Harvest Moon (Brook Haven Romance Book 1) by Charlene Bright Page B

guess.
You know he just gets lonely out there. Those little guys have kind of become
his companions.”
    “Drake, he can’t keep
them.”
    “I know. I’m just
having a hard time telling him that.”
    Sam laughed. “I’ll tell
him.” Hooter suddenly appeared from somewhere and began to rub his thick coat
against Sam’s leg. He smiled at the dog and squatted down to pet him.
    “No, I’ll do it. Just give
me a day or two,” Drake told him.
    “The longer he has
them, the harder it will be to get them back out into the wild where they
belong.” Sam scratched Hooter underneath his chin once more and then stood up.
    “I know,” Drake said
with a heavy sigh. Sam raised an eyebrow at him again, and Drake said, “Really,
I do. I’ll talk to him when I get home.”
    “All right, call me
tomorrow, okay?”
    “Okay.” Drake watched
him move on to the next booth to say hello to Mrs. O’ Brien. He blamed himself
for this. If he’d been paying more attention, he would have seen how lonely Mac
was and gotten him a pet of his own.
    “Why so glum?”
    He looked up at the
voice. “Hey, Brooke.” He pulled out the chair next to him and said, “Have a
seat and I’ll tell you all my troubles.” Hooter was extremely happy to see her.
She sat down in one of the chairs and let Hooter put his big paws up in her lap
as she petted him.
    “The doctor is in,” she
told Drake. “But you know I charge by the hour. I need the cash too since I
can’t seem to convince anyone in this town that I’m a real doctor.”
    He laughed, even though
he knew she wasn’t really kidding. Poor Brooke was having trouble getting new
patients. People drove for miles to see a doctor they didn’t know because a lot
of them still saw Brooke as the girl they’d watched grow up. Drake had been
racking his brains trying to figure out how to help her, but he hadn’t really
come up with anything yet. Hooter saw another dog and he was off like a shot to
investigate.
    As Brooke brushed the
yellow hair off her jeans, Drake told her, “You can put the bill on my tab. You
know I’m good for it.”
    He grinned at her, and
she laughed and said, “That tab goes all the way back to fifth grade. I’m
beginning to think you never intend to pay me. At this rate, I’ll starve.”
    He handed her a plastic
container full of carrots. “Here, have some vegetables.”
         

 

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Sophie drove down to
her mother’s cabin to pick her up. They were going to the farmer’s market. It
had actually been Sophie’s idea, and her mother seemed thrilled about it. When
she stopped in front of the cabin, she noticed her mother’s limp was less
noticeable than it had been the day before.
    “I’m so happy you decided
to take the morning off,” Brenda told her as she slid into the passenger seat
of the SUV.
    “Yeah, well, I already
wasted one whole day.”
    “Wasted? I thought you
said you had a good time yesterday.”
    Sophie smiled. “I was
kidding, Mom.” Brenda shook her head. What Sophie wasn’t telling her mother was
that she hadn’t been able to get Drake out of her head all night long. She
thought about him all evening and when she finally fell asleep, she dreamt
about him. In her dream, they were married and running the inn together. She’d
woken up feeling warm and safe, and it made her wonder about the possibilities.
They were a long way from marriage, but she was definitely interested in
getting to know him better.
    The two women talked
about the website Sophie was working on for the inn on the way into town.
Sophie had hired a photographer who would be out on Monday to take some
professional photos of the place for her to use in her advertisements.
    “Has Drake started on
the main fireplace yet?” Brenda asked. There were quite a few loose stones in
the big eight-feet-high-by-six-feet-wide stone fireplace and mantle.
    “He’s waiting for the
stones to come in, but I don’t think any of the imperfections will show up in