“Oh, that’s Mack’s favorite. He went to Las Vegas with his brother a couple years back, for Ian’s bachelor party, as a matter of fact. He won over a thousand dollars … used it to buy a new horse. Funny thing about that, now that I think about it…” She turned to me with a weird expression on her face for a few seconds. Then she smiled and the weird look fell away. “Hey, maybe you were there at the same time.”
I tried to smile, but my lips were trembling too much. Luckily the sun was in her eyes as it dipped closer to the horizon, making me think she couldn’t see me very well. “Maybe,” I said.
Maeve sighed. “That was a tough time for our boys.”
The sadness in her voice made me intensely curious, but it felt wrong to push her for information when it was very possible my interactions with Mack may have influenced the situation. He’d spent at least part of the night with me. If he’d been there for the purpose of celebrating his brother’s last nights as a single man, Ian would have been pissed to not have him around. Maybe Ian knows what happened. Maybe that’s why he’s so rude to me.
I was just about to ask her for details when we turned a bend in the path and came upon a huge group of cows, fences, and men, and the men were in the process of doing things that were making the cows very nervous.
Chapter Twenty-Three
MAEVE MOTIONED FOR ME TO sit with her up on a fence that gave us a good view of what was going on but wasn’t actually close enough to get in the way of what the men were doing. I climbed up next to her with a little difficulty, my ankle not excited about lifting my weight like that. Once we were settled, Maeve began to explain what we were watching.
“All these calves need to be treated with vaccines, branded, and castrated before they get too big, so that’s why the men are working so late and Boog’s here to help. We have several hundred head to get through, and it’s exhausting work.”
The smallish animals were being led down a path between metal rail fences with encouragement from Ian to a small, square, fenced-off area set up where Mack was waiting. When the calf made it into that area, Ian would shut the entrance to trap the calf inside a smaller box made of bars. Mack pulled levers to trap their head and then their body.
My heart leaped into my throat as I watched Mack move another lever and flip the entire calf over on its side in the contraption. The show of brute strength was unexpected and thrilling in a pure animal lust kind of way. “Oh my god,” I half-whispered, unable to tear my eyes away. “What is he doing?”
“He’s getting the bull calf into position so they can do the work on him. That metal box he’s in now is called a squeeze chute. Believe it or not, it calms most calves to be held in it like this.”
“What work are they going to do on him?”
“You’ll see…”
Mack opened up a small door near the calf’s neck. Ian came in at the same time and grabbed the calf’s back leg, pulling it out straight.
Angus walked over next with something in his hand, standing over the calf’s neck.
“What’s Angus doing?”
“He’s going to vaccinate the calf and then brand him.”
“Does it hurt?” I asked, ready to cry on the animal’s behalf.
“The vaccination? No, not at all. They inject them just under the skin, like the vet does with a cat or dog. The branding might hurt a little. Usually they just lie there, but sometimes they bawl a tad or kick once. It’s normal. They get up and move on like nothing happened right after, though. They’re tough little buggers. It’s the castration that hurts, but not as much as you might think.”
“Who does that part?” I asked, feeling sick to my stomach again.
“Boog. He gets paid in testes, and he’s as gentle and skilled as they come. We’re lucky to have him and so are the animals.”
I swallowed with effort, my voice coming out strained. “I think I might have misunderstood. I thought I just heard you say you pay him with balls.”
She chuckled and patted my knee. “No, you heard right. You’ll see why soon enough.”
I didn’t respond because I was quite sure I would never see how testicles could be considered a paycheck. Besides, arguing would be a waste of breath; they obviously worked on a different set of values around here.
The calf kicked a little and then seemed to give up, relinquishing his will to that of the men who held him down. Mack’s forearm muscles flexed under his skin and his thighs bulged through his jeans with the effort of flipping the calf and operating the machinery. He had the baseball hat on instead of a cowboy hat, and somehow managed to make it look sexier than I would have thought possible. I was definitely sick or something. Every time I looked at him I felt dizzy and out of sorts.
“What’s the matter, Andie?” Maeve was staring at me.
“Oh, I was just thinking I might have a fever or something. I feel a little light-headed.”
“It’s probably just the idea of castration. It’s not exactly after-dinner conversation, is it?”
Angus walked up with something on a cord and stopped at the animal’s back end.