McKettricks of Texas: Tate. Linda Miller Lael

      George lowered a ramp, then climbed it to fling up the trailer’s rolling door.

      No elephant appeared in the gap.

      The suspense heightened—Audrey and Ava were huddled close to Tate on either side by then, fascinated—as George duly checked his clipboard.

      “Says here, it was an A. McKettrick. Internet order. We don’t get many of those, given the nature of the—er—items.”

      The twins were practically jumping up and down now, and Esperanza and Garrett had come up behind, hovering, to watch the latest drama unfold.

      George disappeared into the shadowy depths, and a familiar clomping sound solved the mystery before two matching Palomino ponies materialized out of the darkness, shining like a pair of golden flames. Their manes and tails were cream-colored, brushed to a blinding shimmer, and each sported a bridle, a saddle and a bright pink bow the size of a basketball.

      “Damn,” Garrett muttered, “the bastard one-upped me.”

      “Yeah?” Tate replied, after pulling the girls back out of the way so George could unload the wonder horses. “Wait till you see what I got them.”

      LIBBY HAD EATEN SUPPER—salad and soup—watched the evening news, checked her e-mail, brought the newspaper in from its plastic box by the front gate and done two loads of laundry when the telephone rang.

      Damn, she hoped it wasn’t the manager at Poplar Bend, the town’s one and only condominium complex, calling to complain that Marva was playing her CDs at top volume again, and refused to turn down the music.

      In the six months since their mother had suddenly turned up in Blue River in a chauffeur-driven limo and taken up residence in a prime unit at Poplar Bend, Libby and her two younger sisters, Julie and Paige, had gotten all sorts of negative feedback about Marva’s behavior.

      None of them knew precisely what to do about Marva.

      Picking up the receiver, she almost blurted out what she was thinking—“It’s not my week to watch her. Call Julie or Paige”—and by the time she had a proper “Hello” ready, Tate had already spoken.

      No one else’s voice affected her in the visceral way his did.

      “I need those dogs,” he said, almost furtively. “Tonight.”

      Libby blinked. “I beg your pardon.”

      “I need the dogs,” Tate repeated. Then, after a long pause that probably cost him, he added, “Please?”

      “Tate, what on earth—? Do you realize what time it is?” She squinted at the kitchen clock, but the room was dark and since she’d just been passing through with a basket of towels from the dryer, she hadn’t bothered to flip on a light switch.

      “Eight?” Tate said.

      “Oh,” Libby said, mildly embarrassed. The hours since she’d left the Perk Up had dragged so that she thought surely it must be at least eleven.

      “You know I’ll give them a good home,” Tate went on. “The dogs, I mean.”

      Libby suppressed a sigh. The pups were curled up together on the hooked rug in the living room, sound asleep. Faced with the prospect of actually giving them up, she knew she was going to miss them—a lot.

      “Yes,” she agreed. “I know. You can pick them up anytime tomorrow. Just stop by the shop and I’ll—”

      “It has to be tonight, and—well—if you could deliver them—”

      “Deliver them?”

      “Look, it’s a lot to ask, I know that,” Tate said, “and I can’t explain right now, and I can’t leave, either, even though Garrett and Esperanza are both here, because it’s the girls’ birthday and everything.”

      “And you want to give them the dogs for a present after all?”

      “Something like that. Lib, I know it’s an imposition, but I’d really appreciate it if you could bring them out here right about now.”

      “But you haven’t even seen them—”

      “Dogs are dogs,” Tate said. “They’re all great. And I figure you wouldn’t have suggested I adopt them if they weren’t good around kids.”

      “It’s normally not the best idea to give pets as gifts, Tate. Too much fuss and excitement isn’t good for the animal or the child.” What was she saying?

      She’d been the one to suggest the adoption in the first place, and with good reason—the poor creatures needed the kind of home Tate could give them. With him, they would have the best of everything, and, more important, Tate was a dog person. He’d proved that with Crockett and a lot of other animals, too.

      “We’re not talking about dyed chicks and rabbits at Easter here, Lib,” Tate replied. He was nearly whispering.

      “What about kibble—and, well—things they’ll need?”

      “They can survive on ground sirloin until I can get to the store and pick up dog chow tomorrow,” Tate reasoned. “I’m in a fix, Libby. I need your help.”

      The pups had risen from the hooked rug and stood shoulder to shoulder in the doorway now, ears perked, tails wagging. Her heart sank a little at the sight.

      “Okay,” Libby heard herself say. “We’ll be there as soon as I can load them into my car and make the drive.”

      Tate let out a long breath. “Great,” he said. “I owe you, big-time.”

      You can say that again, buster, Libby thought. How about fixing me up with a new heart, since you broke the one I’ve got?

      The call ended.

      “You’re going to be McKettrick dogs now,” Libby told the guys, with a sniffle in her voice. “Best of the best. You’ll probably have your own bedrooms and separate nannies.”

      They wagged harder. It was impossible, of course, but Libby would have sworn they knew they were headed for a place where they could settle in and belong, for good.

      “Heck,” she added, on a roll, “you’ll even get names.”

      More wagging.

      Libby found her purse and, after considerably more effort, her car keys. Since she lived across the alley from her café and walked everywhere but to the supermarket, she tended to misplace them.

      If her aging, primer-splotched Impala would start, they were on their way.

      “Want to come along for the ride?” she asked Hildie, resting on a rug of her own, in front of the couch.

      Hildie yawned, stretched and went back to sleep.

      “Guess that’s a ‘no,’” Libby said.

      The pups were always ready to go when they heard the car keys jingle, and she almost tripped over them twice crossing the kitchen to the back door.

      After loading the adoptees into the back seat of the rust-mobile, parked in her tilting one-car garage on the alley, she slid behind the wheel, closed her eyes to offer a silent prayer that the engine would start, stuck the key into the ignition and turned it.

      The Impala’s motor caught with a huffy roar, the exhaust belching smoke.

      Libby backed up slowly and drove with her headlights off until she’d passed Chief of Police Brent Brogan’s house at the end of the block. The chief had already warned her once about emissions standards—she was clearly in violation of said standards—and she’d made an appointment at the auto shop to get the problem fixed, twice. The trouble was, she’d had to cancel both times, once because Marva was acting up and neither Julie nor Paige was anywhere to be found, and once because a water pipe at the shop had burst and she’d been forced to call in a plumber, thereby blowing the budget.

      All