LITMIR.BIZ

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now. They looked sleek and fat when I got here, but I give them some dry cat food in the tack room anyway, in case they have a bad mouse day. There’s three of them, and they come running at kittykittykitty in the morning.”

      She gave him an assessing look. He might be from a wealthy ranching family: the son of the infamously cold and calculating Gus Langford. But from what the younger vet tech in the clinic said, with a good dose of hero worship in her eyes, he’d had a stellar rodeo career with many a championship.

      And he still had a soft heart.

      “Good. I want to see the colt one last time, in two weeks. Withhold the cat food the day before so they’ll be even more eager, then close them in the tack room for me and we can take care of them then.”

      She whistled to the dog and patted her thigh, signaling for the animal to follow her out to her truck. But the stray looked between her and Tate, then slunk over to him, draped herself over the toes of his boots and looked up at him with pure longing.

      “Wait.” He looked down into Lucy’s pleading eyes and felt his heart melt. “About this dog. What’s going to happen to her? She won’t be put down, will she?”

      Sara drew in a sharp breath, shocked at his words. “Of course not. I’ll…I’ll need to keep her at the clinic while I try to find her a good home.”

      “Which won’t be easy.”

      “Not for a pregnant dog, no,” Sara admitted. She caught the compassionate look in his eyes and hid a smile. She already knew where this was heading and it gave her a tentative sense of relief.

      “Of course, the clinic isn’t ideal for her,” she added somberly. “With all of the stress of the other dogs barking at every sound and strangers around her all day. Poor thing. Not good for the puppies, either.”

      “Maybe you could leave her here. With me.”

      Sara frowned. “Just as a loose stray, you mean? I really can’t—”

      “No. 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.

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