by Traci Hall
Table of Contents
Dedication
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
Chapter Twenty-One
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Find your Bliss with these great releases… Romancing His Rival
How to Seduce a Bad Boy
Cowboys Need Not Apply
Dating for Keeps
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Traci Hall. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
Entangled Publishing, LLC
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Suite 105, PMB 159
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Bliss is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.
Edited by Alethea Spiridon
Cover design by Bree Archer
Cover photography by Vadymvdrobot and mythja/DepositPhotos
ISBN 978-1-64063-764-1
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition February 2019
Dear Reader,
Thank you for supporting a small publisher! Entangled prides itself on bringing you the highest quality romance you’ve come to expect, and we couldn’t do it without your continued support. We love romance, and we hope this book leaves you with a smile on your face and joy in your heart.
xoxo
Liz Pelletier, Publisher
To Christopher Hawke, with love
Chapter One
“Stay,” Emma Mercer commanded, following the word with a hand signal—her palm up as she faced her emotional support dogs, four varied breeds she’d rescued from the shelter and trained for another lease on life.
Ready to wrap up her presentation, she stood on the auditorium stage at Kingston Middle School in front of seventy restless sixth graders who just wanted to pet the pups.
The dogs on the far end of the wooden stage sat on their haunches, noses and ears up. Lulu, a beagle mix with long ears; a Maltese named Princess; and a mutt of indiscernible breed she’d dubbed Sheldon—but not her latest trainee. The three-year-old golden Lab, all sixty-five pounds of rambunctious love, was mesmerized by the kids in the audience.
Emma gave a warning snap of her clicker to keep the dog in place, but Zelda eyed a little girl in the front row and wagged her tail, adding a hopeful woof.
The girl waved.
Zelda barked and scooted on her butt toward the edge of the stage, inch by inch, as if Emma might not notice. Ditching the clicker, Emma brought out the whistle and gave two trill bursts. The Lab stopped as if playing freeze tag and sent Emma a guilty and apologetic whine. She slowly crawled toward Emma despite the whistled command to stay.
The kids laughed, and Emma’s cheeks heated.
Part of the ESD canine certification was that the dog had to follow the rules no matter what else was going on. My mistake—the pup wasn’t ready. Emma tugged the dog’s leash closer to her leg. “Sit, Zelda.”
With a groan and a tongue loll, Zelda did, collapsing against Emma’s calf. The kids laughed harder. “Good girl,” she said softly.
Twenty-eight and never married, Emma had a master’s degree in psychology, with her emphasis on therapy animals, as she worked toward her doctorate. Emma had been called to the school three years ago because Mrs. Mosher, the health teacher, had a student with special needs that required a therapy dog. Educating people about support dogs was the project of Emma’s heart, and starting with kids she considered a fun bonus.
“Is Zelda in trouble?” a young boy with braces shouted from the second row.
“No.” Emma smiled at the students, holding Zelda’s leash with one hand and keeping her palm up toward the three dogs still waiting to be released from her “stay” command. “I use positive reinforcement when training these animals.” She dug a treat from her khakis’ pocket, looked down at Zelda and said, “Sit.”
Zelda stopped wiggling and sat straight so Emma gave the Lab the kibble. “Good pup.” She turned back to the kids. “Zelda here will need more training before I can match her with the right person.”
“What if you can’t?” a girl from the fourth row asked.
“Raise your hand, please,” Mrs. Mosher instructed. “Go ahead, Hannah.”
“What happens to the dogs if they never learn? Do you send them to the pound to die?”
Emma sighed. It was just one of those days when nothing went smoothly, starting with the dead battery in her SUV, to spilling coffee on her shirt, to Zelda’s exuberance. “No. We don’t do that.”
Which was why she needed that government grant approved, in order to build her training shelter. “Even if for some reason the dog can’t be certified for use in therapy, at Heart to Heart Kennel we place the animal in a loving home.”
Mrs. Mosher called on another child. “Matthew?”
“Can a support dog help with bad dreams?” a boy asked.
As Emma considered how best to answer, Zelda strained against her leash to join the pack at the far end of the stage—Princess’s brown ears twitched, but Lulu didn’t budge. Emma gave a quick two-trill whistle to remind the pups to stay.
“Nightmares can be scary,” Emma said, and agreement rose in a murmur from the other children. “A family pet can snuggle with you and take away the bad feelings. What I do with my emotional support dogs is train them to counter distress in people with certain…anxieties that keep them from living a full life.”
She liked to keep things light at the middle school and didn’t go into accidents, war, or abduction. “If you’d like more information, I have brochures for you to share with your parents at home. Mrs. Mosher? If your students would like to pet the dogs now, have them get in single file and I will keep the pups here on the stage.”
It was a routine they’d done a half dozen times before. She held up her palm and walked toward the dogs, not including Zelda, giving each pup a treat and a pat of assurance. The trio waited calmly as Mrs. Mosher had the kids form a line.
A man slipped inside the auditorium as if trying not to disturb the class. His silhouette against the closed door showed melded-on jeans, a fitted T-shirt, the biceps of a male in his prime. Her mouth dried, and she cleared her throat, self-conscious in her baggy polo shirt and sneakers.
“Hi. Go ahead and scratch behind Sheldon’s ears,” she told the boy with braces. “He loves it.” She handed each student a brochure that advertised her kennel and services, while suggesting a donation for the local Kingston animal shelter.
A boy about eleven, all big teeth and ears, in a gray T-shirt and jeans, patted Sheldon’s fur. “How much does this dog cost?”
“Doesn’t matter if they were free, Matty. Let’s go.”
The man with the muscles had navigated the auditorium in quiet strides and crossed his arms at the bottom of the stairs, his
smooth jaw tight. Short hair, light brown, and a profile that dredged up memories of high school with a sickening twist to her stomach. He studied the boy and not Emma, which was good because her hands shook. Zelda, picking up on her emotions, whined at her feet. If she’d been able to think, she would have clicked to reward the intuitive behavior.
She snuck a glance as she bent down to pet Zelda. Jackson Hardy. He’d broken her heart, ending their relationship after graduation to run off and join the military.
His solid chest was much broader than it had been when he’d played football as a teen. She never thought she’d see him again, other than in her most secret dreams.
The boy looked longingly at the brochures, but after glancing at the man, he stuffed his hands in his pockets as he went down the stairs where Mrs. Mosher waited.
“I was just asking, Uncle Jackson,” the boy said.
“Don’t talk back,” Jackson admonished in a low tone. “You’ve got some reading homework to do.” He turned to Mrs. Mosher. “He should have been catching up in study hall rather than wasting time here playing with animals.”
Mrs. Mosher’s wrinkled cheeks flushed at the rebuke. “Matthew has done well in my class and earned this reward.”
Jackson put his hand on his nephew’s narrow shoulder as he spoke to the teacher. Emma was close enough to hear but hoped the other kids wouldn’t notice. “I was just talking with the principal. Seems he’s behind the rest of his class in reading.”
Mrs. Mosher removed her glasses to peer at Jackson over her long nose. “And you are?”
“Jackson Hardy, Matty’s uncle. My sister was in a car accident.” His jaw clenched tight. “I’ll be filling in for this last week of school.” He ruffled the boy’s hair. “Guess what you’ll be doing this summer?”
Zelda rumbled a protest from the stage.
“Hush,” Emma said to Zelda as her heart went out to the boy. His mom had been hurt? She remembered Livvie, with long brown hair and a camera around her neck. She’d been two years ahead of them and had watched over Jackson after the death of their parents.
At Jackson’s urging, the boy mumbled something that sounded like a goodbye to Mrs. Mosher. The military had molded the man. Straight posture, polite. A soldier. So different than her memory of him joking with his friends after football games. How she’d loved running her fingers along his sensitive nape—it always made him laugh.
He’d been her first love, the one to show her the stars over the beach, just the two of them wrapped in a blanket on a bed of smooth, oval river rock, protected by the sand dunes and driftwood. Like all first loves, she’d believed they’d have forever, but he’d left her without a backward glance.
Now, ten years later, she wasn’t even a blip on Jackson’s radar as he thanked the teacher and urged his nephew up the aisle toward the exit of the auditorium. Emma sank her fingers into Zelda’s coat in an exchange of solace.
With effort, she peeled her gaze from Jackson’s incredible backside and handed out brochures. His slight shouldn’t hurt and yet…it was a solid reminder of why, most of the time, she preferred animals to people.
…
Jackson Hardy hesitated at the auditorium door, the tingling at the back of his neck hard to ignore. The last ten years in the Marines had trained him to trust his instincts, and he clasped his nephew’s shoulder. “Hey, wait a sec.”
Matty shrugged free and glared up at him.
Jackson peered into the bright lights at the auditorium stage, but there was no danger—only dogs and giggling children. The sensation at the back of his neck was probably Mrs. Mosher glaring daggers into his back. He might have been a little abrupt with the older teacher and with Matty.
He’d just come from Swedish Hospital where his older sis was laid out on a hospital bed, hooked up to all kinds of tubes, her head shaved—he’d agreed when the doctor suggested a medically induced coma as a way to keep her alive until the swelling went down and they could find the tiny bleed before it killed her. So, yeah, he might have been short, but he was barely holding on. He’d do anything for Livvie. Which included trying to figure out how to be in charge of his nephew and run a home rather than training his men overseas.
“What?” Matty shuffled into the quiet hall. Once the bell rang it would be an eruption of kids, and Jackson had no intention of being caught in the tide.
“Nothin’.” He gave one last look into the dark. “I’ve got Mitch’s truck.” Jackson let the auditorium door close and led the way to the front entrance of the middle school and the parking lot. He’d been in Kingston a week to the day, and the transition hadn’t been easy for either of them.
The doc, as well as Bonnie, Livvie’s best friend, had suggested limited visitation for Matty because of the scare factor, and Jackson remembered damn good and well how it felt to be suddenly orphaned.
Jackson forced himself to relax. “Tell you what. Let’s go get an ice cream before you hit the books.”
Chapter Two
One week later
Emma rolled her windows down to enjoy the pine-scented summer breeze as she drove home from Kingston Animal Shelter. On the way, she passed the property she dreamed of owning to expand Heart to Heart Kennel. The gold and blue For Sale sign sat on the edge of the road as a daily reminder. Someday, she thought.
She parked in front of her seventies rancher after her morning shift where she’d accepted a Pomeranian that might be a good fit for the ESD program. Joy turned to apprehension as she realized that the barking from the kennel wasn’t the usual “welcome home” greeting from her dogs.
Emma raced for the chain link gate that separated the house from the converted dog kennel. Bandit’s deep growl, Princess’s high yip—and there—Pedro’s chest-rumbling woof. Something is definitely wrong. Emma hurried through the gate toward the closed door and pulled down on the silver padlock, her fingers slick with nervous perspiration. It was already undone.
She shouldered the door open and ducked inside the dark garage. Cool air shocked her summer-hot skin, and she flipped the light switch on with a shiver. Barks chorused in a painful cacophony as Emma blinked to bring the room into focus. She sensed she wasn’t alone.
Her fingers dropped to her pants pockets. No cell phone, no keys. In her rush, she’d left them in the SUV.
Her eyes finally adjusted to the interior light, and she made out a rust-colored shadow kneeling at the far end of the garage. The space between the lines of kennels was wide open, so there was nowhere for the person in camouflage to hide. The stranger tugged on the door of her newest rescue, a golden retriever mix named Romeo.
Emma’s legs refused to move. Was she interrupting a robbery? Someone trying to harm her dogs? In a commanding tone, she ordered, “Stop!”
The dogs quieted at her command. However, the slight, hunched-over figure with the knit ski mask ignored her and pulled at the handle of the crate. Romeo jumped up inside his crate, his tail wagging, his tongue to the side with excitement. Something glinted in the intruder’s gloved hand, and Emma was torn between running back to the house for help or hustling to Romeo’s aid.
The dog won.
The figure, rushing to get the crate open, dropped the object with a clank against the cement floor.
Emma sprinted by the dog kennels, and the pups barked once more, urging her forward. She neared the person dressed in army green and slowed. “Stop.” It occurred to her that she had no weapon, nothing with which to protect Romeo or herself. “Please.”
Emma reached the last kennel just as the thief yanked back on Romeo’s crate door. Romeo barreled out, happy to see her, trampling his abductor to leap up with his front paws on Emma’s chest. His wet tongue licked her cheek. Romeo was definitely a lover and not a fighter.
“Down,” she ordered firmly. “Sit.”
Romeo, ears at attention, sat. So did the would-be kidnapper.
Emma instinctively reached out and peeled back the knit ski mask, revealing the frightened face and eyes of a boy.
“Who are you?” Her voice hitched. “What are you doing here?”
The boy’s chin stuck out in silent mutiny. He looked familiar. Slight of build. Stubborn jaw. “Aren’t you a little young to be a criminal?”
The words came without thought. To be fair, their small town in Washington State, across the Puget Sound from Seattle, had its share of seedy elements. Then she remembered exactly where she’d seen him before and who his uncle was: Jackson Hardy. His mom, Livvie, had been hurt in some sort of an accident.
“What’s your name?” She kept her hand on Romeo’s soft head.
“Matty.”
Behind her, the dogs quieted. She bent down and picked up the metal piece she’d seen drop to the cement floor. It was the end of a wire hanger, sharpened to a point. Her stomach knotted. “Is this how you broke in?”
Why? Had he wanted to free the dogs? The army-green camouflage outfit was a costume, she saw now. A few years old, if the inches of visible ankle and wrist were anything to go by.
Matty averted his eyes, so she dropped to her knees, bringing them nose to nose. “Why did you do this?”
He didn’t talk. His nostrils flared as his breaths came faster. Now that she was calming down from her adrenaline rush, Emma found room for anger. “You had no right to break into my kennel and frighten my dogs. They were scared.”
“I didn’t mean to scare them.”
She held out one hand, palm up. “What did you want?”
Her heart, her wide-open, ridiculously empathetic heart, surged at the tremble of his lower lip. He was trying to keep it together, but obviously something was wrong. How could Livvie’s accident tie in to one of Emma’s dogs?
“You can tell me.”
He looked down, eyes shining with unshed tears. “Can’t.”
Emma sat back on her heels as Romeo broke her “stay” command and joined the boy, nudging the kid’s arm with his black nose. The retriever settled his muzzle on the boy’s lap and stretched his body between them.
“You know, you can’t just steal a dog because you want one.”
He brushed his cocoa-brown hair off his forehead, scowling and looking just like his uncle. “I know.” Matty gave her an indignant huff. “It’s not for me.” His slim shoulders shrugged, as if stealing for someone else made it okay.
