He shrugged. “No worries. I’m pretty good at taking a hint.” He bumped her in the shoulder. “Plus, my brother gave me a heads-up. Bec told him you were seeing someone else.”

Kincaid looked down, putting her foot on the bottom rail and letting the familiar sadness weigh her down. “Yeah. Long story.”

“It’s fine,” he said affably. “If it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be, right? In fact, I actually met someone a few weeks ago. If you had taken me up on the second date, I may have never asked her out.”

Kincaid turned her head toward him. “Really?”

He got this adorably affectionate look on his face, and for a moment, Kincaid forgot that she’d given up on being a romantic. “Yeah. Ilsa.”

Kincaid couldn’t help but smile. “Tell me about her.”

Marco looked toward Barry, who was climbing onto one of the elevated wooden platforms. “She came in to the clinic late one night after rescuing a litter of kittens. She was horribly allergic and sneezing her head off, but they were climbing all over her sweater and she was beside herself that someone had abandoned them.” He smirked. “I could hardly tell what she looked like with her eyes so swollen, but she had this way about her that, I don’t know. I just knew I needed to see her again.”

Kincaid watched him, saw the adoration play across his features. A tight feeling clamped over her chest. “So you did.”

He glanced her way, warmth in his eyes. “I did. And we’ve seen each other almost every night since. I’ve never felt like this before. Where you can’t get enough of talking to a person, where you can’t wait to discover every little thing about them. It’s freaking me out a little to be honest.” He shook his head, chagrined. “Like fate just stuck its fingers into my life, and now I’m powerless to resist it.”

Fate. Kincaid didn’t believe in that concept anymore. But she wasn’t going to rain her stormy self all over Marco’s happiness. “That’s great, Marco. I’m really happy for you.”

“Thanks.” He nodded toward her. “And your guy?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Kind of broke my heart into a million pieces.”

“Aw, hell,” he said, his face falling. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

She waved him off. “No, it’s fine. I’m a big girl. I’ve got too much going on right now to worry about dating anyway. Bigger priorities. I’ve got goats to feed, for heaven’s sakes.”

Marco gave her a kind look. “Even so, I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”

“Thanks.”

“And for what it’s worth, any guy who’d walk away from you is a dumb-ass.” He leaned closer as though he was going to tell her a secret. “I mean, have you met you?”

She laughed and gave him a friendly side hug. “Oh, Marco. I hope your girlfriend isn’t the jealous type.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because you just got yourself adopted as a friend of Kincaid.” She hooked her arm in his. “That’s a lifelong contract, so she’s going to have to get used to me.”