When they walked into the barn, Sally wasn’t in her stall. They said hi to the random chickens who were pecking around instead before heading out into the pasture.
“Over there!” Daisy pointed. She had let go of Luca’s hand to greet all the chickens, but she grabbed it again now. Luca tried to remember the last time a hand so small had held his for so long. He rarely got up to Kjell and Amaya’s place in Bellevue, and they only came down with the kids once or twice a year. He obviously loved Summer and Enzo, his niece and nephew, but whenever he’d been around them, they were always surrounded by the chaos of the Yaeger family. He couldn’t remember if he’d ever actually been alone with them. Holding their hands in the middle of a pasture. Walking toward a cow.
“Sally’s good with us approaching her like this?” Luca hadn’t helped much with taking care of any of the animals. A thread of anxiety threaded through him. Sally was a big girl. What if she got startled and accidentally kicked them, or stepped on Daisy’s foot or something?
Why had Emerson trusted Luca withhis kidso easily?
“Yeah,” Daisy said. “Just gotta talk as we get close. No surprise.”
“Right,” Luca agreed. “No surprise. Are you wearing the right shoes for this?”
The grass—if one could even call it that; it was a wild combination of weeds Luca would never be able to name—was high and still wet with dew. It’d been a chilly, overcast day, typical of the Oregon Coast at any time of year. The dampness of everything had made weeding an easier task today, but the lower half of Luca’s jeans was already getting soaked. He should check them both for ticks, probably, when they got back inside. He was possibly regretting his choices.
Daisy giggled. “Nope,” she answered. And then she ripped her hand from his, shouting, “Sally!” as she shot ahead of him like a light.
“Fuck,” he muttered, all assortment of mauling scenarios rushing through his head as he jogged to catch up. But then?—
There was Sally, barely moving a muscle as Daisy reached up to pet her leg. Her tail swished as Luca approached. He slowed his gait as Sally’s age-old eyes tracked him.
“Hey, girl.” Slowly, carefully, he lifted a hand to run down the side of her face. Her coat was coarse and soft all at once, somehow.
“Sally’s thebest,” Daisy said with feeling before wrapping her entire body around one of Sally’s legs. Luca’s heart leapt into his throat.
“Daisy—”
“Hokay!” As quickly as she’d attached herself to the bovine, she stepped away. “Da-dee said I could use my screen!”
With that, she turned and ran back across the pasture.
“Seriously?” Luca said. They had just fucking gotten here.
Sally moved her head. Luca, still staring at Daisy, only comprehended what was happening from the corner of his eye before a big, wet tongue licked up the side of his face. Jerking away, Luca laughed. That had been both the roughest and the slimiest sensation of his life.
“Sorry, Sally,” he said, wiping his cheek with the hem of his shirt before running after Daisy. If she twisted an ankle, or got her tiny little fingers caught in the gate?—
“Daisy,” he called out. She paused, looking back at him. Man, those little glasses really killed him. “Sally licked me,” he said when he’d finally caught up, slightly out of breath. “Does that mean she likes me?”
Daisy giggled again. “Duh.”
Back in the house, Daisy marched to Emerson’s room,where a kid’s tablet was charging in a corner. It was protected by a thick purple case.
“Uh,” Luca said. He knew parents had lots of rules about screen time, and that Emerson had only offered the tablet so Daisy would do what he said.
But Daisy was already skipping out of Emerson’s room back to her own, where she plopped a matching set of purple headphones over her ears and sat herself down in a beanbag chair in the corner, fully absorbed.
Loo-kah time was done.
“All right.” Luca stuck his hands in his pockets, looking around the room. After a minute, he walked over to a bookshelf. It was dumb, because he had no training in how to actually write them and he knew it took skill, but—sometimes he daydreamed about giving up his long, tortured fantasy novel and writing picture books instead. They were always so fucking beautiful.
He gathered a few in his arms and walked back to the bed.
“Okay if I lie down for a bit?” he asked Daisy, but she didn’t hear him. She stabbed a finger at her screen. Luca looked down at Moomoo. “You okay if I join you?”
And being around a kid for twenty minutes must have influenced him more than he’d thought, because Luca actually pictured Moomoo saying, in a deep voice,Sure, Loo-kah, before Luca moved him to the side. Her? Them? Wouldn’t it have horns if it was a he? He was uncertain on Moomoo’s gender.
The bed gave a slight groan as Luca laid down, and only then did Luca contemplate how a bed for a four-year-old girl might not actually be made to fit his weight. But after a moment’s held breath, it seemed to be holding. And even though his feet stuck out over the end, it was surprisingly comfortable. Felt fucking incredible, actually.
He settled in, and opened up his first book.
