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"I'll be on my way in two minutes. Text me the address and any info I need."

"Will do. And one more thing…"

Jacob was already running for the door, setting the alarm for the barn on his phone as he ran. "What?"

"This woman uses her phone about as much as you do. Eliana hasn't been able to reach her yet to tell her what's going on. So, when you show up, she might not know why you're there, or that you're a good guy."

Jacob burst outside into the cold night, his boots thudding on the frozen gravel as he ran for the garage where he kept his truck. "So, I'm supposed to sweet talk a woman and kid?"

"Pretend they're horses. You'll do great. And, Jacob?"

Jacob ducked under the garage door as it opened and leapt into his truck, which he'd remote-started already. "What?"

"Thanks."

Jacob put his truck in reverse. "No little girl dies on my watch. Not ever again."

Then he hung up and hit the gas.

CHAPTER TWO

The shriek from the living room had Phoebe Sheridan sprinting toward the room even before she heard the resounding crash.

"Mommy!"

"Annie! Are you okay?" She burst into the living room, and then stopped, unable to stop the swell of laughter at the sight before her. "Holy cow, Annie. What did you do?"

"Mommy! Help!" A couch table was upended on the floor, Annie's hand was sticking out of a huge pile of pillows, and there was a furry, wagging tail sticking out from between the same pillows. "Cupcake's eating my braids!"

Still laughing, Phoebe started tossing aside couch cushions, until she found her six-year-old daughter and their eight-month rescue dog, a thirty-pound black-and-white shaggy whirlwind of chaos, destruction, and joy.

Cupcake did indeed have Annie's braids in his teeth, and he was tugging hard while Annie held the base of her braids and alternated between hysterical giggles and shouting at him.

"Cupcake, no." Unable to hold back her own laughter, Phoebe hauled the exuberant puppy off her daughter. "Is every pillow in the house in this room?"

"Yes!" Annie bounded to her feet, her dark eyes glistening with merriment. Her sixteen little braids seemed none the worse for the wear, which was great, since it still took Phoebe about four hours to comb and braid Annie's hair. She was learning how to handle her daughter's tight curls, but it still took a long time.

"Mommy, we have a crazy dog."

"I know we do." Phoebe picked up the squirming dog and hugged him, laughing as he tried to lick every inch of her face. "I thought you were going to train him."

"I don't know how to train him! He won't listen!"

"Well, then we're in trouble, because I don't either." Cupcake went for Phoebe's necklace, and she felt his teeth hook the chain. She immediately grasped his nose and diverted him. "Okay, out in the yard, puppikins. Want to go out?"

Cupcake barked and shot out of her arms, racing toward the back door. She hurried after him and opened it. He bolted outside, chasing after a squirrel that had dared brave the fence.

With a sigh, Phoebe watched the black bundle of energy race across the fenced yard. She'd walked him for two hours already, trained him for thirty minutes, and he was still a maniac.

He was the wrong dog for their lifestyle. She'd known it from the moment they'd met him, but Annie fell immediately in love with him, so the choice was made. Phoebe had been desperate to help her daughter stabilize after the difficult childhood that had brought her to Phoebe's doorstep three years ago, a tiny little stranger who no longer had a mom or a family, or anyone to call her own…until Phoebe claimed her.

Having the dog sleep in Annie's room had ended the night terrors, so Phoebe would love that dog forever and do whatever it took to keep him a part of their little family. She loved him, but there were moments when she was about at the end of her coping.

Three dog trainers had quit, declaring him untrainable and telling her to get rid of him.

Who says that in front of a six-year-old girl?

It had taken days to undo that damage and get Annie to trust that Cupcake wasn't leaving her.