Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Chapter Sixteen

       Chapter Seventeen

       Chapter Eighteen

       Chapter Nineteen

       Chapter Twenty

       Copyright

       Chapter One

      Laramie, Texas

      “I need a favor.”

      Sam Navarro looked at the dark-haired beauty standing in the doorway of the exam room and felt the familiar jolt to his system. It had been five years since he and Robin Taylor had broken up. She’d married someone else. Divorced. Three months ago she had moved onto the ranch next door to his, and had started a business refurbishing old whiskey barrels and wagon wheels. But he hadn’t seen her since the move—was she avoiding him?

      He’d become a veterinarian, joined a practice in the town where they’d both grown up, and been engaged—twice—to other women. And yet he was still carrying a torch for the slender thirty-two year old with the intense green-blue eyes. Go figure. Sam went back to examining the stray beagle-collie mix someone had brought to the clinic at closing. “I’m listening.”

      Robin stepped all the way into the exam room, the fragrance of her lilac soap and shampoo overriding the smells of dog, disinfectant and antiseptic. She crossed her arms. “I understand you have a new litter of golden retriever puppies.”

      Sam stopped to remove a tick, dropping it into a glass tube for later examination. “Born four weeks ago.”

      Finding the pup in otherwise good health, if a bit on the thin side, Sam led the thirty-five pound stray to the back for a bath and flea treatment.

      Robin trailed after them. “I’d like to arrange a visit.”

      Sam lifted the dog into the tub and secured his lead. “Sorry.” He turned on the warm water and used the showerhead to wet down his patient. “The pups from that litter are all spoken for.”

      Robin leaned against the far wall, her eyes glued to the action. “Oh, I didn’t want to buy one. I just wanted to borrow one for a little bit.”

      “Borrow?” Sam echoed, shampooing the mutt thoroughly.

      Robin edged close enough he could feel her body heat and she smiled down at the shivering mutt. “You may have heard I signed up to foster a little girl?”

      “Molly Russell.” Age eight. “She lost her mom a year and a half ago.”

      “Right. And since then Molly’s been in three different foster homes.”

      Sam toweled off the dog, and then led him back to the kennels in the back, where full food and water bowls were already waiting. “A shame she wasn’t adopted by any of them.”

      He petted the stray encouragingly, then shut him in his run for the night

      “The families all wanted to take Molly in at first,” Robin explained.

      Sam saw a flash of worry. “But Molly would have none of it.”

      A brief nod. “The social worker thinks Molly might do better in a single-parent family, since previously she was raised by a single mom.”

      Ahhh. “Which is where you come in,” Sam guessed, not surprised to find that Robin had no more desire to marry than he did.

      Robin raked her teeth across her soft lower lip. “And since kids who’ve encountered difficulties early in life sometimes connect better with animals than humans, I thought having a puppy around might help her adjust.”

      Sam led the way back to the lobby, switching off lights as he went. “When does Molly move in with you?”

      “Saturday afternoon. So what do you think?” she asked. “Can I borrow a puppy just for a little bit?”

      Sam shook his head.

      Robin looked surprised—as she always did when things did not immediately go her way.

      “It would hurt the pup psychologically to be separated from her mother and the rest of the litter,” Sam stated soberly. “But you and Molly can come over and visit them if you like. Although I can’t say I would recommend that, either.”

       Chapter Two

      After all this time, Sam still had the ability to turn Robin’s heart inside out. Maybe because she had never gotten over him, never stopped wishing that she’d had what it took to say yes to his proposal. But she hadn’t. And like it or not, they both had to deal with that. Not afraid to square off with him, she stepped closer. “Why don’t you think I should bring Molly over to see the puppies?”

      Sam locked the front door and strode back to his private office. “She’ll fall in love with them.”

      Robin hurried to catch up, feeling as dwarfed by his tall, sturdy frame as ever. “You don’t know that.”

      Sam stopped and shrugged out of his lab coat, looking very handsome in a rugged, all-male way. “Obviously, you’ve never spent time with golden retriever puppies,” he drawled.

      Robin pushed aside her reaction to his overwhelmingly sexy presence. “It’s not my fault my younger brother was allergic to dogs. I’ve never had much exposure to them.”