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“I’m not scared anymore. I’ve been watching nature specials on wolves. Could we come over sometime and see the wolf? Maybe this weekend. If it’s okay?” Teddie pleaded.
He smiled warmly at the child. “It’s okay. How about Saturday just after lunch?”
Teddie looked at her mother, who’d just finished signing custody of Bart over to J.L. Denton. She looked up. “What? Saturday after lunch? That would be fine with me. But I don’t know where you live,” she added.
“Parker does,” he said, and smiled.
Then she remembered that he’d seen her and Parker holding hands at the Halloween celebration downtown. Obviously, he didn’t know that things had cooled off between them.
“It would probably be best if you told me where to go,” Katy said, and looked so miserable that Butch just smiled and gave her directions.
* * *
Katy didn’t hear from Ron again. Well, except for once, when he tried to text her about rethinking her position on the horse. She blocked his number, as Parker had blocked hers. She didn’t even feel guilty about it.
Things were better between her and her daughter. She opened up to Teddie in a way she hadn’t been able to before. She hugged the little girl coming and going, which made Teddie happier than she’d ever been in her life. The distance that had existed between Teddie and Katy was slowly closing.
* * *
Thanksgiving Day came and was uneventful. They went to Butch Matthews’s house the following Saturday to see Two Toes, the big white wolf with the dark gray ruff around his head.
“He’s got dark streaks in the fur on his head,” Teddie exclaimed as she stared at the enormous animal lying quietly on a rug in front of Butch’s television.
“He looks like he’s had a stylist color him up.” Katy laughed. “He’s really big, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he is,” Butch agreed. “Poor old thing, he’s about blind and most of his teeth are gone. I take him in to see Dr. Carr from time to time. He sure does attract attention in the waiting room on a collar and leash,” he added with a chuckle.
“I’ll bet,” Katy agreed. “Is he gentle?”
“Very,” Butch said. “He can’t see much, but he sits close to the television and when they run wolf stories on the nature channel, he howls,” he added. “So I guess his hearing is still good. I know his sense of smell is,” he murmured dryly, “because he figured out how to open my fridge and helped himself to a beef roast I was going to cook.”
They both laughed.
“He likes beef. But he’s a lot safer now that he’s getting it fed to him,” Butch told them.
“Can I pet him?” Teddie asked, fascinated with the animal.
“Sure. Just go slow. Let him smell your hand first.”
Teddie got down on her knees in front of the big wolf and extended her fingers. He sniffed at them and cocked his head, sniffing again.
She ran her fingers over his thick fur, just at the side of his head, and he nuzzled against them.
“This is just awesome,” Teddie exclaimed. “He’s so sweet!”
“They’d have put him down if I hadn’t offered to take him in,” Butch told Katy while they watched her daughter pet the wolf. “Old things aren’t useless, you know.”
“I do know,” Katy said solemnly. “My late husband’s attorney came out to help us keep Teddie’s rescued horse, and he sold us out to the man who beat him. I sent him packing a few days ago.”
“Good for you,” Butch said. “Your horse may be old, but he’s got a lot of life left in him. Shame what that man did to him. Real shame. I hope he doesn’t get off the hook this time.”
“He won’t,” Katy said. “We signed over custody to Mr. Denton and his attorneys are getting ready to pin Mr. Dealy to a wall. They have eyewitnesses to the beatings, even recordings taken from cell phones. Apparently, Mr. Dealy wasn’t too careful about hiding his abuse.”
“If J.L.’s involved, Dealy will do time.” He shook his head. “Those lawyers from L.A. are real hell-raisers. I wouldn’t ever want them after me.”
She bit her lower lip. “Have you seen Parker lately?” she asked quietly.
“I see him occasionally,” he said. “He spends a lot of time working out with weights at the gym when he isn’t working on the ranch. He’s been pretty sad lately. Told J.L. he was thinking about moving back up onto the reservation in Montana.”
