Leave Tomorrow Behind (Stella Crown Series) Read Free Page A

teenage boy who dotes on you, what would you have to be uptight about?
“Hey, Austin,” Zach said to the guy who had moved into the next stall, where we’d seen the wood chips. He was a couple of years older than Zach, and a member of Zach’s 4-H club. Being a senior, this would be his last opportunity to show at the fair.
Austin smiled and paused in brushing his calf, holding out his fist. The same teenage-guy hello ritual I had just performed with Randy. It felt nice to be accepted as one of their pack.
“How you doing, man?” Austin said. “Awesome that we’re next to each other. You let me know if you ever need anything.”
Zach bumped his fist. “Same here.”
Austin nodded at me and Nick, and went back to brushing. His pretty Holstein calf—named Halladay’s Dream, according to the sign on the board—stared into space, chewing his cud like Barnabas had been doing that morning. The two bovine boys should get along just fine.
Nick attached Zach’s official certificate to the board above the stall, using the zip-ties Zach had packed in his bag, then hung up another one, which Zach had made, using some old wood siding from my farm. It showcased photos of Barnabas from when he’d been born, right up to the present, as well as the logo for Royalcrest Farm. My home.
“Hey, thanks, Zach. I appreciate the acknowledgement.”
He smiled, and gave a little shrug. “Here, Nick, can you put this up, too?” Zach handed Nick another homemade sign with Barnabas’ name in rainbow bubble letters.
Nick raised his eyebrows.
Zach’s face told it all, and I laughed.
“Yeah,” he grumbled. “Mallory made it. I decided I’d better stay on her good side and use it.”
“You’re a wise man,” Nick said. “Keeping your sister happy makes life better all around.” Nick tied it up next to the other one, and stepped back, eyeing his work. “Very…”
“Nice,” I said. “It’s very nice.”
Nick cleared his throat. “Just what I was going to say.”
“Now, Zach,” Austin said, pausing in his brushing, “that is truly you.”
Zach threw some wood chips at him, and Austin ducked, laughing. When he stood back up, his laughter stopped, and he scowled. “There they are.” He stared at something across the room. “I’d hoped they would sit this year out. Give the rest of us a real chance.”
I followed his gaze to a girl bringing in her calf. Her parents were with her, one in front, one behind, their eyes darting around the room, taking in everything and everybody. My nose wrinkled.
“What’s wrong?” Nick said. “Who is it?”
“The Greggs,” Austin spat.
Zach snorted. “Also known as The Cheaters.”
“Cheaters? How do you cheat at the fair? Steroids? Don’t they check for that sort of thing?”
“Nothing that complicated,” I said.
“Then what?”
I kept my voice low. “Okay, so our fair is now, a few weeks into June, right? Not that long, really, since the State Fair last September. The Greggs—” it was hard to say their name without spitting, like Austin had “—attend the State Fair, watch the judging, and buy the winner. If the Grand Champion isn’t for sale, they go for whatever’s closest. Problem is, they end up with the winners so many times they’re running out of cows to buy.”
“That’s not illegal?”
“Nope, not in our county. Should be. The whole idea of the fair, and of 4-H itself, is for kids to learn how to take care of animals. Look at that girl. You think she has any idea what she’s doing in a barn?”
The Gregg girl in question—there were several of them in the family, so I wasn’t sure of names—looked like she weighed about eighty pounds, and was terrified of the calf. But then, one false step and the calf, not even full-grown, would crush her. She and her parents wore all the right kinds of clothes, and drove the right farm-type vehicles, but the problem was they were too clean. I don’t mean them as people. We farmers can clean up just fine. But the clothes