Shannon Vannatter - Reuniting With The Cowboy

“I’ll stick around.” He scanned the pens lining each side of the long barn. “I doubt any of the dogs are in the pens they’re supposed to be in. Once you retrieve the cats, I’ll help you sort it out. Besides, I need to talk to you.”

“Okay.” About what? “Can it wait?”

“Go call your cats. It’ll keep.”

“I’ll be back as quick as I can.” She dug a stack of collapsed cardboard carriers from the storage closet, tucked them under her arm. “And thanks for all your help.”

“My pleasure.”

Ally stepped out. Cody seemed so serious. Had he talked to the owner? Would he sell her the land after all?

* * *

“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.” Ally’s call was a gentle singsong as Cody watched from the barn window.

It took several minutes, but the cats started coming. From trees, from the roof, from the loft and from the woods. Soon she had them in cardboard kennels, and she pulled her truck near to load them.

Cody couldn’t stand watching her do all the work. It had nearly killed him to let Slade and Lance play dogcatcher while he stayed in the barn. It was daylight now—easier to watch for holes. He limped out to help.

“What are you doing out here?”

“At least let me load them for you, save you a little work.” He made his way to the truck bed.

“Fine.” She picked up a kennel. “Stack them in twos and make sure they’re stable. I don’t want them tumbling around and scarring their delicate sensibilities for life.”

“Cats have sensibilities?” He grinned.

“They most certainly do. Very delicate ones.”

“I guess if anybody knows about it, it would be you.” Cody loaded a kennel she handed him. “You looked like the Pied Piper out there gathering them all up.”

“Just call me the crazy cat lady.”

“You must be exhausted.”

“You, too.” She adjusted a stack of kennels. “I can’t believe the Walkers came over to help so early. How do you even know them?”

“Raquel’s first husband was a Texas Ranger and Mitch’s partner. A few years after he died, Mitch tried to fix us up, but neither of us was interested and she eventually met Slade.”

He slid another kennel in place. “Slade used to be a chaplain on the rodeo circuit, so I’d seen him around. They’re good folk. Since Raquel’s the school nurse and it’s Saturday, and Slade’s a preacher and it isn’t Sunday, I knew they could come without messing up the rest of their day.”

“I couldn’t even think of any of that. I was in panic mode.”

“Speaking of panic, I don’t mean to scare you—” A cat yowled at him as he hoisted its kennel on top of another “—but you don’t have any enemies, do you?”

“Not that I know of.” She stopped, caught his gaze. “Why?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” Cody’s heart thudded. He really didn’t want to frighten her, but she seemed so oblivious. “Somebody had to have let them out.”

“But why would they?” She hugged herself. “I must have left a couple of the pens open.”

“Have you ever done that before?”

“No. But I’ve been distracted.”

True. The almost reprimand from the inspector. The land Cody couldn’t sell her. “Even if you left a couple of pens open, that doesn’t explain how thirteen dogs and nineteen cats got out. You don’t really think one of each got out, then nosed all the other locks until they opened like it happens in the movies?”

“Of course not.” She huffed out a sigh, shoved another pet carrier at him. “But I don’t know why anyone would let them out.”

“Maybe somebody wants to shut you down.” He settled the last cat in place, striving for casual, trying not to let her see how worried he was. “Think about it—you said your state inspector must have gotten a complaint to show up when he did, and now your critters are loose in the middle of the night.”

“But no one lives anywhere near here.” She spread her hands wide, gesturing to miles of endless woods and pastures surrounding their properties. “Just you and me. Who would want to shut me down?”

“What about Lance?”

“No. I’ve known him a couple of years. He’s a nice man, a member of our church.”

“Maybe he wants to buy you out?”

“He had his own clinic in Denton and sold it to work toward retirement.”

“What do you really know about Derek?”

“He’s a great guy. I can’t tell you how much it helped to have another set of hands on duty yesterday.”

“You’re sure he’s okay?”

“Positive.” She shook her head. “He has no reason to want to shut me down.”

“Maybe he wants his own practice.”

“No. He’s a tech. The only way he can do anything is under the supervision of a licensed vet.”

But Cody wasn’t so sure. Maybe he needed his Texas Ranger brother to do a background check on Derek. And Lance. Ally’s safety was too important to risk.

She was way too important to him. Way more important than he should allow her to be.

* * *

It felt good to attend the church Cody had grown up in. How many years had it been since he’d been here? When he’d visited home for the holidays while on the circuit, he’d often gone with his sister in Dallas, with his brother when he’d lived in Garland or with Grandpa in Medina. Over the years, he’d only attended his home church a handful of times.

As morning class dismissed, he caught up with Mitch. “Can we talk a minute?”

“Sure.”

Metal chairs scraped the tiled floor and multiple conversations started up.

Cody waited until the classroom emptied. “Can you run a background check on Derek Tatum for me?”

“Why?”

“I think somebody’s trying to shut Ally’s shelter down.”

“What gives you that idea?”

“This has to stay quiet.” She’d tan his hide if she knew what he was up to. “Ally’s worried it’ll hurt her shelter’s reputation.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Someone turned several of her animals loose the other night,” Cody whispered, even though they were alone.

“You’re sure it wasn’t a faulty latch?”

“Thirty or so faulty latches? How about Lance Bridges—know anything about him?”

“Isn’t he the other vet at her clinic?”

“Can you run a check on him, too?”

“I need probable cause, little brother.” Mitch folded his arms across his chest—his stubborn stance. “I can’t just run a check on random citizens because you want me to.”

“How much probable cause did you have when you ran a check on each of your wife’s employees?”

“What makes you think I did that?”

“I know you.”

Mitch’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Touché.”

Cody sighed. “I’m worried about Ally’s safety.”

“I’ll see what I can find.”

“Thanks.”

The brothers exited the classroom, strolled into the sanctuary and claimed their seats on each side of Mitch’s wife Caitlyn. Old-fashioned pews lined the church with traditional hymnals in the book racks, and prisms of multicolored light radiated through the stained-glass windows.

Even after his years away, it was still home. New preacher, new Sunday-school teacher, new pianist, even a new song leader, but the same timeless hymns. He still knew most of the congregation, and a lot of the new faces he’d seen on the circuit over the years. But the most important member—to him—was nowhere in sight.

“Where’s Ally?” Cody elbowed Caitlyn, trying for casual.

“She doesn’t come anymore.” Caitlyn grabbed a hymnal from the book rack. “Not since her dad died.”

“Really?” Why would Ally turn away from God after her dad died? That was when she’d needed Him most.