Page 47 of Second Chance With a Cowboy

“Not if you wanted to live to see tomorrow.”

“Why don’t we start by seeing if she’s carrying a brand. That might tell us what ranch she’s from.”

“How do you know it’s ashe?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Remember that heifer proficiency we were just talking about? You stick to rockets—let me manage the bovine.”

Gladly. Besides, she was still thinking about how easily he’d thrown out the wordboyfrienda few seconds ago.

Her phone buzzed as she followed him through the door. She pulled it from the front pocket of her shorts and saw her sister’s name as she tapped the screen. “Sorry Sis, I can’t talk right now. There’s a strange cow in our backyard.”

Lorna gasped. But apparently not for the reason Leni thought she would.Notbecause she’d told her a cow was in her yard. “Ijustsaw on Nextdoor this morning that someone was missing a cow. Is it reddish brown with a white spot in the middle of its forehead that’s shaped like the state of South Dakota?”

Leni blinked, not able to keep up with all the craziness in her sister’s comments. “South Dakota? You know I’m terrible at geography. And I’m not close enough to the cow to see what state appears to be on his forehead.”

“South Dakota is the one that’s like a rectangle except the bottom right corner is broken so it looks like some of the Dakota is spilling out.”

“Thank you for that social studies lesson. What do you mean you saw it on Nextdoor?”

“You know, it’s like the app for people to stay in touch with what’s happening in their neighborhoods.”

“I knowwhatNextdoor is. But I thought people usually posted about their missing dogs or lost cats or to get a recommendation for a good plumber.”

“Well, apparently in Woodland Hills, people also use it to post about their missing heifers.”

Leni laughed as she put her sister on speaker. “It’s Lorna. She said someone posted on Nextdoor that they were missing a cow.”

He reached for his phone. “Oh nice. I’ll pull up the app.”

“Don’t bother,” Lorna told him. “I already did. It looks like the cow belongs to Berniece Buckley.Ifit’s the one with South Dakota on its forehead.”

Leni shook her head. “Is theremore than onemissing cow on the app?” she asked her sister as Chevy mouthed ‘South Dakota?” at her.

“Hmm,” Lorna said, sounding distracted as if she were scrolling through her phone. “Not today.”

“Phew. Well, that’s sure a stroke of luck,” Leni said, not even trying to disguise the sarcasm in her voice. She pointed to the white spot on the cow’s forehead. “Does that look like South Dakota to you?”

He squinted at the spot. “Yeah. I can see that.”

“Yay.” Lorna’s cheer came through the speaker.” This says her name is Babydoll, and she loves carrots, dandelions, and molasses.”

And apparently geraniums.

Leni turned to Chevy. “So can you watch her while I go whip up a batch of carrot pancakes covered in molasses?”

Chevy ignored her as he got closer and crooned to the cow. “Hey Babydoll. You ready to go home?”

The cow took a few steps toward him then nuzzled her head into his shoulder.

“I’ve got some carrots in the fridge you can use. Do you think you can you catch her?” Lorna asked. She was really invested in this cow thing.

“We don’t have to. She’s currently cuddling into Chevy’s shoulder. He just said her name, and she’s practically crawling into his lap. I swear that man’s charm knows no bounds.”

“Aww. That’s so sweet. Take a picture,” her sister instructed through her laughter.

Leni lifted her phone and snapped a picture of the cow cuddling up to the cowboy. Then she flipped the phone screen and got a couple of selfies of the same shot but with her in the foreground.

She made a mental note to make sure she got another selfie of just the two of them. She didn’t really want the only current pic she had of her and Chevy to have a heifer in it.

---