“Oh, my heavens!”someone yelled from the back patio.
Ransom’s feet carried him quickly through the rest of the house and out back, where it took him a moment to put together what he was seeing.
The pretty lights on the trellises and the heat lamps were going and there were tables laid out on the big patio, but the food was strewn and all over the tablecloths and slate tiles.
“Our puppies,” Mae said softly.
All four of the three-month-old puppies were scampering around and yapping at the foot of the old oak tree. And he had to blink to make sure he was really seeing it, but Hailey was on a branch above them, frozen in terror, clinging to the trunk.
“What are you doing up there?” Mal asked, approaching the tree. “What happened?”
Sage was already moving quickly to clean up the mess.
Ransom’s heart sank.
“Kids, can you grab the puppies and put them in the truck?” he asked. “Carry them one at a time, okay? And when you get back, you can help Miss Sage clean up.”
The kids ran over to the tree and each grabbed a puppy.
Ransom took a deep breath and followed them, bending to grab the other two pups.
“Hailey, I’m so sorry,” he said. “I’m getting them out of here, okay?”
He ventured a glance up and she nodded to him, gratitude in her eyes.
There would be time later to figure out how the puppies had gotten out of the paddock. For now, he had to get them out of here.
By the time he got out to the truck, the kids were heading back up to the house.
“There are garbage bags in the cupboard under the kitchen sink,” he told them. “Hurry and help out, okay?”
“Yes,” Mae said, looking delighted to be helpful.
But Travis was downcast as he nodded to his dad. Ransom figured he understood a little better than Mae did about what a big deal this day was supposed to be for Hailey.
Hopefully, they could get things reasonably cleaned up before too many more people arrived.
He drove as quickly as he dared with the puppies loose in the cab of the truck, closed the door to the paddock, and dropped them off in the barn. All the other dogs were accounted for, which was good.
He headed out to check the paddock gate and found it open, which explained everything. He latched it, checked it, and made a note to himself to get a lock. He was pretty sure the puppies couldn’t have opened it on their own, but maybe he hadn’t latched it as well as he thought when he left them.
By the time he got back to the party, the two ladies were thankfully still the only other guests there. The patio was mostly cleaned up, and Hailey was down from her perch, wadding up the tablecloths and heading into the house with them.
He wanted to tell her a thousand times how sorry he was for the mess, but he figured she’d rather have hishelp right now than his apologies, so he headed down to the basement and turned the water to the outdoor faucet back on before coming out to the side yard and dragging the hose around to clean the slate floor of the patio.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Sage said as he finished it up. “I couldn’t get the hose to work.”
“The hose bib was turned off for the winter,” he said. “We never did get the frost-proof kind.”
Sage disappeared into the house as Hailey reappeared with fresh tablecloths. Ransom was winding up the hose in the side yard when he heard another car pull up.
All told, it could have been worse. Hailey was down from the tree and changed into a fresh outfit, the patio was clean, and the tables were covered. It was almost as good as new, except he had no idea what she was going to do for appetizers since the puppies had destroyed everything.
At least there hadn’t been chocolate or raisins, or he would have been making a trip to the vet instead of helping with the cleanup. And based on the mess, it seemed like the pups had mostly just torn things apart and not really eaten much of anything.
He wiped his wet hands on his slacks and headed out to the patio to see what he could do. Maybe he could offer to run into town for some things.
But when he arrived, Mal and Sage were carrying trays and platters of appetizers out. The tables were already half covered, and Hailey was smiling in amazement.
