“Buddy is friendly with everyone. We don’t know for sure you’re his owner.”
“Katie, you knew this was a possibility. I talked to you about it.” When he’d trained in Dallas to be a firefighter, he’d never received a course in dealing with a six-year-old losing something she had quickly bonded with, especially on top of losing her father six months ago.
“I tell you what. You all can walk with me to my house, and I’ll show you a photo of Gabe and me. Will that prove to you I’m his owner?” Sarah asked in a calm, patient voice, as though she knew exactly what Katie was going through.
“I think that’s a great suggestion, Ms. Blackburn.” Liam caught the woman’s gaze and, for a brief few seconds, a connection sprang up between them.
“Please, I’m Sarah. You have saved me hours of worrying about Gabe.” She stuffed her hand into the large pocket of her light jacket and pulled out a leash. “I brought this to take him home with, but I see he managed to slip out of his collar again. It had all his information on it. Even when he wasn’t on the porch, I thought for sure I would get him back right away.”
“Then you can’t walk him home. Without a leash, he might run off.” Madison planted herself next to Liam.
“He’ll be fine. He’s well trained. He’ll heel if I tell him,” Sarah said, again in that even tone.
Her eyes narrowed, Katie lifted her chin. “What’s that?”
“He walks on my left side right next to me.”
Madison yanked on Liam’s T-shirt. “Can we have a dog and teach him tricks like Gabe?”
He peered into Madison’s pleading expression, meant to wrap him around her little finger. “I’ll think about it, but first let’s walk Sarah home. It’s been a long day for all of us.” Definitely an understatement for him with six different calls during the twenty-four-hour shift at the station that had ended at eight this morning. Two of their runs had been serious with one cutting a man out of a wrecked car. “Let’s go, girls.”
Madison hurried to be on one side of Gabe, sandwiching the dog between her and Sarah. Katie tried to walk right behind her older sister but kept running into Madison, who immediately swung around and pushed her back.
When Sarah stopped, her dog sat, and she looked at Katie. “Would you like to be over here with Gabe? You can be the one to tell him to heel if he tries to walk too fast or slow. I’ll be right behind you with your dad.”
“He’s our uncle,” Madison immediately said, frowning.
“Yeah and a firefighter. He helps people.” Katie took Sarah’s place by Gabe.
Madison glanced at him. “And he helps animals.”
In that second all weariness from his last shift evaporated. Sarah and his nieces had reminded him of why he worked crazy hours. But, mostly, it reconfirmed why he’d left everything he had known and come to Buffalo. The girls needed time to adjust to him before he moved them to Dallas. He’d told his captain he would return in a year with his nieces.
* * *
There were times he felt he’d made several strides forward with Katie but not necessarily with Madison when it came to their accepting him as their guardian. He was afraid losing the dog would set their relationship back. The death of his younger brother had hit them all hard.
“I’ll be with your uncle and tell you when we reach my house.”
Katie started forward, saying, “Heel,” to Gabe.
Still scowling, Madison skipped a few paces to catch up with them.
“Did I say something wrong?” Sarah fell into step next to Liam.
“Madison is the oldest, and she’s having a hard time accepting that her dad died. Katie’s younger and seems to have accepted me as their guardian, most of the time. I don’t do everything like their dad did.” He’d tried, but he usually discovered he couldn’t follow the same routine. His work schedule wasn’t the same as Gareth’s, who’d had an eight-to-five job with weekends off.
“Oh, I can imagine. My parents divorced, and when my father moved to Chicago, I rarely heard from him. What about their mother?”
“She died six years ago. Our aunt Betty helped Gareth with the girls and thankfully has been a lifesaver for me. She lives behind us, and when I’m working, she takes care of them.”
“Betty Colton?”
He nodded. “Do you know her?”
“Yes, she comes every week to the hair salon I work at. I just moved back to Buffalo a few months ago when my mom needed help with my grandmother. We all work in the salon. Snip and Cut. It’s been in the family for three generations now.”
“Where were you before that?”
“Tulsa. How do you like Buffalo?”
“I haven’t decided yet. I lived in Dallas all my life and love a big city.” Liam stopped at the corner and waited while the girls checked both ways before crossing the street.
“My house is the white brick one with pink shutters almost at the end of this block,” Sarah said as she and Liam trailed his nieces to the other side.
Madison twisted around and walked backward. “I love that house. Pink is my favorite color.”
“Mine is purple,” Katie said over her shoulder. “I hate pink.”
“I don’t have a favorite color. I can’t make up my mind,” Sarah said in spite of the glare Katie shot her way.
When Katie halted, Gabe did, too. “He stopped! Good boy.” She petted his head then whirled around, her ponytail whishing. “I thought everyone had a favorite color. Why don’t cha?”
Sarah shrugged. “I guess I’m the exception. I love all colors.”
Liam wondered what else she was the exception to. Too bad he had little time to get to know Sarah. She seemed nice. But with his job and raising his two slightly rebellious nieces, he didn’t. He’d always wanted to have children, and this would be the closest he would come to having a family.
“Uncle Liam, what’s your favorite color?” Katie asked as she resumed walking.
“Blue.”
Madison giggled. “No wonder. You’re a boy.”
A boy? He hadn’t been one for years. At thirty-five he’d left his childhood behind in more ways than age. In his job he saw a lot of tragedy and was still trying to make sense of it. Look at all the deaths the two girls had dealt with in their short lives.
Sarah slanted him a look. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I was thinking about the last time I felt like a boy. Even as a kid, I was the man of the house. My dad was a firefighter, who died in an apartment fire when I was seven.”
“And you wanted to follow in his footsteps?”
“Yeah. I knew I would be a firefighter when I first rode on the ladder truck as a kid. Even after Dad died, the guys from his station would come around and help Mom as much as possible.” And he’d become a firefighter at that very station. When Terri had walked out on him, his buddies had been there to help him pick up the pieces.
“Girls, this is my house,” Sarah called out and then turned to Liam to ask, “Would you all like to come in?”
Liam started to decline, thinking about the dish he needed to make before he and the girls left for the single dads’ meeting at Colt Remington’s ranch. But before Liam could answer, his nieces both said, “Yes.”
As the others started toward Sarah’s house, Liam hung back. He missed the guys from the fire station in Dallas. He hoped the Single Dads’ Club would fill the void he’d experienced since coming to Buffalo. Even with Aunt Betty’s assistance, he was alone, raising two girls who hadn’t come with any instructions.
Copyright © 2016 by Margaret Daley
ISBN-13: 9781488007163
Coming Home to Texas
Copyright © 2016 by Alyse Stanko Pleiter
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