He got up on his feet with a groan. “Then I’ll build a bedroom in the barn for me and my wife. Let’s load all this up and put it back where it belongs.”
“You mean you don’t want to grab some breakfast and then work all day?”
“Exactly. I’m willing to eat cold cereal and even fall into bed without a shower.”
“Then I’ll make breakfast this morning.” She grinned as she began to put everything into the wagon. “What will it be, plain oatmeal or with maple brown sugar? There’s both kinds in the rec room. We can make coffee and eat while we look at the damage in daylight.”
“Thank goodness those boys didn’t have time to destroy the kitchen,” Knox said.
“I might have really given them a dose of bird shot if they had messed with the coffeemaker,” she declared.
Cheeto strutted across the street and flew up to sit on the side of the wagon.
“All right, pretty boy,” Lottie said. “You can have a ride, but the rec room has a bad aura right now. You might not want to spend any time in there.”
Evidently, Cheeto wasn’t afraid of any kind of aura because he didn’t leave his perch until they were inside. Then he hopped down to the floor and began to snoop. Lottie and Knox took the equipment to the storage room, put it away, and came back out to find the rooster staggering around and trying to crow, but all that came out sounded somewhat like hiccups.
“Is he dying?” Lottie asked. “Hurry, Knox, look up bird flu and see if he’s got the symptoms. Maybe that’s why he got dropped off. The people didn’t want to kill him, but some of their other animals have it.”
Knox picked up the Maker’s Mark bottle that had been turned over in all the melee from the night before. “Here is your bird flu. Cheeto isn’t sick. He’s drunk.”
Lottie’s giggles turned into full-fledged laughter. She plopped down in a chair and could not get control, no matter how hard she tried. The adrenaline from the night before and working until daylight finally left her body. Tears ran down her cheeks and left wet spots on her T-shirt, but she didn’t care. She was alive. Her muscles ached too much for her to be dead.
Knox sat down beside her and handed her a paper towel from the center of the table. “It’s funny, but not that much.”
“Thank you. I can’t explain it, but that felt so good.” She wiped her eyes. “I’m so…sorry… Bless…his little…heart.” She hiccuped between words.
Cheeto tried to fly up on Knox’s knee but misjudged and landed on the floor between him and Lottie. Knox reached down and picked him up. “I’m going to take him to my trailer and put him in the cat carrier you loaned me. He can sober up in it. I’ll be back soon to have some of your famous oatmeal and a cup of coffee before I get some sleep.”
“Do you think he needs to go to the vet?” she asked.
“No, but now that I know he’s an alcoholic, I might make him go to those meetings,” Knox answered.
That set her off into another giggling fit that she barely had in control when Knox returned with several bright orange earplugs in a small plastic bag.
Lottie traded him a mug full of coffee for the bag and stuffed it down into her hip pocket. She pointed to boxes of instant oatmeal on the cabinet. “Which one do you want?”
“You make it, and I’ll eat it,” he answered. “But you might want to make three of those packages. I’m really hungry.”
“Since you brought me earplugs, I will make this a special meal and add two pieces of toast to the order,” she teased.
He took a sip of his coffee and sat down. “That sounds amazing. I’ll try not to fall asleep while it’s cooking.”
“Thanks for the earplugs,” she said as she emptied packages into a bowl and added water.
“Darlin’, I would do anything for my new friend.”
Chapter 16
“Holy hell!” Jack said when he saw the condition of the rec room. “I’m sure glad you and Knox corralled those hoodlums. What is the world coming to? Why didn’t you call me? I would have come right back.”
“I wasn’t about to have Aunt Mandy mad at me for robbing her of her time with you. We took care of it, and Knox has fixed up a security system that will do until you get the proper fence and gate installed,” Lottie answered.
The door hinges squeaked, and Thomas stopped in his tracks on the way inside the room. “What happened here? Did Knox break up with Lottie?”
“No, and what makes you think that?” Knox asked.
“Well, this is what you can expect if you do,” Thomas teased. “Now someone tell me who really tore this place up.”
