that’s what you’d say. I told him I was here and I’d be right there. It’s Otto Lee, who lives about ten minutes outside of town here. It’s actually fortuitous that we’re here. If you don’t mind, we need to hurry. He said the cow was alive, but if we don’t get that thing back in, she won’t be for long.”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t get a whole lot of farm calls, but she’d done twisted stomachs with him, a couple twisted uteruses, and she’d put several uteruses back in with him, too.
“Do you have everything you need in your truck?”
“Yeah. I’ve got my bag with me, so we should be good.”
He always threw that in. Wherever they went. He didn’t always get called, but sometimes he had a pet emergency, and he never knew what he might have to do. They’d found it best to be prepared.
“I’m sorry about your groceries,” she said.
“I bet Mrs. Lee will put those in their fridge for me, until we’re done.”
She realized he was right as they pulled out of town, heading up the mountain toward the Lee farm .
“I don’t think I’ve ever actually been back here,” she said as he turned down a dirt road and ran over cattle guards. They served in lieu of a gate to keep the cows in.
“What do you think about after we’re done here, we’ll go see Gilbert and Sally?” he said as the barn came into view.
“I think that’d be really nice,” she said, meaning it. She wished she knew what else she could do for her brother. She helped her mom with his kids as much as she could, but losing his spouse was just such a hard thing, and unfortunately, when it was a spouse, a person felt something that no one else in the world understood other than those who had gone through it, and no one else in the world could really help them with. It was when a person had to lean on God the most.
“He said they were in the side pasture, the one before the house. This must be it.”
He started to turn left and stopped in front of the gate while she hopped out to open it.
She held it while he drove through and closed it behind him before getting back in.
“She should be up at the top of the hill. He was going to make sure I got some hot water and some towels.”
“I remember the last time we did this, my arms felt like rubber by the time we were done.”
“Mr. Lee should help us. We’re not doing it by ourselves.”
“I know. I couldn’t believe that guy just stood there and watched us.”
“He didn’t know any better, and the little bit that he did do made me feel like we were better off without him helping.”
“Yeah, true.” The fella didn’t seem to know how to handle cows, and if she recalled correctly, he was a suit from DC who drove out to his “cattle ranch” and played farmer on the weekend. Not that he couldn’t learn how to farm, because anyone could. But he couldn’t learn if he wasn’t willing to get his hands dirty .
“There she is,” she murmured, seeing a big black cow lying on her side as they crested the hill.
“He said he had the calf in the barn. It wasn’t up yet, but he felt like it was going to make it.”
“I see. That’s what he was doing?”
“Yeah. He called me as soon as he saw the cow and said he’d be back up once he got the calf into the barn, although if he could get it up and feed it, he was going to do that.”
“Did he have colostrum?” She’d been helping him long enough to know that newborn calves needed that for immunity.
“Said he did.” He didn’t need to say anything more. Sometimes guys said things that weren’t true, just to appease the vet.
She didn’t really understand that. They were only hurting themselves. It wasn’t like Jones was going to get the army down to make them do what they were supposed to do.
Most farmers did try to do the best they could for their cows. Money was often an inhibiting factor, but their cows were their livelihood, so of course they were gonna take care of them as best they could.
“All right,” Jones said as they parked beside the cow. “It’s obvious this is the cow, she’s down and her uterus is right there. She still breathing?”
“Looks like it,” she said. “I see her side moving.”
“All right. I need to get a few things together, and then we’ll hope that Mr. Lee gets back here with that water, and maybe he’ll even take our groceries to the house.”
Amy looked down at the house. It was probably a quarter of a mile away, maybe almost half. “Do you want me to walk them down?”
“Nah. I’d rather have your help here. This is a tough job for one person.”
“I’m not sure one person could do it,” she said, remembering the last time, but if he didn’t have her, he’d do his best .
It turned out that they were able to get the uterus back in, although it was just as much of a struggle as Amy remembered.
By the time they had it taken care of, it was lunchtime, and her stomach was growling. The pancakes and cupcake had worn off for sure, although she didn’t have a whole lot to look forward to in her cupboard.
“I appreciate you coming out on such short notice. My regular vet was at a wedding and suggested you.”
“I’ll do in a pinch, but it’s not really my thing. I think your cow should be okay. If she gets up in the next half an hour or so, I’d give her a pretty good shot.”
“I appreciate it. She’s a good cow, and I’d hate to lose her.”
Jones nodded, and Amy figured Mr. Lee would have said that about any cow.
She had already carried his things back to the truck and brought his invoice booklet out.
Since he did such few farm calls, it didn’t make sense for him to pay a service to do invoicing online. He just did it by hand.
He took the invoice from her and nodded his thanks as Mr. Lee continued to tell Jones about the calf and how it had eaten and seemed to be fine.
Jones offered to go down and check it out, but Mr. Lee told him that if the mom made it, he was going to see if he could get the calf back on her.
Amy wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but Jones didn’t say no, and they shook hands while Amy put the booklet away and came back to stand beside them.
“Call me if you need me. I’m heading over to the hospital later, but I’ll be around for another hour or so.”
“All right. I’ll let you know,” Mr. Lee said, nodding his thanks again, as he got back in his truck and headed for the gate.
Amy and Jones got in their truck and followed him through .
Amy didn’t have to get out since Mr. Lee was waiting to close the fence.
“Thanks a lot. I appreciate your help.”
“Sure. Not a problem. I enjoyed it, and I always learn something new. Sometimes I think it’s easier to work with cows than it is dogs and cats. At least you don’t have to worry about getting bitten.”
“Just kicked,” he said, shuddering, and she remembered that he had gotten hit in the thigh once when the cow had been thrashing.
“Is your leg okay?” she asked, looking at the muddy spot on his jeans where her hoof had come up and hit him.
“I’m going to live.”
“That’s a relief. I suppose if you die, you’re not going to get the ten million. And that means I won’t get it, because I’m the beneficiary in your will, right?”
“If you marry me, you will be,” he said, like an offhand comment, except...they didn’t have that kind of relationship, and it ended up being one of those comments that came out in the air and just hung there, filling up the cab of the truck with its reverberations.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I...guess I’m thinking about marriage a little bit too much.”
“No. You’re right. That’s exactly correct. I just...don’t know what to say.”
“We said we were going to talk about it. And think about it. Since we’re thinking about it, if marriage comments come out, it’s probably normal, right?”
“Absolutely. You’re the one who has ten million dollars hanging on it.”
“You kind of do too,” he said, looking over at her and lifting a brow.
She knew he was right. She did have ten million dollars hanging on it. “But I don’t think about it like that. I think about it more like...”
She wasn’t sure what to say .
Neither one of them said anything, and he drove to her house, where he had some extra clothes. He took a shower while she threw his groceries in her refrigerator and then boiled some pasta and tried to throw a few spices in the tomatoes so it tasted like spaghetti sauce. She wasn’t sure she succeeded, but he came out, his hair wet, his T-shirt clinging to his shoulders like she hadn’t noticed before, and ate the pasta without comment.
Jones actually was handsome, she thought as she threw a covert glance at him. He wasn’t ruggedly athletic, and he did have a tendency to be a bit of a nerd, but she loved that. She really wasn’t into ruggedly handsome guys. Never had been. Or the athletic type. They were fine for some girls, she supposed, but when she had been talking about Leo Lipinski, the hockey player, she hadn’t meant anything by it. Other than that was something that attracted a lot of girls. Just not her. She loved the fact that Jones would stop what he was doing to help her on his day off and was willing to drive to some farmer’s field and save a cow’s life.
She had to admit she was kind of proud of him. In fact, it made her awfully proud of him. There weren’t a whole lot of guys who could do that. And of the guys who could, there were even less who would.
“What in the world are you looking at?” he asked, looking down at his shirt. “Did I drop tomato sauce all over me or something?”
“No. I was just thinking about how nice it is to be friends with someone who cares.”
“Who cares?” he asked, stretching out his brows and wrinkling his nose like he thought she was nuts.
It was an expression he used often.
“Yeah. You didn’t have to go to the farm today. You didn’t have to take care of that cow. You decided to do it because you care. And I love that about you.”
“Who else is going to do it? ”
“That guy’s regular vet. I mean, yeah, he was going to a wedding, but you were going to visit someone in the hospital, someone you may never see again. I just mean that you stopped what you were doing and you helped. I know you do that no matter what.”
“Well, if the wedding is mine, I’m probably not going to go and help with a cow.”
“If I’m the one that’s with you at the altar, we’re going to go do it.”
They laughed together as she realized that she’d gone from being awkward talking about it to being able to joke with him. That was a good first step.