Family For Keeps by Margaret Daley

Author:Margaret Daley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Mac heard muffled voices then a giggle coming from Johnny’s room. Pausing in the hallway, he listened. Thirty minutes before Amy had dashed through the den with a box, saying hi and bye all in the same breath. Then not ten minutes after that Johnny had hurried into the kitchen, retrieved a bowl and disappeared to his bedroom with not one word of greeting as he passed through the den. All this after they had put their puppies in the utility room. What were those two doing?

Mac knocked on Johnny’s bedroom door, waited a few seconds, then pushed it open just in time to see the boy throw a blanket over the box, then sit with Amy in front of it. One look at the children’s expressions told Mac everything he needed to know.

He fisted his hands on his hips. “Okay, what are you two hiding in that box?”

“Nothin’, Daddy.” Amy stuck her thumb into her mouth, a clear sign to Mac that she wasn’t telling the truth.

He riveted his attention to the ten-year-old. “Johnny, do you care to explain?”

Johnny dropped his head and mumbled something Mac couldn’t understand.

“I’m sorry. What was that?”

The boy lifted his gaze to Mac’s, his lower lip protruding. “Amy and I found some baby rabbits out back.”

“You shouldn’t have taken them from their nest. They need their mother.” Mac walked to the children and knelt next to them to peek into the box at two tiny balls of grayish brown fluff.

“We’ve been watching them for the past few days. I think their mother abandoned them.” Johnny hovered over the box as though he was going to protect them.

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“Yes, Daddy. We saved them just like Colt. They’re hungry.”

“That’s why I got them a bowl of milk, but I can’t get them to drink.”

Mac sighed heavily, tunneling his hand through his hair then rubbing the back of his neck, his muscles taut beneath his fingers. He wasn’t sure what to say or do. He noticed that one rabbit’s eyes weren’t open yet as they squirmed together, nudging each other for comfort.

“Can we keep them, Daddy?”

“Oh, pumpkin, I don’t know if that’s what’s best for them. We can’t have animals like Colt does.”

“Why not, Daddy?”

Mac stared into her big, brown eyes and couldn’t come up with a reason she would accept. Because I said so wasn’t going to work with her or Johnny. “We’ll discuss this when I get home. I’m due at the hospital. I’ll call Colt and talk to him about this on the way.”

“What should we do about them being hungry?”

Johnny looked at Mac as though he would have the answer. What to do? He scratched his head and tried to think of a way to feed the babies something until he could find out what to do with them. When his daughter stared at him, too, her thumb still in her mouth, he retrieved his cell phone from his pocket and punched in Colt’s number. He had to leave a message for the man to call him back.

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