The Perfect Match

“You bet. I’ll even mark his picture in your book. That way you can prove to the other kids you were right when you go to school tomorrow.”

That offer clinched the deal. Charlie handed her the book, then took a deep breath. She slipped her hand into Rowena’s as she walked through the door.

Rowena smiled as she led the little girl to the playroom where Clancy was tossing a regulation-size football into the air and trying to catch it. His white teeth flashed, and Rowena felt Charlie’s hand tighten its hold on hers.

“That’s the biggest dog I’ve ever seen.” Charlie swallowed hard, her eyes wide as sunflowers.

“He’s not even full grown yet. You should have seen the first Newfie I rescued. Huey was 200 pounds in his heyday.”

Charlie slid the straps of her backpack down her arms and set the bag on the floor. She stared at the dog, fascinated. “Did Huey ever bite anybody? By mistake? I mean, my head kind of looks like a football.”

“Your head isn’t nearly pointy enough on top,” Rowena said, ruffling the child’s hair. “Besides, you’re far too pretty to be mistaken for that chewed-up mess of a football.”

Green eyes regarded her solemnly. “I’m not pretty. My best friend Hope says she wants the prettiest kitty in the whole wide world for her birthday. People only want the cute ones.”

“People may think they want the cutest one at first. But sometimes I can change the way someone sees the kitty,” Rowena tried to explain. “Make them see the ‘pretty’ in an animal that no one else can see. That’s what I do. I take in animals that other people think are too broken—in their hearts, you know?—for anybody to take home. Then I find somebody to love them.”

Charlie cocked her head to one side. “Doesn’t anybody love him?” She pointed to Clancy.

As a matter of fact, Rowena thought, there were quite a few people who downright hated the poor dog. But Charlie didn’t need to know about how quickly Clancy’s official Whitewater lynch mob was growing.

“Someday, someone besides me will love him,” Rowena said.

“Only if he’s a real good, right? And he never, ever does anything bad again?”

Rowena chuckled. “I certainly hope that’s not how it works or nobody would ever love me at all! I make mistakes all the time. I bet you do, too.”

“Not anymore,” Charlie said soberly. “Except for coming in here when I’m not supposed to.”

“Ah.” A lightbulb went off in Rowena’s head. “So that’s why you never came into the shop before.” For a moment she considered ushering the child out the door. She didn’t need some parent furious because she’d encouraged Charlie’s disobedience. But Charlie seemed so sad, and Clancy’s specialty was making people smile.

Decision made, Rowena gave Charlie a conspiratorial wink. “If this is supposed to be a secret mission we’d better hurry.”

Rowena opened the gate to the playroom. Clancy bounded toward them. “Sit!” Rowena commanded. Clancy dropped like a rock, looking so virtuous she almost laughed aloud. But in spite of the halo Clancy appeared to have fixed over his head, the dog was scooting toward them, ever so surreptitiously, on his butt.

Rowena dug in her jeans pocket for the heartworm medicine she’d tucked in there earlier. Pulling out the packet, she pushed the cube through the foil on the back side of the plastic blister. She put the cube in the little girl’s hand. “Here you go, Charlie.”

Charlie looked from the little block on her hand to a glass jar filled with bone-shaped cookies. She regarded the cube warily. “How come this treat was all wrapped up like that?”

Rowena grinned at the child’s quick intelligence. “I’ll tell you a secret. That’s really Clancy’s heartworm medicine, so he won’t get sick. But it tastes just like a treat.”

“Sure it does.” Charlie grimaced. She bit her bottom lip, her gaze skittering nervously to Rowena’s. “What if he gets mad that I tricked him?”

“He won’t hurt you. I promise,” Rowena urged. “And just think about the story you’ll have to tell Hope tomorrow. I’ll even snap your picture with my camera.” Rowena picked up her old instamatic from the ledge. “It spits the picture out right away. You can take it with you. Would you like that?”

Charlie nodded. “I could hide it in my secret place. That way Daddy would never know I was bad.”

Rowena had had her own share of misadventures as a child, and while she’d dreaded being caught and the punishment that was sure to follow, she’d always been sure she’d be forgiven. There was something darker, deeper in Charlie’s eyes, as if the child was walking on thin ice and waiting to fall through. Thank heavens Charlie’s fascination with the dog ran greater than her fear.

Charlie looked deep into the dog’s eyes then took a step toward him, the cube clutched in her hand. “I know she told you this is a treat, but it’s not,” Charlie said earnestly. “It’s probably going to taste real yucky, but it’ll be good for you.” She uncurled her fingers. “Just close your eyes and swallow it real quick.”

As if he understood every word, Clancy swept the chew into his mouth with one lick of his pink tongue and gulped it down, surprising a laugh out of the solemn child. Rowena snapped the picture, delighted.

“That tickles, huh?” Rowena asked as the dog wagged his giant-sized tail. “He likes you.”

For the first time, the creases in Charlie’s brow vanished, the tightness in her face softened. “I like him, too.”

“Would you like to brush him while I mark that page in your book?”

Charlie nodded. Rowena took the picture the camera spit out and put it aside to develop. She set down her camera and fished a brush out of a basket filled with various grooming supplies on a ledge beside her.

“What kind of dog is he?” Charlie asked, sinking cross-legged onto the floor and starting to brush the dog with long, gentle strokes.

“He’s a Newfoundland,” Rowena said, retrieving the book and leafing through it. “They’re so strong and brave and such great swimmers that they save people drowning in the water.”

“Like taking lifesaving class at the Y?”

“Yeah. But sometimes they can save people even if nobody ever teaches them to. It’s a natural gift.”

“A New Found Land would be a good thing to have if there was a tidal wave.” Charlie stroked the brush through Clancy’s thick black coat. “My watch works underwater. Just in case.”

“In case there’s a tidal wave?” Rowena asked, astonished. “In Illinois?”

“I’m not stupid. I know you can’t have a tidal wave here. But my daddy said he’d take me and my sister to Disney World sometime. There’s an ocean there. It never hurts to be ready, just in case.”

Rowena’s chest squeezed. This poor little mite wasn’t thinking of meeting Cinderella and seeing the castle or going on the rides when she went to Disney World. She was worried about a tidal wave. What had made Charlie so insecure that she was forever thinking of disaster? Did her parents have any idea how scared she was? And what on earth could calm the little girl’s fears?

Charlie put the brush down and rose up on her knees to see the pictures in the book. A Newfie leapt out of a rescue helicopter into a rough sea. A second shot showed the same dog grabbing a rope with its teeth to haul a life raft full of people to shore. Another image captured a swimmer holding on to a dog’s thick tail while the Newfoundland paddled to safety.

“Could your dog do that?” Charlie asked.

“I’ve been working with Clancy on water rescues. I hope next summer his new owner will take him for even more training.”

“You mean he’s not your dog?”

“Not for keeps. See, I always get this feeling about who a pet should belong to. I don’t feel that when Clancy is with me, so I’m just taking care of him until I find him the right home.”

Charlie’s eyes widened, something sparkling in them for an instant before the little girl put the emotion out.

“Somebody’s going to be so, so lucky,” Charlie whispered, slipping her arms around the dog. “You’d never have to be scared if you had him around.”

The child sounded so sure of it, her voice filled with yearning. Rowena felt Charlie’s small hand close around her heart.

Charlie pressed her cheek against Clancy’s side. She gasped. Shyness evaporated. The dread Rowena had sensed in Charlie’s glances toward the door disappeared. “I can feel his heart beat!” Charlie marveled.

Rowena dropped to her knees beside the pair, her intuition singing. “I’ll tell you a secret, Charlie.” Charlie raised her head to peer into Clancy’s face. Clancy tipped his head to one side, examining the little girl bare inches from his licorice black nose, as entranced with Charlie as Charlie was with him.

Rowena’s heart nearly pounded its way out of her chest, the roaring of instinct inside her so loud she barely heard the bell above the shop door jangle behind her.

“Clancy’s been wishing for someone to love him for a very long time.”

“I’d love him,” Charlie’s so-sad eyes brightened, her pale face almost beautiful.

“I know you would.” Caution struggled to surface in Rowena. Don’t get the child’s hopes up…don’t set her up for disappointment…

But look at her, Rowena reasoned. How sad she looks, how small…what kind of a parent would deny such a woebegone little girl a pet who could make her feel safe? Bring her back to joy? If she were my little girl…

But she’s not, her sister Bryony’s voice chided gently.

Rowena tried to stop the words, but they spilled out in spite of her efforts. “It’s obvious you’re a very responsible girl. Maybe you’re old enough to take care of a dog now.”

Charlie shook her head gravely. “My daddy said no more.”

“Maybe when he said that he didn’t realize what a remarkable young lady you’d grow into. Maybe he didn’t know…” Rowena hesitated.

“Know what?” Charlie asked with such hope in her eyes Rowena couldn’t stop herself.

Rowena shoved back the last vestiges of caution as she cupped the girl’s soft cheek, peered into Charlie’s solemn eyes. So deep she could see the child’s soul.

“Do you know what I think, Charlie?” she asked, more sure of what she was about to say than she’d ever been of anything before. “I think Clancy has been waiting for you his whole life.”

“Really? But how-how do you know?”

“He told me.” Whoa, Rowena, she thought. A little too much honesty there. The kind that tended to get her in trouble.

Doubt warred with a desperate need to believe in the little girl’s eyes. “Dogs don’t talk,” Charlie said at last.

“Not like you and I do. But Clancy told you he likes you, didn’t he? His tail wagged. He licked you. And just look at his eyes. He hasn’t taken them off you for a second.”

“Charlie!” A sharp masculine voice from the shop behind them cut through the magical web of understanding between Rowena, Charlie and the dog. They all three jumped, Charlie with a dismayed squeak, Rowena with an oath as Clancy’s massive head slammed into her nose.

The big dog surged to all fours in front of them, instinctively putting his bearlike body between Charlie and the angry man stalking toward them.

“Daddy!” Charlie exclaimed, leaping to her feet as the thundering footsteps on the tile floor drew nearer.

Half blinded by the dog hair in her eyes, Rowena looped her arm around Charlie’s shoulders, hating how stiff they’d become.

Rowena blinked hard to clear her blurry vision. When she managed to do it, she wished she hadn’t.

Deputy Cash Lawless stormed toward her, another little girl in his arms, fury blazing in his eyes.

CHAPTER THREE

ROWENA TRIED TO REMEMBER how to breathe as her nemesis stalked toward them, six foot two inches of angry male. The child in his arms was swathed from hood to shoes in a purple unicorn raincoat, but Cash Lawless looked as if he’d stepped out of his morning shower fully dressed. His dark hair plastered to his head, the angles of his face even more forbidding gleaming wet.

His jacket, caught back by one of the little girl’s legs, had left the front of his body exposed to the elements. His wet shirt stuck to the rippling muscles of a chest so broad he could probably bench press Rowena’s weight without breaking a sweat.

And at the moment, he looked as if he’d like to toss her out of his way, Hulk style, to get to the little girl trembling in the curve of Rowena’s arm.

Cash Lawless was Charlie’s daddy?

Rowena’s mind reeled as she tried to grasp the undeniable truth. This lost, lonely child who had already won Rowena’s heart belonged to the hard-nosed deputy. The man who had a personal vendetta against the dog Charlie loved.

Rowena’s ill-advised words of moments before played mercilessly in her head. She’d built the child’s hopes up, so sure she could make Charlie’s dream come true.

She’d have a better chance of turning Clancy into a cat.

“Charlotte Rose Lawless,” the deputy snapped, “what do you think you’re doing sneaking off like—”

Rowena could tell the instant he recognized Clancy.

“Charlie, get away from that dog!” Lawless ordered. “It’s dangerous!”

“He is not!” Rowena exclaimed, as the deputy’s long stride ate up the space between himself and his daughter.

“He gave me this black eye!”

Charlie nibbled on her lip, a little doubtful. Obviously the black eye had made an impression.

“It was an accident!” Rowena rushed to explain to the little girl. “Clancy just got overly excited and banged a door into your dad.”

“Charlie, get over here right now,” the deputy roared, flinging open the playroom gate.

“Yeah,” the child in the deputy’s arms piped up. “You are in big trouble, little girl.” The mite thrust her hood back from a face straight out of the fairy book Auntie Maeve had sent Rowena from Ireland.

“Do you have any idea what could have happened to you, running off like that, Charlie?” Lawless demanded.

To give the man credit, he looked plenty shaken up. And Rowena tried to remember that, as a cop, he would have seen plenty of examples of bad things happening to children running wild. He had that if-you’re-not-dead-in-a-ditch-I’m-going-tokill-you-myself-for-scaring-me-spitless parental expression Rowena had seen on her mother’s face a time or two.

Rowena searched for something to say, anything to defuse the situation. “We have to quit meeting like this, Deputy,” she said, fighting a ridiculous urge to fold her arms over her breasts. “I’m happy to say, your eye is looking a whole lot less swollen than last time I saw you.”

“Last time we met, you swore I’d never have to see you again.” He slashed Rowena a filthy look above the yellowish bruise shadowing his eye.

Rowena forced a smile for Charlie’s sake. “Funny how life goes. God’s sense of humor, you know. Tell him your plans and—” She sounded like an idiot, but deflecting Lawless’ anger from Charlie to herself seemed like the only option.

Cash reached for Charlie’s arm, but the child shrank back behind the mountain of Newfoundland, evading his grasp. Clancy shifted to block the deputy’s path even more solidly and made a sound low in his throat.

Rowena gaped, as stunned as if the dog had just launched into a chorus of “Who Let The Dogs Out.” That vein in the deputy’s temple throbbed.

“Is that dog growling at me?” Lawless shot Clancy the Stare Of Death.

Oh, lord! Rowena thought, her nerves knotting. That’s just what she needed. Lawless tallying up even more “incidents” to condemn Clancy as a vicious dog.

“You’re upsetting the poor animal, stomping in here the way you did!” Rowena defended. “He thinks you might hurt Charlie!”

“Hurt my own daughter?” Dark eyes narrowed. “The last thing I need is parenting lessons from that juvenile delinquent of a dog!”

“If you’d just quit yelling—”

“I’m not…” Lawless seemed to start suddenly. His voice dropped to something a shade quieter, but no less emphatic. “Yelling,” he finished, his cheekbones darkening.

“Yes, you were, Daddy,” the child with Christmas tree angel curls corrected. “You got to use your indoor voice unless you’re out for recess. Teacher says.”

“Mac, I…”

Rowena raised a brow. What was it with this guy and names? The five-or-so-year-old who looked as if she should be sleeping under a buttercup was named Mac?

Lawless hesitated for a moment, obviously grappling with his temper. “I’ll try to keep that in mind,” he told Mac. Rowena could see just how much effort it cost him to keep his voice below a roar.

He turned back to Charlie, who was clinging to Clancy’s neck as if she really were afraid. Of her father? Rowena wondered. Or of being dragged away from the dog she already loved? The man didn’t look particularly warm and fuzzy at the moment. No wonder Charlie figured Clancy was a better bet.

Rowena could see Lawless suck in a steadying breath. “Charlie, I thought we agreed this place was off-limits.”

“Deputy Lawless,” Rowena said, trying to catch hold of Clancy’s collar before the dog assaulted the officer a second time. “Charlie just wanted to—”

“Sneak away from the car while I was talking to her sister’s teacher? Cross the busiest street in town without the benefit of a crossing guard? Run off to a place I specifically told her not to go? If Mac hadn’t noticed Charlie’s umbrella by the store window I’d still be looking!”

Okay, Rowena admitted to herself. So it did sound like a pretty daunting rap sheet when he put it that way. “Let me explain,” she said. “See, the problem is that the kids at school were saying I had a bear in here. Charlie’s a smart girl and knew that wasn’t possible. So she got this gigantic book of dog breeds to prove she was right, and…well, I’m the one who asked her into the shop. What harm is there in letting her get a closer look?”

That might have been fine, a voice in her head condemned, but you took the child way past “getting a look” and deep into the realm of impossible dreams.

“You know damned well what harm that could do to a lonely little-” Lawless accused, then cut himself off. But not before she saw a flash of self-recrimination in his eyes.

So Lawless knew Charlie was lonely. But why? The child obviously had a father, a little sister and the dog-dumping mother waiting at home. Or was there a mother in the picture after all? Rowena glanced down at the deputy’s ring finger. No glint of gold or telltale white line marked his skin where the ring would have been. Of course, there were plenty of married men who chose not to wear their wedding rings at all. And as for being lonely even in a crowd, Rowena knew from her own childhood how isolated a child could feel, even in a house full of people.

“Isn’t this exactly the reason you opened your shop across from the playground?” Lawless challenged, gesturing to his daughter. “To prey on children and their parents? Con them into—”

“I’m hardly a criminal for wanting to help children find pets! A pet can be the most important relationship in a child’s life!”

“Funny.” Lawless looked her up and down with a glance so scathing it burned her. “I thought that was the parents’ job.”

“Dogs can teach children things they can never learn any other way! How to take care of a creature smaller than they are—”

“Smaller?” Lawless snorted, pointing at the Newfoundland.

“Well, a living being who depends on them, then. Someone they can take care of, tell their secrets to.”

“Someone who tears up the yard, rips up the house and ends up making a hell of a lot of work for the parents? Kids get tired of pets just as soon as the Christmas shine rubs off. So don’t give me the party line, Ms. Brown. I’m not about to fall for it.”

“But, Daddy, if you’d let me have this puppy I’d do everything,” Charlie pleaded. “He’s been waiting for me his whole life!”

“Charlie—” Cash began.

“It’s true!” Charlie burst out. “Rowena talks to animals, and they tell her who they want to love them and, oh, Daddy—” Awe filled the little girl’s voice. “This dog loves me!”

“What the—?”

The deputy’s eyes widened, his mouth twisting in outrage.

Charlie tightened her arms around Clancy’s neck. The dog licked her face.

Lawless looked from Charlie to Rowena, his fury boiling over. “Oh, no, you don’t, Ms. Brown. You tell her the truth, and I mean now! You aren’t some wacko Doctor Doolittle who talks to animals. And that dog should have been—”

Rowena had to give the deputy some credit. Even angry as he was, he managed to stop himself cold before he told Charlie the dog would have been put down months ago if he’d had his way.

“Daddy, Clancy—”

“The dog’s name isn’t even Clancy.”

“Oh, Lord, not that again.” Rowena groaned.

“Its real name is Destroyer, Charlie. And there’s a good reason for that. He chewed the tires off Jeff Jones’s racing bike. He dug up every flower the Volunteer Garden Brigade planted in the park. He just wrecked up that tea shop where your sister had her last birthday party and broke all of that nice old lady’s china.”

“Not my kitty pot that spit tea out his tail!” Mac gasped.

Even Charlie’s eyes widened at the list of Clancy’s transgressions.

Rowena dove in to explain. “Clancy only did those naughty things because he was lonely and bored and wanted attention,” she assured the girls. “He needed a job to do.”

She turned to Lawless, praying she could somehow make him understand. “Working is in a Newfoundland’s blood, and now he’s finally found his life’s work. His…destiny, if you will.” Heat stole into her cheeks at the danger of exposing so many of her vulnerabilities to a man she knew scorned her. “Look in his eyes, Officer,” she pleaded. “When he looks at Charlie, he…”

How could Rowena even begin to describe what she saw in the dog’s expression? Something new, something wonderful, the budding of the nobility of spirit she’d sensed would grow in Clancy once he began taking care of the human he was meant to love.

Once he found Charlie Lawless.

Rowena tried to put it into words the child’s father would understand, feared it was a hopeless endeavor. “Deputy, do you believe in love at first sight?”

“No,” he snapped back so quickly it startled Rowena. Something hard, bleak, tightened the deputy’s face. Then it turned to blistering scorn so quickly anyone but Rowena would have doubted it had been there at all. “Why is it, Ms. Brown, that I’m dead certain you do? Exactly how many times have you done it?”

“Fallen in love at first sight?” Rowena’s cheeks burned even hotter. “Actually, never.”

In fact, she was beginning to think she never would fall in love at all—at least not with anything that walked on two legs instead of four. How many times had her mother warned her that she was so wrapped up in saving everyone else, she’d end up with no life of her own?

Rowena fought back her own doubts and looked straight in Lawless’ eyes. “Just because I’ve never done it myself, doesn’t mean I don’t know it when I see it.”

“Know what?”

“Love, Deputy,” she said, running her hand down Charlie’s ponytail. “Look at your daughter. Before you came barging in here, her eyes were shining. She was absolutely glowing. So happy—”

The officer’s jaw clenched.

“I may not ever have fallen in love at first sight myself,” Rowena asserted, “but give me a little credit. I know soul mates when I see them. Charlie and Clancy were meant for each other. Take him home and I promise you won’t be sorry.”

“Please, Daddy,” Charlie begged softly.

Lawless ran his hand over his close cropped dark hair. “Charlie, you know what I’m up against! I barely have time to take care of you and your sister, let alone a dog.”

Rowena hoped for some defiance, some fight to flare in the little girl. Instead, any spark in Charlie was snuffed out. Charlie was surrendering. Rowena could see it in the child’s eyes. Anger surged through her. “If you’ve got too many things inked into your precious schedule to give Charlie what she needs, then maybe you’d better reconsider your priorities, Deputy!”