Robin couldn’t stop crying. Liquid leaked from every hole in her head, and she just couldn’t stop.

“Come on now,” someone said, and she looked up into the concerned face of Shane. His eyes swept the cement pad at the bottom of the steps, taking in the same scene Robin had seen, the same sight that had torn the scream from her lips.

His arms came around her and she collapsed into his hold, sobbing against his chest. She became aware of movement around her, the sound of running water, and men talking. Shane walked her backward, away from her tiny house, humming in her ear the whole time.

“I—I thought she was in-inside,” Robin said. “She’s too little to come up the steps. I-I h-have to carry her.” She wiped at her eyes, but they kept on dripping tears. She hiccupped, and she hated this out-of-control feeling bouncing around inside her.

“It’s all right,” Shane said. “You didn’t know.”

Robin couldn’t make sense of her emotions, her sense of loss. “I’ve had her for three years.”

“I know, sweetheart,” he said, though he couldn’t know how long she’d had Misfit. She hadn’t told him that. “Misfit was a good little pup.”

She appreciated that he didn’t mention getting another dog, that he couldn’t believe she’d fallen apart over a six-pound animal. Robin had reduced her life to almost nothing, but it had never crossed her mind to get rid of Misfit.

They were the same, she and the dog. Outcasts. People and pets no one wanted.

Shane drew her back into his chest and rubbed her back. “It’s okay, love. It’s going to be okay.”

Robin wasn’t sure how that could ever be true, but she held onto Shane until she was sure she could stand on her own. Finally, she stepped back but kept her head down. She was in serious need of a tissue and her solitude. The itch to leave this ranch and never come back crept forward.

Shane extended a tissue to her, and she worked up the nerve to look at him. “How do you always have exactly what I need, exactly when I need it?” She took the tissue and wiped her nose and then her eyes.

“Luck.” He settled his weight away from her.

Robin didn’t think it was luck. She thought she’d very much like to be wherever Shane was. Even California, if that was where he felt called.

“I’m so sorry about Misfit.” Dwayne approached, and Robin caught the look he exchanged with Shane.

“It’s my fault,” Robin said. “I thought I’d brought her in last night, and I apparently didn’t.” The little dog couldn’t even go up and down the steps by herself. How had Robin forgotten about her?

Her eyes rounded when the pieces started falling into place. She’d taken Misfit out to take care of her business, and Shane had texted. She’d gotten caught up in the flurry of messages after that, and she’d wandered back inside by herself.

He wore such a look of agony that, though it was her dog that had been killed, she couldn’t bear to tell him it was his messages that had distracted her.

“Felicity’s started breakfast at the homestead,” Dwayne said. “Why don’t you come on over there this morning?”

“Okay,” Robin said, a numb feeling starting in her chest. Dwayne gave Shane another look and wandered away, and Shane scanned Robin.

“You want to go get dressed first?” He shuffled his feet away from her as horror snaked through her.

“Yeah. Yes.” She folded her arms across her penguin T-shirt and hurried back to her house. She tried not to look at the wet cement, tried not to see the echo of Misfit’s broken body. But she blinked and she saw it all, though nothing remained. After hurrying up the steps the cowboys had cleaned for her, she practically crashed through the front door and slammed it closed behind her.

After changing out of her black shorts and pajama shirt, she pulled on a pair of cutoffs and the red, white, and blue plaid shirt she’d been planning to wear. She bypassed the red sandals she’d probably wear that night and slipped into her flip flops instead.

Shane waited at the picnic table outside her front door, his head in his hands.

“Hey,” she said. “You okay?”

He jolted like she’d connected his body to a source of electricity. He wore his exhaustion in the crinkle lines around his eyes as he tried to put on a smile for her. “I’m great.” He reached for her hand and clasped it in his. “Now.”

He grounded her too, but she couldn’t tell him. Not right now. As they walked across the grass toward the back door of the homestead, she said, “So will you take me to the animal shelter to find a new dog?”

“Really? You want a new dog already?”

Robin slowed her step as the deck came into view. “I don’t like living alone.”

Shane stopped completely and stared at her, the wheels in his head turning mightily if the curious look in his bright eyes was any indication.

“What?” she asked.

“Well, I don’t rightly know how to make that line up with what I know about you.”

“What you thought you knew about me.” She bumped him with her hip and tugged on his hand to get him moving again.

“Seriously, Robin, I thought you wanted to be alone.”

“Who wants to be alone?”

“Women who buy tiny houses with the intention of driving them all over the state and only stopping when they feel like it.”

Robin felt like someone had dumped a load of quick-drying cement on her feet. She stared up at Shane. “I have jobs all over Texas.”

He sighed. “I know that. I’m just saying that I’m surprised to hear you don’t like living alone when all the evidence points to the contrary.”

“So I’ll go to the shelter myself. I’m sure I can find it.”

“I have no doubt you can.” He swept his fingers along her brow line, the touch electrifying and sweet at the same time. “But I’ll take you tomorrow, if you want.”

“Maybe I’ll get a cat,” she said, eliciting a snort from Shane, exactly what she knew he’d do.

“A cat is not a pet,” he said. “They’re an accident waiting to happen.”

“My mom loves her cats.”

“You’ve just solidified my point.”

She climbed the few steps to the deck and turned back to him. With the extra height, she looked right into his eyes. “Maybe we could pick out the dog together.” She searched his expression for his reaction, but all she got was a blink.

“Together?”

“Yeah, you know, something we can both live with. I think you said you wanted a bigger dog last time we talked about it.”

He looked like she’d splashed ice water in his face, and then he relaxed. “Yeah, all right.”

“All right.” Robin leaned into Shane and hugged him. “I miss Misfit already. But thank you for being here.”

He squeezed her and whispered, “Nowhere I’d rather be.”

Robin still felt the tiniest bit shaky inside, but she extracted herself from Shane’s embrace and turned to face the homestead. “All right. Breakfast.”

“You think you can eat?”

“Probably not.” She took a step toward the door anyway. But I don’t want to be alone. The thought surprised her. She wasn’t alone. Shane would let her stay by his side all day if she wanted. He’d feed her lunch and take her to dinner and then the fireworks show. She knew he would.

And while he was enough for her, she wanted the bustling energy of a kitchen full of people, the smell of bacon and maple syrup, and easy conversation. For the first time in her life, Robin wanted a family. A family that had more than two people in it.

As he reached past her to open the door for her, she looked up at him and said, “You’re making it really easy to fall in love with you.”

She waited for him to say something, but he just stood there and stared at her. Robin cleared her throat and forced a laugh through the narrow opening. “Okay, shouldn’t have said that.”

“I’m already in love with you,” he whispered, his voice hoarse and husky and a whole octave lower than she’d ever heard.

“There you are.” Dwayne came rushing forward and Robin looked at him as more emotion than she knew how to deal with slammed into her. Hard.

“May was about to march over and get you herself. Come on in. Don’t make the pregnant woman mad.”

“I’m not mad!” May yelled from around the corner. She appeared and put both hands on her hips. “But I’m gonna be if you guys don’t get in here right now. Oven pancakes should be served hot, and they already came out.”

Robin looked back at Shane, whose throat worked against a swallow. He gestured for her to go first, and she had little choice but to join Dwayne, who watched them with worry in his eyes. “What did I interrupt?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Shane said, stepping into the house so close behind Robin that his body heat mingled with hers. “Nothing at all, boss.”

Oh, how much of a liar was he? Her heart bumped around in her chest, never quite settling into a regular beat. It kept saying things like Sh-Shane loves you.

Shane lo-lo-loves you.

He loves you-loves you-loves you!

He wouldn’t look directly at her, but no one seemed to be doing that. Robin couldn’t very well shout her feelings for him into a room full of cowboys, so she loaded her plate with food she couldn’t force herself to eat and tried not to look like she’d just been told the most magical words in the world.

Shane went back to work after a leisurely breakfast. Robin stayed at the homestead and helped clean up. Then she braved the intense heat and went out to work in the garden. Eventually, she had to go home and freshen up for the celebrations that evening.

Shane sat on the picnic table when she came out, her hair braided into two pigtails. He flipped one of them and said, “This is new.”

“Believe it or not, I don’t always pull my hair into a ponytail.”

“I like it.” He moved toward his truck without taking her hand in his or putting his arm around her. So she claimed him by slipping next to his side and snaking her hand along his waist.

He grinned down at her before helping her up into the truck. A great big something sat between them, and Robin knew exactly what it was.

Three little words: I love you.

She supposed she’d heard six words: I’m already in love with you.

They meant the same thing.

But he didn’t seem to want to talk about them. Instead, he said, “I talked to my dad this morning.”

Robin choked on her own breath. “You did? What did you say?”

Shane looked out his window, concealing his face from her. “A lot of stuff I wish I hadn’t.”

“Really?” She leaned forward and peered at him. “Shane?” She reached over and touched his elbow. “Really?”

He flicked her a look. “Really, really.”

“Well, what did you say?”