And if he'd ever received a cooler and less enthusiastic invitation, he couldn't remember. "Thanks, but I have plans. I'm heading over to Josh's to meet his son."
"Well, then." She reached up, lifted Kayla, then Ali to the ground. "We'll get out of your way."
"There were a couple of things I wanted to run by you. If you've got a minute."
"Of course." Her feet were killing her. All she wanted was to take off those damn heels and sit down. "Girls, tell Annie I'll be in shortly."
"Thank you, Mr. Fury." Her mother's daughter to the core, Ali offered a hand.
"You're welcome."
"Thanks, Mr. Fury, for showing us the horses, and the tricks and everything. I want to tell Annie." Kayla started to race off but stopped at the fence. "Mr. Fury?"
"Yes, ma'am?"
She giggled at that, then sobered. "Can you teach dogs, too? If you had a puppy, or somebody did, could you teach him tricks like Max?"
"I expect I could, if he was a good dog."
She smiled again, wistfully, then hurried away behind her sister.
"She wants a dog," Laura murmured. "I didn't know. She never said. She asked years ago, but Peter… Damn it. I should have realized."
Intrigued, Michael watched the varied emotions play over her face. And the weightiest was guilt. "Do you always beat yourself up this way?''
"I should have known. She's my child. I should have known she wanted a puppy." Suddenly tired, she dragged her hands through her hair.
"So get her one."
Her chin set. "I will. I'm sorry." Shaking off the guilt, she looked back at Michael. "What did you need?"
"Oh, I need a lot of things." Casually, he draped an arm around Max's neck. "A hot meal, a fast car, the love of a good woman—but what we both need is a couple of mousers."
"Excuse me?"
"You need some barn cats, Laura. You got rodents."
"Oh, God." She shuddered once, blew out a breath. "I should have realized that, too. We used to keep some when we had horses, but Peter—" She broke off, shut her eyes. No, she was not traveling down that road again. "I'll be making a trip to the pound, it seems. I'll get a couple of cats."
"You're going to get your kid a dog from the pound?"
"And why not?"
"No reason." He led Max toward the fence. "Figured you for the purebred type, that's all. That's the way some people are about horses. They want Arabians, Thoroughbreds. I've got me one of the prettiest fillies you could want in that stable. She's smart as a whip and quick as a snake. She's what you'd call a mongrel, though. Always liked mongrels myself."
"I prefer character above lineage."
"Good for you." In an absentminded movement, he bent down, plucked a struggling buttercup out of its patch of grass, and handed it to her. "I'd say you've got both in those girls of yours. They're beauties. Heartbreakers. The little one's already wrapped her fist around mine. And she knows it."
"You surprise me." She stared down at the sunny yellow flower in her hand, baffled. Despite fatigue and aching feet, she followed him into the stables. "You don't strike me as a man who'd take to children. Little girls."
"Mongrels are full of surprises."
"I didn't mean—"
"I know you didn't." He settled Max in his stall, latched the door. "The little one's got your eyes, smoke and storms. Ali's got your mouth, soft and wanting to be stubborn." He grinned then. "You breed good, Laura."
"I suppose I should thank you, though no one's ever put it quite that way before. And I appreciate your entertaining them, but I don't want you to feel obligated."