Chapter 23
Catherine
“What do you think about Daisy?” I asked the unnamed calf as I hauled the last of the old gardening tools out of the cabin and dropped them into one of the estate’s trailers.
That was the thing about saving money. It meant no outsourcing. Sure, Hayes pestered me about letting him pay for everything, and Mason and Levi had offered to help with whatever I needed, but they all had demanding day jobs.
I had gratefully enlisted their help over the last few days when it came to patching the roof and shoring up the siding, but I could handle the grunt work of clearing out and cleaning up.
When No-Name didn’t offer so much as a twitch of an ear, I went back to the drawing board. I yanked off the work gloves I had stolen from Mason and pulled the dust mask off my nose and mouth. It left a red-rimmed circle on my face, outlined by sweat mixed with dirt.
“Come on, girlie. You’ve gotta have a name,” I said with a tired exhale as I propped my hands on my hips and breathed in clean mountain air. “Spot is super cliché.”
The calf huffed.
“Agreed,” I said as I debated what was next on the clean-out.
The cabin was old, but in good shape. It needed a deep clean like no one’s business, but it was four hundred square feet that came with an ancient kitchenette and a mostly functional bathroom.
The oven needed to be pulled out since I had no use for one.
But the sink and fridge space would be great—once I found a working fridge, of course.
“Okay,” I told the calf. “You keep thinking of names. I’m gonna get this oven out.”
I pulled my mask and gloves back on and headed into the cabin. Sunlight poured through dust-covered windows as I braced my feet wide and wiggled the front of the oven back and forth until it eased out of the countertop. Thankfully, it was old and fairly light.
I didn’t bother trying to avoid scratching the floor since it needed to be covered with something more waterproof than hardwood.
I poked my head out the door to make sure No-Name was still happy inside the fence, then braced the oven from the front and walked it down the two short steps to the grass.
I made a mental note to ask Mason about removing the stairs and putting a low-incline ramp there instead.
The cabin door would need to be widened to make it more accessible.
The bathroom would need a grab bar installed too.
I left the oven sitting outside the cabin and returned inside to my to-do list. I didn’t want to throw out my back by deadlifting an oven into the trailer Mason had left up here for me. When Mason or Hayes drove up to haul it off, I’d put them and their big muscles to work.
“What do you think about Rose?” I asked the calf as I rifled through the bag of reinforcements I had brought up with me—mostly granola bars and a giant canteen of water—and pulled out a notebook and pen.
“Rose is adorable,” I said as I scribbled down the renovations that would need to be made to make the space accessible.
I grabbed my phone and shot a text to Hayes, asking him to help me load the oven when he was finished with work.
As far as calf supplies, Mason had helped me set up one of the stable stalls with clean hay and Warren had generously given us a starter supply of colostrum and calf formula, along with a gruff crash course in bottle-feeding.
According to him, some calves were rather resistant to it.
But whatever No-Name had gone through before making it to the estate had made her ravenous and trusting of anyone who offered food.
The stables were a safe, warm place for her to sleep, but the lower pastures were set up for high-dollar equine training. The owners who paid handsomely for boarding and training weren’t too keen on having a cow around, no matter how adorable she was.
No-Name had become fond of car rides—at least while she was small enough to fit in the cab of Mason’s truck—and enjoyed some well-deserved grass time while I worked on the cabin.
I had put out feelers for a second cow but didn’t have any leads quite yet.
“What about…Sophia?” I asked over my shoulder.
No-Name peered up at me and flicked an ear.
“Okay. Not exactly rousing excitement, but I think we’re in the right direction. What about Dorothy? Maybe I can find you the rest of the Golden Girls and you can have your own little pack of gal pals.”
The calf cocked her head to the side, blinked at me with those long lashes, then mooed.
I gasped as she and I stared at each other in surprise. “You found your moo!”
She tipped her adorable little nose to the sky and mooed again.
“Is your name Dorothy?!” I gushed as I leaned on the fence.
Her response was a flick of her ears and another quick grunt.
“Well, that settles it. Nice to meet you, Dorothy. I’ll get you some friends soon.”
“Being married to my half brother has you talking to cows already. Can’t say I’m surprised.”
I shrieked as I turned to find Lewis a few feet behind me. His sports car was idling on the lane with the door open. I had been so excited about Dorothy finding her moo that I hadn’t heard him drive up.
Beady eyes raked up and down my body, making me want to take a shower to rinse off his gaze.
“Lewis,” I said by way of a curt greeting.
“You know, I had some time to think after your nuptials,” he mused. “I think it’s weird that you applied for a very large grant with my company—”
“Walt’s foundation.”
He seethed. “And when you didn’t get my stamp of approval, you married into the family and got more than what you would have gotten through the grant.
” Lewis crossed one arm over the other. “I just find it strange that you didn’t submit the grant application until you were supposedly already engaged.
If you knew you could open your legs and get Hayes to give you whatever you wanted, why go through all that paperwork? ”
I gritted my teeth and steeled my poker face as rage boiled inside me.
“Unless this marriage is a sham,” he said as he took a step toward me. “What? You and Hayes conjured this whole thing up so he could steal the estate from me and you could get a payday?”
Actually, that’s exactly what happened. But I’m not about to let him think he’s onto something.
“Leave me alone, Lewis,” I said firmly. “If you have an issue, take it up with Hayes. Or the court, which you’re already doing.”
“An issue?! A fucking issue?” he spat as he leaned in closer. “Yeah, Barbie. I have a fucking issue with Hayes giving away my land in exchange for some pussy.”
“I have a fucking issue with you speaking to my wife like that,” Hayes said as he appeared behind Lewis, wearing a murderous look I had never seen on him before.
But Lewis didn’t pay Hayes any mind and channeled his rage directly at me. “I will enjoy wiping that smug look off your face, and I will keep my foot on his fucking throat until I do,” he spat as he pointed at Hayes.
The last word out barely escaped his mouth. Hayes fisted the back of Lewis’s collar and jerked him away from me. “What did I just fucking say? Huh?”
Lewis’s face turned the color of an eggplant.
Hayes’s expression morphed from angry to lethal. “If you speak to my wife again, or you even look at my wife again, you will get two choices. Either you won’t come through the gates ever again, or you’ll never leave them. Have I made myself clear?”
Lewis seethed in silence as he stabbed me with his gaze.
Hayes tightened his grip, shaking Lewis with a jolt. “Have I made myself clear?”
Lewis gritted his teeth. “Crystal.”
Hayes released him and dusted his hands off as if he had been taking out the trash. “Then there’s no reason for you to be here. Go to the house or get lost. This is Catherine’s land and you’re trespassing.”
To my surprise, Lewis didn’t hesitate to stomp to his car and zip down the lane to the house.
I didn’t exhale until his taillights disappeared down the hill. Hayes rushed forward and cupped my cheeks. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I choked out as the shock that rooted me to the spot began to recede. Hayes pulled me into his arms, but I pushed back. “I’m filthy and you’re all dressed up.”
“I don’t care.”
I leaned into him then, closing my eyes and resting against his chest. “Thank you.”
His hand was warm and strong as he stroked up and down my back, caressing away the tension until I could breathe more easily.
Dorothy, apparently jealous of the attention I was receiving, mooed at us.
Hayes chuckled. “Is she having a good time up here?”
“Dorothy has been wonderful company. And she found her moo today.”
But Hayes didn’t latch on to the quick conversation pivot. He cradled the back of my head and studied my eyes with concern weighing in his. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m sure. But how did you know he was here?”
“I didn’t,” Hayes said. “I needed to stretch my legs, so I walked up here to help you load the oven before you got it in your head that you had to do it yourself. I don’t want you getting hurt.
There are plenty of people around to help you with all this.
” He sighed. “I’m starting to think that we need cameras at the gates and here at the cabin. ”
My head snapped up, our eyes meeting. “Hayes, there have never been cameras on the estate.”
“The stables have cameras so owners can check on their horses twenty-four seven.”
“You know what I mean. Your granddad welcomed anyone to the estate. He wouldn’t want cameras all over the place.”
“That was before Lewis was out for blood. I’m not risking your safety just because he’s family. No one gets a pass when it comes to you.” He pressed a kiss to my head. “And since he’s back, we should probably stay in the same room,” Hayes said bluntly.
My heart skipped because it meant sleeping together again but sank when I realized it was simply out of necessity. “Yeah. That’s fine. Probably smart.”
“Come on,” Hayes said, moving to the oven without a second thought. “Let’s get this loaded up so Mason can haul the trailer away and get Dorothy back to the stables.”
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