Page 16 of Cattle Stop

“Hey, consider this our big chance to catch up. What’s new, how’s life, anything exciting happening these days?” Cooper means it as a joke, but curiosity wells up in his chest. Don’t, he tells himself. Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t—“Seeing anyone?”

Whit’s eyes cut toward him. “Why?”

“Why would you be seeing someone? See, Whit, when two people love each other, or, you know, just want to get it on, they—”

“Why do you ask?”

“Wait, are you?”

“There they are.” Whit jerks the wheel to the side so hard Cooper’s coffee really does spill.

Cooper wipes his hands on his sweatpants as Whit jumps out of the cab, like the cows are really going anywhere, not just idly exploring the poor neighbor’s lawn. Because, sure enough, there they are, a dozen of them, sleepy-eyed in the morning mist and making a mess of things, oblivious to the trouble they’ve caused.

“Caroline?” Whit calls, a hand cupped around his mouth.

From her porch, Caroline waves, her long gray hair tied up on top of her head and the hem of her nightgown wet with dew.

“They came over to say hello!” she calls back.

Whit claps his hands together, trying to shoo a heifer as she sticks her head into Caroline’s flowerbed. “I’m so sorry,” he says.

Three more cows round the corner of the house, where they must’ve been investigating the backyard, and jogging behind them, his arms outstretched—

“Brad?” Cooper asks.

He has to stare for a long moment to be sure, because that doesn’t look like Brad. And what the hell is he doing over here instead of at his own farm, clear across town? Though it has to be Brad, just without the mess of his usual scraggly beard. And, apparently, he’s been hitting the gym this past winter. He looks…different. More put together, with jeans that aren’t covered in cow manure and a plaid shirt that doesn’t have tractor grease all over it. Even his brown hair is combed, not the messy mop Cooper’s used to seeing. Probably still just as irritating, though.

“Coop?”

Brad smacks a cow on the flank to urge it toward the road and then comes over to give Cooper a handshake that turns into a back-clapping hug, as if they haven’t seen each other in ages. A year it’s been, maybe. Though, Cooper can’t remember going down to Brad’s farm last season, since that would have involved actually seeing Brad. So maybe it was the year before he last saw him, or even two years? Pity to break the record.

Cooper squirms free of Brad’s grip, but Brad just slaps his shoulder again and snaps a piece of gum in his mouth, loud enough Cooper can hear it. “Good to see you, man.”

“What’re you doing here, Brad?” Whit asks.

“Came by to chat with Travis. Wanted to catch him first thing this morning. He just took off back to Manhattan, and the next minute,” Brad tips his head toward the cows. “These ladies showed up.”

“Travis? He’s in town?” Cooper steps away from Brad under the excuse of ushering another cow away from a stand of hydrangeas. Travis, Caroline’s son, who back in the day used to tag along behind Drew and Cooper, though he was still a couple years too young to be of any real use. Travis and Brad: damn. They sure do round out the list of folks besides Whit who Cooper didn’t want to deal with during this quick visit to Drew.

“He was just here for the day,” Brad says. “I swung by to set up an appointment with him, but I didn’t know you were here too.”

“Doesn’t Travis sell real estate down in the city these days?” Cooper asks.

“Yep.” Brad snaps his gum again.

“Yep?” Cooper echoes. Next to him, a cow sniffs over the lawn and huffs a breath, dissatisfied with the brown grass of early spring. “Are you—an appointment? What’d you come all the way over here to see him about?”

“Sold the herd.” Brad grins and shrugs, holding his hands out wide. “Yeah, I know, right? Sent ’em on over to Ohio.”

“You sold them?” Brad’s family had been milking cows since—well, since before Drew’s uncle and probably before Drew’s grandfather too. “All of them?”

“All of them.” Brad laughs. It’s an annoying sound, Cooper remembers all over again. There’s a reason he hasn’t seen Brad in a good long while. “Drew’s gonna have to hold down the dairy tradition in these parts, ’cause I’m out.”

“You’re selling your land, too?”

“Thinking about it.”

With Travis’s help, apparently. Travis, who’s all grown up and selling off dairy farms. Fuck. Maybe Penny and Drew are right that only stopping by every six months instead of spending entire summers here is leaving him in the dust when it comes to the neighborhood news.