The Bride Said, 'Finally!'. Cathy Thacker Gillen

barely had time to draw surprised breaths before they caught sight of a fast-moving bundle of butterscotch fur and a pair of lively dark brown eyes. And an even faster bundle of gray fur. Both dashing past in a blur.

      “Daddy, you did it!” Alex exclaimed, clapping her hands together with all the delight Jake had expected.

      Jenna turned to Jake. “Did you ever!” she agreed dryly.

      Chapter Three

      “You look…surprised,” Jake said, a little irked Jenna didn’t look more impressed by what he had done. To his relief, his daughter, however, had no such reservations. Alexandra was already down on the floor, tumbling around with the cutest golden retriever puppy Jake had ever seen while her fluffy gray-and-white-striped kitten watched from a distance.

      Jenna paused and bit her lip. “I am.”

      Jake edged closer, until their arms were almost touching. “Because…?”

      Jenna shifted slightly, her shoulder brushing the curve of his biceps. “You got her a kitten and a puppy.”

      Jake shrugged, unable to see what the big deal was, and for whatever reason Jenna did seem to think this was a big deal. “I didn’t want her out hunting down snakes and I thought this would keep her busy.”

      Jenna knit her brows together. “It’ll do that, all right,” she drawled, the hint of bemusement in her clear blue eyes.

      Jake refused to feel inferior just because he had never been allowed to have any pets as a kid. Whereas Jenna, who’d grown up on a ranch, had nurtured an abundance of them.

      “Just out of curiosity, Jake…” Jenna clasped a soft, slender hand around his upper arm and tugged him out of earshot. She backed him up against the exterior limestone wall that separated the porch from the interior of the house. “Have you ever house-trained a puppy?”

      “No,” Jake said uneasily, unable to help thinking how pretty Jenna looked in her two piece turquoise cotton dress, with its loose, cropped blouse and long flowing skirt. “But how hard can it be?”

      In response, Jenna just shook her head. And sighed—loudly. Her high, perfect breasts rising and falling against the demure button front of her blouse. “Did you at least get their shots?”

      Jake’s eyes traced the glimpse of creamy skin visible in the open collar of her blouse. He liked the way the armholes were cut on it, dipping in slightly to reveal Jenna’s slender shoulders and pretty upper arms. “Uh, actually we have an appointment to do that at five, at the Laramie Animal Clinic. I thought we could run by the warehouse, take a quick look, then go straight to the vet’s office and the pet-supply store from there.”

      “We,” Jenna repeated, lifting a skeptical brow and planting both hands on her hips.

      Jake gestured off-handedly. “Well, I would have asked Clara to help with the pets.” And hoped like heck Jenna, a real animal lover if there ever was one, would volunteer to help out some, too. “But since Clara had to go off to Laramie Community Hospital to see her new grandbaby born…” Jake shrugged, to show there was no way he could have foreseen Lisa going into labor a good two weeks early.

      Jenna blinked in surprise. “Clara’s married daughter lives here in Laramie, too?”

      Jake realized they hadn’t covered that earlier. He nodded. “It’s one of the reasons we moved here. So Clara could be close to her daughter and son-in-law. She’s been with us since Alex was an infant and has rearranged her life on more than one occasion on our account. I thought it was time we did the same for her.”

      Jenna studied him with a mixture of blatant approval and suspicion. “What were the other reasons?” she asked warily.

      That was easy, Jake thought, relaxing all the more. He smiled down at Jenna, said softly, “My happiest memories of growing up were all here. I thought it’d be a good place to bring up Alex, too.”

      Before Jenna could respond, Alex ran up to him. “Daddy, my new kitty is hiding behind the sofa and she won’t come out.”

      “She’s probably just shy,” Jake said as the puppy began to bark. He glanced at his watch. “I think we better get these animals rounded up in their carriers.”

      “Why?” Alex asked, clapping her hands over her ears to shut out the high-pitched noise. Smiling, Jenna knelt and scooped up the puppy, cradling him close to her chest. To everyone’s relief, the frantic barking stopped immediately.

      Briefly, Jake explained what they had to do next, which was take both kitten and puppy to the vet for their vaccinations and exams, and then go by the grocery store to pick up pet food and other essentials.

      “In that case, maybe we should reschedule looking at the warehouse and do that tomorrow morning,” Jenna said as she continued to pet Alex’s new puppy with gentle, loving strokes. She buried her face in the puppy’s fur, looking as ecstatic as Alex to have access to such a cute and cuddly animal. Jenna pressed a kiss to the puppy’s head and was promptly rewarded with a slurpy lick on the chin. “Given everything else we have to do this afternoon and evening,” she continued.

      Jake studied Jenna, realizing all over again how much he had missed having her in his life. “You wouldn’t mind?” He didn’t want Jenna to think she was playing second-fiddle to anything that was going on here, because she wasn’t.

      “Not at all.” Jenna looked down at Alex, who was now cradling her kitten in much the same way Jenna was holding the puppy. “Meanwhile, these two critters need some names, Alex. Any ideas?”

      Alex grinned. “I want to call my puppy Buster.”

      “Good choice,” Jake beamed his approval. As did Jenna.

      Alex kissed her kitten and cuddled her close. “And I want to call her Miss Kitty.”

      “I HAD NO IDEA one puppy and one kitten could be so exhausting,” Jake told Jenna three hours later as they brought the carriers into the house and set them down on the floor. Alex followed, carrying a plastic sack filled to the brim with kitten and puppy toys.

      While Alex stayed with her new pets, Jenna and Jake headed back to his Jeep for the rest of the stuff they had purchased. Jenna slanted him a glance, noting that he did look exhausted and out of his element. “You’ve only owned them for a couple of hours,” Jenna said cheerfully as she lifted out the sack of kitty litter and the litter box. It was sort of fun to see the oh-so-confident Jake unsure of himself. “Just wait until tonight.”

      Jake got a panicked look in his eyes as he hefted the bags of puppy chow and kitten food into his arms. “What happens tonight?”

      Alex came running to get them as they headed back inside. “Daddy,” she said, “we had a disaster.”

      Unfortunately, Jenna and Jake soon discovered, Alex wasn’t kidding.

      “You can’t leave Alex and me alone with this puppy,” Jake said, after he and Jenna had finished cleaning up the puddle on the kitchen floor.

      Hoping to avert a similar disaster, Jenna set up the litter box for the kitten in the laundry room. While Jake watched, she made sure there was nothing either animal could get into, and that all electric cords and so on were out of reach of even the most curious agile kitten or puppy. “Because?” Jenna asked as she washed her hands in the laundry-room sink.

      Jake dropped the dirty paper towels into the trash, put away the floor cleaner, then went to wash his hands. “We’ll never survive.”

      That, Jenna thought, with equal parts amusement and pity, was no doubt true.

      Jake had taken on much more than he knew.

      But there was no going back now. He had given Alex the two pets simultaneously. They would just have to muddle through. Jenna smiled at Jake, and because he seemed badly in need of some encouragement, touched his cheek. “Your heart was in the right