Page 52 of The Wedding Gift
She started to smart off with a quick comeback, but a scratching noise distracted her. She stood up, crossed the room, and found Tuff with what looked like a big gray rat in his mouth. The ugly critter was wagging his tail like he expected praise for bringing the dead varmint to her. She quickly closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at it anymore, slammed the door, and yelled, “Dalton!”
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, he was right beside her. “Are you all right? What happened? You’re as pale as a ghost.”
“I hate rats,” she said.
“Where is it?” Dalton looked around the foyer. “Which way did it run? I’ll catch it and get rid of it for you.”
She pointed. “Tuff has it on the porch.”
Dalton opened the door just enough to peek outside. “Tuff has brought you a present, but it’s not a rat. Come on over here and take a look. He was raised with cats, and he loves kittens.”
Becca eased across the room, and sure enough, there was a little gray kitten fighting with Tuff’s tail as it swished back and forth on the porch. “Ohhh, isn’t it the cutest thing? Where do you think he stole it from?”
“I’m sure he filled out all the adoption papers and everything is legal.” Dalton slung open the door and picked the gray ball of fur up by the scruff of the neck. Tuff ran into the house, stopped, and looked back over his shoulder. He whined and the kitten let out a pitiful meow.
“Is it going to try to scratch my eyes out?” Becca reached her hands out.
“Don’t know, but evidently, he didn’t want this one to be raised as an only child.” Dalton pointed to a yellow-colored kitten just about the same size as the gray one sitting on the porch. “Or else he thought you and Greta each needed your own pet.” He opened the door again.
Becca picked the kitten up as it entered the house like it owned the place. It flopped over in her arms like a baby and started purring. “These have to belong to someone. We can’t keep them. We’ll get attached and then have to give them back.”
“Tell you what.” Dalton put the gray kitten in her arms with the yellow one. “Tuff and I are going to take a little walk around the block. I bet we find the owner, and I’ll ask if they want them back. How’s that?”
“Thank you,” Becca answered, but it was too late. She’d already lost her heart to the two little critters.
Dalton whistled and Tuff came out of the living room with his head hanging and tail wagging. “You did good, ole boy, but we’ve got to be sure that the owners of those two babies don’t want them back. We need to go for a little walk and find out where they came from.”
Tuff barked once and followed Dalton back to the sofa. Dalton jerked his boots on and nodded toward Becca. “Don’t name ’em until I get back.”
Tuff ran on ahead of Dalton when they stepped off the porch. Two houses down the street, he stopped, sniffed the air, hiked his leg on a bush, and then sat down.
“This isn’t going to work,” Dalton told him. “You know very well where you stole those kittens. What if there’s a third one, and we want to take it home with us?”
The dog stood up and slowly made his way to the end of the block. He sat down at the end of the porch steps of the last house on the block and yipped twice.
“Is this the place?” Dalton walked up to the door and knocked.
“Hey, Dalton, what’s up?” Frankie, one of his hired hands, asked as he rounded the side of the house.
“You got some kittens around this place?” Dalton asked. “Tuff has dragged a couple down to Greta McKay’s house.”
“Had five out in the storage shed. Gave three away lastweek and been tryin’ to get rid of the other two ever since. Their mama got killed on the road. If Miz Greta don’t want them, I was goin’ to ask you if you’d like to have them for barn cats. Their mama was a real good mouser,” Frankie said. “Come on inside. Want a beer?”
“Thanks. A cold one sounds good, but I’d better get on back to Miz Greta’s. Becca and I’ve got a movie on pause. I just didn’t want her to get attached to a couple of kittens if you weren’t giving them away,” Dalton said. “See you at the ranch in the morning.”
“I’ll be there bright and early,” Frankie said. “Hey, have you heard from Austin and Rye? Are they havin’ a good time?”
“Haven’t talked to them, but Rye said he’d call in this evening to check on things,” Dalton said.
Frankie waved and went on inside. Dalton turned around and headed back down the block with Tuff right at his heels. “You done good, boy, but next time scratch on the door and ask if you can take another man’s property.”
Tuff barked a couple of times and tore off down the road like the devil was chasing him. When Dalton reached the house, the dog was sleeping under the porch swing. “I guess you figure you’ve done your good deed for the week, right?”
The dog didn’t open his eyes, but his tail thumped a fewtimes. Dalton raised his hand to knock, but Becca threw the door open with the kittens still in her arms.
“What did you find out?”
“Frankie says he’s glad to get rid of them,” Dalton answered. “Do you think you should ask Miz Greta about them before…?”