A Husband for the Holidays (Made For Matrimony 1) by Ami Weaver Page A

been much laughter after they got married. Then the accident had happened only six months in.
    Pushing that thought away, he unlocked the door and reset the alarm. She stepped in behind him, noting the neatness of the waiting room. A Christmas tree stood in one corner, tags hanging off it. “What’s this?”
    “A wish tree. For the humane society. Things like cat litter, dog food, towels and blankets, that kind of thing. People take a tag, drop off the items and one of us runs it out there.”
    Oh, yes, this was the man she’d so loved. “What a great idea.” When he went in front of her, she took a tag off the tree. “Dry cat food,” it read. She slipped it in her purse.
    The waiting area had a hard floor, comfy chairs, a few magazines on a table. A bulletin board held pictures of lots of animals and their owners. Another framed picture said “Get to know Dr. Lawless” and had pictures of him and his pets. “This is sweet.”
    He glanced up from the chart he was looking over. “Oh. Well, people like to see my pets.”
    “How many?” she asked as she followed him back through a door.
    “Two dogs, two cats,” he said. “Sometimes more if I’m fostering somebody. Minnie is in here.”
    She heard the muffled barking behind another door and raised an eyebrow.
    “Those are the boarders, or those that are recovering from less intense surgeries. In here I keep those who need a more relaxed environment. Trauma patients or riskier surgeries.”
    “And who’s Minnie?” She followed him into the room, where a little beagle lay on a doggie bed. She thumped her tail when they walked up.
    “Minnie was hit by a car. The guy who hit her brought her in. She was— It was touch-and-go. She needs more pain meds.”
    Darcy stared at the liquid brown eyes, so full of pain yet joy to see them. “Oh, what a sweet girl. Who’s her owner?”
    “We don’t know yet. No collar, no tags, no microchip.” He opened the cage door and murmured in a low voice to the dog while Darcy stood back, out of the way, watching. There was a little yelp as he gave her a shot. Then he rubbed her head as she dozed off. “Here. You can pet her while she falls asleep.”
    Darcy stepped forward and rubbed the dog’s head. Minnie tried to give her a little lick. “Oh, you poor sweet girl. You don’t know who she belongs to?”
    “No.” His tone was grim.
    A shudder ran through Darcy. “Abandoned?”
    His face was grim. “Happens more than you’d care to know. Foreclosure, need to move, can’t take care of the pets. Sometimes they just leave them in the house and walk away. Sometimes they just drop them off somewhere thinking, hey, it’s an animal, it can fend for itself. They can’t.” Anger laced his voice. “I understand not being able to feed them. But I wish—I wish people would bring them to a shelter rather than just abandon them.”
    She touched his wrist with her free hand, thought of the wish tree in the lobby. “That’s so sad. They’ve got you as an advocate, though. That counts as something.”
    He moved up next to her, and in the dim light she saw the weight of this on him. The grimness on his face was reflected in his tone. “It’s not enough. It will never be enough. However.” He reached in, his arm brushing hers, his hand touching hers as he rubbed the now sleeping Minnie’s head. “We do what we can.”
    She looked up at him as he looked back down at her. The heat from the proximity of their bodies drowned out everything else. He was so close she could lay her head on his chest. If she angled her body slightly, she could fit against him, see if it was still as perfect as it had been all those years ago. His hand slid over hers on Minnie’s head, and the rough warmth of his palm sent sparks across her skin. He withdrew both their hands together, and his hot gaze dropped to her mouth.
    Minnie whimpered in her sleep and Darcy stepped back, her breath shaky, as he shifted his attention to the dog. She cleared