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“Chloe. I’m going to kill Patches.”
She laughed. “Oh, Aunt Waylynn, you’re so funny! Meet me in Daddy’s office, Harley!”
I leaned down to look at Waylynn. “Are you, um, are you okay?”
Blowing a long strand of her blonde hair from her face, she shook her head. “No. He ate Liberty’s blanket! Next thing I know he’ll be eating the baby! It’s too early for this shit!”
“Waylynn, I got them out!”
I looked over to see Paxton walking up, holding Gage.
“Oh, my gosh. He’s getting so big!”
“Nine months old and trying like hell to walk.”
I looked from the drooling baby to Paxton. “Already?”
She nodded. “Yep. Already.”
“Wow!”
Gage held his arms out to me, and I didn’t waste any time taking him from Paxton.
“Hey there, handsome cowboy!” I cooed while tipping his little black cowboy hat. “This is the cutest darn thing I’ve ever seen.”
Paxton chuckled. “He has to have it on all the time. I guess he sees Steed, Mitchell, and Wade wearing theirs so much he thinks he’s supposed to wear his too.”
“This little guy is going to be so smart, Paxton. You better watch out.”
She sighed. “Well, if he’s anything like his sister, I’m in for a ride.”
“Paxton, honestly, those goats can’t be coming into the house. They’re getting too big,” Waylynn said, now fully recovered from all the running.
“I know! I know! Steed is having a long talk with Chloe. They’re allowed in her playhouse and she assumes they can still come into the house. Melanie is about to have a fit with them in the house because of all the food for the Spring Fling.”
A small puppy howl came from down the hall.
“Was that a…”
“Dog,” Waylynn and Paxton said at once.
“Y’all have a dog?” I asked.
“No,” they both answered.
Another bark-howl.
I had to keep from laughing as I asked, “Do we know whose dog is barking?”
“Oh no,” Paxton mumbled. “This is bad. Really, really bad.”
“Why?” I asked, switching Gage to my other hip. This little guy was heavier than he looked.
“Wooof! Wooof!”
“There it is again!” Waylynn shouted as she hit Paxton.
“Why are you hitting me?”
Waylynn shrugged. “I don’t know. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time?”
Cocking her head and putting her hands on her hips, Paxton asked, “Really? Hitting me seemed like the right thing to do?”
“Yes. At the time.”
“Y’all…there is still the slight problem of a strange dog howling from down the hall. And your daughter took off down that hall and told me I had to look at ‘Roy’.”
“Roy?” Paxton asked with a puzzled expression.
“Oh dear,” I whispered. “I’m going to guess Chloe doesn’t have a pet rabbit named Roy?”
She shook her head. “Nope.”
Handing Gage back to Paxton, I ushered both of them back toward the kitchen. “Y’all go take care of your kids and help Melanie. I’ll find Chloe. She told me to meet her in her father’s office.”
Paxton’s hand slapped over her mouth before she dropped it. “She’s had it in there all night.”
“Don’t worry. Whatever it is…I’ll, um, take care of it.”
Another bark followed by a puppy howl had Paxton nearly in tears. “No wonder she wanted to spend the night over here last night.”
“Woof!”
“Did you hear that? Oh my God,” Paxton gasped.
“I didn’t hear a thing,” I stated.
“Neither did I,” Waylynn added.
Paxton spun on her heels and said, “Damn liars!”
If I knew better, I would have sworn I heard Gage say damn.
With a groan, Paxton cried out, “This isn’t my day!”
Waylynn stood in front of me. “I feel like I need to warn you. Chloe begged Steed and Paxton for a puppy. They saw them in town at the feed store…last night. Little blue tick hounds.”
“Oh. No.”
“Yep. It appears Chloe has dognapped a hound dog and hid it in her dad’s office.”
I covered my mouth and laughed. “How?”
Waylynn pointed to me. “That’s for you to find out and somehow get that dog out of here before Steed finds it.”
“Me?” I asked with wide eyes. “Even if it’s been in there all night?”
Another little bark came from the hallway.
Waylynn turned and headed toward the kitchen. “Holy hell. Goats, dogs, babies. This place is a nuthouse!”
“Wait! Waylynn! Waylynn!”
She retreated, leaving me to deal with the great puppynapping.
Quickly making my way down the hallway, I stopped when I realized I had no clue which office would be Steed’s. It had to be next to John’s. Then I heard the muffled whine of a puppy and Chloe whispering very loudly.
“Shhh! You’re gonna get us in trouble, Roy.”
“Oh, Lord,” I whispered as I opened the door and walked into the room. The most adorable blue tick coonhound puppy came running up to me.
His snout was mostly white with the trail moving up between his eyes. He had a small black dot at the top of his head and coming down the sides was the same beautiful black coloring. He had brown on his eyebrows and on his cheeks.
