Page 33 of Her Christmas Wish
He’d been working with service dog programs since college—way before he’d become a licensed veterinarian. And being born and raised on the California coast...water rescue had been his first discipline. As plans gelled, his arms reached farther. Harder. His legs kicked a strong, steady beat. And when he’d gone far enough, reaching his sweet spot, he lay supine, smiling when he caught a wave and rode it in.
Was still smiling as he stood in the waist-high water...until he glanced at the beach where Morgan would be waiting for him, to see empty sand.
What the hell!
Racing out of the water, shoving at the waves with thighs that would not be denied, he glanced up and down the deserted beach, quickly, once, and then, reaching shore, turned and studied the water. Completely focused. If a wave had caught Scott’s companion...
He knew how to spot minute signs of life in the water. Partially to keep himself safe from water predators. He scoured frantically for any sign that Morgan had been washed away and was trying to make it to shore.
Scott wouldn’t have just taken the dog back to the house. Not without letting Gray know. Not when she’d been on a sit and wait command—spoken or not.
Precious seconds passed as he searched the waves, and then, while his gut clenched, fearing the worst—that he’d been responsible for his friend’s companion and hadn’t prevented disaster—he jerked to the right when he heard the sound of a dog barking frantically.
Morgan’s bark. Once. And then nothing.
The girl was down the beach, soaking wet, and...she had a life vest in her mouth. One she’d dropped to alert him, and then picked back up again.
The thing was almost as big as she was.
Feeling almost as exuberant as the dog appeared with her ears back and flying toward him as fast as she could with her goods, Gray jogged toward her, thrilled to see her healthy and safe, but flooding with a huge dose of relief, too.
At work, doing his job, he never doubted that he was worthy to be responsible for other lives. Veterinary parameters he knew. He’d been able to study until he could test perfectly on all of it. And then left the rest up to fate, confident in his knowledge.
But in his personal life, when things like waves could come up and sweep away a dog that had spent her entire life on the beach...
The idea of spending every day of his life having to be aware enough to offset unseen dangers...knowing that a dependent could perish if he didn’t foresee them. The idea of having to spend every second watching so he didn’t risk missing what he didn’t know to watch for...
He wasn’t made that way.
And figured fate had just given him that reminder.
In case his long-buried, resurfacing emotions from the past reminded him too much of why he’d asked Sage Martin to marry him, and not enough about the reason he’d broken her heart and walked away.
Sage was up before Leigh on Saturday morning. She purposely rose early in order to provide herself with half an hour of quiet time, to drink a cup of tea and reflect on...nothing.
She just wanted the tea.
Two nights in a row of walking down the beach with her daughter, trying to take the bull by the horns and get rid of the past once and for all by not avoiding it. Two nights in a row that Gray had been absent from her brother’s porch, the beach and even his cottage.
Sitting at the kitchen table, staring out the sliding glass door toward the beach, she sipped. Not reflecting.
The night before she’d actually stooped so low as to make an excuse to walk home via Ocean Breeze, the street that ran behind their cottages, the paved lane from which their parking places protruded.
Scott’s car had been absent. She’d known he’d been home earlier to tend to Morgan and had an evening function. A fancy dinner celebrating a judge’s retirement, to which many attorneys, both prosecutorial and defense, had been invited.
The letdown she’d felt had been due to the second empty parking spot at Scott’s cottage.
But still, no need for reflection. The unresolved emotions inside her were merely due to the closure she’d set out to get Thursday night. And had yet to obtain.
She’d let go of Grayson a decade ago. And had hung on to the gaping hole of loss.
Once she’d seen the distinction, she’d understood how to remedy the situation.
And that had been irritatingly absent...
Stiffening, Sage sat up straighter, her fingers clenched against the handle of her mug, as she saw Morgan run up the beach.
Alone?
