Somewhere With You (Windswept Bay Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

scared the daylights out of her. But she wasn’t about to let anyone know that tidbit.
    Nope, not her.
    Arriving home, she pulled into her small garage and checked her watch. She was ten minutes late for the plumber and there was no plumber’s van in sight. She sighed as she unlocked her door and entered the house.
    “Rufus,” she called, finding it unusual for her little Heinz 57 mixed dog not to meet her at the door. “Rufus, here, boy. Where are you?” she called again, half laughing. “Are you hiding?”
    She walked into the kitchen and set her keys on the counter—and spotted two big footprints on her tile floor.
    “No,” she squealed and spun around, scanning the room for any sign of an intruder still being in the house. As she looked, she spotted the double doors onto her deck open. Her heart pounded in a completely different way than it had pounded moments ago upon seeing Gage. No, this adrenaline shot she could do without. She snatched up a heavy pan from the overhead pot rack and held it like a weapon as she moved around the end of the bar.
    A note on the floor caught her attention. Scooping it up, she saw it was from her plumber. A quick scan had her growling in aggravation and frustration. She might just hurt Albert Meeks when she saw him. He’d arrived early, found an open door and just let himself inside. On top of that, he couldn’t find her leak so he left. So much for having an appointment with him. And in the meantime, Rufus had escaped.
    Her new little rescue pup was still skittish and had probably gotten out of the house and was hiding somewhere, frightened.
    Jogging out onto her deck that overlooked the almost private beach, she hurried down the steps, calling Rufus’s name. When he didn’t answer with a quick bark or show himself, she began to really worry. She hurried back inside, grabbed his leash and then ran back out to look for him through the neighborhood.
    She’d found him at the local shelter and could not leave him behind. He was so stinkin’ ugly with his dull-brown, scruffy-haired body and large head. Ugly but cute fit him perfectly. She thought he was adorable and sweet. And she had to find him.
    Shar raced out onto the beach, hating the idea of the poor puppy being lost. She looked down the beach both ways, hoping for some sign as to which way to start her search.
    It was late in the afternoon and there was no one around. Shar loved this beach because it was so secluded. Most of the homes on this beach were owned by wealthy homeowners who vacationed here on occasion. This gave her the beach to herself much of the time but it also gave Rufus so many places to run and hide and no one to see him. The homes were not right on the beach, purposefully hidden among the landscape and quietly secluded. As she scanned the beach, deciding which way to go, the Glass Castle house caught her attention at the end of the beach. It was kind of an eyesore among all of the more sedate homes but she thought that was where Gage was staying. He’d headed that direction when he’d gone to get a knife. She headed that way.
    “Rufus,” she called. “Come here, boy.” Over and over, she called for the pup as she went from one home to the other. It was taking forever. There were actually twenty homes hidden along this beach; no one would ever realize that until they’d walked up each path and hunted through bushes and sand dunes along the way. And she had done just that in the last hour with no sign of her little puppy.
    Hot, in more ways than one, Shar decided she might very well hurt the plumber when she found him. First, he’d entered her home without permission, but the worst was he’d let her puppy escape. Yep, Meeks better stay hidden just as good as Rufus was if he knew what was good for him.
    Pushing her anger aside, Shar headed toward the last home on the stretch of sand and prayed Rufus was there.
     
     
    Gage was unloading groceries from his car when he heard a whimper from the