Christmas Kisses with My Cowboy - Diana Palmer Page 0,43
put her arms around her mother, feeling the woman stiffen. She drew back at once, but Katy caught her and pulled her close, rocking her.
“My parents never touched me,” she whispered to Teddie. “It’s . . . hard for me to show affection. But I’ll try. Really.”
Teddie hugged her back. “That’s okay. I can do all the hugging. I’m good at it.”
Katy laughed and fought back tears. At least one good thing had come out of the misery of the day before.
* * *
A truck pulled up in her driveway the next day when she got home from work. Her heart jumped because she thought it might be Parker. But it was the man who had the wolf. What was his name . . . ? Matthews, that was it. Butch Matthews.
“Mrs. Blake,” the man said, tipping his hat. “Mr. Denton sent me over with these papers about custody of your horse.”
“If you’ll come in for a minute, Mr. Matthews, I’ll sign them, and you can take them right back.”
“That would be fine.”
“Come on in,” she invited.
Teddie was waiting in the living room. “You have the wolf!”
He chuckled. “Yes. I have the wolf. Sorry he scared you that time.”
“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