As…as…my own dog.”
She caught the slight hesitation in his voice. “If you don’t really want to give her a permanent, loving home, I won’t leave her here. It’s a commitment for her lifetime, you know.”
“Right.”
“You said you weren’t going to stay in Montana for very long. What will happen to her then?”
He seemed to give that a moment’s thought, then nodded decisively. “She’ll come with me. I haven’t had a travel buddy with me for years, and I think she’ll be exactly right.”
“I usually don’t like taking people up on their snap decisions. I can keep her for you, if you want to think about this for a week or so.”
“Not necessary. And you don’t have a good space for her and her pups right now, anyway. Right? I can fix a warm bed for her in the house.”
“I have no idea if she’s been housebroken. I’d guess not.”
“I’ll work with her.”
Sara bit her lower lip. “Promise you’ll give her back to me if you change your mind?”
“That won’t happen. What about her vet care? Do you know if she’s up to date on everything?”
“If you’d seen where she came from, you wouldn’t even ask.”
“So where do I start?”
“Gestation averages right around two months. At thirty-five days I usually recommend putting a pregnant dog on dry puppy food for its extra nutrition, about twice the amount of food she would usually have.” Sara eyed Lucy thoughtfully. “I don’t know exactly how many days along she is, but she’s obviously getting close and she’s undernourished. Can you get into town soon? The feed mill or grocery store might carry it, though what we have at the clinic is a lot better and more expensive. She’ll need to be on it until she stops nursing.”
“Of course.”
“While you’re in town, you can pick up some wormer too. We usually deworm ten days before whelping, then every three weeks while the dog is still nursing.”
“Shots?”
“We need to wait on her vaccinations until after the pups arrive. There’s no risk for them at that point.” His concern about Lucy’s welfare was reassuring, and she knew she’d made the right choice leaving Lucy in his care. She knelt down and ran her hands over Lucy’s swollen flanks. “Since her history is pretty sketchy, you might also want her to have a postnatal exam and have the pups examined, as well. I could come back out, or you could bring them to the clinic.”
“Gotcha. Anything else?”
“Check the clinic website and print off our flyer on raising puppies.” She picked up her satchel. “If she has any problems, or you have any questions, just call. Oh—and take off that choke collar she’s been wearing and get her a nylon web or leather collar with a buckle.”
“I will. Thanks.”
He held on to the dog when Sara headed for her truck. When she glanced in the rearview mirror as she drove away, he was kneeling beside Lucy and stroking her ragged coat.
Sara felt her heart warm at the gentleness she remembered so well.
As a senior she’d tried to distract her parents by dating the wildest boy in town—hoping they would finally stop fighting and stop threatening each other with divorce if they were worried about her for once.
The wild and irresponsible son of the county’s richest rancher, Tate had been the perfect choice, but he was one of the coolest kids in high school and she hadn’t been one of the pretty, popular girls. Studious, shy and awkward, she’d fumbled over her words more often than not.
Even her best friends had told her she was crazy, but still she’d gathered her courage, tried to emulate the popular girls and shyly flirted with him.
To her utter amazement he actually asked her out, and during the following months she’d found more depth, kindness and character in him than she’d ever thought possible given his reputation.
But her stupid plan failed.
Her parents split anyway—for the third time. And her guilt had grown.
She’d been a fraud. A liar. She’d tried to use someone who deserved far, far better.
And in the process she’d developed the world’s biggest crush on a boy who could learn the truth about her plan at any moment from any one of her so-called friends…and then he’d never believe that she really and truly cared. That she loved him.
She’d drowned in misery before finally blurting out the truth, knowing that he had trusted her, cared about her—and that what she had done was unforgivable. She’d deceived him, and along the way, had deceived herself.
He’d stared at her for a long moment. Then he’d walked away as if she’d meant nothing, and her heart had broken into a thousand pieces.
Seeing him at school the next day with other girls fawning all over him had poured acid on her broken heart until she thought she would die. But it taught her a good lesson.
Loving someone—commitment—wasn’t something she’d dared risk.
Courtesy of her parents, she’d seen how miserable marriage could be, how infidelities and lies could tear a family apart, how forgiveness and second chances just led to even more pain in the future.
And losing someone she loved was more painful than she could bear.
So she’d turned to what mattered most to her parents. The accomplishments that proved her worth, the tangible evidence of success.
A bachelor’s.
Master’s.
And then a professional degree—though she’d rebelled and defiantly gone her own route, on that score.
Tate had clearly grown up to be a kind and caring person, and it would be far too easy to fall for him all over again. But there was no point in letting her imagination run wild where he was concerned.
She already knew how easy it was to love him. How easily it could all end. She would need to guard her heart well or it would be broken all over again.
Jess burst out laughing over supper at the main ranch house a few hours later. “You did what?”
“Adopted a dog,” Tate repeated. “Have a problem with that?”
“No. Not at all. I just never thought I’d see Mr. Footloose and Fancy-Free taking on any kind of responsibility—not even for a dog. You’ve always said that you wanted absolutely nothing to tie you down. Ever.”
Tate glared at him over the rim of his coffee mug. “I’m now realizing
