“That’s … amazing. Really, I mean it.”
“Yes. Temple is an amazing person. Brilliant and compassionate. She reminds us that animals deserve our respect, a decent life, and a painless death. It’s the least we can do. I’ve seen her speak live before. It was quite a whirlwind of energy and information. She’s a real fireball. Makes you proud to be a woman rancher.” Maeve stared out over the operation and nodded silently.
A lump developed in my throat that wouldn’t go away. I turned to face the men and watched as Boog bent over at the animal’s rear legs near its stomach.
“He’s castrating the bull now,” said Maeve in a soft voice. “This part hurts them, but he’s good and he’s fast. It’ll all be over in a minute.”
“Why do they do it?”
“It makes the animal much less aggressive towards the men and the other animals, so it’s a safety issue. And it makes their meat better. They’re being sold for food, so that’s an important thing.”
I nodded absently, focused on Boog. I couldn’t see exactly what he was doing, but after about a minute he straightened up and dropped what he was holding into a bucket near his feet.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Testicles. He’ll fry them up later and eat them. We’ll have some at the picnic so you can give them a try.” She looked at me. “You’re coming, I hope.”
“You said it’s in a couple days, but I’ll be gone by then.” I left the eating-of-balls comment alone because it would be an ice-cold, snowy day in hell before a calf testicle passed through these lips of mine.
“It sounds like you work a lot of hours, being focused the way you are on your lifeplan and all.”
Her change of subject threw me off a little. “Uhhhh … yes, I do work very hard. At least sixty hours a week.”
“Wow, that is a lot. When was the last time you had a vacation? Maybe you’re due.”
I had to think about it for a little while. “I guess it was a couple years ago. And it wasn’t really a vacation.”
“Your trip to Vegas?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I was only there for a day and a half and … I didn’t do a lot.” Except get married. Gah! Another lie. When will it end? I felt positively twitchy over my half-truths.
“That’s the last time my boys went out of town too. Well, that’s not exactly right. That’s the last time Mack went anywhere. Ian left for a little while and had plans to take a vacation, but they fell through.”
“That’s too bad. Where was he going to go?”
“Hawaii.” Maeve smiled, but it wasn’t the happy kind; it had too much sadness laced in it.
“Hawaii sounds nice.” My tone was prying, but I didn’t care. I was curious. If anyone needed a vacation it was Ian. Maybe it would help him change his attitude to go surfing or snorkeling somewhere.
“He didn’t really much care for the idea of Hawaii. He’s not much of a beach person, but it was Ginny’s dream to go there, so he agreed to go.”
“Is that his wife?”
Maeve sighed heavily. “No, Ginny was going to be his wife, but they ended up canceling the wedding just days before it was supposed to happen.”
“Oh. That sucks.” Mack had been to Las Vegas to celebrate that upcoming wedding. It gave me a bad feeling to know I’d been around just before the big breakup.
“It was terrible. A very emotional time for everyone, but especially Ian of course. He still hasn’t recovered.”
“Is that why he’s…” I rolled my eyes at myself. I’d almost said, such a rude jerk. Talk about a rude jerk … yeah, that’s me, the girl sitting here completely oblivious to the feelings of the lady who probably cried a thousand tears over that little left-at-the-altar event.
She patted my arm. “That’s why he’s so sharp is how I like to put it. He wasn’t like that before. He’s a sweet boy underneath the hurt.”
“I’ll take your word for it. I’ve seen glimpses.”
She stood, like she was shaking off the memories. “Come on. Let’s go take a closer look.”
I followed her off the fence, not positive I wanted a closer look but loathe to be rude to such a nice lady who was working so hard at making me feel comfortable. If things had been different between us, I was sure we could be friends. She reminded me a bit of Ruby.
She went to stand at the gate near where they were letting the calves in one-by-one. I stood next to her, just a few feet away from Mack. He turned sideways, giving me a great view of his face in profile, and I couldn’t stop staring.