Page 51 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
Mason closed his eyes, then opened them wide.
“Uh. Son, don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying, I’m just not…that was what I wasn’t supposed to say.”
“Which, obviously you’re incredibly good at…” Lucy rolled her eyes. “Jesus Christ, Mason.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. “Lucinda Danielle. What the hell is going on?”
Coop had no idea, but obviously there were kittens. So he needed to check out the mama cat and bring in her and the kittens in and get them safe, if necessary, but also he needed to know where these kittens were hiding so he could find his youngest child.
Lucy shrugged. “One of the cats out near the barns, they had babies. We’ve been taking them food and water, watching them. We’re not hurting anything. When we were sick. It just took forever for everybody to feel better, and we were worried, so we’ve been spending more time with them.”
“Okay. Why was this such a big secret?”
Mason looked at Lucy. Lucy looked at Mason. Then they both kind of shrugged. “I guess because we thought you’d be mad.”
“Well, no. If mama cat needs a warm place or if the kittens need help, we’ll do that. Otherwise, they can be cats. You gotta watch out for the coyotes though.” And also he would really like to know where Mina was. “Can you tell me wherethe cats are so I can make sure your baby sister doesn’t freeze?”
“Or get trampled. Or—” Brooks was looking a little wild around the edges.
Lucy pointed out the back window. “There in that little barn, the one with all the saddles and stuff.”
“Thank you.” He did not roll his eyes. He did not. “Now, I’m going to make sure everything’s all right, get her in. It’s getting on to where we’re going to have to order our pizza and watch some cartoons and just have our pre-Thanksgiving relax.”
“‘Pre-Thanksgiving, relax’?” Brooks asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, Pizza, cartoons, just chill. Y’all have been cooking all day, and it smells wonderful, and I’m starving. I’m gonna order a bunch of pizza for us, and that way nobody has to cook.”
“You’re a brilliant guy.” Brooks beamed at him, and wasn’t it pretty, that look?
“I know. Just ask me, I’ll tell you.”
He headed out to the barn, stomping on his boots and throwing on the coat first. Sure as shit, there were some little footprints all the way along.
That was one of the neatest things about ranch kids, in his opinion. One of the scarier things too, sometimes, but they just went outside. They wandered around. They weren’t scared of being outside because they wanted to be. He’d heard about this from the foster kids a lot. It was hard for some of them to simply be able to go outside and play. Some of them never left the house in all the weeks they were there.
He got to the little barn with the tack room in it, and sure enough, there was not just one little girl sitting there. There were two. And he had the sinking suspicion her dads didn’t know she was gone.
He texted Kase.
I got Nell
“Hey, girls, what you doing?”
Both little girls glanced up with guilty eyes, Nell and Mina about going pale. “Umm.”
He looked at Mina, held her gaze. “Don’t get in trouble for lying, sweetheart. Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving.”
She took a deep breath. “We were seeing the kitties. They’re really pretty. There’s four of them.”
“Yeah, can I see?”
Mina kind of blinked at him, and then she grinned. “You can! There’s a black and white one, and a yellow one. And a spotted one. And a white one!”
“Yeah?” Lord. Hopefully they were healthy. They were sure loud. “What color is the Mama?”
Nina beamed. “Her’s black.”
