Page 48 of The Bodyguard
Did I want that?
No, I told myself logically. He said he didn’t want a relationship and I had no interest in fucking for fuck’s sake.
Maybe Garrett would be different.
No, I told myself. That was wishful thinking. That was the fourteen-year-old girl still inside me who thought that we were going to be together forever. Then we weren’t. Then real life happened and I learned the hard way that kisses don’t always lead to mind-blowing sex and Garrett was just a crush I had to get over.
No, not get over,wasover. I was totally over, one hundred percent over him.
Then why are you thinking about kissing him again?
“Because I’m a fool,” I said to no one. Shaking off all my thoughts about Garrett, away I went to do something practical, like clean up horseshit.
* * *
Stalls mucked, fresh hay put down—I think Evelyn and Nora were pretty happy with me. There was sweating…so gross. But it felt real, which I didn’t mind. Unlike sweating because the lights we needed to film were too hot. I was just stepping out of the foul galoshes and back into my cowboy boots when I heard a faint mewling sound.
I looked around the barn and followed the sound to where it was coming from, seriously hoping I wasn’t about to find some big rat or something. Then I saw it, a little bundle of fur in the corner of the barn, all alone.
I ran to it and saw that it was a kitten. So tiny, and it was crying.
“Where’s your mother, honey?” I crooned to it even as I brought it to my chest. “Did she forget you?”
More cries as I looked around, waiting to see if the mother was anywhere in sight. But there was no cat and no other kittens that could see. I couldn’t leave the poor thing. What if his mother never came back for her baby?
I lifted the black-and-white ball of fur up to my face.
It cried again and I imagined it was hungry. It was so small it couldn’t have been weaned yet. I didn’t have a clue what to do. I took it back up to the house and found some milk and a flat dish. I poured some milk in the dish and set the kitten down, but it was as if he wasn’t sure what to do with it, either.
Or maybe he didn’t have the strength. I dipped my pinky into the milk and dripped it into the kitten’s mouth. That seemed to work, so I kept doing that until eventually the kitten dozed off.
Cradling it against my chest I knew I was down for the count. This poor creature needed my help and I was going to save it. First things first—I needed a vet to check him out.
I took a throw blanket I found in the closet and used that on the front seat of the car to form a little nest for it. Then, driving as slow as I could, I made my way into town. Dusty Creek only had one vet, who handled small and large animals, but I knew Charlotte from high school was now working as Doc’s assistant. She would help me out in an emergency.
I parked in front of the Doc’s office and got out. I looked down the street and could see the police station, Garrett’s truck parked out front. I thought about telling him I was here, but I didn’t think this would take long. I would have Charlotte check out my kitten, pop down to the Piggly Wiggly to get some supplies, and be back on the ranch before he knew it.
“Sound like a plan?” I asked my new friend. Except my new friend was still sleeping.
I gathered the blanket up and headed inside the office.
* * *
“Well, it definitely must have been abandoned,” Charlotte said as she checked the animal out. She was a few years older than me and had gotten her license only recently, but she seemed to know what she was doing. “It happens. Mother starts to move the kittens and maybe something happens to her or she forgets how many she had.”
“That’s terrible. Can I save it? Or is it too young?”
Charlotte opened a cabinet and came back with a tiny syringe with a rubber tip. “It will be work. But if you nurse him and he takes the nipple, you might be able to save him. Small amounts every two hours until he gets his strength up. Then in a week or two you can try him on wet food. I can send you home with some formula.”
I nodded. “I can do it. I can feed him. It’s a boy?”
“It’s a boy. And if you do plan to keep him, make sure you bring him back in a few weeks to have him neutered and vaccinated.”
“I’ll do it. Thanks for this, Charlotte,” I said, smiling as I lifted up my kitten. “I’m going to be your momma now, baby.”
It cried again, and maybe it was wishful thinking but I thought he sounded a little stronger already.
“I’m going to name you Romeo, because you stole my heart.” I brought his tiny body back into the cradle of my chest.
