Cactus had heard the woman sing, and she could take that position permanently and take the music department into the stratosphere. She possessed the voice of an angel, and her soprano voice melded well with his deep, bass tone.
He didn’t always get to sit next to her in church, but when he did, he sure did like it. She let him hold her hand—at least until she had to sign to Mitchell. Her son.
Since she’d regained custody of him, Willa had grown exponentially busier. Cactus still had cattle to monitor, and then branding sat right around the corner. Then he’d spearhead the breeding at Shiloh Ridge, and after that, he’d have to administer all the antibiotics for the year before they drove their cattle out into the nearby hills and wilderness.
If Mother Nature kept the rain to a minimum, summer was actually his easiest time. He worked a lot once birthing season started, and from about November to May, he seriously wondered why he loved maintaining a healthy herd so much.
He reached the front door first, and he rang the doorbell. It warbled on the other side of the door, and more than one dog began to bark. He looked down at Link. “I’m not takin’ one if they yap all the time.” That was the last thing he needed.
“We can train ‘im up real good,” Link said. “Benny doesn’t bark, because Bear trained him not to.”
“Yes, well, I’m not Bear.” Cactus had been living in his older brother’s shadow forever, and he normally didn’t mind. Bear wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but there were very few people or beasts who dared to defy him.
Cactus put on a spiny skin and barked out mean things to protect himself and keep others away, but he really had a heart of marshmallow. If he got a puppy and it wanted to bark, well, he’d probably let it.
The front door opened, and a little boy Lincoln’s age stood there. He looked up at Cactus with wide, round eyes, and then he looked at Lincoln. “Heya, Link.”
“Hi, Jace.” Link let go of Cactus’s hand and went inside the house. “Can we see the puppies? My uncle says he’s not real sure which one he wants.”
“Come in,” Jace said. He turned and walked away, Link skipping along with him. Cactus stepped inside, everyone he’d brought with him filing in after him.
A woman wearing an apron over her clothes stepped out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel. She grinned at the crowd. “Hello, come in. You’re here to see the puppies?”
“Cactus Glover,” he said, reaching to shake her hand.
“Emily Butler. Come in.”
“My mother,” Cactus said. “Her boyfriend, Donald Parker.” He let them shake hands, and then he introduced Aurora and Ollie.
“How many dogs are you thinking of getting?” Emily asked, tucking her short brown hair behind her ear.
“I’m considering one,” Donald said. “I’m going to retire soon, and I need something to fill my time.”
That was news to Cactus, but he said nothing.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said to Emily. “The kids are just along for the fun this afternoon.”
“We’ve got three boys and two girls left,” she said. “The multi-colored ones are taken, but we’ve got solid black and solid gray.” She led them past the kitchen and into the back of the house, which was one big living room connected to the dining room.
A low fence kept the puppies in the living room, but they all crowded over by it, as Jace and Link already stood there, reaching in to pat the pups.
“Come on, Cactus,” Link said over his shoulder. “Come look at this one.”
Cactus joined the boy, and he had a gray puppy licking his hand. “He’s so cute, Cactus. I like the gray ones better. You can see their faces.”
“You sure can,” Cactus said. He twisted back to Emily. “Can I pick them up?”
“Go ahead. Handle them. Get in there with them. We want you to pick the one you like best.” She smiled and turned to Aurora as the girl asked her something.
Cactus bent and picked up the gray puppy. The animal was a beast already, easily weighing twenty pounds. The dog licked his face, and Cactus chuckled. Yes, this dog was cute. Cactus could easily see him coming to live out on the Edge, and he scrubbed the dog’s back, his skin wrinkling up the way a mastiff’s did.
“Look at this one,” Link said, grunting. Cactus caught him trying