Chapter 2

Josh gritted his teeth and watched from a distance as Sarah spoke to the people surrounding her about problems with their pets. This was church. No one asked for medical advice from Dr. Platt on Sunday. The good doctor was here to worship, and unless it was an emergency, his office was closed. People respected that. Likewise, no one pestered Chuck for legal advice on Sunday. Today, Chuck wasn’t a lawyer; he was just another Christian brother.

But today, both before and after the service, people had found Sarah and asked for advice about their pets’ behavioral issues.

Josh rammed his hands into his pockets and tried not to glare at those who waited not so patiently for their turn to see her.

While he waited, he watched her talking and smiling at everyone who spoke to her.

Since he had nothing else to do but watch and wait, Josh studied Sarah surrounded by the crowd of pet owners. He didn’t know why he hadn’t noticed it before, but Sarah had a beautiful smile. Watching her from a distance, from this different perspective, he was seeing her as others saw her. Just like a model in a magazine, she had high cheekbones that emphasized her lips and smile. Her hair kind of floated around her face, and somehow made that smile even more bright, even without the special lighting in a magazine that made the models prettier than they probably really were.

He wondered what Sarah would say if he told her what he’d been thinking.

“Hey, dude,” a male voice said from beside him. “You’re looking a little left out of the conversation.”

Josh turned to the side to see his friend Stan Wilson approaching, grinning like an idiot. In the past few months, Stan wore that grin a lot. If one could say such a thing about a man without sounding sappy, he would say that since Stan got married, he glowed. In fact, the glow had started the day Stan and Amber got formally engaged and hadn’t stopped.

Josh dragged one hand down his face, and he forced himself to smile. “Hey, dude. Where’s the little woman?”

The glow intensified. Josh nearly groaned.

“Amber’s gone to the ladies’ room. She’ll be back in a few minutes.”

It wasn’t often that Josh felt lost for words, but he couldn’t think of anything to say while he watched everyone else monopolize Sarah’s attention. “How’s married life been treating you?” he asked, more for distraction than because he actually wanted to know. From the way Stan walked around smiling, the answer was a foregone conclusion.

“Good. Great, actually. We should have done it sooner. Why are you asking? You thinking about it?”

Josh nearly choked, then forced himself to keep breathing. “No. Not really. Well, maybe a little. It’s not like I have an aversion to marriage or anything like that. I just haven’t met the right woman yet.” Actually, he’d always assumed that one day God would put that one perfect woman in his path, and he’d soon be that happily married guy with his wife smiling at the door, waiting for him to get home from work, with 2.4 kids and a dog playing in the backyard.

Lately, he’d wondered if realistically that was ever going to happen. At thirty-one, all he had was the dog.

Stan shook his head. “From what I’ve seen, you haven’t been looking that hard.”

Josh shrugged his shoulders, still keeping his hands in his pockets. “I’ve been busy. You know that. Almost every time we see each other on game night, you’re always reminding me that I need more free time.” Although, come to think of it, lately Stan had been missing fairly often from the weekly routine of sports night with the guys. Most of the others had said some uncomplimentary things about Stan forgoing his cherished time with the guys and staying home with the little woman, but deep down, Josh felt a little jealous of his friend.

“I’ve been even busier on weekends lately. Saturdays I’ve had to go to the store two hours before opening so I can help my staff do the stocking. You know what it’s like. On Saturdays, something always goes wrong.”

“You got that right.”

“Then Sunday I have to get up early for church.” Although, really, it wasn’t that early. He just wasn’t going to admit to one of the guys that by the time he got home Saturday, he was simply too tired to do anything. Sunday after church was his time to relax. Most of the time on Sunday afternoons he took Rufus for a long walk to finally have some quiet time, but sometimes he spent the afternoon relaxing with Sarah, who also saw people all day, every day. Lately, Sunday afternoons had been their private quiet time to hide from the rest of the world. Then Monday it was back to the same routine.

“You’re not going to find a woman like that. You have to get out and do stuff.”

“I get out. Tuesdays. With Sarah.”

Stan made a sound halfway between a laugh and a snort. “From what I remember, the farthest you go out on Tuesdays is the drive-thru window.”

“That’s not true. We order Chinese, so I have to go into the restaurant to the counter for pickups.” He snapped his mouth shut as he realized what he’d just admitted. It had been far too long since he’d actually gone out to a restaurant, much less to a restaurant with a woman, and not been a part of a larger crowd. But he had a good reason for always ordering from the same Chinese restaurant every Tuesday. He trusted their ingredients, and that was more important than going somewhere fancy.

“Uh-huh,” Stan muttered.

Josh shook his head. “With the store, I’m surrounded by people all day. In the evenings, I want some peace and quiet.”

Stan made that strange sound again.

Out of the corner of his eye, Josh caught Amber walking out of the ladies’ room. That meant this conversation, if he could call it a conversation, was over. Once Amber joined them, intentionally or not, the atmosphere would change. As if it wasn’t already bad enough. He didn’t need any more reminders that he was painfully single, and unless he made some big changes in his life, he was going to stay that way.

“Here comes Amber,” he muttered, quite unnecessarily, judging from the reappearance of Stan’s grin. “I think I’m going to break in and get Sarah away from all her adoring fans.”

Without waiting for a response from Stan, Josh stepped forward. However, he only made it a few feet closer before a bunch of women moved and blocked his path.

He gritted his teeth, trying to think of a way to make his way forward when another familiar voice sounded beside him. “Hey, buddy, trying to fight the line to talk to my sister?”

Josh turned around and ran his fingers through his hair. “Hey, Tucker. Yeah. I want to get her away from all this, but it’s been three steps forward and two steps back. How would you like to do a little crowd control? Got your gun, Deputy Faire?”

Tucker froze, and his mouth tightened. “This is church, my gun is at home, locked up, and I’m off duty.” His face tightened even more. “Why are you in such a rush to get to Sarah?”

Josh turned to Tucker, then back to Sarah. “I know you’re off duty. So are Dr. Platt and Chuck. People aren’t asking them questions or trying to get free advice. But no one seems to respect that Sarah’s off duty.”

“What’s up with that, anyway? She’s just the vet. I haven’t heard of any rabies outbreaks or anything. I heard people talking about a pet whisperer or something like that.”

“Yeah. It started with one little thing at my store. She got an aggressive dog settled down, and then you know Bloomfield. Word spread and the tale seemed to get bigger and better with every telling, and now she’s a pet behavioral expert.”

Tucker crossed his arms over his chest. “As I recall, you don’t have any issues with Rufus. Why are you in such a rush to see her?”

Josh stiffened. “I don’t know. I guess I just want to get her away from all the fuss.”

One of Tucker’s eyebrows lifted, usually not a good sign with Tucker. “Really?” One foot started tapping.

If Tucker would have been in uniform, it would have been a scary sight. At least here, everyone knew him and knew Tucker was one of the good guys.

“Once you get her away from church, just where were you planning to take my little sister?”

Josh cleared his throat. He really hadn’t figured it out that far in advance. He just wanted to get her out of there. “I’ll probably take her to the dog park. With the dogs.”

“Okay,” Tucker muttered as he spun and strode off to join some of their other friends.

Josh ran his fingers through his hair and exhaled, not realizing until that moment how tense he’d been, which didn’t make any sense. Tucker was his best friend, and had been since their early years in school. It had to be his imagination, because for a moment, he’d felt like a wayward boyfriend being grilled by an overzealous father, which was ridiculous. In their younger days, they’d often babysat Sarah while their parents ran errands. He’d never done anything back then to make Tucker not trust him with his precious kid sister. In fact, most of the time Josh had been easier on Sarah than Tucker had been. It didn’t make any sense, but Tucker’s reaction felt strangely like . . . disapproval.

Which was ridiculous. Josh and Sarah spent every Tuesday evening together, and often times in between. As a kid, she’d sometimes been a bit of a nuisance, but as adults, they’d become friends. And as a friend, he knew she was uncomfortable surrounded by a crowd.

Therefore, he was going to get her out of there.

He nudged his way through the throng of people and rested his hand on her elbow. Once he had her attention and she stopped talking, he turned to the group of women huddled together hanging on every word, then glanced over their shoulders to another group who waited for a break in the conversation so they could monopolize her next.

He forced himself to smile politely. “I’m sorry, but Sarah and I have plans. Just call her office for an appointment, and I’m sure she’ll be able to help you during office hours.”

Sarah turned to him, raising her eyebrows. He anticipated a reprimand for being on the edge of rude, but fortunately she didn’t speak.

Josh turned, trying to keep his smile polite, and he glanced around at the other people surrounding her. “We’re going to be late. We have to go.” Without waiting for her response, which was sure to be a question asking what they were late for, he nudged Sarah to start her walking. As quickly as possible, he escorted her out of the foyer and out of the building.

Sarah fished her car keys out of her purse and hit the button to unlock the door, but she didn’t open it. Instead, she stood beside her car and plunked her fists on her hips. “Dare I ask?”

“Go ahead, except I don’t have an answer. I just wanted to get you out of there.”

She sighed. “Fair enough. Honestly, I had no idea what to say to all those people. I’m not an obedience trainer. I’m a veterinarian. I have to be able to control the animals in my care, but people are talking about more intense issues than I’m trained to handle.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I think you’d be surprised. You’ve always been good with animals. That’s why you became a vet in the first place.” He smiled, remembering when her family got their first puppy when they were kids. Tucker had rushed over to Josh’s house to show the pup to him, and another little runt had tagged along—Sarah.

Josh studied her face, comparing the woman before him to the little twerp who’d done anything she could to trail behind them. In those days, Tucker had thought it hilarious, his kid sister having a crush on his best friend, following them around whenever she could. Josh hadn’t thought it funny at all. Once she’d climbed onto the garage roof to watch them. Seeing her up there had nearly scared him half to death. As he got older, he’d thought her devotion and adoration quite flattering, but he sure hadn’t thought so at the time. She hadn’t been a bad kid, just a little overwhelming with those stars in her eyes. And they’d been big stars.

“Where are we going?” Sarah asked, her question bringing him back to the present. “It sounded like you had something specific in mind.”

Josh blinked as the image of a starry-eyed little girl morphed into a full-grown, professional woman. “It’s a nice day, so I thought we could get away and go to Golden Grove Park. We can grab a couple of burgers and let the dogs go for a swim.”

She nodded, smiling. “Not that Bloomfield is really crowded, but that sounds like a great idea.”

Once again, he rammed his hand into his pocket, this time to fish out his car keys, but instead of heading to his own car, he stopped. “I’ll get Rufus and meet you there in half an hour.”

“Sure.”

Still, he didn’t move. All he could do was look down into Sarah’s eyes. He didn’t know what it was, but something about her seemed different today. He ought to have been able to put his finger on it because, after all, he saw her every few days.

No doubt about it, Sarah had blossomed into an attractive woman. Her brown hair had a touch of red in it that he thought was probably natural because it was always the same, which matched nicely with her sparkling hazel eyes. Her nose was nice and straight, not too big or small, and suited her just right. He was tall, just a little over six feet. Sarah was about six inches shorter than him, and he liked that. Besides being pretty, she was smart, had a good sense of humor, a great career, and was good with money. She also had a heart for people and animals and lived a good life as a fellow believer.

He didn’t know why she wasn’t married.

Mentally, Josh gave his head a shake. He didn’t know why he was thinking those things about Sarah. Maybe something in his brain had gone haywire after his strange conversations with Stan, and then her brother.

Maybe Stan was right. If he was thinking those things about Sarah, his best friend’s kid sister, it was time to start actively looking for that alleged Miss Right. Sarah had friends who were still single, so that was probably a good place to start.

Sarah narrowed one eye, tilted her head, and stared up at him. “I thought you wanted to go to the park. Why are you just standing there, looking at me so funny?”

He shrugged his shoulders. He couldn’t believe the trip his mind had taken him on, looking at Sarah like that. It really was time to start looking for a special someone. “I don’t know,” he mumbled. “Just thinking.”

Sarah tapped her wristwatch with her index finger. “If you really want to go, we had better get moving. I have to be back home at a decent time.”

“Why?”

She grinned ear to ear. “Because not all the people I talked to today asked me about their dogs and cats.”

A fast-forward of everyone who had accosted Sarah that morning flashed through his mind. For some reason, his thoughts did an abrupt stop on Hayden Blackstone. Hayden didn’t have a dog. Hayden had a lizard. He faithfully came into the store once a week to buy crickets to feed it.

He doubted Hayden’s lizard was having issues needing a pet behavioral expert.

“I noticed that. What did Hayden want?”

Sarah’s grin widened. “He didn’t want anything. Hayden asked me out for a date.”

He blinked. Of all the things she could have said, he hadn’t seen that one coming. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Is that so hard to believe?”

The list of things he’d just thought about her a few minutes ago roared through his head. “No. Of course not. I hope you two have fun. Where are you going?”

“Nowhere fancy. We’re just going to Burger Heaven.” She tapped her watch again. “If I get back from the park in time.”

Josh nodded and pressed one palm over his stomach. “I love it there. Their burgers have this great sauce. They say it’s a secret recipe, and I believe it. Now I’m really hungry. Can I come?”

Sarah’s smile dropped. “It’s a date, Josh. Three’s a crowd.”

A date. He didn’t want to picture Sarah alone with Hayden, sitting all cuddly-like in the corner of a dimly lit restaurant. Actually, he didn’t want to picture her there with anyone of the male species.

Josh blinked and shook his head, wondering where that thought came from. “Oh. Right. A date. Of course.” He stepped aside to allow Sarah to access her car. “I’ll see you at the park in half an hour.”

Sarah opened the menu to read the choices, speaking to Hayden without looking at him. “Josh told me their sauce is a secret recipe.”

“I think he’s right. It’s great, and it’s completely turned me off fast-food burgers. Hey, speaking of Josh, look who just came in.”

Sarah turned to see none other than the object of their conversation walking in behind Crystal Evans, Stan’s cousin.

Hayden leaned closer. “You know I dated her a few times, don’t you? It didn’t work out, but I heard that Crystal’s had her eye on Josh since Stan and Amber’s wedding. This could be interesting.”

Thinking back to the wedding, Sarah rolled her eyes. She’d been Amber’s maid of honor, Hayden had been Stan’s best man, and the day had been a circus.

“I remember that hectic day,” Sarah told him. “Since Amber doesn’t have any family, we did all the planning, just the two of us. Three weeks really wasn’t enough. I hardly remember much of my best friend’s wedding. The whole day passed in a blur.”

In the end everything had come together, but barely. The only time of the whole day she didn’t have something pressuring her or people looking at her had been after the ceremony when she walked down the aisle on Kathy’s lawn behind the happy bride and groom, hanging onto Hayden’s arm.

Instead of a caterer, the reception meal had been a potluck, which had meant a lot of extra work for everyone, but they couldn’t find a caterer on short notice. Instead of hiring a photographer, Bailey McCullough had taken the pictures as a wedding gift. Likewise, Helen had used everyone she could spare at her bakery and put together a spectacular wedding cake as a gift. It had almost been a miracle that Zoe, Bloomfield’s best seamstress, had managed to make a dress for Amber. Sarah and one bridesmaid had bought dresses, then Zoe had embellished them because there simply wasn’t time to decide on designs and make them from scratch. Everything had been thrown together at the last minute. Only by God’s grace had everything settled down and the details merged to become a beautiful wedding in the end.

Sarah looked up at Hayden and opened her mouth, about to go on with a story of a little disaster behind the scenes that no one had seen, but she stopped short.

Hayden had gone through the worst disaster a wedding could possibly have. And it hadn’t had a happy ending.

She didn’t know him well, but she’d never forget the day she heard that he’d caught his wife in action with another man—a man who was supposed to be his friend—less than six months after their stately wedding. Then as fast as legally possible, Marissa had served him with divorce papers and had left town before the ink was even dry.

Sarah looked down at the menu, then back up at Hayden. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be talking about stuff like this.”

He gave her the saddest smile she’d ever seen. “It’s okay. It took a while, but I’m over it and moving on. You’re right about all the stuff to do at Stan and Amber’s wedding. I had no idea there were so many details to think about. When I got married, Marissa’s mother did everything. All I had to do was go to the front and stand there.” He lowered his head, making direct eye contact with Sarah. “When I get married again, I’ll do it right. And I am looking, Sarah.”

Sarah gulped at his unasked question. She probably should also be looking to get married; after all, she was nearly thirty years old. But she wasn’t looking.

“Were you talking to Stan about the wonders of marriage?” She didn’t doubt that he had. Earlier that day, she’d received a call from Amber, spouting the same thing.

Hayden grinned, and his eyes lost focus. “Yeah. We all thought those two were bad before, but now they’re even worse. They’re already finishing each other’s sentences, then Stan laughs, then Amber whacks him with her purse or whatever she’s got in her hands, then they both laugh some more. After that, they might as well be the only two people in the room.” He sighed, not looking annoyed, but instead like he wanted exactly the same for himself.

“Hey, you two, mind if we join you?” Josh slid out a chair, seating Crystal beside Sarah, and he lowered himself into the chair beside Hayden.

“Not at all, have a seat,” Sarah grumbled. Hayden, being an accountant, always thought ahead. He’d made a reservation. For two.

Crystal smiled brightly, her blue eyes shining, making such a display of her perfect white teeth that Sarah wondered if she’d ever been in a toothpaste commercial. “This is so great.” Crystal clapped her hands together and bounced in the chair. “They said the wait would be half an hour, and I’m, like, just so absolutely starving. Josh said you wouldn’t mind and that we’d have fun.” She giggled and pressed one finger to an item on the menu. “I already know what I want.”

Crystal lowered her head, batted her long eyelashes, and stared wide-eyed at Josh and Hayden. She raised her palm in the air, then turned her hand and pressed her fingertips to her throat, drawing the men’s attention to her T-shirt, which, according to Sarah’s opinion, was far too low-cut and about two sizes too small. Crystal trailed her fingers downward until her index finger hooked in the V of her T-shirt, pulling it even lower. She sucked in a deep breath, and let it out in a long, breathy sigh. Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “I always ask for double sauce.”

If this had been a movie, Crystal would be the personification of a stereotyped dumb blonde. But this was no movie—this was real life.

Sarah wanted to smack both Josh and Hayden as their chins dropped and their mouths hung open. Instead, she forced herself to smile and turned toward Crystal. “I see you’ve been here before.”

Crystal nodded, making her blonde bangs bounce in her eyes. She sucked in a deep breath, pursed her lips, and blew upward to puff her hair up and out of her eyes, then batted her lashes again. “Can you tell?”

Sarah nearly bit her tongue. “A wild guess,” she muttered. No sarcasm intended. Not much, anyway.

She watched as Crystal lowered her head and carefully straightened the cutlery that she’d bumped.

No dark roots. Real blonde.

The server returned, his notepad and pencil poised. “Are you folks ready to order?”

Sarah nodded. “I’ll take the special of the day.”

Again, Crystal pressed her finger to the menu, with the other finger still hooked in the alleged neckline of her T-shirt. “I’ll take this one. With double sauce.”

The server looked up at the men. “Gentlemen?”

“I’ll have what she’s having,” they said almost in unison, both voices coming out rather gravely.

It took great effort for Sarah not to roll her eyes.

She had a feeling she’d just lost her date. But that was okay. She wasn’t looking for the same thing as Hayden, at least not yet.

And Josh, well, he was just Josh.