Nolan: Return to Signal Bend (34 page)

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Authors: Susan Fanetti

BOOK: Nolan: Return to Signal Bend

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Len stood and pulled the cover off with the flourish of a magician. Not a box—a crate. A large pet crate. Full of puppies.

The kids were going nuts.

“What the hell, Len?”

Tasha groaned. “Wait till you hear this.”

Len gave Nolan a impishly sheepish smirk. “We were standing there after the meeting, just shooting the shit, and somebody brought in a big plastic tub full of puppies they’d found on the side of the road. Made me think about my Penny girl. I miss that baby. Our pups were all found the same way, and that was almost twelve years ago. Only Hector and Thor are still going. So I adopted the lot. There’s seven—one for every Horde with kids: Isaac, Show, Badge, you, Bart—I figure Demi could use a buddy—and Double A. And one for us, because it was my idea.”

Nolan crouched down and peered into the crate. Seven pups. They looked like a Labrador mix: two solid black, two black and white, one solid yellow, one marked like a German Shepherd, and one tricolor.

“What d’ya think?” Len asked, his hand on the door of the crate.

“Well, we can’t very well tell all these kids no now, can we? Which you knew when you did it.” Badger didn’t sound as accusatory as the words might have indicated.

Another sorry-not-sorry smirk from Len. He opened the door. “Four boys and three girls. Save a little girl for me.”

Iris pulled on Nolan’s hand. “Can we do a puppy and a newborn at the same time?”

He didn’t answer; he was watching Isaac’s son. Bo came over and simply sat down next to the crate. He didn’t grab for a pup or even reach out to pet one. All the other kids were giggling and grabbing, and their parents were trying to make sure the younger ones were gentle. But Bo just sat there and watched, his hands limp on his lap.

The little guy marked like a German Shepherd—as the Lundens’ Kodi had been marked—was still in the crate, lying in the far corner, too worried about the commotion to come out. Every time someone reached in for him, he cowered back, trying to make himself smaller.

Bo hooked one finger around a wire of the crate side. He did nothing else. After a few seconds, the pup inched his way, staying on his belly, across the crate and nudged at Bo’s finger. Then he licked it.

Nolan looked over and saw Lilli and Isaac watching intently, holding hands.

After a minute, the pup eased cautiously out of the crate. Deck went for him, but Nolan’s mom was right there to catch him back. All the adults had noticed what was going on with Bo and the pup.

The little guy eventually made it around and crawled into Bo’s lap. He curled up and set his little head in Bo’s hand.

Well, that was one match made. Nolan turned to Iris. “Yeah, I think we can. It would be cool for Daisy to grow up with a friend like that.”

“And have her heartbroken when he dies.”

“Loss is part of life, though. You can’t stop feeling joy and love just because what you love might go away someday.”

Iris stared up at him, her sky blue eyes wide and suddenly wet.

“What?” he asked.

“You didn’t hear yourself?”

He stopped and replayed his words. Then he grinned. “Well, you taught me that.”

One of the black pups wandered over and lay down at his feet. Immediately, the pup began to gnaw on the toe of his boot. Nolan bent down and picked him up, cradling him like a baby. “What about this little dude? Did he just pick us?”

Iris scratched the pup’s round belly. “Maybe so.”

“We’ll take this guy,” Nolan announced to their family. “What do you want to call him?” he asked his wife.

“Baldur,” she said with hardly a pause.

~oOo~

“Nolan, come to bed,” Iris whispered from the door.

“In a minute,” he whispered back.

“You said that half an hour ago. She’s going to wake up soon.”

“Then I’ll be here for her when she wakes up. Go back to sleep, babe.”

Iris sighed. “Are you going to do this every night? You’re addicted.”

“Yep. I’m a lost cause. I’ll bring her in when she wakes up. How’s Baldy?”

“Sleeping on Toby. I can’t believe I’ve sacrificed my bear to that toothy imp.”

“I’m your bear now.”

“Yeah, you are. So come back to bed and do your job.” She blew him a kiss and went back down the hall to their room.

Nolan sat in the rocking chair, which he’d moved right up against Daisy’s crib, and watched his little girl sleep. It was all he could do not to ‘accidentally’ bump the crib, so she’d wake and he’d have an excuse to hold her. But in the meantime, he leaned close, pressing his face against the slats, and watched her.

Finally too overwhelmed to resist, Nolan reached through the slats and slid his finger under her hand. She closed around it at once—just a reflex for her, he knew, but for him it was so much more than that.

Stroking her petal-soft hand with his thumb, he whispered, “I’m going to take care of you, little girl. I’m going to be with you every single step. Every time you look for me, you’re going to find me just behind you. Keeping you safe. Making you happy. Loving you. I promise. When you need me, I will be there. Every single step. With my whole heart, I promise.”

THE END