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B y the time Tiffany arrived at the Haven—very early Sunday morning, as agreed—George was here, his vehicle already running, with Sheila sitting in the front seat. George came right over and took one look at King, who was a pug crossed with something else, and smiled.

“I don’t know King’s parentage,” she admitted, “so we could have all kinds of bits and pieces in there. Yet he has the definite look of a pug.”

George had the most incredible light in his eyes, as King wagged his curly tail and stared at George.

“Yeah, he’ll be just fine.” He picked him up and cuddled him a moment, and instead of barking or doing anything defensive, King just tucked his head under George’s chin and, with a heartfelt sigh, visibly relaxed in his arms.

The electrician looked over at her and muttered, “Wow, okay. Driving with King and Sheila in my arms will be a challenge, considering I’ll be on the road for a while.

” He cleared his throat and added, “I’m coming back in a couple days, so be prepared for more questions on the medical rooms inside the clinic building.

” And, with that, he drove off with both King and Sheila.

Joe came over and pointed at George’s truck, heading out toward town. “I see you brought another animal.”

“Yeah, I did, and I also brought that cat for you to meet.”

He looked at her, then hurried around to the back of her truck. There, under the canopy, not even in a cage, Tiffany had the Maine coon kitten sprawled out. He had a leash on, something she’d been working with him on for a while now.

“A leash,” he said in delight.

“With a big cat like this, when we want him to have outside exercise, I figured a leash wouldn’t be a bad thing to get him used to.”

Joe just stared at the cat. “I’m heading home to pick up some more clothing and stuff. I’ll be back but not before next weekend.”

She just nodded, not sure what she was supposed to make of that.

Then he groaned. “Do you think you can hang on to him until I get back, until I’m ready to leave again? Because then I’ll be staying home to go back to school pretty soon. So I won’t be traveling. I just don’t want this guy to be alone the first few days I get him home.”

“That’s a very good point,” she said, “and absolutely he can stay with me for a while longer.”

He sighed happily. “Thank you.” Then, in a surprising move, Joe crawled into the back of her truck and stretched out beside the cat, getting to know him.

With a small headshake she left him to it. She turned toward the main house, and Timber stood nearby on the gravel driveway, watching her.

“I see George left with another dog in his vehicle.”

“Yes, he took King with him,” she said, with a smile. “I didn’t really expect that, but I’m grateful.”

“And so are those animals,” he noted.

“Absolutely,” she murmured. “The thing is, all of this is for the animals, so…” She just smiled and didn’t say anything more. “It is really nice to see it happening,” she murmured.

“Yeah, it is.” He faced her, then asked, “Coffee?”

“Yes, please. I would love some.”

“And did I see Joe crawl into the back of your truck?”

She smiled and nodded. “You did. He’s interested in the Maine coon mix that I have, but he’s leaving today and will apparently be back in a few days, staying for another week.”

He looked at her and then nodded. “Good to know. I haven’t really heard who’s coming and who’s going yet. It’s been a little bit difficult to keep track of everybody. I don’t want to push anybody, yet I really want to push all of them.”

She burst out laughing. “I just can’t believe how much has been done.”

He nodded. “And some of the men don’t want to leave a job unfinished, so they’re coming back.

The guys who did the fencing have been helping the other guys making all the gates and the stiles, which aren’t quite finished, so they’re staying for another day,” he shared, “until it’s done.

They told me that they can’t leave it any other way because that is just the nature of the beast.”

“Of course.” She chuckled. “And what about the deer? Can they come and go freely with all the fences and the gates?”

He nodded. “They’ll jump them, and the stiles will allow them to climb, if they get smart enough.”

She laughed. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Will you wind up with horses that can climb them too?”

“Who knows? Speaking of which, apparently Andy is coming by today.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“I hope so,” he muttered. “We left things a little rough last time, and I don’t particularly like that.”

“Of course not.”

Big Toby came over just then with Little Toby trotting at his heels. Tiffany bent down to say hi to the little dog, and he gave her a greeting and then immediately took off after Toby.

“That’s lovely to see,” she noted, with a big smile, “happy dogs.”

“Yeah, are you kidding? This place will be overrun with dogs soon.”

“Dogs and horses,” she added. “What about cats? I have a few that need homes too.”

He nodded. “Cats too.”

After they had coffee, she was prepared to head back into town, mostly because she had laundry and housework to take care of. Plus, she didn’t want to impact Timber’s ability to get work done. Just then she heard another vehicle coming in and stepped outside.

It was Andy. He stepped out at the front of the house, took a look around, and whistled.

She walked over to him with a smile on her face and greeted him, “Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” he replied, smiling at her. “You a part of this chaos too?”

“To a certain extent, where I can be of help.”

He nodded. “Anything to do with animals, isn’t it?” he teased.

She was happy to see that he appeared to be in a good mood and that everything was potentially good between him and Timber. When Timber came out, the two men shook hands, and it was almost as if all the animosity was long gone.

Andy shared, “I know we talked about six horses the last time, but I brought eight because a little birdie told me that you had room now.”

“Yeah, I sure do.”

Andy looked over at Tiffany. “You want to give us a hand?”

“Sure thing,” she replied.

And, once he backed up the trailer to the first paddock, they opened the doors and moved all eight horses out to the holding pen, with the help of Toby and Dwight, who came to join them.

She worked through them all, taking off halters and checking them over, one by one, with Timber keeping notes, as they identified any deficiencies in each of them and worked up a list of things to focus on.

Timber and Toby and Dwight set about checking the water troughs and the fencing, just to be sure, plus letting the horses get acclimated to their new place and to these new people. Meanwhile Tiffany and Andy headed back to his truck.

“They should be in fairly good shape,” Andy noted. “Though honestly, we just haven’t had the time and energy to do much with them. I don’t have very much knowledge of them either. Horses were more my wife’s thing, and these were all hers,” he shared.

“And that’s fine and dandy when you’ve got your wife there to help you,” Tiffany pointed out, “but—”

He nodded. “But time happens, and you’re just not in the same shape and condition to keep riding anymore. It’s been a couple rough years.”

“And the cancer?” she asked, looking at him closely.

He hesitated, then nodded. “It’s back.”

She felt the pain coming off him in waves, as she muttered, “I’m so sorry, Andy.”

“I am too,” he said. Then he sighed. “And yet I’m really not too bothered because…”

“Because you get to see your wife soon.”

With tears in his eyes, he nodded. “That’s exactly it, and though I know that my son”—he stopped and then bravely forged on—“he would say that was a cop-out, but I’ll be pretty happy to see her again.”

“Of course you will,” Tiffany agreed, “and everybody processes death in their own way. You certainly get to do what’s right for you.”

“I would just as soon not process it at all,” he admitted. “I just want her back again.” She smiled and nodded at him. “Hey, at least I’m being honest.”

“You are, indeed,” she said, “and I get it. I absolutely get it.”

“It’s a good thing you do because a lot of people don’t.”

“Doesn’t matter about a lot of people,” she murmured. “It’s all about doing what’s right for you.”

He sighed. “I really, really didn’t want to see some massive subdivision go up on this land, so this is kind of a good option.”

“I know a couple men here are hoping that maybe you would sell them just enough to put a house on. Maybe somewhere closer to the road because they want to stay and help Timber here, since he can’t run something this big on his own.”

“No, he can’t. I wondered if he had thought about that because it’s pretty easy to have that expectation and then have it get too big on you,” Andy shared.

“That’s kind of what happened to me when I first started farming, then ranching, then family, and suddenly…

it just skyrockets. You need more help in order to get the bills paid.

You need more land to put more into seed and cattle and…

” He shook his head. “It leads to even more. At some point you turn around and realize that you’ve created something so big that it’s no longer yours anymore. … It can be hard.”

She gave him a gentle hug. “It can be hard, but it can also be hard to hand off a big responsibility to somebody else. It can be hard to see another stage in life come and go—but that doesn’t mean any of it is wrong. It just means that it’s all there and happening, and that’s good too.”

He gave her a bright smile. “Maybe I just needed to hear somebody say it was okay to let go.”

“It’s definitely okay to let go,” she declared.

Then Timber and Toby joined them, Dwight still with the newly arrived horses for now.

Timber announced, “Andy, we’ve got the horses unloaded. Do you want to stay and have a cup of coffee? Or see where we’ve got them settled and say goodbye to any of them?”