Free Help Wanted: WIFE (Santa Rita Series) by Fleeta Cunningham Page B

ranch. Three of them in the barn. You didn’t need to go and bring one.”
    “This is Arabella, a fine, pure-blooded Maine Coon cat. She came all the way from New England when she was just a tiny thing, and she’s no barn animal. She lives with me. She’s family—my family, at least.”
    “Cat? In the house? Never had a cat living in the house. Nor dog, either. Don’t think I’d want to keep animals in the house with me. Better turn her loose in the barn with the rest of the mousers.”
    Cherilyn set the carrier down. “Now listen here, Cole Witherspoon, I came clear across Texas in August, spent eleven hours in a bus hot enough to bake cookies, stayed here half the night in the dark and the rain waiting for you, wondering if you were coming at all, while you went to find a dog and free a calf. When you finally turn up, first thing that happens is your so-smart dog ruins my best dress, and you don’t apologize or even notice. I’m tired. I haven’t had a bite to eat or so much as a glass of water since eleven this morning, not that you bothered to inquire. You don’t even ask what my day has been or what this trip to the hills of Nowhere was like. You just take a glance at my cat and tell me I’ll have to put her in the barn! You didn’t hear what I said about Arabella being important to me—every bit as important as that animated bearskin rug you call a dog.”
    “Reb? He’s a working dog. Earns his keep, and he sleeps out on the porch at night. Not a fancy, lounge-around lap dog. On a ranch, everything earns its keep. Can’t see some pampered, swanky cat doin’ much around the place.” He put the suitcases down. “Maybe you want to rethink this plan of ours? Go back home? Next bus won’t be here for four days, but I could take you into town to wait. Miz Haliday would likely give you a room. She keeps a boarding house that’s not too bad.”
    Cherilyn bit her lip. Go back? Out of the question. The thirty dollars she had left in her purse wouldn’t get her back. And what was there to go back to? Nothing and no one. No job, no family, and no one who would notice if she came back or went to blazes. But abandon Arabella?
    “I didn’t make this trip just to go back, but Arabella isn’t living in the barn unless that’s where I am. She’d get sick or die, and I couldn’t bear it.” Cherilyn softened her tone. “Look, sunsets don’t have any practical use, but life would be poorer without them. Laughter never made anybody five dollars better off, but it certainly eases a hard day. That’s what Arabella does for me, makes a hard day better or a bad time easier. If it comes down to her not being with me or taking that next bus back, I guess I’ll just go back.”
    Cole stood up and clapped his Stetson back on his head. “Sorry, Cherry Lynn. I’m kinda prone to jumping up and deciding I know what ought to be done before I’m real sure what the question is. Try to hold back on that, but it’s just natural to me to run fix something, even if I don’t know it’s broke. To me, a cat’s something to keep down the mice in the barn, and that’s all there is to ’em. While it sounds kinda strange to me, I see you set a store by that cat. And if you’d come all this way just to go home because you couldn’t stay without her, I gotta respect your thinking. If you’re willing to give this arrangement a chance, I’m willing to overlook one cat. You’d keep her in your room?”
    “I will. You’ll never even know she’s around.” Cherilyn exhaled the breath she was holding. “I’ll even forget Reb left his autograph all over my dress.”
    “Let’s head back up to the ranch and see if the fellas left us anything in the kitchen. I haven’t had supper either.”
    ****
    Cherilyn hadn’t slept long, but she’d slept deeply that night. Cole said the fellas got up early and were working as soon as the sun was up, so she’d set her alarm to rise before they did. One of Cole’s requirements had