The man’s tone was soft and nonthreatening, and the dog knew he meant him no harm, nor did the woman with the salty-smelling water rolling down her cheeks.

He wagged his tail and waited, hoping the bowl would be placed within reach again. Instead, the man swept him up in his arms again. This time, the dog trusted that the river wouldn’t separate them.

Chapter 9

By the time they crated the dog, tied the crate down in back, and Olivia had a minute to check her phone as they headed to the feed store, she found four missed calls and a slew of texts from Ava. Her heart sank into her belly. She was grateful her sister had driven all this way to pick her up, but she wished for a bit more time with Gabe. She desperately wanted to explain herself. To say something beyond “Oh, someone broke your heart and called off a wedding? Well, same here, only I was the caller, and we were much closer to heading down the aisle.” But as it was, her sister had pulled up to the makeshift rehab behind the feed store a few minutes ahead of them and was getting out of her Jeep when they pulled up.

As Gabe slipped the truck into park, Olivia resigned herself to chalking up any sort of follow-up conversation as a missed opportunity. She probably wouldn’t have been able to find the right words anyway. For any of it. How did she tell him the few minutes they’d spent making out had seemed more real and more relevant than anything had in longer than she cared to remember? The truth was, it was naive to hope an impromptu make-out session in Gabe’s truck hours after they met might actually lead to something.

Leaving her purse and jacket inside the cab, Olivia jogged over to her sister and pulled her into a tight hug. Bad timing or not, it was good to see her. “Thanks for coming. I know driving down here wasn’t what you envisioned doing today, but at least we’ll have time to talk on the way home. I want to hear everything, starting from the beginning.”

Ava groaned into her ear before they pulled apart. “If I start there, we’ll need more than three hours.”

Olivia gave her sister a closer look. She was dressed for a day of showing property in pressed pants that flared at the ankle, four-inch heels, and a fitted suit jacket, and she clearly knew some sort of miracle cure because her perfectly made-up eyes didn’t look puffy at all.

“You look great, Sis.”