HE’D FOUND A little seafood restaurant in a town on the coast. It was constructed so that boats could sail right up to the landing and come ashore to eat. Mina was fascinated with it.

“How did you find it?” she asked when they were eating delicately breaded oysters with cocktail sauce and homemade French fries. “These oysters are delicious!”

He chuckled. “A friend of mine pointed me in this direction. I love food.”

She smiled at him. It didn’t show, that he loved food. He was streamlined. No fat, anywhere.

He caught that searching scrutiny and grinned. “I work it all off,” he said, anticipating the question. “I’m not the type to sit at a desk and let my men do the hard stuff.”

She laughed. “I didn’t think you were.”

“How do you manage a ranch and what you do for a living, as well?” he wanted to know.

Her dark brown eyes twinkled. “I wasn’t doing so good at that,” she said. “Cousin Rogan insisted that I needed a full-time hire, so I got one; a guy named Jerry Fender. He came with good references. Plus, he goes to the same church that Bill McAllister and I do. Bill likes him.”

He sighed. “Mina, Bill likes everybody.”

“True. But he really is a decent judge of character. Besides,” she added, “Fender’s got this great horse of a dog and he said that if I didn’t want the dog in the bunkhouse, he’d pass on the job and go hunting for one someplace else.”

That caught Jake’s attention. His dark eyebrows rose. “What sort of dog is it?”

“Sort of a duke’s mixture,” she replied. “Big and sweet and cuddly.”

“Honestly,” he told her, “I’d take a dog’s instincts about people more seriously than another human’s. They can sense dishonesty. My German shepherd, Wolf, is my best personnel sniffer.” He chuckled. “He growled at a man who applied to the ranch for work. I had a quick background check run on the man, who turned out to be an escaped felon. Dogs are smart.”

“A German shepherd,” she said, smiling gently. “People say they’re very smart.”

“Smart.” He finished his fries and sipped black coffee. “He’s too smart. He can open doors and cabinets and once he turned on the stove.”

“Goodness!”

“I try to keep him out of the kitchen.” He burst out laughing. “I missed my wallet one morning when I got up. I looked in the living room and Wolf had my wallet open and my credit cards spread out on the carpet. I wondered if he planned to go shopping while I was still asleep.”

She laughed, too. “What a charming dog!”

He pursed his lips. “Want to meet him? You could come to the ranch one day for lunch.”

Her eyes met his. She bit her lower lip.

He slid a big hand over hers. “I know. You don’t feel what I do,” he said quietly. “But at least you like me, so that’s something. Maybe,” he added slowly, “one day, you’ll feel something more.”