“If someone puts their head on the pillow beside yours?” he asked and backed the vehicle out of the parking space.
“Something like that, but for your information, no one has ever laid their head on the pillow beside mine, not in my trailer.” A memory of the last failed relationship flashed through her mind. Prissy never did like that guy or any of the others that she brought home to meet her—not until Knox.
Wasn’t it just the berries that the one man Lottie felt comfortable with was just a friend?
* * *
The idea that Bernie planted in his mind about Lottie being attracted to him plagued Knox all the way from Wichita Falls to the building site. He unloaded her things and then drove past a couple of other trailers, parked in the right spot, and was rounding the front of the truck when he heard a strange mewing sound coming from under his trailer. For a minute, he figured Prissy had gotten out of Lottie’s place. He left his things in the back seat and hurried toward the door, only to find a banty rooster sitting on the edge of the porch.
“You did not make that sound,” Knox said. “That was a cat, and the only one I know that lives in this area is Prissy. You’re lucky she hasn’t chased you down and eaten you for supper.”
The brightly colored rooster flew up, lit on his shoulder, and threw back his head to crow. When he finally stopped, a small kitten came out from under the porch and wove around Knox’s legs. The chicken spread his wings and dropped down to rub his neck on the cat’s head.
Knox sat down on the top step and picked up the kitten. “Looks like you two know each other. Where did y’all come from anyway? Did someone throw you out?”
The black-and-white kitten looked up at him and meowed. Then the rooster hopped up on Knox’s knee and tucked his head under his wing.
“I guess if Tripp can have a potbellied pig, I can have a rooster and a cat,” he whispered. “I have a house and a lot of land, so you’ll have a nice place to live. But until then, this trailer is it.”
Lottie came around the corner and stopped in her tracks when she saw Knox. “What is going on here. I thought I heard a rooster, and…”
“And you did.” Knox finished the sentence for her. “If he hadn’t been so happy to see a human being, you might have heard a meow with the crowing. Seems like they are friends, and they’re adopting me. In this case, opposites definitely do attract.”
She took another step and reached down to pet the kitten. “Are you serious about keeping them?”
“Only if you don’t want them,” he answered.
“No, thank you. Prissy would eat the bird and pout for a month if I brought another cat into the house. Besides, you’ve got a house and lots of land. They’ll only have to live in and around this place a few weeks.”
“Some friend you are,” Knox said.
“I will share some kitty litter with you and some food for the cat. The bird can eat dry cat food until you can get to thestore and buy chicken feed. That should take care of them for a little while. And that”—she straightened up—“makes me an excellent friend.”
“Yes, ma’am, it does,” he said. “Will you go with me tomorrow evening and help me buy whatever I need?”
“I was on my way back into town to the store for a few things. I can either pick up what you need for you, or you can go with me, but I’m driving. I’ve got an empty boot box you can use for a little bit of litter whether you go or not.”
Knox’s male pride almost got the best of him, but he was out of milk, bread, and sandwich meat, so he nodded. “I appreciate the help, and yes, I would like to go with you.”
Chapter 10
Knox researched information on both kittens and small roosters while Lottie drove the fifteen minutes to the Walmart store. “I’m sorry I was such bad company on the way up here, but I really wanted to find out what to feed a kitten and a rooster,” he said as he slipped his phone into his pocket.
“And here I thought you thought I was such a bad driver that you didn’t want to look at the road.”
“Nope, not at all,” he assured her with a bright smile.
She swung open the door and got out of her truck. “I bet that hurt you to say.”
His feet were on the ground before she rounded the back side of the vehicle. “You’ll never know how much. Now I know how Tripp felt when Pansy the pig landed on his farm, and he had no idea what to feed her or how to take care of her. How old was Prissy when you got her?”
“I didn’t get her. She got me. Like the way your two new critters got you. I was on my way to my first framing job after college and pulled my new trailer into a Walmart parking lot. A car drove up beside my truck, and a hand came out the back window and dropped Prissy right out on thehot concrete. She ran up to me and climbed up the leg of my jeans. The pitiful little fur ball was so skinny I could feel every bone in her little body. I put her in the trailer and then went to the store. I asked a clerk to help me buy the essentials and point me to the nearest vet. We’ve been together ever since.”
The automatic doors to the store opened, and they went inside together. “Welcome to Walmart. Need a cart?” The greeter—an older gentleman with gray hair, wrinkles, and twinkling blue eyes—asked the moment they passed through the second set of doors.
“Yes, please,” Lottie answered.
Eldon—according to the name tag pinned to his orange vest—pulled one from the long line, swiped a disinfectant wipe across the handle, and gave it to her. Then he turned to Knox and asked the same question.
