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“This is Kody the Gunder-dog. He belongs to a good friend of mine, Maggie Gunderson. I’ve dog-sat for him several times. Kody can be a bit mischievous. Though I haven’t ever known him to wander away from home before. I’m almost certain he never has. He’s pretty good about staying on their property. He sticks pretty close to Maggie and the kids.” She stood after accepting the dog’s enthusiastic greeting. She just laughed. Those eyes met Sean’s, she still had a smile on her face, and it was like she was justhisfor that one instant.
Capturing Sean’s heart forever, if he was a fanciful kind of man.
There was something about her when she turned to him. Something that reminded him of the older woman he adored so much. Around the jawline, maybe. The shape of the eyes. Certainly the same sleek blond hair, though LaDonna’s natural color was a bit darker. And far shorter. The smile, though, very, very similar.
Perhaps, they were related. It was Masterson, Wyoming where he was. LaDonna had been born here in Masterson County, after all. So had that husband of hers.
Thoughts ofFredwere all it took to have him getting back on track. For good, this time.
“I’m Sean Sutton. I’m actually just driving through. I’m with the US Marshals service. And you are?”
“I’m Dusty. I’m the vet tech here. Welcome to Masterson.”
Sean stepped back. Before he did something insane, like…asked her to dinner while he was in town, or something. This woman, hell, she was probably only a year or two older than little Dylan.
“I’m not exactly certain what I should do about this dog.” He didn’t want to overstay his welcome. He was in town for a purpose, after all. “Unfortunately, I am on a schedule. I don’t have time to assume responsibility for him.”
The Browns were his job now. He wouldn’t do anything to screw that up. Of all the families he had ever handled, they mattered to him. They had been the first he’d worked with right after his own divorce.
He’d gotten attached. To LaDonna and the girls anyway. More than any others,LaDonnamattered. Sean would never do anything to let that woman down, to hurt her in any way.
“I’ll take care of him. You can leave him here. I’ll call his people. and I…we’re soulmates, after all.” She stroke the dog’s head with the most feminine, graceful hand Sean had ever seen. “I’ve known him since he was a puppy. He’s the love of my life.”
This woman was perfection.
Absolute and utter perfection. And she made him feel young again. Alive.
The way he hadn’t in a long time. No, he didn’t regret this delay, not at all. He left the dog with her and got back to his life. She had made his day.
He climbed into his rental, a small smile on his face. He wouldn’t forget her, the beautiful woman with the golden laugh. Not for a long time.
It was nice to feel like a man again, if only for a few moments.
He’d thought his ex-wife had robbed him of that ability forever.
Speaking of…Sean pulled out his phone. Texted his boys a picture he’d taken of the dog, with the message he’d made a friend. And would call the boys before bed tonight.
He missed those three little monsters.
Sean just didn’t get to be with them enough.
12
Sunlight glinted off the knife before Harry plunged it into the man in front of him. He never thought he would become a killer—but to defend the gorgeous blond woman he had loved for longer than he had ever realized, he would do it again and again.
He had to get Dusty to safety. To keep her safe from this monster who’d tried to killher.
There was nothing Harry wouldn’t do to keep Dusty safe. Forever. All he wanted was to keep her safe until the day he died. She was his world, after all.
Harry didn’t know how it had happened, but it had. The woman meanteverythingto him. And always would.
He just hoped he’d get the chance to tell Dusty that—
Ben’s apartmentwent dark before he could erase the Freudian slip of the fingertips and replace Dusty’s name for Sasha’s.
Again. She’d done it to him again.
Dusty just kept creeping her way into his work. His every waking thought. And ninety percent of his dreams on top of that.
