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out she didn’t have a response to that.
They said no more as they completed the trek to the car, and once there, despite her earlier denial, she tossed him the keys. She was suddenly tired, borderline exhausted. She dozed the entire way back to Hummingbird Lake and woke only when he pulled into her drive. “Wake up, sleepyhead.”
“Wow. I can’t believe I conked out like that.”
“You needed the sleep.” He stopped the Jeep and shifted into park. “Listen, I need to run an errand in town and do a few chores at the Landrys’ place, but it shouldn’t take me more than an hour. I have to leave Eternity Springs by six tomorrow morning to catch my plane. I want to spend the time I have left here with you. All right?”
He’s leaving. That little fact had slipped her mind for a bit. Sage tried to ignore the little pang in her heart as she nodded and said, “I’d like that, too.”
During the hour he was gone, she tackled some chores of her own, and while she worked, she once again realized that the solitude she’d prized out here on Reflection Point now had a lonely feel to it. These past two weeks had changed her world, mostly for the better, but not entirely. She would miss Colt Rafferty when he was gone. However, after thinking it through while she mopped her kitchen floor, she decided that she still was glad he was leaving.
The man was like a dog with a bone, always pushing, always prodding, always wanting to discover a fact, solve a mystery, and piece together a puzzle. He did it in a nice way. Most of the time you didn’t even notice he was doing it. Still, she’d had enough of it.
Sage would only be pushed and prodded so far.
With today’s revelation, she’d pretty much reached her limit. Were he not already on his way out of town, she suspected she might have been forced to give him his walking papers. Because Colt Rafferty might push, but Sage Anderson planted. When she absolutely, positively, established a boundary or claimed a position, she sank her roots as deep as Murphy Mountain was tall.
She’d learned that she had to do it that way. It was how she managed to survive.
Her phone rang. It was Colt. “I’m at the Trading Post. Thought I’d pick up something to cook for dinner. Is pasta okay with you? In addition to killer chili, I make an amazing red sauce.”
“Sounds great. While you’re there, would you pick me up a gallon of skim milk, too, please?”
“Skim?”
She rolled her eyes at the pain in his tone. “Skim.”
“Okay, see you in ten.”
His red sauce lived up to his claims, but the meatballs she provided took the meal from excellent to sublime. She told him as much as she sipped a lovely Chianti. He fired back that he saved sublime for the bedroom.
She couldn’t argue with that.
Especially after he insisted on proving his point, which he did with delicious inventiveness, spectacular enthusiasm, and amazing stamina throughout the long winter night. She finally fell into an exhausted sleep an hour before dawn and she stirred only to half wakefulness when, sometime later, he kissed her and told her good-bye.
She awoke midmorning, and before she even opened her eyes, she knew something was wrong.
I’m not alone.
Her muscles tensed. Her pulse began to race. Colt was gone. She knew that. The bed beside her was empty, and yet … it wasn’t.
Slowly, silently, Sage cracked open her eyes and peered through her lashes.
A wicker basket lay in the space Colt had previously occupied. Something was inside the basket.
He didn’t. Her eyes flew open wide. “He did.”
The gift he’d left was no stuffed animal or hockey stick or flavored lip balm. This wasn’t a basket in her bed. It was a bed in her bed. A dog bed.
This time, his gift had a heartbeat.
Colt Rafferty had left her a puppy. A puppy! A little white puffball wearing a red collar tied with a big red bow, curled up and asleep on a purple pillow.
A folded gift card hung from a ribbon threaded through the wicker. In a state of shock, Sage reached for it and read his bold handwriting.
She’s a bichon frise and she’s lonely. She’s had all her shots and Nic says she’s healthy and ready to be loved. I left dog food, bowls, a leash, some toys, and a silly dog sweater Celeste pushed on me in a sack in