was building a fire in my mom’s fireplace, and it got away from me. Burned half the house.” He peered into the bag to check on his foster kittens. “I got in big trouble for that, and then there was a fire the next week at school. They tried to blame me for that, too.”
“It didn’t work,” Dane explained to Cheyenne. “They weren’t able to pin the blame on him for that one, because he had an alibi.”
“It worked, all right,” Gavin said. “My mother got me out of the way, didn’t she?”
“It worked for us at the ranch.” Dane placed an arm over Blaze’s shoulders. “We’ve practically got a veterinarian living under our roof—whenever he decides to stay home.”
Gavin grinned at him. “How else are you going to get your exercise if you don’t go chasing all over the county after me?”
Cheyenne could sense the kid’s affection for Dane, and once again she felt ashamed for panicking and spraying him.
“Let’s get these babies to the ranch and get out of Cheyenne’s hair,” Dane said, nudging Blaze toward the door.
The teenager stopped in front of Cheyenne. “Sorry about tonight.”
“Thanks, Gavin. Apology accepted.”
“I’m Blaze.”
“Why would you want to be?” she said. “It sounds like you’re admitting you’re guilty of the arson.”
Cradling the burlap bag in his arms, he shrugged. “By the time the townsfolk get ahold of you tomorrow, you’ll believe them instead of me, anyway.”
“I don’t intend for any townsfolk to get ahold of me,” she protested.
Dane and Gavin said good-night and let themselves out the front door.
“They’ll be good milk cats, soon as they’re big enough.” Gavin’s voice drifted through the still night air, fading as they walked toward the dock.
When all sound died from outside except for the singing tree frogs, Cheyenne pulled the hook of the screen door into the corresponding eye in the threshold. “Racing pigs in the house…hedge apples under the house…I’ve fallen into a psych ward, lockup division.” She sank onto the sofa and wrapped herself up with the comforter, then gazed out the large front window into the brilliant moonlight that kissed the earth with silver. “But maybe a psych ward is where I belong for coming here in the first place. Ardis, what have you gotten me into?”
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