Max ran his fingers through his hair. “I miss the cows too. They were our friends, yours and mine. As you say, they never talked back. Just a friendly moo now and then.” He laughed lightly. “It was time for us to let them go, Jose. We’re not young men any longer, much as we hate to admit it. When the restaurant opens, you will greet people, seat them, and inquire if they are satisfied with the service and the food. It will be good. You’ll see. You’ll be happy you have the restaurant.

“We all have different skills. I’m no good with books. That’s why I have a bookkeeper. Hannah’s better with plants than people, wouldn’t you say?”

Jose smiled and nodded. “She good with plants. Verde thumbs. Everything she touch, it grows.”

“And if I plant something, it dies,” Max said.

They chatted, then, about possible uses for the barn. “Should we tear it down?” Max asked. Seeing it empty pained them. The high walls loomed above as they walked past. Once a shutter came loose and swung back and forth like a finger, as if warning them not to forget the years of service the building had rendered.

“It be a waste to do that, Señor Max. What you think about cabrones? They good for eat grass in pasture. No weeds grow. Los cabrones, no trouble.”

“Goats, eh? That’s something to consider, isn’t it? They could sleep inside at night and be out of the weather. That lower pasture is fenced, some mending to do on it. Can you get Fortino to help? We could turn the goats out in that pasture every day. It wouldn’t have to be on their timetable, and there’d be no milking involved. We could have chickens, too.”

“Sí. Anna, she want pollos.”

“That would give us fresh eggs for the restaurant. Jose, you’re brilliant. Our trouble, my friend, is that we are both sad about our cows being gone and the barn sitting there staring at us.” Max took long strides about his office. His mind raced. “I’ll call the agriculture station and see what’s the best kind of goats for our purpose.”

Jose’s face glowed. Cap in hand, he walked beside Max and spoke rapidly in Spanish. “Sí, Señor Max. Good. Buena idea. Tenemos que conseguir la clase derecha de cabrones. Tenemos pollos también. Bueno.

“Yes, as you say, we’ll get us the right kind of goats, and chickens, too. One rooster is all we’ll need, right?

“Sí, señor.” He held up a finger and stuck out his chest. “Uno.”

It was amazing how much Spanish Max had picked up from working with Jose all these years. “And when the restaurant opens, you’ll step right in to greet the customers. You’ll wear a proper outfit, something a proprietor would wear in his restaurant in Ecuador.”