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Miles winced and hobbled to a stop. His chest heaved as he bent over and massaged his treacherous left thigh and calf, a bead of sweat trickling down his temple.
The physiotherapist had warned him he’d still get muscle spasms from time to time.
The rain intensified. He frowned at the sky.
The storm had arrived much faster than he’d anticipated.
It took a couple of minutes for the pangs in his leg to fade. He was about to start jogging again when he heard a faint cry.
Miles tensed, his gaze swinging to the woods lining the footpath on his left. He was in a park on the edge of a residential area. The nearest thoroughfare wasn’t busy. What little traffic he’d encountered that morning had already died down.
Bar the pitter-patter of the falling rain and the sound of his own heartbeat, he couldn’t hear anything.
Did I imagine it?
A boom shook the heavens, startling him. Lightning flashed far off to his right. Miles eyed the tree tops in the park warily.
I should get out of here.
He turned and had barely taken two steps when something yelped and whimpered in a clump of bushes under a tree, some fifteen feet from his position. Miles stared at the undergrowth, his pulse thrumming in his veins.
The whimper came again.
It sounded like a wounded animal.
Miles hesitated before stepping under the cover of the trees and heading over to where he’d heard the noise. He carefully parted the thicket.
A pair of sad, soulful blue eyes stared up at him.
They belonged to a black German Shepherd puppy. He looked to be about two months old and sat shivering miserably in a wet cardboard box, briar clinging to his fur.
Miles looked around. Bar an elderly couple seeking shelter in the gazebo by a small lake, it was empty.
The dog whimpered again. Miles’s heart twisted.
“Hey there, buddy,” he said softly.
The puppy’s ears pricked. He stayed still as Miles reached down and picked him up. Alarm clenched Miles’s belly when the rain washed away a trace of blood from his fur.
The puppy had a nasty cut on his leg.
Miles cradled him to his chest. “You’re going to be okay.”
The dog sagged in his arms, as if he’d been waiting a long time to hear those words. He hesitated before stretching his head and carefully licking Miles’s chin.
Warmth flooded Miles’s chest.
He shielded the dog with his arm and headed out of the park.
CHAPTER3
Logan Prescott signedthe contract and passed it over to the realtor.
Kelsey Dunn smiled at him across the desk. “Congratulations, Mr. Prescott. I’ll get you the keys to your new home next week.”
Relief drained some of Logan’s tension away.
It finally felt like he could call Twilight Falls his home.
