Rebecca resented how busy he was. How much time he spent at the clinic and invested in the animal shelter. How he’d leave in the middle of dinner if there was an emergency. That day when she told him to meet her on the pier or else, he had to make a choice. Sure, the pittie with the torn ACL needed surgery, but it wasn’t a life-or-death situation. He didn’t have to drop everything the instant the phone call came in.
But he did.
Even knowing Rebecca was waiting for what might very well be the last time.
And it was.
“Marc, I didn’t realize today was your day.” Sadie lit up at the sight of him—something else he was still adjusting to. But he didn’t squirm so much when she threw her arms around him and squeezed him in a hug. “Boomer’s getting a brother! Or at least I hope he is. Today’s the meet-and-greet with Bowzer.”
“They’ll hit it off.”
Sadie squinted her eyes at him, as if studying him too closely for comfort. “Are you . . . smiling?”
“Don’t get used to it,” he grumbled. “I have a reputation to uphold.”
Sadie playfully rolled her eyes at him as she pulled out her phone to check the incoming chime. “Right. Grump of the Year.”
Marc stole a glimpse at his sister’s left hand.No ring yet.But his attention quickly shifted to the phone she held. That familiar unsettling feeling returning. He’d bitten his tongue many times this past month. Or maybe, more truthfully, he’d chickened out. “Hey,” he said, uncertain of the right words. “Any chance—”
“No.” Sadie’s answer was immediate but gentle, saving him from voicing the words that were hard enough to think, much less speak. “I didn’t reach out, like I promised. Not that I could if I wanted to anymore. She actually blocked me.”
Marc had been furious with Sadie when she first confessed she’d reached out to his ex. But as time went on, it forced him to sort through the past. To confront everything he’d shoved way down. Like the fact that Rebecca essentially resented who he was at his core. He wasn’t going to sacrifice his identity for anyone, no matter how strong his feelings might be for them. It was time to fully accept that their relationship was never meant to work. To let go once and for all. “That’s probably for the best.”
“I’m sorry—”
“Don’t be.” They hadn’t spoken much about this since the night Conner passed out in Dad’s uncomfortable recliner, hoping he hadn’t lost Sadie. It was that night that Marc finally grasped the meaning of love. Thetruemeaning. Conner’s devotion taught him a thing or two when he was convinced he already knew it all. He and Rebecca never had that conviction. Not really. “It’s in the past now. Where it belongs.”
“Are you—” Sadie studied him again, that mischievous twinkle dancing in her eyes. “Are you ready to date again?”
Before Marc could clarify that he wasnotin fact ready to date again—not now, maybe not ever—Conner joined them in the back with Boomer. The pup’s loud, thundering bark saving Marc from dodging any ideas Sadie might offer when it came to eligible women in Sunset Ridge. The pup went for Sadie first, then Marc.
“Maybe you should get a cat?” Sadie suggested.
“A cat?”
“You’re gone a lot. Cats are self-sufficient. Plus, a brooding, grumpy man who cuddles a cat? Practically a chick magnet.”
“Good luck,” Marc said to Conner, taking his cue to leave them be before things got any stranger.
“With who?” Conner asked. “The dogs or—”
“Don’t even say it,” Sadie cut him off, playfully tapping his arm. Before Marc could reach the door, the two were lip locked.
He left them to their moment, knowing Boomer and Bowzer would hit it off instantly. There was nothing more to do here. Not when Daisy, the drama queen that she was, needed a nail trim.
Inside, Marc heard the light hum of voices and slipped quietly into the room with the kennels. Though he could spend all day talking to animals, he had a much shorter tolerance for people. If he could finish his rounds here mostly unnoticed by the volunteers, that would be a win in his book.
“Hi!” a cheerful voice erupted, startling Marc and rocking him back a step. “You must be Dr. Evans. I’m Taylor. Taylor Hart. I’m the new volunteer. I just moved to Sunset Ridge a few days ago. Dani told me to come help you with Daisy.”
When he turned, he was met immediately with an outstretched hand. Taylor stood all of five foot two, maybe three. Her megawatt smile was powerful enough to light up the town in a blackout; it was positively blinding. It nearly gave him a headache to look at it.
“When someone offers you their hand, the proper thing to do is to shake it,” she added, not deterred in the least by his hesitation.
“Right. Excuse my manners.” He accepted her hand, all too fascinated by the way her soft, petite fingers felt against his rough palm. He tugged his hand free two seconds later and shoved it in his lab coat pocket. “I won’t need help with Daisy,” he said, eager to be rid of Taylor. To distance himself from the unsettling feelings stirring inside him. Her chipper demeanor was too much today. He suspected it would be too much onanyday. “Why don’t you see if Dani needs help somewhere else?”
“She was pretty insistent I help you.” Taylor leaned to one side, looking around Marc at the kennel behind him. “Is that her?” she gushed, softly clapping her hands together when her gaze landed on the pup.
“Yes.”
