If You Were Mine Read Free

playing.
    And, clearly, the way its whole body was vibrating with
    glee, the puppy thought her little predicament of being stuck in
    the bushes with it was hilarious.
    Despite her jammed-in position between a bunch of sword-
    sharp sticks and branches, she had to agree that it kind of was.
    Knowing at this point that it was a matter of waiting for the
    little guy or girl to get tired of the game, she sat back on her heels
    and looked up through the branches and leaves. The clouds
    slowly changed shape above her in the blue sky. Huddled in a
    bush might not be the standard place in the world for a breather
    from her often hectic workday, but she found she was glad for a
    moment’s respite.
    Unfortunately, she could stil hear the owner yeling for the
    dog and vowed to deal with him appropriately once she had the

    dog and vowed to deal with him appropriately once she had the
    puppy.
    “I wouldn’t want to come out either, if I were you,” she
    told the puppy in a soft voice. “But don’t worry, Atlas and I
    won’t let anything happen to you.”
    She ran a training business, not a rescue, but if she found
    that an owner and a dog weren’t compatible, she did any and
    everything she could to take care of the dog.
    “Doing okay out there, big guy?” she asked Atlas.
    She heard the loud thump of his tail on the pavement in
    response.
    “Quite the little adventure Agnes sent us on, isn’t it?”
    Which didn’t make sense. How could the man who was
    yeling and cursing at the puppy be a close friend of a lovely
    woman like Agnes? Having seen the woman interact with the
    dog she adored, Heather had thought her training client was
    more perceptive than that.
    Suddenly, a wet tongue pressed into Heather’s palm and
    she looked down to see the puppy trying to climb onto her lap as
    it munched on the treat.
    “Wel, helo there,” she said to the very cute Yorkie.
    Gently, she laid one hand on the puppy’s back and a happy
    sound came from its throat as it tried to burrow closer to her
    fingertips. Heather spent a few moments massaging the incredibly
    soft fur, but with the owner stil yeling for his dog, she knew they
    couldn’t stay in here forever.
    “How about we go find you a nice ful water bowl?” And a
    much nicer owner, too, while we’re at it.

    much nicer owner, too, while we’re at it.
    She cradled the dog in her arms to shield it from the
    branches and slowly began the backward procession out of the
    brambles. She laughed as the puppy licked her chin, even though
    the scrapes on her legs were going deeper on the way out than
    they had when she’d dived into the bush.
    Heather was stil in the process of awkwardly crawling out
    of the dirt on her hands and knees while holding on to the
    wriggling puppy, when she heard footsteps behind her, along
    with the renewed thumping of Atlas’s tail.
    Turning her head as far as she could to try and look over
    her shoulder, she spotted a pair of large brown boots on the
    pavement beside her dog.
    “Did you find the little bugger?”
    Gritting her teeth, she replied, “If you’re talking about the
    puppy, yes, I found her stuck in this bush.”
    Okay, so maybe stuck wasn’t precisely the truth, given that
    the dog had clearly been playing hide-and-seek, but what the
    owner didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Besides, her alegiance
    was to the puppy in her arms, not to a man who clearly had no
    business owning it.
    Heather continued to work on getting out of the bush,
    which, unfortunately, seemed intent on keeping her prisoner
    forever. Just a couple more feet and she’d be free to give the
    man in the brown boots a piece of her mind.
    She felt a bead of sweat slide between her shoulder blades
    as she tried to lift her torso, but no matter how she tugged, she

    as she tried to lift her torso, but no matter how she tugged, she
    couldn’t move more than an inch in any direction. Frustrated with
    being on her hands and knees in front of a stranger, with her
    scratched-up