A McCabe at Heart

Cathy Gillen Thacker

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Contents

Cover

Title Page

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

Copyright

Chapter One

Laramie, Texas

“I need a favor.”

Sam Navarro looked at the dark-haired beauty standing in the doorway of the exam room and felt the familiar jolt to his system. It had been five years since he and Robin Taylor had broken up. She’d married someone else. Divorced. Three months ago she had moved onto the ranch next door to his, and had started a business refurbishing old whiskey barrels and wagon wheels. But he hadn’t seen her since the move—was she avoiding him?

He’d become a veterinarian, joined a practice in the town where they’d both grown up, and been engaged—twice—to other women. And yet he was still carrying a torch for the slender thirty-two year old with the intense green-blue eyes. Go figure. Sam went back to examining the stray beagle-collie mix someone had brought to the clinic at closing. “I’m listening.”

Robin stepped all the way into the exam room, the fragrance of her lilac soap and shampoo overriding the smells of dog, disinfectant and antiseptic. She crossed her arms. “I understand you have a new litter of golden retriever puppies.”

Sam stopped to remove a tick, dropping it into a glass tube for later examination. “Born four weeks ago.”

Finding the pup in otherwise good health, if a bit on the thin side, Sam led the thirty-five pound stray to the back for a bath and flea treatment.

Robin trailed after them. “I’d like to arrange a visit.”

Sam lifted the dog into the tub and secured his lead. “Sorry.” He turned on the warm water and used the showerhead to wet down his patient. “The pups from that litter are all spoken for.”

Robin leaned against the far wall, her eyes glued to the action. “Oh, I didn’t want to buy one. I just wanted to borrow one for a little bit.”

“Borrow?” Sam echoed, shampooing the mutt thoroughly.

Robin edged close enough he could feel her body heat and she smiled down at the shivering mutt. “You may have heard I signed up to foster a little girl?”

“Molly Russell.” Age eight. “She lost her mom a year and a half ago.”

“Right. And since then Molly’s been in three different foster homes.”

Sam toweled off the dog, and then led him back to the kennels in the back, where full food and water bowls were already waiting. “A shame she wasn’t adopted by any of them.”

He petted the stray encouragingly, then shut him in his run for the night

“The families all wanted to take Molly in at first,” Robin explained.

Sam saw a flash of worry. “But Molly would have none of it.”

A brief nod. “The social worker thinks Molly might do better in a single-parent family, since previously she was raised by a single mom.”

Ahhh. “Which is where you come in,” Sam guessed, not surprised to find that Robin had no more desire to marry than he did.

Robin raked her teeth across her soft lower lip. “And since kids who’ve encountered difficulties early in life sometimes connect better with animals than humans, I thought having a puppy around might help her adjust.”

Sam led the way back to the lobby, switching off lights as he went. “When does Molly move in with you?”

“Saturday afternoon. So what do you think?” she asked. “Can I borrow a puppy just for a little bit?”

Sam shook his head.

Robin looked surprised—as she always did when things did not immediately go her way.

“It would hurt the pup psychologically to be separated from her mother and the rest of the litter,” Sam stated soberly. “But you and Molly can come over and visit them if you like. Although I can’t say I would recommend that, either.”

Chapter Two

After all this time, Sam still had the ability to turn Robin’s heart inside out. Maybe because she had never gotten over him, never stopped wishing that she’d had what it took to say yes to his proposal. But she hadn’t. And like it or not, they both had to deal with that. Not afraid to square off with him, she stepped closer. “Why don’t you think I should bring Molly over to see the puppies?”

Sam locked the front door and strode back to his private office. “She’ll fall in love with them.”

Robin hurried to catch up, feeling as dwarfed by his tall, sturdy frame as ever. “You don’t know that.”

Sam stopped and shrugged out of his lab coat, looking very handsome in a rugged, all-male way. “Obviously, you’ve never spent time with golden retriever puppies,” he drawled.

Robin pushed aside her reaction to his overwhelmingly sexy presence. “It’s not my fault my younger brother was allergic to dogs. I’ve never had much exposure to them.”

He grinned. “Maybe you should think about getting a kitten, then.”

“I’m allergic to cats.”

“A salamander?”

Their gazes locked and Robin noticed how his chambray shirt brought out the blue of his eyes. She shot back, “Very funny.”

The awareness between them increased.

Sam sighed. “It would be cruel to let Molly interact with the puppies and then tell her she has no hope of actually getting one.”

Robin flushed—she hadn’t thought of it that way. “We don’t even know if Molly is going to like dogs.”

Sam leaned closer. His five o’clock shadow, the same inky black as his short, tousled hair, gave him a faintly dangerous edge. “She’ll like ‘em, all right.”

“You’re so sure of yourself!” Unlike her. She never had been, never would be. Not enough, anyway, to keep up with him…

Sam flashed her a sexy smile. “Then let’s put it to the test,” he offered. “Come home with me. And we’ll see.”

***

Robin didn’t know why she was doing this, following Sam home, when for years she had managed to avoid all intimate interaction with him.

Of course, that was mostly because there’d been little chance of them actually running into each other until a few of months ago, when she’d left Fort Worth and returned to Laramie.

The rest was because every time she saw Sam she felt a wave of regret, followed swiftly by the even more devastating knowledge that in walking away she had done what was right for both of them.

She’d never had it in her to make Sam happy.

Or for that matter, to make any man happy.

But she did have what it took to help an orphaned child get on with her life. And the puppies Sam was overseeing were the key.

At least Robin thought so until she actually saw them.

Ten golden-blond balls of fluff, with adorably cute faces and ferociously wagging tails were running, tumbling and fighting their way to their momma’s side.

Sam hunkered down to pet the beautiful full-grown golden retriever. Robin knelt beside them. “Meet Gorgeous,” he said proudly.

Robin blinked, so startled she almost fell over. “You actually call your dog that?” The pet name he’d given her, back when they were still an item!

Sam put out a hand to steady her. His gaze swept her, head to toe, before returning with laser-like accuracy to her eyes. “You’re asking if I named my dog after the only other female in this world who had the power to turn my heart inside out?”

For a moment, she thought Sam was serious. Then the familiar gleam of mischievousness shone in his dark eyes.

“Of course I did,” he drawled with a wink.

Knowing he couldn’t still be as hung up on her as she was on him, Robin pulled her tingling arm away. “A laugh a minute, as always,” she muttered. Or was that a thrill?

Sam grinned and got slowly to his feet, then gave her a hand up, too. “So I’ll see you and Molly Saturday afternoon?”

Warming from the inside out, Robin nodded. And in the meantime, she’d try to keep her own fragile heart intact.

Chapter Three

Sam had heard Molly Russell was not doing well. Seeing her in person, however, really drove that fact home.

The eight-year-old child who emerged from Robin’s pick-up truck was small for her age and painfully thin. Her red hair and freckles stood out against the underlying paleness of her skin. Her green eyes were filled with a soul-deep sorrow that broke his heart.

Beside her, Robin was a study in good cheer. “Hi, Sam. I don’t know if you two have formally met, but…” She turned back to Molly and said, “Sam is our neighbor to the south. You can see his ranch house from our front porch.”

And he could see Robin’s house and barn from his. “At ten acres each, we both have what barely pass for ranches in these parts,” Sam teased. “I’ve got puppies, though. Want to see them?”

The child offered no reaction.

“Well, I would!” Robin said. She touched Molly’s shoulder gently, guiding her in the direction of Sam’s house.

Molly shrugged away from Robin with a reticence that Sam knew had to hurt.

Feeling for both of them, Sam moved to Molly’s other side. He strode toward the porch. “I was just about to feed them.”

Robin threw him a grateful glance. “I thought all puppies did was nurse.”

“For the first four weeks. Then we start them on actual dog food. Although initially, it’s more of a mash.”

Sam held open the door and together, they went into the family room. There, they found a whelping pen, ten foot square with a linoleum floor and mesh-wire walls. As usual, some of the puppies were sleeping next to their momma. Others were nursing. Two were sniffing around the edges, trying to figure a way out, while another mouthed a soft toy.

Sam set a gate across the entrance to the room, then opened the pen door. Gorgeous nudged her pups away, stood, shook herself off, stretched and came toward Sam. He knelt down to pet her and was soon surrounded by snuggling, jumping, nosing five-week-old puppies.

Robin pointed at the splotch of brightly colored paint on their backs, just behind their necks. “What’s that for?”

Sam smiled. “So I can tell them apart. We’ve got White, Green, Blue, Pink, Red, Orange, Purple, Black, Yellow, and Maroon.”

“I see them all…except Yellow,” Robin said.

Wordlessly, Molly pointed to a leather recliner in the corner of the room.

Sam grinned. The child might not say much but clearly nothing escaped her notice.

He looked at the chair that hid their runaway, then back at Molly. “Shall I get her? Or would you like to do the honors?”

Molly shrugged.

Seeing an opening, however small, Sam told Molly, “Tell you what. How about you get her for me while I make their dinner?”

Giving the child no opportunity to refuse, he retrieved the circular feeding dish with the raised middle and took it to the container that held the puppy food. He scooped some in, added water, and mashed it with a fork until it was as soft and malleable as baby food.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Molly remain where she was.

Eventually, Robin went to the corner. She hunted around behind the chair, and emerged with a puppy in her arms. Yellow shrank from Robin’s touch, much the same way Molly had.

A fact, Sam noted with concern, that did not go unnoticed by Robin.

Chapter Four

Hours later, Robin opened the door to find Sam on the threshold, a digital picture frame in hand. “Thought you and Molly might like this.” He clicked it on and handed it to her. Photos of Gorgeous and her brood, from day one to the present, flashed across the screen.

Captivated, Robin said, “Amazing how much the puppies have already grown, isn’t it? Looks like they’ve gone from the size of a large hamster to at least five pounds each.”

“Not to mention how much bigger they are all going to get.” Sam stepped into Robin’s cottage-style ranch house. He took in the silence of the cozy abode. “Molly asleep?”

She was aware that the last time they’d met up like this, they’d been a couple. Throat dry, Robin said, “She fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.”

“She must have been exhausted.” He studied her. “You, too.”

Robin’s pulse quickened at his kindness. “Is that why you’re here? To check up on us?” It seemed ludicrous. And yet… there was no denying there was still something between them. Even if it was only the possibility of friendship.

His expression as casual as his tone, Sam followed her into the adjacent living room. “And to bring you and Molly that as an enticement for future visits. Every day, if you like.”

Noticing that Sam had gone from not wanting to host them at all to wishing for their company, and that she felt the same inexplicable yearning to be near him, Robin curled up on one side of the sofa. He took the other end. “Were you surprised Molly didn’t like the puppies?”

“Was afraid to let herself like the puppies,” Sam corrected, his gaze briefly tracking the fall of her dark hair across her shoulders, before returning to her face. “For fear that she might get attached, only to have the pups leave her, too, as they will when they get a little older and go to their new homes.”

Robin leaned toward him, perplexed. As she did so, she inhaled the masculine scent of his cologne and felt a quiver of longing deep inside her. Wondering if he had any idea how intensely he affected her, she asked, “Then why bring the photos?”

Sam sobered. “Because Molly can’t go forward not allowing herself to get close to anyone—or anything. It doesn’t matter whether it’s her previous foster families. Or you. Or even a litter of puppies. She’s got to let down those walls.”

Robin sighed. Figuring, as long as they were baring souls, they might as well discuss the elephant in the room… “I failed big time today, didn’t I?” Her first day as a foster mom, and it had been terrible.

“On the contrary.” Sam reached over and squeezed her hand. “You were great with Molly. Patient. Caring.”

Tingling from the casual touch, she met his dark, sexy eyes. “It’s so hard to connect with her.”

A corner of his mouth quirked as his voice dropped. “You didn’t really think it would be easy, did you?”

Robin flushed. Defiantly, she lifted her head. “It was easy for Claire, when she took my brother and I in after our parents died.”

Sam frowned. “This is a different situation, Robin.”

“Not really,” she replied. “Both Molly and I lost parents suddenly, in car crashes.”

One evening her folks had been there, getting ready to go out to dinner, the next they were gone. Molly’s mother had been hit by a train, on the way to work.

“It’ll get better,” Sam promised.

Her heart aching, Robin brushed aside her earlier decision to keep her emotional distance from Sam. She reached over and clasped his hand, needing the strength he offered. “I can’t fail this little girl, Sam.”

His fingers tightened over hers. He looked deep into her eyes. “And you won’t,” he promised.

Robin wished it were that simple. Unfortunately, she knew it wasn’t.

“What is it you don’t think you have?” Sam asked after a few moments.

Robin tensed, then admitted, “The heart of a McCabe.”

Chapter Five

Sam stared at Robin in shock. “You’re serious.”

Robin jumped up and began to pace. “I remember what it was like after my parents died, and my brother and I went to live with Claire. I was six at the time, Brad was three. Claire was only fostering us temporarily, until they found my Uncle Zach, but from the first moment we arrived at her place, even in the throes of grief, we felt safe and cared for.”

Wishing he knew how to comfort her, Sam stood, too. “And your point is?”

“Claire is a McCabe, and McCabes know instinctively how to build and honor family. My dad—and former uncle Zach—was a Taylor. Claire had to teach him how to emotionally connect with us. It didn’t come naturally to him.” Briefly, she shut her eyes. “I guess it doesn’t come naturally to me, either.”

Sam took her by the shoulders, determined to talk sense into her. “Bull.”

Robin shrugged him off. “You say that now but you know how badly I failed today. Molly was as aloof with me as she was with those puppies. If it had been Claire there, or any one of the McCabes, it would have been a whole different story.”

Sam folded his arms. He could see she was spoiling for a fight, but he wasn’t sure why. “So you’re saying I’m lacking, too?”

Robin shrugged. “You’re not a McCabe, either.”

Sam frowned. “Navarros know how to connect with kids, too.”

An elegant brow rose. “Not today you didn’t.” She pointed an accusing finger his way. “You messed up as badly as I did.”

Sam spread his hands and made a prediction. “Tomorrow will be better, and the day after that even more so. For both of us, Robin.”

Her luscious lower lip trembled. “You don’t know that.”

Sam stepped closer, resisting the urge to take her in his arms again. “Yeah. I do. And what’s more, I’ll prove it.”

She tilted her head and narrowed her pretty blue-green eyes. “Now I’m listening.”

He grinned at her quiet parody of his earlier words. He stepped closer still. “Bring Molly by tomorrow around dinnertime. But this time don’t act like it’s for her benefit. Tell her you’ve agreed to help me care for the puppies. Hopefully, she’ll be unable to resist their cuteness and will eventually join in on the fun.”

Robin paused. “You really think that will work?”

Sam nodded. “I know it will.”

***

Robin was skeptical. But she decided to give it a try anyway.

Unfortunately, Sunday evening was a replay of Saturday. Monday was only slightly better. Tuesday, Molly was visibly engaged in watching everything that went on, though she remained on the sidelines. Wednesday, she briefly knelt down on the floor with the puppies. Thursday, she actually allowed a puppy to lick her hand. Friday, she petted one gently. By the end of the weekend, she’d even gone behind the sofa to rescue Yellow and bring him out to the dinner bowl.

Molly still wasn’t saying a lot to Robin, but she was clearly interested in the puppies.

So, Monday morning, after putting Molly on the school bus, Robin called Sam and asked him if he would mind stopping by to see her on his way to work. She was in the barn, starting her own work day, when he arrived.