The sight of Kate’s tears sent my stomach plummeting. Thus far, Eileen had managed to stave hers off, but I could see even her eyes brimming.

“It’s going to be okay,” I reassured, using my most confident voice, even though I felt the farthest thing from certain.

“But he’s not wearing his collar,” Kate wailed. “How is anybody going to know who to call if they find him?”

“Look, sweethearts, if we don’t find him on our own, we’ll make up signs and posters and put them everywhere. He’ll turn up and somebody will call us. It’s going to be fine.” I was a broken record.

True to form, Reggie had pulled a naughty disappearing act sometime that morning. I knew he’d been in the house when I got up, because I’d taken him out and fed him. But around noon, Kate discovered his collar on the kitchen floor, and Reggie was nowhere to be found. Not to point fingers, but the girls were less than reliable when it came to closing doors after themselves, so it was no real surprise when a room-to-room search of the house turned up empty.

If I panicked, they would surely unravel, so I forced an aura of calm to settle over myself as I wracked my brain, trying to come up with the best strategy.

“Okay. Dry your tears and go grab your scooters.” We’d scoped out Juniper Court, but he was nowhere to be found. It was time to broaden the search.

The girls obeyed as best they could, but the tears remained. I fished my phone from my pocket and dialed Valley, Nina, and every other neighbor who might be home, asking them to keep an eye out for Reggie. Everyone promised to be on the lookout. By the time I was done, we’d reached the main road and my gaze scoured the street, hoping to God I wouldn’t find him lying in the middle of it. I was half tempted to send the girls home, but they couldn’t be alone—especially now.

I randomly chose to turn left, and we continued on, calling out Reggie’s name, our heads swiveling as if we were spectators at Wimbledon. Nothing. We turned back, switching to the other side of the road and headed for the park. My phone remained clutched in my hand, ready to answer should anyone call with news.

After forty-five minutes, my own eyes were wet, a feeling of despair crawling over me. Without even stopping to consider, I hit Sam’s contact and brought the phone to my ear.

“Hey, Beautiful. I was just thinking about you.”

I didn’t have the headspace to let his greeting melt over me like it normally would have. “Sam.” I croaked out his name.

The change in his tone was immediate. “What’s wrong?” He was in cop mode, just like that.

“We lost Reggie, and he’s not wearing his collar. We can’t find him anywhere.” I dropped my voice to a whisper. “The girls are losing it and I’m about ten seconds from joining them. I don’t know what to do.”

“Where are you?” Again, concise and to the point.

I told him our location.

“I’ll be there in five minutes. Stay put.” And then he hung up.

Knowing he was coming lightened the rock on my chest in a split second. It would be okay. Sam was coming and he’d know what to do. I didn’t even hesitate before opening my mouth. “Officer Martinez is on his way. He’s going to help us find Reggie.”

The spark of hope lighting their precious little faces made tears prick again, this time for a different reason. I hardly had time to hand out another round of tissues before Sam’s cruiser did a U-turn and pulled up beside us. He must have driven like a crazy person to get here so fast.

He parked and got out, coming around to the sidewalk. He leaned in and kissed the top of my head, then greeted the girls by name as if this were an everyday routine. I couldn’t examine this to the degree it probably deserved, though. We had bigger issues at hand.

“Right. So, tell me everything. When and where did you last see him?” The graveness and formal tone of his voice made me suddenly want to laugh. Inappropriate, to be sure, but it was as if we were filing a missing person’s report, not a search for a lost mutt. I reigned in the threatening hysteria and listened while the girls explained everything to Sam.

“Okay,” he rubbed his hands together. “Everybody hop in the back. We’re going to find your dog.”

I took a deep breath, watching the girls scramble in through the door Sam held open. Then I met his eyes. Had I ever been on the receiving end of such warmth and kindness? Okay, had I ever asked myself such a stupid question? I smiled at him as best I could, given the situation, and climbed in after the girls.

His words from the other day surfaced in my mind. Sam Martinez was turning out to be as trustworthy as they come. And that was nothing to sneeze at.

* * *

“Mangy little bastard,” I whispered as I applied the third coat of shampoo to Reggie’s fur. The girls’ giggles reached me from the living room where they stayed with Sam while I washed lord knows what out of Reggie’s fur. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know what was circling the bathtub drain at the moment. He looked up at me, his tongue hanging out to one side and his eyes giving me a pathetic “Who, me?” look.

“Don’t even try that with me. Do you know how much trouble you caused?”

He just tilted his doggie head to the other side, pretending he had no idea what I was talking about.

It had taken over two hours, but we’d finally found Reggie hanging out in the backyard of a house about a mile away from ours. If it hadn’t been for Sam and his cruiser and badge, we would never have found him. People were more than willing to listen to Sam when he asked repeatedly if anyone had seen Reggie. We finally caught a lead when a woman said she’d seen him in her yard just a few minutes before. She’d tried to call to him, but he’d run off, so she pointed us in the direction Reggie had fled.

It was a kid on a bike who was finally able to tell us where Reggie was, and we retrieved the troublemaker from an apparent game of “Whose Butt Smells Better” with the homeowner’s two golden retrievers who were hosting the little gathering inside their invisible fence.

Kate and Eileen shrieked with joy and ran right through the yard, causing the man living there to poke his head out the door in alarm. Sam went to talk to him while I followed the girls, intent on securing our little runaway with the collar and leash I’d been carting around all afternoon.

Thank yous were doled out and hugs shared all around before we hopped back in the car. Sam didn’t even make a sound of protest as a filthy Reggie bounded into the backseat of his cruiser. Everyone was going to need a bath after that car ride.

“That’s about as good as it’s gonna get, you little troublemaker.” I shut the water off and covered Reggie with an old towel, rubbing as much water from his coat as I could before letting him out of the tub. He raced for the living room, undoubtedly to rub himself along every inch of dry carpet and sofa.

I cleaned up and followed after him, finding Sam holding court on my couch, both girls standing in front of him. Good God, the man was a female magnet. I watched, undetected, as Kate and Eileen competed for his attention, each of them putting forth their best work.

“Did you know I can do three cartwheels in a row? I would show you, but there’s not enough room in here.” That was Kate. Somehow, she’d managed to style her hair with a ribbon while I’d been washing the dog.

Not to be outdone, Eileen was quick to add, “My friend Megan said I’m the absolute best redstone engineer in our grade. That’s a Minecraft thing, if you didn’t know. I could totally have my own YouTube channel if my mom would let me.”

“Don’t you mean our friend Megan?” Kate’s hands went to her hips. That was my cue to end this little session of show-and-tell.

“Give the man a little breathing room, would you?” I shooed the girls back from Sam.

He was repressing a grin, and doing it poorly. “It’s fine. I’m actually learning a lot.” Sam winked at the girls. Okay, he needed to stop that. One Watson female under his spell was enough.

“You want to stay for dinner, Officer Martinez?” Kate asked, and I could have sworn there was color in her cheeks. Christ on a cracker.

“No, he—” I began, just as Sam said, “You can call me Sam.” Our gazes met, him realizing he probably should have run that by me first and me confused about where to go from here.

He didn’t want to stay for dinner. Did he? Although I already knew it was his day off, I still felt obligated to let him off the hook. His look told me otherwise.

Damn, what was I supposed to do now? We were taking this slowly, and I’d told the girls just yesterday that I wasn’t bringing anyone into our lives without careful consideration. Bah!

Everyone’s eyes were now on me.

I took a breath and looked around the room. Each face was telling me the same thing. On an exhale, I let my concerns fall to the side, putting as much faith as I could in both myself and Sam to not mess this up. “We’d love to have you stay for dinner if you’d like, Sam.”

The message sent to me by his eyes was spoken in a language way inappropriate for our audience. I quickly averted my gaze.

“Okay, girls, let’s get dinner started then. You invite the man, you’re gonna pitch in.” Miraculously, they didn’t even grumble.

Forty minutes later, we all sat down to a hastily prepared meal of chicken and dumplings with a dreaded side of peas and a salad to round out the meal. The girls were at the age where their help in the kitchen was just tipping the scale toward actually offering value versus making my job harder. Sam volunteered to help, but three in the kitchen was already overkill. Clearly unsettled without an assignment to complete, he excused himself and left through the front door, promising to return soon.

Sure enough, he was back thirty minutes later with a brand-new harness for Reggie. He called the dog to him and arranged the blue nylon straps around the mutt, then scratched him behind his ears, causing Reggie’s back leg to shimmy to the side in involuntary response. “Not taking any more chances with you, you crazy escape artist.”

The girls looked at Sam and the blissed-out Reggie before their eyes shot to me. Good lord, the man’s charm worked across multiple species. It was a bit disconcerting to realize he could render both me and my dog panting messes.

Nope. I was not going there. “Okay! Soup’s on.”

* * *

“So, on a scale of one to ten, exactly how freaked out are you?” Sam took a swig of the beer he was holding and leaned back into the couch.

I stood by the armchair and took him in, having just returned from tucking in Kate and Eileen. They’d conned me into letting them stay up a little later than usual since we had a guest, so they were past tired when I’d turned out their light.

I considered Sam’s question before answering, “Truthfully, I’m not nearly as freaked as I thought I would be.”

“That’s good to hear. I thought the day went great—apart from Reggie’s disappearing act, I mean.”

“Speaking of which, I need to thank you again for all your help. We would never have found him without you. Our night would have ended much differently.” I leaned against the chair. “And thanks again for the harness. I’ll pay you back.”

His pleased look turned scolding and I immediately put my hands up in defense. “Sorry. I forgot. You don’t want my money. So, thank you. I’ll leave it at that.”

“You can pay me back in other ways if you want.” His grin was wicked.

“Are you seriously trying to barter dog collars for sex?”

“From what I’ve heard, collars and hot sex go hand in hand for some couples.”

“Ha! That’ll be the day.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’ll bet there are a lot of things you might be willing to try given the right motivation.” He waggled his eyebrows and took another sip of beer.

I barked out a laugh, completely smitten with his charm and humor—not to mention his goddamn natural hotness.

He motioned for me to come sit with him, and I didn’t hesitate. Next my leg was going to start vibrating.

“I had a great time tonight. Kate and Eileen are terrific—and complete lookers, just like their mom.”

I enjoyed a private smile at his chosen expression and then looked up at him. “Me having kids really doesn’t freak you out?”

He shook his head. “I’m thirty-eight, not eighteen, Jenna.” As if that explained everything.

His hand ran down my side and his fingers brushed along the skin above my waistband. I shivered at the touch.

“Sam, you know nothing can happen tonight, right?”

“I know,” he said quietly, his face a mask of concentration as he watched his other hand stroke my bare thigh. I wanted nothing more than to stretch across his lap like a damn cat, letting him stroke every last inch of me.

“Sam.” My whisper bordered on desperate.

His eyes came back to mine and one side of his mouth turned up. He was clearly pleased with the effect he had on me. Hell, I was pleased enough for the both of us. But somebody had to reign this in.

He leaned in and placed the most precious of kisses on my lips before drawing back and standing. His erection was obvious, and the sight of it made me feel both regret that we’d go no further tonight and satisfaction that I’d affected him as well.