The Trouble With Mini Cows (Fidalgo Island Book 1) Read online

  “There’s some leftover pork roast. I could make you a sandwich.”

  “Please.”

  She went to the fridge and started pulling things out. Nate poured them both glasses of wine. “I have good news.”

  “Is there bad news too?”

  “I don’t think so. I think it’s all good.”

  He tucked into his sandwich and pointed at the paperwork he’d dropped on the counter. “It’s all in there, but don’t get grease on it. It’s my only copy.”

  Tess was bewildered, but starting looking through the paperwork. She slowed down when she started seeing her grandmother’s initials marking clauses. She started over from the beginning. “Nate?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m not a lawyer for a reason. Can you give me the summary?”

  “We’ve worked out a deal with the Japanese.”

  “You have?” She started rushing toward him with the document still in her hands.

  “Ah—papers, counter.” He pointed, and she set them down again carefully. Then went and covered his forehead with kisses.

  He smiled around the sandwich. “Your gran will lease the cows to them in perpetuity, free of charge. They will provide boarding, veterinary care, daily care and feed, and submit to a biannual health and safety check by an official—not Callie,” he added dryly. “In turn, she will not keep any cows, can visit them during normal business hours whenever she wants and can have up to twenty percent of the daily milk yield for her personal use if she collects it from the barn herself.”

  “And Gran signed it? I can’t believe it.”

  “She did, and without duress, I might add. At least not from me. I think Walt may have had some influence, though. Apparently he wants to take the cruise to Alaska and the cows have been getting in the way. She wasn’t all that happy, but I think her fascination with dairy farming may have run its course. She can still visit and check up on them, but she won’t have to deal with the daily chores.”

  Dread hit Tess like a sledgehammer. “What… what about Ferdie?” she whispered.

  He pointed back at the counter. “Look at page twenty-five.”

  She flipped through. “You saved him! My hero!”

  Nate puffed out his chest and grinned. “I tried to think of everything. Not that I think he’d really mind being a farm animal—that is, after all, what he is. But I had a feeling you wouldn’t be so good with it. Oh, and the Japanese will only keep a few cows milking for demonstration purposes, so we won’t have a continuous problem of too many mini cows. They think the current volume is just right for what they have planned. They’re going to cross-market to another part of their company that runs tours, special events and the like. They’ll use some of the older ones in a petting zoo, along with the current calves, and the others will be out in a specially designed tulip field with lots of cutaways for photo ops.”

  He shook his head. “I still don’t get how this is a business, but whatever works. They’ve also agreed to cover an additional two years of expenses if they have to close the business with no warning. Anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing all day, trying to get this negotiated. I think it’s pretty fair to everyone, and Callie will, I suspect, come around eventually. It can’t have been easy for her, despite what she says.”

  Tess hugged herself with excitement. It was over. Or was it? “So when does this happen? What about all the cows being milked now?”

  “They know the property they want and already have a first rights offer in on it, so they think they can get the barn built in six months and start ramping up for a grand opening next spring. We can start letting the cows go dry now.”

  “Umm, how do we do that?”

  “Just stop milking them.” He grinned.

  “Really? But doesn’t that hurt them?”

  “Not physically. I can’t say they won’t be uncomfortable for a few days. I’ve never really thought about it. But that’s how it’s done.”

  “Huh. Why didn’t anyone tell me that before?”

  “You didn’t ask? In any event, they were still technically under Callie’s management and I didn’t want to introduce anything that might make you want to leave sooner.” He layered on the charm with a kiss to her hand while she debated getting mad at all that wasted milking.

  “My real concern, and why I didn’t say anything, was that she’d have started over and we’d have even more cows next year. But now we’re in the clear. The Japanese can figure out which two or so they want to milk and go from there. We are out of it except for feeding and watering until the barn is built. I did throw that in as a personal concession, but they’ll pay for the feed. And you know what else that means?”

  “What?”

  “We can sleep in.” He waggled his eyebrows, which had the unfortunate consequence of reminding her of Groucho Marx, so she just rolled her eyes and went to tell Ferdie the good news.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  A few months later, a knock on the front door interrupted Tess’s attempt to finish the final edits on the cow script as she’d started calling it. She went to see who it was, and found a deliveryman, who handed her a very official-looking envelope and promptly left.

  Tess studied it for a moment. It was addressed to both her and Nate. She found a letter opener in the drawer and slit it open. She took a stapled document out and unfolded it. The first page was almost entirely legalese, with mentions of aforementioned and petitioner, but on the second page she found a paragraph that someone had helpfully marked with a highlighter in the shape of a heart.

  The male bovine known as Ferdinand is to be granted to the shared ownership of Tessa Calhoun and Nathan Hale on the event of their marriage. If they do not marry within one year of receipt of this document, then custody of Ferdinand is to be transferred to Murphy’s Stock Yard with the intent that he be auctioned for slaughter.

  Stunned, she read it again. Ferdie was going to become steak if she didn’t marry Nate. Was this his idea of a sick way to propose? She flipped to the last page, where her grandmother’s signature sat clear as day, but the attorney was someone she had never heard of, with an address in Burlington.

  She opened the kitchen screen door and shouted for Nate. He came running from the barn, but slowed down when he saw her standing there.

  “What is it?”

  Mutely, she handed him the stapled document, opened to the offending page. She was on the verge of tears. He read it and then flipped to the last page just as she had done. Nate groaned loudly and closed his eyes in frustration.

  “Tess, I had nothing to do with this.”

  “It’s blackmail!”

  “Yep, but from the looks of this, it’s also legally binding. Ferdie is your Gran’s property. The question is whether she’d really go through with it or not. Do you want to call her bluff or just give in and we all get what we want?”

  “Do we? Is that your idea of a romantic proposal?”

  “No, I had something else planned. More like a nice dinner at that place by the river. Alternatively, we could take a page out of your grandmother’s book and load up Ferdie and make a run for it. We could probably make it to Oregon before they caught up with us… but that’s less practical, since I was going to propose anyway.”

  She eyed him suspiciously.

  “Don’t believe me, huh? We really have to work on your trust issues. Follow me.”

  He took her hand and pulled her behind him up the stairs and into his office. He pulled open one of the smaller desk drawers and took out a worn ring box. It was green leather with some gold embossing that had worn away in the corners. Nate opened it gently, and Tess gasped. A sparking diamond and platinum ring nestled in the creamy satin inside. “That’s Gran’s ring! The one my grandfather gave her.”

  “Yes, it is. Callie called me up and asked me stop by last week. Said she wanted to know my intentions and that she’d changed her mind about having an attorney in the family. Told me it might come in handy after all. She said she was reli
eved about the cows and was grateful for my help.”

  “She didn’t!”

  “She did. Her words were a little more pithy, but that was the gist. Apparently I didn’t move fast enough for her liking, though,” he said. Nate rather ungracefully got down on one knee while still holding her hand.

  “And so, Tessa Marie Calhoun, will you please marry me so you and I and Ferdie and Daisy can live happily ever after?”

  Naturally, she said yes. They got married on Labor Day in the back pasture. Tess decided that if anyone was going to win the pool it ought to be her new best friend Sarah, who really needed some good news right then. Besides, it just made sense for people traveling to do it over a holiday weekend.

  Ferdie made a charming ring bearer. Nate’s niece, Chloe, led him down the aisle on a pink ribbon leash. A little wreath of pink roses and ferns went around his neck, with the tiny basket containing the rings suspended from the middle. Nate claimed Daisy as one of the groomsmen, on the grounds that her black and white fur coordinated better with their tuxes.

  The rest of the mini cows looked on from the barn and mooed in unison when everybody clapped at the end of the ceremony.

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  Also by Juliet Chase

  Annabel’s Dilemma (A short story introducing the Love@Labresoft series)

  The Love List (Book 1 of the Love@Labresoft series)

  Amy’s Amazing Adventures (Across Time and Space)

  Copyright and Author’s Note

  Vivaeris, LLC

  www.vivaeris.com

  The Trouble With Mini Cows

  ©2014 Juliet Chase

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Juliet Chase

  The Trouble With Mini Cows

  ISBN 978-1-939361-05-9

  Author’s Note

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons or animals, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Mini cows do exist but the author, sadly, does not own one.