Anna
When Charlie came marching across the property toward her with a severe expression that almost made her second-guess her decision to film here, she knew she’d been right to stick around.
He was livid for some reason. As he came closer, she preempted his complaint with a friendly smile.
“What can we do for you?” she asked, like she was a waitress dealing with a particularly ornery customer.
“I want to show you something,” he said through his teeth.
“Do you see this?” he finally said when they’d gotten to a field of lush green vegetation and grazing cattle.
“Really?” he said, gesturing more forcefully toward the pasture. “You’re going to pretend you don’t see that?”
She squinted at the field in front of her. Some of the plants did seem to be a bit trampled, and her crew had been filming in the area that morning. “It’s just a few plants,” she said. “Surely they’ll grow back.”
“This!” He pointed at the field even harder. “This is not just a few plants. This is alfalfa, an important crop I’m growing here. And it shouldn’t be eaten by cows!”
“I don’t see that much of it has been eaten or trampled,” she argued. “We’ll compensate for the lost alfalfa anyway. No problem.”
He groaned like he was trying to explain something simple to a less-than-bright child. “It’s not about the crop. It’s about the cows. Eating this much growing alfalfa will make them sick.”
“Then why would you let them roam around in the fields?”
He opened his mouth to respond but closed it and shook his head at her.
Anna waited while he waded out into the field of alfalfa, waving his arms and shouting at the cows.
“Go back, cows! Go! Shoo! Move, cows!” He made himself as loud and big as he could.
His voice was booming, and his cattle took notice.
Slowly, the grazing cows started shifting in the direction he was pushing them toward.
They would gallop for a few feet before going back to their slow meander and occasional nibbling.
They seemed deeply unbothered by Charlie’s loud insistence, instead glancing back at him like he was a noisy fly they were moving away from.
Anna couldn’t help laughing at the sight.
Then Charlie hollered back at her. “A little help? I need them back in their pasture.”
She perked up and jogged toward him. “How?”
“Just move them in that direction.”
As ridiculous as it felt, Anna imitated Charlie’s arm waving and shouting.
“Go on, cows!” she said. The cows didn’t move an inch.
If they’d been human, they would have had their arms crossed and one eyebrow raised as they stared her down.
They were so clearly unimpressed. All the same, she did her best, and before long, the cows were shuffling through an open part of the fence.
“Now do you see?” Charlie said when the last one had wandered through the opening. He pointed to the place where the fence should have been. “This fence was intact yesterday. Someone broke it.”
As soon as he pointed it out, Anna knew what had probably happened.
There was a scene in the novel where the main character sat up against the wooden part of a fence as her love interest kissed her.
They must have accidentally broken the fence when they filmed it, not realizing it was there to keep cows in the right pasture.
“We’ll get this fixed,” she finally said. “No harm done.”
“Tell that to the cows tonight when they’re suffering from indigestion. You’re lucky I found them when I did. This could have been much more serious.”
Anna sighed. There was unlikely to be anything she could say to fix this. “This is what happens during filming. A few mishaps will occur. But we’ll compensate you. We’ll make it up to you.”
“How?”
His single word challenged her more than a lengthier admonishment would. “Money,” she answered.
“Right now,” he clarified. “How are you going to make it up to me right now?”
Anna’s face went hot at those words. He clearly hadn’t meant them the way she was hearing them, but she couldn’t help herself.
She cleared her throat several times before she could manage to say anything at all.
“I could… keep the cows in their pasture while you fix the fence. That way they won’t get out again.
I’ll even help if you need it. You might have to show me how, though.
Would that do? A little free labor here and there?
I could help with other things, too, on occasion. ”
What was she promising right now? She didn’t have time to do ranch work in addition to everything else. But he seemed to approve of what she was saying. “Fine,” he said. “Wait here. Keep them in there.” He pointed to the cattle now grazing on the right kind of grasses.
She did as he instructed, shooing away the curious cows that came to inspect their new escape route, probably thinking they could use it again now that the big scary man was gone.
She shooed them away as best she could, but some of them were definitely not buying her act.
One of them was shoving her back by the time Charlie returned.
He arrived on an ATV with several boards and a toolbox strapped to the back just as one of the cows pushed past a uselessly protesting Anna.
She did not appreciate how loudly he laughed at her, but at least his mood was improving.
He parked the vehicle and hopped off, pushing the cow that had just gotten past her back into the pasture with the others.
Charlie didn’t say much as he worked, and his silence was a little off-putting to Anna. She wanted to make conversation but got the impression he wouldn’t appreciate it. So, she just waited until he said, “Hand me that hammer, would you?”
For the next hour, she worked with him, saying nothing, just following directions.
She really did feel bad that the crew had damaged part of his property, but she also felt he was overreacting about it.
The cows seemed fine, and the alfalfa was barely damaged.
The fence was fixable, and in the end, he’d get a check that would make anyone else’s eyes pop out of their skull.
No, she didn’t feel at all bad for him. He had no idea how lucky he was.
After he finished fixing the fence, Charlie started packing his things and finally said a few words to Anna. “From now on, your people get permission before using anything on my property as a prop. And if anything ever gets damaged, I’m to be notified immediately.”
She nodded.
“Immediately,” he repeated. “Do you understand?”
All she could do was nod again.
Anna lost track of Charlie for the rest of the day. She was far too busy managing the crew, informing them of the new rules and softening their opinion of their host. She only wished he knew how much work she put into managing his reputation. Her success, of course, was still uncertain.
She only went looking for him one evening because she had a clarification question about one of the rules he’d laid out for her.
Though she couldn’t have said where the instinct came from exactly, when she finally did find him, she didn’t immediately announce herself.
Her instinct was to stay quiet and watch.
So, she did. He was in the barn, and she was standing just outside the door, hiding in the shadows of twilight.
“Don’t worry, now, girl,” he said to a horse whose hoof he was examining. “It’s going to be okay. Trust me. I’ve got you.”
His voice was gentle, and his hands were firm. Nothing about him was unsure or reserved. None of his usual standoffishness was present in him now. This was Charlie, unfiltered, unmasked. And he looked nothing like she would have expected.
The horse had one foot up in Charlie’s lap, allowing him full access to it.
The trust was phenomenal. Anna could see that the animal, beautiful as she was, had come close to panicking due to what Anna assumed was an injury of some kind.
Charlie tended to the horse with the kind of patience and gentleness anyone would wish for themselves or their children in a crisis.
Or their children. Anna realized, suddenly, she was thinking of how he would be with children, with kids.
She was thinking of what kind of father he would be.
She shook the thought off and continued to watch him from the shadows.
The horse had started out agitated, shifting from foot to foot, huffing occasionally in protest. But the more Charlie spoke to it, the more the animal began to settle and relax.
“See?” he said to the horse as he finished treating its injury.
“I told you it would be okay. That’s a good girl.
You’ll be all better in no time.” Charlie stood and patted the horse gently on the side of her flank.
Then he did something that brought Anna to a new level of respect and understanding.
He leaned in and touched his forehead to the horse itself.
The affection in that gesture made Anna shiver.
No wonder he was so protective of the land and his animals.
He really, truly loved them. He was bound to all of it in a way Anna couldn’t begin to understand.
She felt an invisible line drawn between him and this place.
And suddenly, she didn’t need to ask him for clarification anymore.
She already knew what his answer would be.
Everything he was doing, every grumpy complaint and nasty look, was done in service of the land and the creatures who relied on it.
His values were consistent and his intentions were clear.
Somehow, without even trying, she had learned something fundamental about Charlie Greene.
She knew him better than she would have believed possible only hours ago.