Read Online Built to Last (Harlequin Heartwarming) by Janice Kay Johnson - Free Book Online Page A

she’d expected, but maybe that was because they weren’t normal children, either of them. Death shadowed both, in different ways, subduing them. Making them more thoughtful, Jo would have liked to think, but the truth was, Emma seemed to think and talk about little except food and how fat she was. Except, Jo amended, when Emma was with Ginny—then she seemed more child than teenager.
    In the fourth block, Ginny stopped. “Oh!”
    Her favorite word, Jo thought dryly, before she saw the sign, too, easily read even by a first grader. In block print painted on cardboard, it read, Free Kittens.
    “Can we look at them?” Ginny whispered.
    Sensing dangerous territory, Jo hesitated. “Uh…”
    “Sure,” Emma said, hurrying forward with the smaller girl towed behind. “We can ask anyway.”
    “I’m not sure that’s a good idea….” Jo called after them, lengthening her steps to catch up.
    But they had already turned up the narrow driveway, where they’d spotted a boy shooting baskets into a hoop that hung crookedly above the garage door.
    Bang! The garage door rattled when he missed, and Ginny jerked and tried to stop. Determined Emma hauled her onward.
    “Hi!” she said.
    The lanky boy, who had to be close to her age, turned at the sound of her voice. Dribbling the ball, he said, “Hi.” His gaze went to Jo, behind the girls. Warily, he asked, “Um…you looking for somebody?”
    “You have a sign for free kittens. Can we see them?”
    His face cleared. “We only have one left, but you can look at him, if you want. We really need to find him a home. Dad said any of the kittens that didn’t get homes by this weekend have to go to Animal Control.”
    “We’re not really looking for one,” Jo felt compelled to say.
    “Maybe Mom would let us,” Emma said, making Ginny’s tipped-up face hopeful.
    Jo couldn’t imagine. Kathleen didn’t strike her as a woman who’d like having a kitten clawing the furniture and hanging from the blinds and shedding on her pillow.
    “Does your mother like cats?” she asked doubtfully.
    “Sure. We used to have a Persian. He died of cancer. The vet said they do a lot.”
    A Persian. Well, they did shed, she supposed, but she wondered if they ever dangled from window blinds. In every photo she’d ever seen, the Persian was neatly composed on a velvet pillow, apparently content to gaze vacuously at the world.
    The boy let the basketball fall. “He’s under a bush in the backyard, I think. Come on.” He started around the corner of the house, beneath a huge bush with shiny green leaves that seemed to be blocking one of the windows in the house.
    “Are you spaying the mother cat?” Jo asked. She had never been an animal person, but in her opinion, you shouldn’t have a pet you couldn’t adequately care for. And keeping a female cat from having endless, unwanted litters of kittens seemed like basic care.
    “Dad said we could keep her if I can earn the money to pay for her spaying. I mow lawns. Hey!” He looked eagerly over his shoulder. “Do you need yours mowed?”
    The gate hung crookedly on bent hinges.He had to scrape it across the concrete walk to open it. Jo winced.
    “No, but we’re remodeling the house. We might be able to pay you to haul debris out to the Dumpster, that kind of thing.” She’d pay him out of her own pocket until that cat was spayed.
    The backyard could have used mowing, but Dad apparently didn’t care. Dandelions were displacing the original sod. The handle of a mower stuck out of a rusting metal shed that seemed to be otherwise full of junk. Jo was beginning to think the boy had way more initiative than his father.
    “Kitty, kitty, kitty!” the boy called.
    At a tiny meow, Jo turned. A creamsicle orange-and-white ball of fluff walked out from under an overgrown rhododendron.
    “Oh,” Ginny breathed happily.
    The kitten picked its way through grass that reached over its back, the tail a flag, waving high. Even Jo felt a dangerous