Page 83 of Awakening His Daddy

“We can decorate this one. It isn’t too far from the house and,” I look around like someone might be watching me and then whisper, “I have a fake tree in the attic.”

“No!” He mock gasps, and I shush him.

“Don’t tell anyone.”

He mimes twisting a key at his lips. “But Leo will know.”

“Yeah. He can deal.”

“Really? You’ll let the tree live?”

“I pardon this tree.” I make a big show of moving the ax away.

“Thank you, Daddy. I was worried about it, and now I?—”

“Meow.”

I straighten. Oh, no.

Another meow comes from under the tree we just pardoned. A fluffy white cat with bright green eyes peeks out.

It looks at me and then at Izzy and trots over to wrap herself around his legs, meowing and purring up a storm.

“Oh my god! Kitty!” He bends down to pet her with his good hand. She stands up and paws at Izzy’s thighs. “You are such a pretty kitty. Aren’t you? You must be so cold and hungry.”

I look around. The cat is too friendly to be a stray, but there aren’t many houses around here, and she looks pretty skinny even under all that fluff.

“I wonder where she came from.” He must notice me looking around, and he squats down.

When the cat jumps into his lap and nuzzles Izzy’s chin, I know I’m in trouble.

“Izzy,” I try one more time.

He unzips his jacket, and she jumps right in, ducking her head down and curling up.

“Her paws are so cold.”

He doesn’t even have to ask, he just looks up at me with those big eyes, and suddenly we’ve got a pet cat.

“We can take care of her.” Izzy gasps excitedly and tries to speak, but I talk over him. “But we need to make sure that she doesn’tbelong to anyone, because she’s very friendly and she might just be lost.”

“I understand,” he hurries to reassure me. “But we need to get her out of the cold. Look at her ears.”

That’s when I notice the tips are rounded instead of pointed. That means she’s been out for a while and experienced some frostbite.

My heart goes out to this poor little thing. “Come on. Let’s get her home.”

“You hear that, Winter?” Izzy talks into his jacket. “You can come home with us, and we’ll take good care of you.” She meows. “Yes, we will. Joe is an excellent Daddy.” She meows again. “He takes very good care of me, and he has lots of love to give.”

I huff a laugh and reach into his coat, petting her soft head. “Winter huh?”

“Well, she’s all white, and we found her in the snow, and it’s wintertime…”

“It’s perfect. What do you think, Winter?” She meows and lies down. “Is she okay in there? She’s not hurting your broken arm, is she?”

“No, she’s fine.” He zips up his jacket and turns around, then he looks at me. “Which way is it?”

“There are two ways to tell. You could follow your footsteps, but that won’t work if it’s really windy or still snowing. Or you could look for the smoke from the chimney.” I point up.

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