A Walk Along the Beach by Debbie Macomber Page 0,17

made it difficult to maintain a relationship, even with my own family. I’d lost count of the number of holidays I’d missed. The truth was I hadn’t found a woman that had caught my interest nearly as much as Willa had. She was almost entirely the exact opposite of Nikki, who’d flaunted her beauty.

Looking back, I realized I’d had a lucky escape. It baffled me that I had been so foolish, unable to accept what was right in front of me. Nikki was greedy and self-absorbed. Everything was about her and what she could get. The last I’d heard, she’d hooked up with another player, my replacement, in more ways than one.

“Next time I see her, I’ll ask her out,” I told Bandit. I could have sworn I heard him snort as if he didn’t believe me. “Just you wait.”

The opportunity came sooner than I expected. After filling his bowl twice for dinner, I realized Bandit had gone through an entire bag of dog food. I didn’t want him to go hungry come morning, and decided to make a run into town that evening, heading to the local grocery store.

My mistake had been in purchasing a small bag. I didn’t want to waste money on a brand Bandit didn’t like. I should have known that after living off scraps and whatever he could steal, he wouldn’t be picky.

I loaded a twenty-five-pound bag into my cart and headed to the cashier. As I rounded the corner, I nearly bumped into another cart.

“Willa.” I gasped, shocked to see her.

She looked as surprised as I did. “Hello, again,” she said after her initial reaction. “Funny running into you here.”

“Yeah. Funny.” My wit had failed me, which it seemed to do whenever I was around her.

Staring at the huge bag of dog food in my cart, she raised her gaze to meet mine. “I didn’t know you had a dog.”

“Bandit is a recent addition.”

“Harper and I have a new addition ourselves. She brought home a kitten this afternoon.” Lowering her voice, she added, “Our lease doesn’t allow pets, so I don’t know how this is going to pan out.”

“Bandit was a stray in need of a good home.”

Willa smiled knowingly. “That tells me Preston and Mellie Young got ahold of you.”

Barking a laugh, I nodded. “That they did, although to be fair, I wasn’t all that averse to adopting him. He’s proved to be a good companion.”

“I’ll let you know how it works out with Snowball,” she said.

It seemed neither one of us knew what else to say after that. “I guess I better get back home,” I said, “Bandit is waiting.”

“Me too, although I just started.”

I noticed she had only a few items in her cart. She went in one direction and I headed in another. Once I paid and hauled the heavy bag out to my car, I returned the cart to the store.

A light rain had started to fall, and I hurriedly got into the car and was ready to pull out of the parking lot when I stepped on the brake and slammed my hand against the steering wheel. I heaved a sigh big enough to lift my shoulders. I’d let yet another opportunity to ask Willa out slip through my fingers.

Not happening. Not again. Hadn’t I told Bandit less than two hours ago that I would ask the next time I saw Willa?

Turning off the engine, I opened the door to pelting rain and raced back into the store. It took me three aisles to find her.

“Willa,” I called out loudly, capturing her attention. I was a man on a mission, and this time I wasn’t backing down.

She looked up and blinked. I must have been a sight. Rain had plastered my shirt against my front and back. Water dripped from my hair onto my shoulders and into my eyes.

“It’s raining?”

“It’s a monsoon,” I said.

“I didn’t hear anything about rain in the forecast,” she said, as though I’d returned to the store to warn her.

“Listen,” I said, “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m asking you not to say anything for the next few minutes.”

She looked concerned and confused. Not that I blamed her. That wasn’t how I should have started, but I wasn’t stopping now.

“Okay,” she agreed. “What’s this about?”

I’d already started down this path and was unable to make a course correction now. It was my do-or-die moment. “Every time I try, I flub this up, so please be patient.” I paused as if