Page 1 of Redeeming Harmony

Chapter 1

Harper cursed and wiped the condensation off the windshield. The weather was getting worse, with the rain bouncing off the windshield until even with the wipers on full blast, she could barely see more than a few feet in front of her. She slowed down to a crawl and squinted through the glass, her hands clenched around the steering wheel and the beginnings of a tension headache lurking behind her forehead.

Sheets of water poured from the angry, dark sky. It was almost eleven, and Harper cursed again, wishing that she had stopped at the motel a few hours back. Anxious to see her dad and just wanting to be home, she’d decided to push forward… a decision she now regretted.

She was barely doing twenty miles an hour, and she considered pulling over and waiting for the rain to abate when bright headlights shone behind her. The driver honked two long, loud blasts, but Harper ignored him until the car pulled around and flew past her with a screech of tires and the gunning of his engine. She caught a quick glimpse of his angry, red face before he sped past and dipped back into her lane, narrowly missing her front bumper.

“You smelly taint crotch hound!” Harper shouted as his taillights disappeared into the stormy darkness. A few minutes later, she breathed a sigh of relief. The rain had let up a little, and she could actually see the dark winding road in front of her. Another fifteen minutes or so, and she would be at her dad’s place. Hell, she could almost taste the strong, dark coffee he made.

She breasted a small hill and slammed on the brakes. Way past their prime, the brakes squealed in protest but did their job. She stopped inches from the back bumper of the dark car that had sped around her earlier. It was stopped in the middle of the road, its engine idling roughly.

“What the hell?” She threw the car into park and picked up her phone, ready to dial 9-1-1 if the asshole even took one step out of his car. The vehicle took off down the road with tires squealing and a belch of dirty smoke from the tailpipe. Harper shook her head and shifted back into drive. She stepped on the gas, and her headlights caught the reflection of eyes in the ditch.

“Shit.”

She parked her car well onto the side of the road before grabbing the silk scarf she’d been wearing earlier off the passenger seat. She stepped out into the pouring rain, not bothering to grab her jacket from the back seat. She was soaked to the skin instantly by the pelting rain. Goose bumps screamed to life all over her body, and her blonde hair was plastered to her skull within seconds. She slipped and slid her way into the ditch, wincing as the ankle-deep water soaked her tennis shoes.

The dog lying in the ditch whimpered pitifully as she approached it.

“Easy, boy,” she said. Holding the scarf in one hand, she approached the whining dog.

He tried to get to his feet, and Harper winced when he fell back on his side with a bone-jarring thud. She crouched beside his prone body and rested a hand on his thin side, squinting as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The dog returned her stare, his body trembling under her palm. She cautiously moved her hand to scratch behind his ears when he made no attempt to move.

He laid passively, and she scratched his cheek and under his chin. “Steady, boy.”

Moving slowly, she twirled the scarf into a rope and then eased it around his muzzle, wrapping it a couple of times before tying it in a knot. It didn’t matter how friendly the dog was, an injury could make even the sweetest dog bite. Muzzling an injured dog to minimize the risk was one of the first lessons her father had taught her.

“Steady, boy,” she repeated before running her hands over his ribs. The dog whimpered again but didn’t try to move. Water had soaked into his thick fur, and his body was shivering as wildly as hers. She moved her hands down to his back leg, and he made a sharp yelp of pain that pierced her heart. He tried to lurch to his feet before sinking back into the rain and mud-soaked ditch.

“It’s okay, big guy. It’s okay.” Keeping one hand on the mutt’s flank, she sat back on her heels and tried to decide what to do. She could feel every rib with chilling clarity. It was impossible to confirm what type of dog he was in the darkness and pouring rain, but she suspected he was a shepherd or at least a shepherd cross. He was obviously a stray, but he was still much too big for her to carry to her car even in his emaciated state. She was small, but she was strong and knew how to handle animals, thanks to working at her father’s vet clinic for years. However, even she could recognize the impossibility of the task in front of her.

“Hold on, buddy. I’m gonna get my phone and call Dad,” she said to the dog.

She stood, pausing when headlights splashed across the road behind her. She squinted at the truck as it stopped in front of her car, and the driver climbed out. He jogged over to her, and she stood protectively in front of the dog.

“I just want to help,” he said.

Harper stared up at him in the pouring rain. Even freezing and worried about the injured dog, she couldn’t help but notice the lean, hard length of his body or the – sweet baby jeebus – sexiest lips she’d ever seen. There was no way this guy was from Harmony Falls. She wouldn’t ever forget a mouth like that.

Harper! Now is not the time.

She stepped aside, crouching next to the stranger when he knelt beside the dog and petted his flank. He made his own murmured reassurances to the dog before smoothing his hand over his hind leg. The dog whined, lifting his head to give them a weary accusing look of pain before dropping it with a squishy sounding thud against the wet ground.

“Did you muzzle the dog?”

Harper nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t want him biting me.”

“Smart. Is he your dog?”

“No. There was an asshole driving like a moron in front of me. I think he hit the dog and then took off. The dog looks like a stray to me.”

The stranger nodded as his large hands moved quickly over the rest of the dog’s body, searching for obvious injuries.

Harper jumped when there was a big boom of thunder, and the rain became a torrential downpour again. Shivering, water dripping from her nose and her chin, she leaned forward and spoke directly into the man’s ear so that he would hear her over the rain.

“I need you to help me carry him to my car. There’s a vet about ten minutes from here.”

He turned his head, and Harper blinked at the closeness of his face to hers. She caught a glimpse of his dark eyes and tanned face before he tilted his head and spoke into her ear. “We’ll take my truck. There’s more room.”

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