A Cowboy Under the Mistletoe Read Online Free PDF Page A

countered her current request, she couldn’t help but admire Hank’s gallantry. Or wish, just a little impractically, that one day someone would feel that way about her.
    â€œFine.” She swallowed, struggling to hold her own with this very determined man. “But the dog doesn’t have to stay in the house.”
    Hank took a moment to scowl at her before he replied. “Where would you have me put Duchess? In the barn?”
    That was exactly what her father and mother would have done, had they not run the pregnant dog off the property first. Ally forced herself to hang on to the Garrett family’s unsentimental attitude just a little while longer. Coolly, she pointed out, “That was where Duchess was initially headed.”
    Hank’s handsome features tightened in reproof. “Onlybecause it was the best shelter she could find in which to deliver. Fortunately, we spotted her, and came to her rescue. Because if Duchess had given birth out there in the elements sometime in the next few days, with the temperature falling into the twenties at night, there’s no way she could have kept her offspring warm enough. All her pups likely would have died—maybe Duchess, too.”
    Ally’s eyes welled with tears at the thought of yet another completely avoidable tragedy. She was responsible for a lot of bad things that had gone down on this ranch. She wouldn’t be held to account for this, too. “Fine.” She finally relented, throwing up her hands. “But when you’re not with her, you’re going to have to figure out how to contain the dog so she’s not in the way.”
    Hank shrugged his powerful shoulders. “No problem.”
    He regarded her in silence.
    Another jolt of attraction swept through Ally. Suddenly, the dog wasn’t the main danger to her well-being—the sexy cowboy in front of her was. “Well…” She gathered her composure around her like a shield. “I’ve got to change and go into town…for a preliminary meeting with Marcy Lyon at Premier Realty.”
    Hank’s eyes softened unexpectedly. His assessing gaze took her in head to toe, lighting wildfires everywhere it landed. “No business suit for that meeting, hmm?” he chided.
    She fought back a self-conscious flush. “Everyone wears jeans in that office. You know that. Since they deal primarily in ranch property and are always climbing over fences and what not.”
    Hank nodded and said nothing more.
    But then, Ally thought sadly, he didn’t have to. He did not approve of her decisions and actions any more than herparents had, when they were alive. Now, as then, she told herself it did not matter. And still knew that some way—somehow—it did.
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    A N HOUR LATER, Kurt McCabe stopped by, vet bag in tow. “You were right,” he told his cousin, when he had finished his examination of Duchess. “Those puppies are coming soon.”
    â€œHow soon?” Hank asked.
    Kurt shut off the portable ultrasound and folded the keyboard back against the monitor before latching it shut. “The next twenty-four, forty-eight hours.”
    Hank figured they had time to prepare. “Any idea how many?”
    His cousin slid his stethoscope back into his vet bag. “Looks like ten, from what I could see on the ultrasound, but the way they’re packed in there, there could be one more.”
    Hank knew that was standard for the breed. “You have no idea who she might belong to?”
    Kurt shook his head. “My staff and I all asked around. Got nothing. And…” he paused to use the transponder wand that would have detected surgically implanted information beneath the skin “…unfortunately, she’s not outfitted with a microchip that would reveal her identity.”
    â€œBummer,” Hank said with a frown. Kurt put the portable transponder away, too. “I can tell you that Duchess is definitely