He unclipped the lead from the dogâs collar, after which Humphrey shook his whole body, clearly relishing the freedom in this, of all places.
Brooke, on the other hand, looked anything but reassured.
âYouâre certain itâs going to be okay for him to run free like that?â She looked unconvinced as she rolled up the blue nylon leash around her hand.
Gage rose, knowing they had precious few minutes leftâand not even private onesâbefore the parking lot started to fill. He wanted to tell her that he liked her hair up. It showed off her slender neck so much that his fingers itched to caress the baby-fine hair there, and her even finer skin. She was exceedingly fair for this time of year, but on her the look worked. However, the sum of all of her delicate parts didnât fool him: inside that petite body was a backbone of pure steel, and a strong will to match it. The irony was, that just made her all the more irresistible.
* * *
Sweet Springs, Texas: Where love springs eternal!
With special thanks to Dolores Dugger, Leslie King,
Gail Reed, Carolyn Bolin, Paula Rogers and Norma Wilkinson for sharing anecdotes, as well as your beloved pets, with me. And to animal lovers everywhere, especially those of you who give the abused and abandoned new hope.
Chapter One
âHumphrey? Here, sweetie. Nice dog. Time to come in now.â
Brooke Bellamy felt like a fool. How the heck did you convince a dog to return to its home when what it wanted wasnât back there?
Although it was almost midnight, and only the first Tuesday in June, it was plenty warm already. Most saneâand luckyâpeople were in their air-conditioned houses, probably in bed. Brooke, however, was spending her third night in Sweet Springs, Texas, trying to make metaphorical lemonade out of lemons.
âOh, no,â she moaned, upon coming to a new hole dug under the chain-link fence. Sheâd just spotted the evidence she most feared: her aunt Marshaâs beloved basset hound had escaped again!
On Sunday morning, seventy-year-old Marsha Newman had fallen in the shower and fractured her right hip. As soon as Brooke had gotten the news, she had packed a suitcase and raced from her house in Turtle Creek in Dallas to her aunt in Central East Texas to offer what assistance that she could. Never would she have dreamed that her life could turn upside down in such short order; life-changing upheaval had occurred not once but twice in a month. Then again, she also hadnât expected it likely that the daughter of business tycoon Damon Bellamy would find herself unemployed!
âHumphrey!â she called in an urgent whisper. âWhere are you? Câmon, boy. Youâd better get back here before you get yourself run over,â she added. Actually, at this hour there wasnât any traffic that she could see or hear, and this Cherokee County town, south of Tyler, only had a population of fewer than four thousand people; but the way her luck was going, she wasnât taking any chances.
How long had she left the not-so-little tubular test on her patience in the backyard in order to take a shower in peace? Not more than ten minutes. Yet for someone who tended to move at the pace of an armadillo, Humphrey must have recognized this as a prime opportunity and had kicked his short legs into gear. Now he was out, and who knew where? Wearing only her sleep shirt, she wasnât exactly dressed to go prowling through the neighborhood in search of the critter. But she would because, heaven forbid that, come morning, she had to return to the hospital to confess to Aunt Marsha that sheâd lost her beloved companion of ten years.
Aiming her LED flashlight toward the double gate, she hurried to open it and check the driveway in case she could see muddy prints to give her new clues as to Humphreyâs whereabouts. Why she expected prints when it hadnât rained in days, and she hadnât yet had a chance to water, was testament to her fatigue and growing anxiety.
âHumphrey, sleepy time. Letâs go in and have a cookie.â
That coercion had worked Sunday night, the first time heâd snuck off, and a variation of it had been successful last night. Not this time, though. Humphrey was a fast learner, even if in dog years he was her auntâs age. Surely dogs didnât get dementia...or could they?
âHumphrey...sit! Stay!â In the past, Aunt Marsha had bragged that a horn blast from a passing freight train couldnât budge her obedient pet once those orders were given. âI guess it depends on whoâs doing the ordering,â she muttered to herself. Then again, the dog would have to be within hearing distance to cooperate.