Free Built to Last (Harlequin Heartwarming) by Janice Kay Johnson

Don’t we?”
    They all looked at Ginny, who knew too much about death snatching a loved one. Small and pale, she tucked her hand in Emma’s. “Yes,” she said softly but very clearly. “We want to come.”
    “Well, then,” Jo turned back to Ryan, “we have to take my car. But thank you.”
    “I’ll drive.” He held out his hand.
    Masterful man, once again. Also once again, Jo was chagrined to realize she didn’t mind. After all, he knew where he was going, she told herself. Besides, she didn’t want to jar the kitten by handing him over to someone else.
    “Emma, can you dig out the keys?”
    The teenager found them and passed them to Ryan, who waited only until everyone was buckled in before rocketing away from the curb.
    Righting herself, Jo said, “I don’t think another minute or two is going to matter.”
    He glanced at the kitten. “Why is it purring?”
    Tiny paws kneaded Jo’s arm. “I think he’s happy. Or maybe he’s purring to comfort himself. I’m not sure.”
    Ryan made an inarticulate sound and tore around a corner. Jo clutched at the armrest and saved her breath.
    Within minutes they screeched to a stop in the small parking lot beside a veterinary clinic. Everyone trailed Jo in.
    “May I help you?” asked the heavyset woman behind the counter.
    “We…found this kitten.” Jo held it up for her to see. “He really needs help.”
    The pleasant smile vanished. “Oh, my! Just a moment.” She disappeared through a doorway, returning almost immediately. “Let me take you back to a room.”
    She carried a clipboard with them into the small examining room, where all four crowded with her. “Dr. Mills will be right with us. Let me get some information first.”
    With a twinge of what did I get myself into, Jo gave her name as the owner, along with her address and phone number.
    “Does the kitten have a name yet?”
    Had the boy called him by anything? She couldn’t remember hearing anything but “kitty, kitty.”
    “I don’t think so,” she admitted. “This has all happened so fast.”
    Ginny piped up unexpectedly. “He should be Pirate. In case he has to have an eye patch.”
    Jo looked down at the orange-and-white face, made grotesque by the damaged eye. “Pirate,” she whispered.
    Silent since she’d carried him in, he started to purr again.
    Jo smiled at Ginny. “Pirate it is.”
    After the receptionist had left, Emma said, “Mom’s going to wonder where we are, if shegets home first. Maybe I should leave a message.”
    Jo nodded. “Good idea. We don’t want to scare her.”
    Emma disappeared to use Jo’s cell phone, left in the car. A moment later, the door opened and a young woman in a white lab coat with a stethoscope around her neck came in.
    After introducing herself and shaking hands, she said, “Let’s take a look.”
    Emma slipped back in to join the anxious circle watching while the vet took the kitten’s temperature, listened to his heart and studied the inside of his mouth for reasons mysterious to Jo.
    “He’s certainly in shock,” she said with a frown. “And he has a fever. You don’t know when this happened?”
    Their heads shook in unison.
    “We’ll give him some fluids and start him on antibiotics right away.”
    “Is Pirate a he?” Emma asked.
    She grinned. “It’s a boy.”
    It was Jo who asked nervously, “What about his eye?”
    The veterinarian made a humming sound in her throat as she gazed at Pirate for a longmoment. “Well,” she said with a sigh, “the obvious course would be to remove the damaged eye.” She held up a hand when they all began abortive questions. “Cats do very well with only one eye. He’d never know the difference. Of course his vision wouldn’t be quite as good, and he’d have to be indoor-only—”
    “Can his eye be saved?” Jo interrupted. She’d been watching Ginny’s distress.
    “I can’t save it. However, I can refer you to a specialist who might be able to. I do think it’s possible. The