“Oh, Jesus, what did he do now?” Albert asks.
I put my truck into park and shake my head. “I’m afraid to look.”
I step outside, and a mooing sound fills the night as I maneuver through the crowd and find Sam and Izzy leaning into the back seat of Sam’s car.
“What’s going on?”
“I found a calf,” Sam explains.
“You found a calf? What the fuck Sam?” I shove him aside and look at Izzy.
“It’s true,” she says. “She’s just a baby. I glance into the vehicle and find a small calf in the back seat. She sticks her tongue out and licks me.
As I wipe the saliva from my face, Sam laughs, and so does everyone else. “What is it with you and cows, anyway?” Sam asks. “It’s like you’re a big salt lick.”
“Where did you find her?” I ask, ignoring his question.
“We were just driving down the street, and there she was, wandering down the sidewalk like she was patrolling or something.”
“Patrolling?”
“We found her outside the ice cream shop,” Izzy says.
Sam snickers. “Think she wanted to see where all the milk was going.”
“And you decided to put her in your car and take her to the Anchor?”
“We couldn’t leave her there,” Sam explains.
“We have to get her back home,” I say. “Wherever that is.”
Sam frowns. “We can’t keep her?”
“No, Sam, we can’t keep her. Let’s head to the Veinot’s and see if they know where she might have come from.” I turn to Albert. “I’ll meet you for that beer later.”
The crowd disperses, and I hop into the passenger seat. The muffler roars as Sam starts his car. “You need to get that fixed.”
Ignoring the comment, he peels out of the parking lot, and a few cars follow. “I thought I’d call her Lucille?”
“She’s not yours to name, Sam.”
“She looks like a Lucille, though, don’t you think?”
Since I have no idea what a Lucille looks like, I shake my head. A car comes up behind us, flashing its lights for us to move over. Sam adjusts his rearview mirror.
“Fucker,” he says. “That’s Benny. He’s up my rear end so far he’d better be wearing a goddamn condom.”
I can’t help but laugh at that. “Slow down. Let him pass.”
“Like hell.”
“Jesus Christ, Sam,” I say and hold on as he guns it. Poor Lucille, hits the back of my seat, and I turn to check on her. “You okay, girl?” I ask, only to get another tongue across my face. Sam keeps zigzagging to prevent Benny from passing. “Stop drawing attention. Cops find you with a stolen cow in the back seat, and you’ll find yourself locked up for the night.”
“I didn’t steal her; I rescued her.”
“Can’t argue with that logic,” I say, and pull my phone from my pocket. I take a picture of the calf and shoot a message off to Kira, thinking this will be a good story around the campfire. She texts back with a laughing emoji. I grin and tuck my phone way.
“Kira?”
“Yeah,” I say.
“She’d let me keep Lucille.”
“No, she wouldn’t.”
“Her friend is kind of cute, eh?”
“Yeah, she is.”
He taps his steering wheel to the song on the radio, and I glance at him. He’s a joker, but I think he hides behind his humor and sarcasm. Has Sam been hurt in the past?
He pulls into the Veinot’s driveway and hops from the car. Jack comes from the back door, and I call him over. “Any idea who might own her?” I ask.
“Let me make a few calls.”
Sam and I follow Jack into the house, and the scent of freshly baked cookies fills my nostrils. “Hey guys,” I say when I spot Brett and Liam in the room playing video games.
“Martha,” Sam says as he gives her a big hug. She beams up at me, and I grin. “Do I smell cookies?”
She touches his cheek. “I’ll pack some for you.”
“Is that COD?” he calls out to the boys, and disappears into the room to play with them.
Jack makes some calls as I talk weather with Martha, and when he gets off the phone, he whistles.
“She’s a bit of a way from home,” he says.
“We’ll take her back.”
Jack jots down the address, and Martha fills a tin container with cookies and hands them to me.
“Come on, Sam.”
He jumps up.
Back in the car, I pull out my phone and get the directions. “She must have been walking all day.”
“Kira at the campout?” he asks.
“Yeah, I think she’s having fun.”
“Good.”
“I don’t think a campout is going to change her mind, Sam.”
“Maybe you can?”
I stare out the window. “You think she’d listen to me.”
“I think if you gave her a reason to stay, she’d stay.”
“Sam, it’s not like that.”
“You sure about that?” he asks, in a voice so serious it gives me pause.
I open my mouth and then close it again, not sure how to respond. Sam goes quiet as we drive through the back roads, and I leave him to his thoughts, as I’m lost in my own. A long time later, we finally reach the Langille farm and get Lucille back to her rightful owners. It’s late by the time we make it back to the Anchor, but I sure could use a beer. Inside I find Albert shooting some pool, and Sam and I join in. I nurse two beer through the evening, and it’s well after eleven by the time I drive Albert home. In the driveway, he opens his door, and the night is quiet, no sounds of giggling girls in the distance.
“I guess they called it a night. Time for me to do the same,” Albert says.
“Night.”
He shuts the door, and I wait until he disappears inside. Then, I grab my phone and text:
Nate: You asleep?
Kira: No. There are too many strange noises, and I’m still cold even with all these blankets.
Nate: Want me to come warm you?
I quietly exit my vehicle, close the door softly, and hurry up the hill to the clearing.