“I’m telling you, this is the kind of dog you should get,” Grady said to his eldest sister, Cait. He brought Sam into the Hart family cabin where she was staying. It wasn’t quite as far from Colson’s Corner as his plot of land, but remote enough so that they weren’t bothered by neighbors.

The dog sniffed everything carefully before tentatively wagging his tail.

“He’s definitely a man’s dog,” Cait said. “I’m looking for something a little smaller and sweeter.”

“You mean a powder puff dog?” Grady scratched behind Sam’s ears. “You want to live in the backwoods, you need a guard dog.”

“He looks mean and ugly.” Cait said, sitting as far back on the sofa as she could away from the large dog. “Mixing a German shepherd with a pitbull is asking for trouble.”

The dog did look like a scrappy fighter, with a flatter snout than a German shepherd, ears that partially folded down, and a barrel chest over stout and powerful legs.

“Oh, come on, give him a chance.” Grady rubbed Sam’s short-haired coat which was brown underneath with black-tipped hair. The dog sat at attention and wagged the tip of his tail but didn’t make any submissive moves such as lying down and exposing his underbelly.

Nope, a German pit was not cuddly or cute, but the veteran who requested one needed a dog like that to help her gain the confidence to live on her own and venture out of her apartment.

“You should keep him,” Cait said, nursing a glass of ice tea.

How did she know he’d been entertaining exactly those thoughts? Then again, she knew her younger brothers and sisters better than they knew themselves. And she was also good at finding out things.

“Can’t do that,” Grady said, steeling himself. “The best dogs go to the vets. This guy is healthy, has a great disposition, and is tough at the same time.”

“Then keep one that has issues, maybe an elderly one who has a hard time getting adopted,” Cait said.

“I don’t want another dog.” Grady swiped his hand over his sweaty forehead.

“Man’s best friend,” she teased in a sing-song voice. “Really, you need to give it another shot.”

“No, I don’t. All dogs do is die on you, or get lost, or you have to put them down. No, thank you.”

“Pretty much sums up your story with women, too.” Cait set her glass down on the coffee table and curled her legs onto the couch sideways. “You want to tell me why you’ve given up?”

“Nope.” Grady rose from the sofa. “Think I’ll take Sam for a walk.”

“I’ll come with you.” Cait pushed herself off the comfortable sofa and waddled to the front door. “Brian and I are in the market for a house in town. If I’m going to put up a wedding business and gift shop next door to the diner and across from the general store, then I need to know whether I’m welcome or not.”

“You have no problem.” Grady snapped the leash onto Sam’s collar. “You’re Linx’s best buddy.”

“Not quite,” Cait said. “Tami King, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, goes back to grade school with her. I haven’t been able to buddy up to her.”

“I can help you with Tami.” Grady grinned as they walked out the door and down the porch. “She and I share office space. Come by on Monday, and I’ll make the introduction.”

The summer heat permeated the evening air, even at this altitude. Grady’s boots crunched over fallen pine needles as he and Cait strolled under a stand of old sequoia trees along a babbling creek.

Sam did a great job of heeling, walking precisely one foot behind him, while Cait kept darting curious glances between him and the dog.

“You thinking of keeping him?” she asked again.

“Thought I told you I can’t.” Grady dragged his voice. “You know why.”

“It’s been years,” Cait said. “Even Connor got a new dog after Bear died.”

“Yeah, well, Bear lived a good long life with him, and he got to say goodbye.”

“I think you and Sam are a good match,” Cait said. “Look how he follows you. It’s like he’s in the Marines or something.”

“No more dogs,” Grady said.

“Getting another dog would be a good start.”

“To what?”

“Love, that’s what.” Cait blinked and flashed him a know-it-all smile. “It’s in the air.”

“Not for me.” He turned his back on her and looked down at Sam, whose sad eyes told him he understood.

Every love story ended in tragedy. Either dumped or dead.

“Seems strange of you to run a dog matching service for veterans without having a dog yourself,” Cait persisted as only a persistent and absolutely annoying eldest sister would do.

“Will you quit bugging me?” Grady hunched his shoulders. Hopefully, once his sister became a mother, she’d have her own brood to nag and pester.

They walked on in an uncomfortable silence while Sam sniffed tree trunks and fence posts. Unfortunately, with Cait, silence was never golden for long.

“Instead of staying up in that trailer, you should stay here with us,” Cait said. “This cabin is as much yours as it is ours.”

The cabin belonged to their parents, so what she said was true, but Grady coveted his privacy, and he wouldn’t get any—even within his thoughts—with Cait yapping all the time.

“I have to be there to guard the building materials, take delivery, and do the construction,” Grady said.

“At least catch your meals here,” Cait offered.

“I’ll think about it, but don’t you two need your privacy?”

“Brian’s already volunteering with the local fire department, and I’m out all day house-hunting,” Cait said. “It might be fun to live above our store.”

“I don’t know if this town is such a great location for business,” Grady said. “It’s too remote, and the locals aren’t friendly.”

“Unless it’s you who’s causing all the trouble.” Cait’s nose wiggled like a bloodhound scenting a particularly intriguing trail.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Grady’s stomach pinched at her implication. “Are you asking me to leave?”

“Should I?” Her eyebrow cocked as she tilted her head. “Somehow, you’ve turned the entire Colson clan against you. I heard Linx was the instigator. I thought you two had this flirtation thing going.”

“We don’t even know each other,” Grady said, kicking a stone from the path.

“Don’t tell me you tried to hook up with her and got turned down.” Cait’s eyes gaped in mock horror. “That would be a first—a woman actually turning you down.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” Grady said. “I’m done with women. I thought I made that clear. No. More. Women.”

“You got shot down.” She smirked triumphantly. “I’m not stupid. You and Linx were flirting your asses off over Christmas. But since her dog hates you, she shut you out.”

Grady ran his hand through his thick pompadour hair. “What’s the big obsession about Linx? I don’t give a rat’s tail about her.”

“Of course you don’t,” Cait said. “You’re a man of the world, leaving a trail of broken hearts from Alaska to New Zealand. But if you’re thinking of settling here, I’ll put you on notice, brother or no brother—take your ‘hate them and leave them’ stunt somewhere else. I’m starting a wedding business here, and I don’t want you scaring off potential customers.”

“You might want to reevaluate the wisdom of a wedding business in California. Home of the no-fault divorce with the divorce rate over sixty percent.” Grady wasn’t a fan of romance and love—two of the fakest and most insincere concepts ever to plague mankind.

There was nothing more disgusting than a simpering woman whose only hope in life was to marry a man—as if he’d solve all her problems and whisk her away to a life of luxury. No, thank you.

He needed someone with a backbone.

Actually, scratch that, he just needed to get his rocks off and a woman who hated him was perfect for those purposes.

“To get divorced, they have to be married first.” Cait turned up her nose and shielded her eyes from the slanted rays of sunlight streaming through the forest. “I only care about the beginning, not the end.”

Sam sniffed around a fencepost and marked his territory, but he was well-behaved, not pulling or tugging. What a calm dog with such presence.

“Cynical, much?” he grumbled at his sister, who until last Christmas, had merely existed in a loveless marriage.

“Nope, not at all.” She beamed at him, tugging his sleeve. “This place is a fresh start for me and Brian. So far above the pollution of the big city. The scent of mountain pine, the natural beauty, and a community of good people. It’ll be refreshing to put down roots in a place where we can make a difference.”

“For you, but not for me,” Grady said. “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”

“If you’re really a rolling stone, then why did you quit smokejumping?” Cait angled her all-seeing face and cornered Grady in front of the stepping stones crossing the stream.

Sam lapped at the water while squirrels in the trees above them sounded the alarm. The dog’s ears perked, but he didn’t lunge or bark.

“I didn’t quit smokejumping,” Grady said. He brushed by her and took long lanky steps across the stream. “I’m skipping this season, that’s all.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was what he told himself. He was good at what he did, and nothing could beat the excitement and exhilaration of parachuting into a firestorm, prepared to do battle with an angry Mother Nature.

Nothing except for that last jump where things had gone horribly wrong.

“Wow, you’re really going to leave me on this side of the creek?” Cait called, unable to decide on a path for her pregnant body to take across the slippery rocks.

For a moment, smoke and flames clouded his vision. Worse than the images were the sounds—the loud cracks, pops, and greedy snap of red, orange, and gold, consuming everything in its path. And the smells—thick, acrid smoke digging into the nostrils, gagging soot and choking ashes.

He blinked at the sound of her voice, and then his eyes widened. A plume of smoke rose over the treetops from the direction of his parents’ cabin.

“Smoke.” He bounded over the creek back the way they came. “Stay back.”

“What’s happening?” Cait’s voice shrieked from behind him. “Is there a fire?”

“Call 9-1-1 if you can get a signal,” he shouted, hoping that the new cell towers were operational.

Without waiting for her to answer, he dashed toward the cabin. This couldn’t be happening. Shouldn’t be happening.

His parents already lost their house in a fire and had only recently finished rebuilding. How was it fair for them to lose their mountain cabin?

All because he’d distracted Cait who had probably been cooking dinner.

Sam bounded beside him and when they reached the cabin, it was engulfed in crackling flames and thick with smoke.

“No!” Grady shouted as he ran toward the fire.