Ruth Herne - Falling for the Lawman

She took a broad step back, hands raised, a move that negated his step forward. “I have more than a job here. I have a legacy. And I get that most people don’t understand it, but I’ve spent a lot of time seeking faith and guidance on this stuff. I take nothing lightly when it comes to this farm. This family.” She looked left when the laughter of children floated across the dancing grass in need of mowing. “Lucia. Berto. My brothers. The twins. Noreen and Marly in the ice cream shop. Every decision I make affects them, and I can’t afford to make more mistakes.” She backpedaled up the drive and sent him a small smile and a quick wave. “I think your dad’s coming over to work tomorrow. If that’s okay.”

“My father can do whatever he wants.” Zach’s expression said her words surprised him. “He doesn’t need my permission for anything.”

“Does he know that?”

* * *

Aggravation hit him because she was right, and that frustrated him.

He’d been treating his father with kid gloves because of Marty’s health issues, but his father was better now. And Zach had to learn to back off. Be the kid.

And that was hard for a grown man who wore a badge and carried a gun.

He wanted to watch Piper walk to the house.

He didn’t.

He strode up and around the corner, past the pond, not stopping for a cone, or a talk with the kids, or to pet the little goat.

Right now, he wanted to create distance between him and most everything on the planet.

A slight sound caught his attention.

He turned, the late-day shadows playing tricks with his eyes.

The noise came again, imploring. Needy.

Puppies.

His mother had bred golden retrievers for years. He’d know that sound anywhere.

His heart softened, then hardened as he approached a bag tossed alongside the pond. Hard stillness marked one side of the bag, but the movement within the tied sack gave him hope. He bent low, withdrew the sack from the water’s edge and untied it carefully.

Four tiny puppies mewled up at him, eyes shut tight, days old. Tossed aside like yesterday’s garbage.

Someone had weighted the bag with a rock and tossed it into the pond area, but missed the water by inches. Then they’d driven off, leaving the pups to bake in the summer sun.

“What’ve you got there?”

Marty approached him with an ice cream cone in hand, his brows upthrust.

“Puppies.”

“No.” Marty’s face went hard and soft, just like Zach’s had done. “They dumped them?”

“Tried for the pond. Missed.”

“Good thing you came ’round this way,” Marty told him. “I wondered why you didn’t come over for ice cream, but if you had, these little guys would be goners.”

A spark of wisdom nudged Zach. “What can we do with them, Dad?”

“Save ’em, of course.” Marty handed off the cone to Zach and cradled the bag in his arms as if he carried something rare and precious. “Your mother loved puppies.”

“She did.” The regret in his father’s voice stirred up something else inside Zach. “Even though they were a bother.”

“I shouldn’t have said that,” his father confessed as he carried the puppies toward their house. “The dogs were her project. And it was her farm, too. I should have praised that more, because those pups brought in a pretty penny at times when we needed it.”

Marty’s words said Zach wasn’t the only Harrison who harbored regrets. “Mom was pretty independent. I don’t think she was looking for praise.”

“I should have given it, in any case,” Marty told him. “I knew it then, I know it now. Run over to the farm and see if Piper’s got any baby animal supplement. If not, bring me some fresh milk and I’ll condense it to make formula for these guys. And see if she’s got eyedroppers, too.”

Run to the farm?

See Piper?

The woman who’d just brushed him off?

The sight of Marty hunting up a small box, lining it with an old towel, then tucking it into a darkened corner was enough to push Zach across the field. He’d find Piper, make his father’s request and then head home, ready to take her advice. He’d be foolish to waste time searching for common ground. From now on his common ground with Piper McKinney was property lines, drawn by surveyors required for his mortgage.

Neighbors.

That was that. A deck to build was more than enough to fill his vacation time. Backbreaking work under a blazing summer sun would put thoughts of Piper where they belonged: out of sight, out of mind.

* * *

“Puppies? Dumped? Are you kidding me, Zach? Who would do that?”

Piper’s maternal expression put Zach right back in the zone he’d decried not minutes before, which meant he really needed to work harder to put her out of his thoughts. “Dad was wondering if you had anything over here to help raise them. If we can save them, that is.”

“I don’t, but Luke will.” She pulled out her phone, hit a number on her speed dial and was connected to Luke Campbell in seconds.

But it was plenty long enough for Zach to read the writing on the wall.

Campbell liked animals.

He had a cute kid.

He’d been widowed for over two years.

He was a nice guy.

And he had baby puppy formula supplement. That took a first-place blue ribbon right there.

Zach stopped the list of attributes before it grew any longer. If Campbell and Piper were a done deal, he needed to face reality.

Luke and his little boy pulled into Piper’s yard fifteen minutes later. He retrieved a bag of supplies while his son, Aiden, climbed out of the booster seat in back.

Piper approached him, apologetic. “I hope you didn’t have to get Aiden out of bed. One of us―” she nodded in Zach’s direction “―could have come over and picked it up.”

Luke noogied his son’s head. “Bedtime’s late this time of year, and I promised him ice cream. That made hopping into the car a quick deal.”

Piper smiled down at the little boy. “I would do most anything for ice cream, too, kid. Do you want to go play with the girls?”

Aiden shook his head, shy. He leaned into his father’s leg as if seeking support.

“He can hang with us.” Luke sent a smile of approval to the boy. “Where are the puppies?”

“His place.” Piper motioned to Zach as she moved toward the cut-through between the barns. “Zach, do you know Luke?”

“We met at the breast cancer run last October, and on the Whitehorse Café case. And I’m working the bicentennial with your brother Seth.” Zach reached out a hand, shook Luke’s and tried to make his greeting something other than tepid.

He failed. Miserably.

But Luke’s smile said he was oblivious to Zach’s true feelings. “I remember. You busted loose and won the race, and gave the sheriff’s department necessary info to nail the guy who trashed the café. You live over here?”

“Moved in a few weeks ago. I got to meet an old friend of yours, I hear.” Zach squatted to Aiden’s level as he indicated the far barn with a quick look to the right. “Beansy the goat.”

The little boy’s eyes shone. His quick nod made Zach smile. But he stayed quiet, his grip tight on his father’s hand.

They moved into Zach’s house, and Piper winced slightly. “It is hot in here.”

“Hah.” Zach shot her an “I told you so” look that she shrugged off.

“It’s cooler down here,” Marty called. He’d tucked the pups into the second-lowest level of the house.

“Would the basement be better, Dad?” Zach wondered. “It’s even cooler there.”

“Pups this age like eighty degrees,” Marty told them. “My wife bred dogs for years. She was finicky about keeping the temps hiked until they were two weeks old because they lose heat quickly.”