Summer Love Puppy: The Hart Family (Have A Hart Book 6) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Summer Love Puppy

  Have A Hart, #6

  Rachelle Ayala

  http://rachelleayala.net

  Copyright © 2017 by Rachelle Ayala

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real events or real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  All trademarks belong to their respective holders and are used without permission under trademark fair use.

  Contact Rachelle at:

  http://rachelleayala.me/author-bio/contact/

  Contents

  Have a Hart Sweet Romance Series

  Description

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Many Thanks

  Excerpt - Christmas Stray

  Excerpt: Playing for the Save

  Reading List

  Rachelle Ayala

  Have a Hart Sweet Romance Series

  Christmas Lovebirds, Rob and Melisa, Book #1

  Valentine Hound Dog, Larry and Jenna, Book #2

  Spring Fling Kitty, Connor and Nadine, Book #3

  Blue Chow Christmas, Brian and Cait, Book #4

  Valentine Wedding Hound, Larry and Jenna, Book #5

  Summer Love Puppy, Grady and Linx, Book #6

  Dog Days of Love, Dale and Vanessa, Book #7

  Description

  Can love rebuild a ruined relationship?

  Grady Hart and Linx Colson have a past neither of them will admit to their families.

  Linx hasn’t forgiven Grady for forcing her to do something she regrets, and Grady distrusts her for lying and trying to entrap him.

  Grady’s back and he wants answers, while Linx holds him at bay, keeping him away from her dog and her heart.

  What is Linx hiding, and what will Grady do when the woman he hates is the one he can’t live without?

  Chapter One

  Four years ago

  Flames shot up outside the tiny cabin. Sasha’s aggressive barks fell silent. Her ears flattened, and fur raised on her hackles as she darted through the kitchen toward the doggy door.

  A rush of fire flashed through the doorway and blocked her, licking her nose. She squealed, backing up as smoke rushed into the cabin.

  Gasping for breath against the thickening smoke, Sasha raced around and around the wooden cabin. The acrid smell stung her nose, and she whipped her head wildly, not knowing where to turn.

  Blindly, she threw herself against the walls and doors. She dug with her paws, scratching, begging, hoping her man would come, but there was no sound other than the crackling of burning wood.

  She had to get out. Had to escape. Her fur spiked on its ends, and the mewling cries whistling from her throat sounded too distant to be hers.

  Where was her man? Where was the large, steady hand that held her tight and made her feel safe?

  A loud boom shocked her to the bone, and all was strangely silent. A maelstrom of flames rushed at her. Horror gripped her. She reared herself up onto the sofa and pounced at the window with all of her eighty pounds.

  The glass shattered, and she plunged through it onto the burning porch, surrounded by dancing flames: red, yellow, and orange.

  What happened to the man she loved? Why wasn’t he calling her?

  There was no way out except through the fire, and Sasha wanted her man. He had to be out there.

  Her eyes and lungs burning, she dived into the wall of fire, heading for the small patch of blue sky she could barely glimpse.

  She ran, and ran, and ran, rolling in the grass to cool her burns, until she came to a tiny creek.

  With her tongue and throat parched, her paws bleeding and raw, she plunged into the water and let the current carry her away.

  Chapter Two

  Grady Hart couldn’t remember the last time he celebrated his birthday—especially with his twin sister, Jenna.

  He sat in front of a long dining table at his parents’ newly rebuilt home in the Sunset District of San Francisco. A year ago, an arsonist had burned their house to the ground, and they had lost all of their possessions, including photographs and videos of bygone birthday parties.

  A large sheet cake, with twenty-nine candles burning bright, sat on the table in front of Grady and Jenna with the slogan, “Our Twins, Twenty-Nine Forever.”

  “For they’re jolly good people, for they’re jolly good people …” the large family sang as they wore party hats and blew noisemakers.

  “Get ready to blow when I count to three.” Cait, their oldest sister, aimed the camera.

  Jenna nudged Grady. “They’re betting we can’t blow out all the candles.”

  “Piece of cake for a smokejumper.” Grady gave his twin a wink.

  Obviously, they weren’t identical, being boy-girl twins, and their coloring and appearances were so opposite, it was hard to believe they were brother and sister.

  Grady was dark, with dark-brown hair and eyes, and a year-round tan, thanks
to his outdoor job, whereas Jenna was pale and blond. She was also a happy newlywed, unlike Grady, who was a no-commitment type of guy.

  Underneath the table, Jenna’s glutton of a hound dog, Harley, sang along with his baying voice, “Aaahhrrooh.”

  He was obviously waiting for a piece of cake to accidentally drop onto the floor. Other family members also had pets, including a Dalmatian, a gray tabby cat, and two little lovebirds chirping in their cage.

  The family segued to the birthday song, and Grady eyed the flaming candles. The heat from twenty-nine candles could melt the cake and ignite their parents’ house anew.

  “Don’t worry.” Jenna elbowed him. “Every man in here, except for Dale, is a firefighter.”

  Dale was their baby brother and the current concern of his well-meaning parents. He hadn’t told anyone other than Grady that he’d dropped out of college, because he didn’t want to be pressured into fire-fighting school.

  Grady eyed the twenty-nine dancing candles. His thoughts flickered briefly to the cabin he’d once had in a remote location in the Sierra Nevada mountain range—and his precious Sasha, the bravest, smartest, and most loyal dog a man could ever love.

  All of it had gone up in smoke while he was out fighting another fire.

  Cait counted down. “Three, two, one, ready, blow!”

  Grady inhaled deeply and whoosh, he blew along with Jenna, sometimes at cross purposes, with her blowing one way and he the other. Eventually, they pushed the flames into tiny whiffs of black smoke.

  “Yay!” his family cheered, and his older brother, Connor, slapped his back. “You finally put out a fire this year.”

  Grady closed his eyes briefly, beating back the image of the last forest fire he was in—the one where the wind whipped itself into a fire tornado, catching him and his jump partner off-guard.

  He’d managed to land on the face of a rock, bruising his entire body, but his partner hadn’t been as lucky.

  Grady shuddered when Cait tapped him and shouted, “Smile!”

  Jenna hooked her arm around him and tilted her head toward his. “You’ve got this. Don’t let Connor upset you.”

  “I’m not upset,” he grumbled. His older brother, now a fire chief of his own station, had always overshadowed him.

  “I said to smile, not talk.” Cait waved her hand. “We can’t cut the cake until we get pictures of you two.”

  Grady pasted on a grin. His mother bent between them, kissing both the twins, followed by his father with his hands on their shoulders. Various combinations included a self-timed, wide-angled family photo with every pet on every arm, and in the center of all, Connor and Nadine’s three-month-old daughter, Amelia, the world’s prettiest and most adorable baby.

  The birds sang, the cat meowed, and the dogs barked up a storm, while Amelia cooed and babbled. His mother laughed, Cait yapped, and his father boomed.

  “Did you make a wish?” Jenna whispered close to him.

  “I was too busy blowing to wish. How about you?”

  “I want a baby,” Jenna said, eyeing Amelia and their sisters. Both Cait and their youngest sister, Melisa, were expecting. “You still have time to make a wish.”

  Grady pressed his lips into a grim line and exhaled through his nose. “I’m too old for wishes.”

  “And I’m too young to quit wishing,” Jenna said. “How about another dog?”

  “No dogs.” Grady felt a rumble of anger ignite in his gut. “No dogs, and no women.”

  “No one said anything about women,” Jenna said with a huff. “Is there a particular one you’re avoiding?”

  Linx Colson frowned as she brushed her dog, Cedar. “What were you doing running through the creek?”

  Cedar gave her a baleful look and laid her head down, allowing Linx to pick the burrs and twigs from her long reddish coat.

  Linx found Cedar four years ago after a forest fire worked its way to the edge of her hometown.

  Cedar had been burned and suffered smoke inhalation. Her paws were blistered and parts of her fur were charred, but the dog had bravely traveled down the creek and found her way to safety.

  Her owner hadn’t cared to post in any of the lost dog forums, nor did he show up in town looking for her. Linx didn’t feel too guilty keeping the dog, who obviously needed a stable, loving home.

  Tenderly, Linx brushed Cedar’s lush reddish fur marked with a white crest on her chest. As far as Linx could determine, Cedar was a chow chow and collie mix with a touch of Akita.

  She was intelligent, loyal, and very loving, keeping Linx company and providing her with a listening ear through the lonely nights up in these parts of the woods.

  “There you go, little girl.” Linx detangled the last of Cedar’s fringe. “All pretty and sassy again. Don’t you go running off up that creek. You hear? There’s nothing up there for you. Your home is here, with me. Forever.”

  Chapter Three

  Grady was technically homeless—not that it mattered when he lived at various firefighting base camps year-round. The northern and southern hemispheres alternated fire seasons. While other smokejumpers went home during the off-season, Grady had kept himself on the move, fighting wilderness fires in California, Montana, and Idaho half of the year and decamping to Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa for the other half of the year.

  For almost ten years, he was like a migratory bird, moving like clockwork across the globe.

  The clock stopped this fall during a wicked late season fire, causing him to retreat home to his family. He’d been squatting at his twin sister’s apartment since Christmas, the longest time he’d stayed in one place since he left home after high school.

  “Since you’re living with me, you might as well make yourself useful,” Jenna said to Grady the next morning at the breakfast table.

  “You telling me to move out?” Grady flicked through the messages on his cell phone

  “No, of course not, brother dearest.” Jenna ruffled his hair. “I need help with the fall collection, and you smokejumpers are good with the sewing machine.”

  Jenna was a talented fashion designer, and while she, too, had sown plenty of wild oats, she’d surprised him by falling in love with a stalwart and loyal firefighter—the last kind of man his sister had been attracted to growing up.

  “Repairing our parachutes and stitching up jumpsuits don’t exactly qualify for high fashion,” Grady said. “For one thing, our stitches don’t have to be neat.”

  “True, but you’ve been moping around here half a year already. What really happened out there? I know there was a death in your crew.”

  “If you’re saying it was my fault, you’re wrong.” Grady pushed from the kitchen table.

  Jenna’s brows turned down, and her mouth opened into a circle. “That’s not what I’m saying. I only want to know how you feel about it.”

  “There are risks in everything we do—some more than others. Besides, it’s not like I’m doing nothing. I’m busy running my Dogs for Vets charity.”

  “True.” Jenna walked to the refrigerator and pulled out eggs, bacon, and cheese. Before she was married, she never cooked, but now that she was determined to become a mother, she’d been practicing on her husband, Larry, and by extension, Grady. “I wonder why you’re doing all of this work with dogs when you don’t want one yourself.”

  “No conflict of interest. I have a list of veterans and the types and characteristics of dogs they need, and my job is to be on the lookout for them—preferably rescuing them from shelters. If I were looking for a dog for myself, I would want to keep every one of them.”

  “You only need one,” Jenna said, looking toward the side of the refrigerator where Harley, her and Larry’s male basset hound, inhaled his breakfast.

  He was one ugly mug of a dog with saggy skin, ears so long they trailed on the ground, and a bulging tummy from his constant gluttony.

  “Good morning,” Larry stepped into the kitchen and greeted them. He bent down and patted his dog, clearly
adoring the messy hound. Still wearing the shorts and T he slept in, he wore the satiated smile of a happily married man. After acknowledging Grady with a curt nod, he made a beeline for Jenna and kissed her long and hard on the lips.

  Grady turned away. He was definitely crimping their lifestyle by staying here. Here they were, hot newlyweds, and they had to share a small two-bedroom apartment with a grouch who’d given up on women—and dogs.

  “Nothing against you, Harley, but you fart too much,” Grady said as he walked toward the kitchen door.

  The dog gave him a droopy-eyed look and slurped his drink, splashing and flapping water with his long, hanging ears.

  So sloppy, unlike Grady’s long-lost Sasha, who was beautiful in grace and form with sleek, light-red fur, tufts of pristine white accents on her chest and muzzle, and ears that stood erect and alert.

  Missing and presumed dead.

  Grady hadn’t had a chance to look for her after his cabin burned down because he was hospitalized for smoke inhalation. When he was released, he’d been immediately assigned to an out-of-state crew where a fire burned out of control.

  He’d kept his eye on the dog “lost and found” pages online, but after several false leads, he gave up.