“Funny you should say that,” he mumbles, mostly to himself, before pulling out his phone and checking it. “Okay, come on. He’s here.”
Still confused, I follow Cope through the house. Larry is sitting on the custom kitty window perch Cope had installed when we moved in. He looks like the King of the Castle, watching us stroll by. We go down the steps on the porch, and go into the yard, watching Whit’s truck drive up the driveway, a trailer attached to it.
“What’s he doing here?” I ask. “I thought he had to work today.”
“He does,” Cope replies. “He is.”
I glare at the back of his head, not loving how mysterious he’s acting.
Whit parks his truck and hops out, a huge grin splitting on his face. “Happy birthday, Xan!”
“Thank you.” Padding down the steps, I walk toward the trailer he’s heading to, wondering what he’s doing. Cope’s behind me, I can hear his footsteps on the gravel. I toss him a look over my shoulder, and he just smirks and shrugs. They’re in on something together, I just know it.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Cope replies innocently.
Whit opens the door to the trailer, and when I round it, my eyes widen as I take in what’s inside. My heart races as I look from Whit to Cope, both of them seeming pretty pleased with themselves.
“Is this what I think it is?” I blurt out, my voice coming out higher than I mean to.
“Well, if you think it’s a highland cow, you are correct,” Whit drawls, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his pointer finger.
“No shit, Sherlock. I’m not blind.” Cope laughs, and Whit scowls at him. “Is she…for me?”
When I officially moved in here with Cope when he got back from the circuit a couple of months ago, my aunt insisted—much to my appreciation—that I take Aggie with me. Even though it was only next door, she knew that Aggie was more attached to me than anything. Well, that, and the first week I was here, we woke up one morning to find Aggie sitting on the back porch. She’d somehow Houdini’ed her wayoutof my aunt’s yard andintoour yard. It was adorable. Ever since then, I’ve been begging Cope to get some more animals. They are herd animals, after all.
“She’s for you,” Cope supplies, barely holding back his own excitement. “Happy birthday, baby!”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I gawk at him, my limbs trembling with all the adrenaline and excitement coursing through my blood. “You got me a cow for my birthday?”
Cope chuckles, nodding.
My jaw drops open as an embarrassing squeal escapes. “Best birthday present ever!”
“Hey,” Cope says, frowning. “What about what I just did? That was pretty great.”
Before I can respond, Whit holds up his hand. “I don’t wanna know.”
Cope and I glance at each other and chuckle. I’ve grown to love Whit, and he’s someone I would consider a good friend at this point, but he can be so fun to rile up.
“She’s pregnant,” Whit offers when neither of us says anything back. When I look at him questioningly, he continues. “Her previous owners have to relocate out of state and were needing to re-home their animals. I saw how much you enjoyed the cows when I took you to that farm, and when I brought it up to Cope, he mentioned how you’d been wanting another cow for Agatha. The whole situation was a stroke of luck with how close it was to your birthday and when they needed to leave.”
Blinking at Whit, with my jaw still on the floor, I drag my gaze to Cope, who looks nearly as excited as I am. If I asked him, he’d one hundred percent say he was simply excited to get me this cow because he knew I wanted it, but I don’t buy it. I’ve seen how he is with Aggie when he thinks I’m not looking. I think Cope is a big ol’ softie and wants more just as much as I do.
“Do we get to keep the calf?” I ask, practically bouncing on my heels. “Please! Can we keep the calf? Cope! Can you imagine—oh, my gosh! Please!”
“Yes, we’re keeping the damn calf,” he replies, barely holding in a laugh. “Calm down before you give yourself a hernia. We’re keeping it.”
Closing the distance between us in three very large strides, my body collides with his, arms wrapping around his neck and squeezing. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! Best birthdayever!”
“Because of the blowjob too?” he asks, quiet enough for only me to hear.
“Yes,” I reply, humor in my voice. “Because of the blowjob too.”
Pulling back, I press a quick kiss on the tip of his nose before turning my back on both of them and focusing my attention on the pretty mama in front of me.
“Does this mean we can eventually get the other animals I want too?” I glance over my shoulder, finding his lips pressed into a thin line, like he knew this was coming.
