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Flirting with Love(7)

By:Melissa Foster


She pushed away her sadness and pedaled through the thick grass parallel to the paddock. The cool evening air stung her eyes as she passed the play equipment for the goats and the big oak tree that looked miniature from the house and enormous as she pedaled by. Still no sign of Dolly. The farther from the house she pedaled, the more her stomach plummeted. She pedaled faster, passing what felt like miles of fencing and empty pasture. Where are you? She stopped to catch her breath, gazed into the paddock, and wondered if she’d missed Dolly. Could she have fallen ill? Was she lying in the paddock and Elisabeth had just pedaled by too fast? Looking for a standing cow rather than one lying down?

Her stomach took another nosedive as she pushed her hair from where it had stuck to the bead of sweat above her brow, set her feet on the pedals, and pushed on toward the end of the property.

Her heart leaped at the sight of Dolly grazing in the field near the very end of the property. Dolly lifted her head and looked at Elisabeth with her big round eyes.

“How on earth?” She pedaled closer, then set the bike down in the grass and looked over at the fence. She didn’t see any broken areas, and the gate was closed.

“Hi, sweetie. How did you get through the fence?” As Elisabeth approached, Dolly backed away. She needed to get Dolly back into the paddock, and while there was another gate not far from where they were, she’d never been successful in getting Dolly to go anywhere. Not even into the barn. She should have picked up a book on cows from the library instead of a novel.

“Please move, Dolly,” she urged. She knew that cows had blind spots and she remembered something about flight patterns, but she didn’t remember where Dolly’s blind spot was, or what the flight pattern was, exactly. She pushed on Dolly’s side. “Come on, baby. Let’s go into the paddock.”

Dolly swept her head around, then went back to grazing.

Elisabeth sighed and tried again. She pushed, but it was like pushing the side of a barn. After half an hour of pleading with Dolly, she pedaled back to the house as fast as she could, grabbed a hoodie, put one of her doggy treats into the basket—desperate times, desperate measures—and pedaled back to Dolly, who had moved about twenty feet in the wrong direction.

Lovely.

She held the doggy treat in her palms. “Come on, Dolly. Let’s walk to the fence. I’ll give you a treat.” She pleaded, begged, held the treat beneath the cow’s nose, and finally, she blew out a loud breath and gave up. She should have baked cow treats made with grass. A doggy treat, what was I thinking? She walked a few feet away and plopped down into the grass.

Who does a person call when they can’t get their cow inside the paddock? The police? Animal control?

Ross?

He’ll think I’m calling just to see him again.

Elisabeth wondered again whom she could call. She didn’t have any friends in town yet, and Ross was her closest neighbor.

I am such a loser. She pulled out her cell and dialed his number. He answered on the second ring.

“Hello?”

“Ross? This is Elisabeth. Your new neighbor?” Like he wouldn’t remember having wine with her.

“Ah, yes, my wine and swine neighbor.”

She smiled. “Yeah, that would be me, but now I’m the wine, swine, and bovine neighbor. My cow must have sprouted wings, because she’s out of the fence and I can’t get her back in.”

“Wings.”

She imagined his thick brows pinched together, a crooked smile on his lips. Oh, those lips.

“The gate is closed and I don’t have any idea how she got out. Do you think you could help me get her back in? Or tell me how? I don’t know who else to call.” Please, please, please.

“I’m in Allure right now, and I’ve got another client to see, so it’ll be a while. Have you tried to move her?” Allure was the next town over, probably a thirty-minute drive.

“Hm, I hadn’t thought of that.” She rolled her eyes. “Yes, of course I did.” Being bitchy wasn’t going to help, and she had no one else to call. “I’m sorry. I’ve been trying, but she just looks at me like I’m crazy.”

“I’ll try to swing by after I’m done; just don’t do anything sudden. You don’t want to scare her.”

“Thank you, Ross.”

Now she was worried about Dolly and nervous about seeing Ross. She sank down to the grass to do a little meditating.





A COW THAT sprouted wings. Now, that was the best line he’d heard all year. He doubted Dolly would go too far, no matter how she got out of the fence—and he’d have to check that out, too. An hour and a half later, after seeing his last client and driving back to Trusty, he headed over to Elisabeth’s. Chances were pretty good that she’d already corralled Dolly. He knocked on the door, and after a few minutes, he realized that Elisabeth wasn’t there.

“Let’s go,” he called to Storm. He grabbed a flashlight from the back of his truck and checked the barn for Elisabeth. She and Dolly were nowhere in sight. There was a good chance that Elisabeth had walked along the side of the fence nearest the house. He walked to the far side of the fence, where it followed the edge of the forest, and headed out to find them. He checked the fencing for breaks while keeping an eye on the pasture, looking for Elisabeth and Dolly. If this was just an excuse to see him, then she must have really wanted to, because an hour and a half was a long time to wait.

When he neared the end of the property he found a break in the fencing. A large limb had fallen from a tree and taken out a section. He knew what he’d be doing later tonight.

He came around the end of the paddock and crossed to the other side, where he saw Dolly standing in the pasture. He didn’t see Elisabeth anywhere. He moved the flashlight across the grass and it reflected off of something. A bicycle?

As he made his way across the pasture, he heard Elisabeth singing softly. He stopped and listened for a minute. He couldn’t make out the words, but her tone was a happy one. He followed her voice and found her sitting in the deep grass a few feet from Dolly, singing and humming and braiding blades of grass together.

She looked up and smiled. “You came.” One hand lifted and twisted a lock of hair.

“You’re singing. In the dark.” To a cow. Lucky cow. He reached for her hand and helped her up.

“Yeah.” She drew in a breath and brushed grass from her butt. “I couldn’t leave her out here all alone. Without Chip and Dale, she seemed lonely, and I had no success getting her to move toward the gate. I’m sorry for bothering you again, too. You must think I’m a nut.”

She had that wrong. He was the nut for taking so long to get there.

Singing in the dark so the cow wouldn’t be lonely. Why did he find that so charming?

He drew upon his professional demeanor to force his mind away from heading down that road any further. “I found out how she got out. A limb fell on the fence. I can fix it for you tomorrow, but we’ll have to do a temporary fix tonight.”

“I didn’t even check the side near the woods. I’m such an idiot. I was so focused on Dolly. Ugh. Thank you, Ross. Really, I’m not usually flighty.” She put her hands in the pockets of her very short shorts and smiled again.

Alone in a pasture with a beautiful woman whom he actually enjoyed spending time with. He could think of a million things he’d like to do besides the one thing they had to, and only two good reasons not to. She was a neighbor, and he didn’t really know her well enough to trust that she was as good as she seemed, both of which were feeling more and more like lame excuses not to kiss her.

He pushed his lustful thoughts away and focused on the issue that had brought him back to Elisabeth.

“Let’s get Dolly safely back into the paddock, and then we’ll patch the fence so she can’t get out again.” He explained what he was doing as he moved Dolly toward the paddock. “Your aunt was really good with Dolly, and she’s used to being handled. She’s a very gentle cow, but all animals can be spooked, so it’s important to approach slowly, and when you want to move a cow forward, you approach from the side, right behind the shoulder.” He moved into position, feeling the heat of Elisabeth’s gaze.

“A cow’s point of balance is the shoulder area, so if you approach ahead of the shoulder area, she’ll turn away or back up. Cows see differently than we do. They can see more than three hundred degrees, while we see one hundred eighty degrees. Their blind spot is directly behind them.” He pointed behind Dolly. “So if you stand there, she can’t see you.”

“What’s the flight zone?” Elisabeth asked as she walked alongside him.

Flight zones? She was constantly surprising him, and it made it harder for him to keep his distance. “You know about flight zones?”

“No, but I remember the term from an article or something. Maybe a documentary. I can’t remember.”

“Well, the flight zone is the area surrounding her where she’ll move to when she’s approached and feels threatened. You want to be aware of her point of balance, and the distance you keep from her body. To keep her moving forward, stay out to the side, like where I am, and at the edge of her flight zone. See how far away I am?” He waved his arm between him and Dolly. “This is about right. If she starts going too fast, then ease off a little until she slows, and if she slows too much or stops, move closer to encourage her to move.”