Page 8 of Lee

“What did you guys do today?” Lee asked as he lowered himself to one knee to greet Elsa, scratching behind her silky ears as she braced her paws on his leg to lick his chin.

“We went to the park,” Amelia volunteered.

Lee smiled at her. “Did you have fun?”

“Yep. We went swimming and had a picnic. Peyton came with us, and some other kids, too.”

“And I’m exhausted,” Charli said as she came from the kitchen with the baby in her arms.

“Let me just go get changed, and I’ll give you a hand,” Lee said as he straightened, which sent Elsa in Amelia’s direction for more loving.

“Thanks.” Charli gave him a weary smile. “She won’t let me put her down, and I need to finish getting supper ready.”

“I’ll be back in a couple of minutes,” Lee promised her.

After taking the steps two at a time, he went into his room and changed out of his work clothes into a pair of cargo shorts and a T-shirt. Though he’d washed his hands at work, he did it again in his attached bathroom, then went back downstairs to the kitchen.

Charli was doing a slow dance around the kitchen with Shiloh, but the other kids and Elsa were nowhere to be seen.

“Here.” Lee held out his hands, and Charli relinquished the baby to him without hesitation. “Where are the girls?”

“They went downstairs.” Charli turned to stir something in the crock-pot. “I told them they could watch a little TV before supper.”

Lee adjusted Shiloh in his arms so her back was against his chest, then he did a slow bounce and sway with her. She chewed on her fist as she watched her mom work on dinner.

“I had a cat today that had your name,” he told her.

Charli raised her brows at him. “What?”

“Yep. Her name was Queen Charlotte.”

That brought a grin to his sister’s tired face. “Was she pretty?”

“She’s a beautiful cat. White and light brown with long fur and blue eyes. But boy, did she have attitude.”

“Sounds like me.”

Lee chuckled.

“So, what was wrong with her?” Charli asked.

“Nothing. Her owner’s away and had left the cat with her daughter. For whatever reason, Queen Charlotte decided that she wasn’t going to purr. The daughter was concerned something might be wrong with her since she’d purred fine before her mom left but not after.”

“So you had to tell the daughter that nothing was wrong with the cat? That it just hates her?”

“Well, I didn’t say it quite like that,” Lee said with a laugh. “But yeah, I had to tell her it was likely that the cat was a one-person pet.”

“Poor woman. It couldn’t be fun to hear that.”

“Yeah. Especially since, according to the other women at the clinic, Queen Charlotte’s owner is intense. She’s overprotective and has brought the cat in numerous times for very normal cat things. Such as hacking up a hairball.”

“What was her daughter like?” Charli asked as she opened the cupboard and began to remove plates.

Lee thought back to his interaction with the cute young woman, recalling the worry in her blue gaze as she’d stood next to the cat, her arms hugging herself.

“Not at all like what they said her mom’s been like when she’s brought the cat in. She was worried, and maybe a little ticked at the cat once she realized nothing was wrong.”

“I think I’d be ticked too,” Charli said.

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