Page 14 of Out of Place

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” I mutter.

I follow him into a barn-like building where there are a ton of cows or at least more than I’ve ever seen in real life. “This is one of the smaller dairy farms in the area. Dottie wanted to try it out a few years ago, and it’s growing, but the primary focus of this farm isn’t dairy,” Landon explains. I nod, pretending like I care about any of this. I can’t believe I have to touch a cow because Aunt Dottie wanted to try something out.

Landon grabs a pair of gloves and then hands me a pair. “You’ll wanna wear these.”

Camden has the cows all lined up. Landon shoves a cloth and spray bottle into my hands and asks, “Do you think you can handle this?”

My back teeth clench together in annoyance. Can I do this? I guess I have to. Do I want to? Absolutely not.

“Just show me what to do,” I grumble.

He smiles and shakes his head but bends down next to one of the cows and starts cleaning the giant nipple things. Then Camden goes behind him and attaches a machine to the cow.

“Look at you. I figured you’d run away crying before you touched a cow,” Camden says.

I ignore his stupid comment mainly because I do actually wish I could run away from this, but unfortunately, I can’t.

“What’s that?” I ask, pointing to the machine he put on the cow.

He stares at me as if he’s not sure if he wants to answer. “It milks the cow and takes the milk straight to a tank that we can take to the processor later.”

“So, you don’t have to, like, squeeze the nipples?” That’s the only way I’ve ever heard of milking a cow, but the way these two are looking at me right now makes me think I’ve been incredibly misinformed.

“I’m sure we can arrange that for you.” Camden laughs like an asshole instead of answering my question.

Ignoring him, I spray my towel and bend down next to a cow. It’s bigger than I thought it would be and smells really bad. Now I know why the three of them smelled so bad yesterday. I swear to god, if I end up smelling like them, I’m going to die.

I clean the cow off just like Landon did. “Ew ew ew,” I repeat the entire time I touch it. “This is so gross.”

They’re laughing behind me. I’m glad they’re getting a real kick out of this. Eventually, Landon moves on to clean the other cows, and Camden comes in behind me to attach the thing to the cow.

I’m sweating by the time I’m finally finished.

“Not bad,” Camden says. I start to smile, but then he adds, “For someone who’s never done a day of hard work in their life.”

I rip the gloves off. “Glad to see you’re still being a little bitch. What’s next?”

Landon gestures to the open door, so I follow him to the chicken coops. Thankfully, Camden stays with the cows so I don’t have to see his stupid, smug face.

“Where’s the other guy?” I ask Landon as I look around the farm.

“Bennett? He’s in the stables with the horses,” he answers.

Horses? God, how many animals are on this damn farm? I don’t bother asking because I’m sure he’ll launch into some story about how Aunt Dottie wanted to create an ark, so she had to get two of every animal, and now she has enough to have her own personal zoo.

I don’t care. I’m here to do the work and go home to New York City, where I belong.

The chicken coop is massive. A lot bigger than I was expecting. It’s more like a house than a coop.

Landon opens the door and ushers me inside. “Alright, I’m going to feed them. You go in and grab the eggs.”

“Grab them? Like take them from the nest?” I ask.

“Yeah.”

“Won’t the chickens be mad?” I’m basically going in there to steal their babies.

He chuckles again, and I’m really starting to hate that sound. “They’ll be eating. They won’t even notice.”