“Tom, are you insane? I’m your wife! You bit me like a wild animal! Is this your way of saying you don’t want to be married anymore?”
Just as she finished, a familiar moo sounded from the barn entrance. My ears perked up. My eyes lit with joy. I shoved past everyone and ran to the door.
“Honey, you’re back!”
Everyone—including Ginny—froze in stunned silence. It was a cow. A large, muddy, yellow cow.
Ginny blinked, as if hoping she had misheard me. “Tom… what did you just call that animal?”
I didn’t even acknowledge her. Instead, I leaned down and gently kissed the cow’s face.
“What would you and our daughter like to eat tonight?”
“Tom!” Ginny’s voice was practically a snarl. “I sent you to the ranch to heal for a month—and this is what I get in return? You pretend to be crazy and call a beast your wife to disgust me?!”
Under her furious gaze, I calmly filled a basin with warm water and knelt beside the cow, tenderly washing its feet.
“You've been working in the fields all day. You're covered in mud. If I don’t get you clean, you’ll dirty the bed again tonight.”
A collective gasp rippled through the crowd of relatives and friends.