Fourth of July descended on the tiny town of Colson’s Corner, and Grady’s family also descended on the burn unit to celebrate the holiday with him and Linx.

Grady looked up from the waiting room couch as his twin sister, Jenna, and his brother-in-law Larry entered with a tray of food and coffee.

The results of the paternity test had come back the day before, and Grady couldn’t wait to share the results with Linx.

“Oh, Grady.” Jenna gave him a tight, warm hug. “You need to come home and sleep in a real bed.”

“Hey, man, we didn’t mean to kick you out of our place,” Larry said. “You and Linx will always have a home with us.”

“Get out of here.” Grady pushed his sister back, winking. “I’m not a homeless bum. Don’t act like you had anything to do with this.”

“Maybe not this immediate disaster,” Jenna said. “But we all should have been friendlier to Linx. How is she doing?”

“She’s in a lot of pain, and she’s already had a few surgeries to repair the skin on her feet and legs.” That area had taken the brunt, since fire shelters were deployed so that the feet pointed toward the advancing flames.

“Can she come out of her room?”

“Her back and buttocks are still painful, so she can’t sit in a wheelchair, but she can turn over on the air mattress for short periods of time,” Grady said.

“Great, then we can have a party.” Jenna jiggled his arm. “It’s Jessie’s birthday, and the Pattersons agreed to have it in the hospital if Linx is up for it. As for you, you need to get a proper shower and shave for your daughter’s sixth birthday.”

Grady gulped down the eggs and toast, then washed it down with a cup of coffee. “First, let me speak to Linx. Then I’ll go with you, but I’m not going to the festivities tonight.”

“What about the puppy auction?” Larry asked. “Ginger’s bid is up to seven thousand dollars.”

“I can’t afford that kind of money.” Grady shrugged, rubbing his couple day’s growth of beard. “As much as I know Jessie wants her, the price went even higher after all the news went out on how the puppy survived a fire. Jessie will get over it.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Jenna hugged him. “She has more than a lot of kids, including two sets of parents.”

“Right. Let me tell Linx the good news. Thanks for breakfast.” Grady looked Jenna in the eye. “Tell everyone not to worry about me and Linx, will you?”

“Okay, sure. I have faith in you,” Jenna said. “And her. She may be fiery, but she has a good heart.”

“A real good heart.” He placed his hand over his heart.

“Yep, heart comes first,” Jenna said. “And Linx Colson has one of the best.”

After Jenna and Larry took off, Grady washed his hands and combed his hair, then stepped into Linx’s room.

She was lying on her side, but sat up when he entered. The bandages were still layered over her hands and feet, but she was smiling. Despite the burns on her face, and her lack of eyebrows and singed hair, she was still the most beautiful sight in his eyes.

He kissed her over her bandages, being careful not to touch her injured skin. “How’d you sleep?”

“Okay, but are the dogs safe?”

“Yes, they’re back at the rescue center. Nessa’s helping Tami with the festival and auction. You don’t have a thing to worry about.”

“That’s good. I sure do miss Cedar and Ginger.”

“How about me?” He quirked a grin at her. “You don’t miss me?”

“Jealous, much?” She winked and scrunched her nose. “You know I can’t get enough of you, but really, you need to go home and shower. Have you even left the hospital?”

“When you leave, I’ll leave.”

“Great. I can leave tomorrow,” she said. “The doctor says I’m healing well.”

“What about the skin grafts? We have to make sure they don’t get infected.”

“Right, I’ll need help changing my bandages, but I’ve got plenty of sisters.”

“You have me.” He brushed a patch of hair across a bald spot over her ear.

“I look hideous. It’s bad enough that you’re seeing me now.” She grimaced. “It’ll take months for my skin to heal, and my hair to grow back.”

“You’re not going to stop me from seeing you.” He pulled up a chair. “I’m not going back to firefighting. I’ve decided to stay with Dogs for Vets, and if you’ll have me, I’ll work out of your office and live in your cabin while I rebuild.”

“But, wait, you never told me why you took a break in the first place. Was it Salem? Were you waiting for her baby to be born?”

He pressed his lips tightly. “No, I believed her to be dead, but I promised Paul I would stay out as long as he did.”

“How’s he doing now that he found out Salem was still alive?”

“Shocked, but he’s going back to the fire lines, although not back to Redstone.” He didn’t want to tell her that Salem was in dire condition and barely hanging onto life.

“And the baby? Is he Paul’s son?” Linx’s voice broke into a hushed croak.

“No. It—”

Linx’s eyes widened and she reached for him. “We’ll get through it, Grady. It’s my choice to accept your son into my life.”

“Wait, she lost the baby,” Grady quickly added. “As far as we can figure out, she made crosses for each of the men she suspected. Todd found more crosses at the artist’s cabin. She’d been squatting there, and she took Jessie there in her fairy wagon. She kept Betsy there, too, but Betsy got away when she set fire to my parents’ place.”

“It was all about revenge?” Linx’s eyes popped wide.

“She’s not talking, so we won’t know until she does. They’ve taken her to a prison burn unit, but Paul says he’s got a lawyer who’s going to use the mental health defense.”

“I hope she gets the help she needs.” Linx swallowed a lump in her throat. “Why did she hate us so much?”

“She was jealous that you actually had my child.” Grady’s shoulders slumped. “Or at least that was Paul’s theory. This isn’t going to drive a wedge between us, is it?”

“Not as long as we communicate. Will you promise me we’ll always communicate? First priority?” she asked, her face so earnest and open, especially without her doubting eyebrows.

“I promise.” He trained his gaze on her, beaming as much love and reassurance as he could. “Let’s decide that we will always communicate in person. No text messages and emails. We will always be sure who we’re talking to.”

“Right, I agree. Always face to face or voice to voice.” Linx blinked at him, her eyes full of emotion. “How stupid I was to be fooled by Salem.”

“Hey, it wasn’t just you.”

“True. What I don’t get is why she was so hateful? Why hadn’t she been honest with Paul, and gone back to him once she lost the baby?”

“He said he’d told her his parents were freezing all his accounts until the baby was proved to be his,” Grady said. “When I told her he was going to propose, if only she’d figure out who the father was, it likely pushed her over the edge, and she purposely steered her chute into the fire.”

“She was always good at pinpointing a landing place.”

“Right. She found a way into the black, where the fire had moved on. In the heavy smoke, none of us could tell where she’d landed. From there, she disappeared, but was able to rob Paul’s accounts. He’s so fricking rich, he didn’t notice until months later when he bounced a check.”

Linx swallowed and shook her head. “I feel bad for the whole situation. I’m sorry if you lost your baby, if it was yours.”

“The good news is that Jessie is mine.” His face broke into a smile. “We got the results, and the Pattersons already know.”

“I never had a doubt.” What was left of her eyebrows furrowed. “I never slept with anyone else, and the only drunken sex I had was with you.”

“I knew she was mine, too,” Grady said. “But Becca said we needed the test for her to proceed.”

“Are you going to tear Jessie away from her parents? You should have heard her crying for her mommy and daddy.” Linx’s eyes watered. “I held her, thinking we would both die, and I told her to live for her mommy and daddy. I told her I loved her, but that she had to go back to them.”

“I’m not going to fight them.” Grady grasped Linx’s bandaged hand. “I needed to know for sure. There’s no way I could rip her away from them, no matter how much I love her.”

“Me either. I never knew I could love someone so much.” A tear trailed from the corner of her eye.

“Same here.” Grady swallowed, touching his chest. “She’s truly our little angel—the best of both of us.”

“Yes, God really blessed us, didn’t He?”

“And he blessed me with you. I love you, Linx Colson.” Grady air kissed Linx, but she leaned forward and their lips met, tender and full of love, comfort, and hope for a blessed future.

“And this black heart of mine loves you, too, Grady Hart.”

* * *

“Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me,” Jessie danced around Linx’s wheelchair. The staff had agreed to let Jessie have her birthday party in one of their conference rooms.

Both Linx and Grady’s large families crowded around, clapping and singing as Jessie got hugs from everyone.

“Miss Linx, I got to sit in a fire truck,” Jessie bragged. “On Fourth of July. My birthday.”

“Did you wave at everyone?” Linx asked, her chest filling with pride at how quickly her daughter had bounced back from the terror of the fire, with the held of Miss Sharon. Of course, she would continue therapy for a while, to make sure no lingering effects haunted her.

“Yes, and I’m a real fire sur-vi-vor.” She made muscles with both arms as she enunciated each syllable. “All because of Wonder Woman.”

“You are a survivor,” Linx said, “because you’re smart and you’re not going to let any strangers trick you, right?”

Mrs. Patterson had pulled Linx aside and told her that Salem Pryde, under an assumed name, had joined the church a few months ago. She’d seemed harmless and volunteered in the nursery, gaining the trust of all the church members and of course, Jessie, who’d talked her ear off about the tiny puppy Linx rescued at the shelter.

On that fateful Saturday, Salem had spied Jessie opening the gates and letting out the dogs, then again when Jessie came back that afternoon, whining to her mother about wishing Ginger could be hers. She’d simply waited until everyone was gone, broke into the center easily through an open window, stole Ginger, and let the rest of the dogs out.

She was going to frame Linx for the kidnapping and murder, so she texted Becca, having already fooled her into thinking that phone number belonged to Minx and told her that she missed Linx. Becca had then texted her Linx’s phone number. Easy peasy.

Salem knew it was the optimum time to strike. She could kill two birds with one firebrand—burn up Grady’s place and frame Linx.

It was mincemeat pie for her to show up at the church with the puppy under her skirt and lure Jessie into her fairy wagon, the old VW van she had which was covered with moons and stars.

Linx shuddered at how diabolical Salem turned out to be, and what a close call they all had by not communicating face to face, but relying on text messages.

“I won’t talk to any grownups unless Mommy and Daddy say it’s okay.” Jessie stood straight and tall, proud of herself. “And I promise I won’t run away to join the circus or play with fairies.”

Despite her bandages, Linx reached out and hugged Jessie to her chest. “Did you walk in the dog parade? I want to hear all about it.”

“I did!” Jessie squealed. “I took Ginger on her first walk. She kept tripping over her leash and then biting it.”

“She wanted to hold onto her side of the leash,” Linx said. “I bet you did great. How about holding the dog pictures?”

“I held every picture up high and all the dogs got lots of money.” Jessie clapped her hands. “Ginger got the most money. Ten thousand dollars.”

“Wow!” everyone in the room exclaimed.

“The other dogs did well, too,” Grady said. “Nessa is back at the center sorting everything out. If you’re checked out tomorrow, I’m sure you’ll meet a lot of the new owners. Even Bob got adopted.”

“Really? Who?”

Linx’s father raised his hand. “Bob’s just my style. Grumpy but lovable.”

“Oh, Dad!” Linx reached for a hug. “I’m so happy for him. He’s really a wonderful dog. You’ll love him.”

“I already do.” Her father smiled.

“What about the basset hound mother?” Linx asked. “I feel bad for her, since all of her puppies got adopted.”

“She has a new family, too.” Grady beamed at Cait. “Now, both of my sisters have basset hounds, a male one and a female one.”

“I can’t wait for the puppies,” Dale exclaimed, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Did you say puppies?” Jessie skipped over. “Who has puppies?”

Linx’s father picked Jessie up and put her on his lap. “Are we ready for your birthday presents?”

“Yay, and then we have cake!” Jessie flapped her hands. “I get red, white, and blue because I was born on the Fourth of July.”

Everyone gathered around as Jessie picked from a pile of gifts and posed for pictures with each person. Linx marveled at how quickly the little girl took to all of her new aunties and uncles, as well as two new grandpas and one new grandma.

“We’d better hurry if we want to see the fireworks,” Pastor Patterson said, while Mrs. Patterson carried in a sheet cake complete with miniature flags and the stars and stripes.

“I wish we’d had time to give Jessie a present,” Linx whispered to Grady, as she sat with her head on his shoulder.

“Being godparents means we’ll have plenty of chances to spoil her.”

“Yes, we will.” Linx pressed a kiss onto his lips. “And plenty of chances to be together as a family.”

She’d never truly appreciated her large family until now. In the past, she’d felt stifled and suffocated, but this past week, both her and Grady’s families had been full of comfort and hope—knowing there was always someone to help and many someones who cared.

The conference room door swung open and Paul stepped in. He was wearing a Santa Claus costume and held a squirmy sack over his shoulder.

“Is that the only costume you could come up with?” Grady laughed and clapped his friend on the shoulder.

“Hey, all the miner and sheriff costumes are gone,” Paul said. “But, ho, ho, ho, I’m delivering Jessie’s birthday present from you and Linx.”

“Santa!” Jessie skipped over to Paul and twirled around, showing her cape and muscles. “You’re early.”

“Ho, ho, ho, and a very merry birthday to you.” Paul opened the sack and extracted the wriggly red-haired puppy. “From your godparents, Mr. Grady and Miss Linx, to their little sweet angel.”

“Grady, you didn’t!” Linx exclaimed, clapping a hand over her mouth as she stared at feisty little Ginger.

“I didn’t.” Grady’s eyes popped wide. “She was too expensive, remember?”

“I love her.” Jessie squealed as she took the puppy she had survived the fire with from Paul. “Thank you, Santa, and thank you, godparents! God bless us every one.”

Grady and Linx embraced Jessie and Ginger, and then both families and the Pattersons piled in for a giant group hug.

“Wooahh!” Little Ginger howled from the center of all the loving arms. She was most definitely the summer love puppy who brought many hearts together.

Thanks for reading Grady and Linx’s story. If you enjoyed it, please write a review so you can let other readers know your thoughts.

Dale and Vanessa are up next in Dog Days of Love.

Can a woman looking for Mr. Perfect settle for a happy-go-lucky Mr. Wrong?

Vanessa Ransom has high standards and she’s on the hunt for the perfect man. With limited time for a social life, she hires college dropout Dale Hart to walk her dogs and clean her house. Just for kicks, she decides to motivate him to succeed, only to find herself falling in love with him.

Can Dale show Vanessa that love doesn’t come with a perfect report card or will Vanessa refuse to settle for Dale until he gets his act together?