“Aren’t you supposed to be hibernating?” I ask Earl as he loafs under my bedroom window.
He pauses and looks up at me like I’m the problem here.
I grunt at him.
He grunts back.
“Shoo, or I’ll make you. Junie’s getting home soon.”
It’s Friday.
One very, very long week down since I flew to Tampa to get Junie. With soccer over, she’s been riding the bus home, and yes, she grumbles every day about the long walk up the driveway.
Like she doesn’t run around soccer fields for fun.
And like she doesn’t willfully walk even longer on the nights she gets dropped off at Almosta Ranch up the road to help Kory with his animals now that she has more time.
God, it’s good to have her home, even if faking all my cheerfulness has been a total pain in the ass.
I pull out my phone and shoot her a quick text.Earl’s here. He’s under my bedroom window. Be aware.
Earl snuffles around eating something on the ground.
I squint.
Whatever it is that has his attention, I can’t see it. “Don’t make me get the hose, Earl. It’s too late in the year for sprinklers.”
He snorts at me once again, then plops his rump down right there, right outside my bedroom window, and buries his nose in the ground.
My phone dings.
Well, that’s unexpectedly convenient, Junie has replied.
I reply with a side-eye emoji.
Teenage sarcasm isn’t my favorite this week.
I finish folding my laundry and glance out my window again.
Earl’s freakingtaking a nap.
Right there. Right outside my bedroom window.
I sigh. “If you’re planning on hibernating outside my bedroom, Earl, you’re about to have the worst winter of your life.”
My phone dings again.
It’s Junie. Again.
I was thinking we should donate a statue of Gingersnap to the town. You know, like, in honor of your uncle Tony and all the stuff he and Gingersnap did for the people here. Like this one.
She includes a picture of a bronzed cow, and despite my mood this week, I still find a smile.
That’s a really sweet idea, I text back.
And once again, I get a near-immediate response.Glad you think so, because I invited the cow-statue committee over to hash out details at five.
“What?” I say out loud to my phone.
