“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
“Hannah?” Boone said, just before disappearing down the hallway. “Be prepared to be romanced.”
She floated all the way home.
* * *
He sent her flowers the next day, a big, beautiful mixed bouquet in a rainbow of brilliant colors that made her smile. The enclosed card invited her to join him for a dinnertime picnic cruise on the lake. They had a lovely time, but they didn’t have sex. He left her with a kiss at Serenity Cabbage’s front door at eight fifty-five, using every minute of Nic Callahan’s turn at babysitting.
The day after that he sent her a cookie bouquet from Fresh and invited her to go running with him and Bree around the lake. His jogging stroller was sweet, the baby dressed in a little running suit and adorable, but that was the only exercise Hannah got. On the third day following their return to Eternity Springs, she didn’t see him because she spent the day playing tourist at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Day four, they had a lunch date scheduled at the Mocha Moose Coffee Shop, so the knock at her door shortly after dawn was totally unexpected.
“Hannah, it’s me,” Boone’s voice called. “Hannah, wake up. I need help!”
She raced toward the door, flung it open, and clapped her hand over her mouth at first sight of Boone. His shoulders drooped. His eyes were red with exhaustion. His dark hair stood straight up in places where it appeared he’d repeatedly run his fingers through it. In one arm, he held Brianna.
The other held a dog, a precious little red long-haired puppy.
“I’m begging you. I’m desperate. Take one or the other? I don’t care which. They’ve both been fed. I need half an hour. Shoot, just twenty lousy minutes will do. I was already running low on shut-eye. New baby, that’s the deal, I get it. But I didn’t factor in a baby when I agreed to take a puppy. I haven’t slept for more than ten minutes all night. I need a little nap. Please, Hannah?”
“Wait a minute.” She held up her hand, palm out. “You got a baby and a puppy? In the same week?”
“I told you about the pup. Remember up at Lover’s Leap the day we met? I was trying to come up with a name.”
“Yes, I remember. However, you also told me you were talking about a dog, but speaking about a baby that day. Trace Parker McBride.”
“Yes, I was. But you suggested a great dog name. Ranger. This is Ranger. Will you take him, Hannah? Please?”
“Oh, for crying out loud. And here I thought you were an intelligent man.”
He smiled sheepishly and held up both the pup and the baby.
Hannah surrendered. “Come in. Let me put some clothes on.”
“I’d make a suggestive comment, but I’m too tired.” He slumped into a chair with a mewling baby and a whining puppy. He was asleep by the time Hannah finished dressing.
She roused him, sent him staggering into her room, and then took both the dog and the infant and left. “This is not how I imagined having Boone in my bed,” she muttered she shut the door to Serenity Cabbage a few minutes later and headed for his home.
He’d left the door standing wide open, not a surprise since he’d had his hands full, but still, Hannah shook her head at this uncharacteristic carelessness. What was he thinking? Adopting a puppy and a newborn in the same week?
She shouldn’t be surprised, however. Judging by what she’d seen of him and what his friends and family said about him, once Boone McBride decided to do something, there was no stopping him or changing his mind. He kept his word and his commitments, which was a very attractive quality in a man.
And yet, a puppy and a baby?
He’d looked adorably pathetic standing at her doorway this morning. Guess crazy could be attractive too.
His half an hour of sleep stretched to over two hours, but Hannah didn’t mind. She’d had no firm plans for the morning, and truth be told, she was enjoying herself.
She’d put Brianna down for a nap, and then played with the puppy and a knotted rope. He was a sweet little guy, playful and affectionate, and eager to please. “Look at those big brown eyes. Aren’t you just the cutest thing?”
His coat was a darker, chestnut color. She wondered if it would change to the mahogany red she associated with Irish setters, or if this was the color he’d keep. “Either way, I’ll bet you’ll be a handsome fella when you’re grown. You’ll be all elegant and regal, and the center of attention wherever you go.”
She’d seen that with the pair of Irish setters her lake house neighbors took walking every day. The rambunctious redheads literally stopped traffic. They were friendly dogs and took all the adulation as their due. Hannah pulled another toy from the basket and tossed it to him. Ranger pounced, the rubber mouse squeaked, and a hummingbird buzzed by on the way to the feeder hanging from a post.
Hannah sat back in her chair, content. There were worse places and ways to spend a summer morning. Hannah loved dogs, and from childhood on, her family almost always included a pound puppy of one sort or another. They’d lost a little mixed-breed terrier shortly before the accident.
She’d sometimes wondered if having a dog to come home to after the girls died would have changed anything. Maybe a pet would have anchored her. Maybe she wouldn’t have run away from home. Or maybe she’d have given the dog away.
Certainly she could not have wandered the world in the way that she’d done for three years. But maybe, just maybe, her wandering days now were drawing to a close. She cuddled Ranger against her and rubbed his long floppy ears. “Maybe someday in the not-too-distant future, I can have a cute little puppy like you. Good boy. Aren’t you a good, beautiful boy?”
They played a few more minutes, then Ranger climbed onto one of the half dozen dog beds positioned around the house, circled three times, lay down, and went to sleep. With both her charges down, Hannah made coffee and grabbed a yogurt from the fridge for breakfast. She tidied up the kitchen and family room—Boone’s sleepless night had resulted in a mess—and then she chose a John Sandford novel from one of Boone’s bookshelves and took it and a cup of coffee onto the deck.
It was a beautiful summer morning. Sunshine sparkled like diamonds on the surface of the lake, and songbirds filled the air with music. The scent of woodsmoke drifted from the direction of Brick Callahan’s campground. Eternity Springs billed itself as “A little piece of heaven in the Colorado Rockies,” and Hannah figured they had it right.
Here at this moment, she felt like she’d stumbled into paradise. Metaphorically, she’d died beside Lake Winnipesaukee and wandered around in hell for three years, but now she was poised for a rebirth. Reincarnation, Eternity Springs style.
And maybe a dog.
Hannah chuckled softly at the whimsical direction of her thoughts just as sounds of stirring in the nursery emitted from the baby monitor. She set aside the novel and went to tend Boone’s child. A diaper change later with nine AM fast approaching and Boone nowhere in sight, she settled into a porch rocker with Bree and a bottle. “I do wonder who will show up first?” she said to Bree as the hungry baby latched onto the nipple. “Daddy or today’s nanny?”
She’d checked the schedule Boone had posted on his refrigerator. When Ranger lifted his head from his pillow and pricked his ears, she told him, “I think I’ll put my money on Sarah Murphy.”