Have Mercy - Christina Lee Page 0,3

settled on the idea that maybe a quieter place would do me good. At least for the summer.

2

Kerry

“Your cousin Julian who’s been on deployment the last few years?” I asked Sienna, turning off the suction device. Maisy kicked back her leg, and I grabbed the bucket before it tipped over, even though it only contained residual liquid from earlier when I’d tried to hand-milk her, hoping to ease her over to the machine, which was way more efficient.

“One and the same.” Sienna handed me the teat cream, then offered Maisy an apple slice, which seemed to satisfy her.

Maisy wasn’t normally ornery this early, but I could tell she was in a mood when I first entered the stall. After fastening the halter and tying the lead, I got under her for a look and immediately spotted the problem. One of her udders looked swollen, so I gently cleaned it with an iodine solution, soothing her. At least momentarily.

Our cows needed to be milked like clockwork at dusk and dawn, not only to keep the animals comfortable during the weaning time, but for our dairy business to stay afloat as well. All the farm animals had their own personalities, and Maisy was more impatient than Butter, who was waiting in the stall next to her. I gently cooed at her as I backed out of the enclosure with my bucket, and lined it up near the other milk containers for our farmhand, George, whose shift began at sunrise.

“Julian used to help Uncle Luke flip houses, so he’s pretty good with his hands,” Sienna said as she began herding the goats in the free stall. The products she created using their milk colostrum were popular in Cottonwood Creek. Especially the creams and soaps. Thus the idea of having her cousin help us with a bigger project this summer.

“I remember.” I turned on the suction machine, then hand-milked Butter’s teats to strip away any residual dirt before getting her set up with the suction device. “But traveling across the country is a bit much, don’t you think?”

I was pretty certain my brother Travis would help if I asked. I might’ve been on the outs with my family since Sienna and I divorced, but Travis had come around since then, and my parents would always be part of Ainsley’s life. So they’d support anything that helped our small business bring in revenue. After I came out, Dad had warned me to lie low in the community, as gossip spread like wildfire. He didn’t want it to hurt the business. But Sienna and I had been on our own for a few years now, and any rumors we’d initially heard were pretty much old-hat. We still got some stares and whispers when we went into town, but by now everyone knew Sienna and I had remained friends and were staying on the farm together for the sake of our family.

As far as I could tell, my gayness hadn’t wrecked anything that had to do with my family’s cattle trade, and locals loved the organic milk products our dairy farm sold to the businesses in town.

But Sienna’s idea of creating our own country store on the property was something entirely different, and it was hard to predict how well it might be received.

“We already have too much to do around here, and could certainly use the help,” Sienna replied, pulling up a stool and a bucket of grain for the goats’ breakfast. Right then, Lucy, our most vocal goat, angled her head and bleated, anxious to eat as Sienna sprinkled the feed on the ground and they jostled for position.

Sienna lifted a baby goat and brought it closer to her lap. She’d bottle-feed the young ones while the mommas ate, then would milk them, as was her routine. She loved having the goats around, and Ainsley did too, especially because they could be pretty entertaining—at least Ainsley thought so. I wasn’t so happy when one of my hats went missing, and to this day, I still suspected Lucy ate it, simply because she tried to consume everything.

“Don’t repeat this, but Mom hinted that maybe Julian is a bit…lost right now.” Sienna winced, as if sorry to have voiced it out loud. “Coming home after such a long deployment isn’t easy, and Aunt Melinda thinks Julian could use a break from the city.”

Plus, he was a combat veteran. If I had all the details right, he’d been to Afghanistan on two tours of duty and was nearly