On a bright autumn day, Flynn Marlowe lost his best friend, a beagle named Barley, while out on a hike in Seattle’s Discovery Park. On a cold winter day, Mac Bowersox found his best friend, a lost, scared, and emaciated beagle, on the streets of Seattle. Two men. One dog. When Flynn and Mac meet by chance in a park the next summer, there’s a problem -- who does Barley really belong to? Flynn wants him back, but he can see that Mac rescued him and loves him just as much as he does. Mac wants to keep the dog, and he can imagine how heartbreaking losing him would be -- but that's just what Flynn experienced. A “shared custody” compromise might be just the way to work things out. But will the arrangement be successful? Mac and Flynn are willing to try it ... and along the way, they just might fall in love.

Lost and Found

Hamburger had come into his life eight months ago in the middle of a downpour, in the very park where Mac had just now met the guy he was sure was Hamburger’s original owner. Hamburger had been emaciated, with his ribs and backbone sticking out through his drenched fur. He had a cut, scabby, above one eye. No collar. He was whimpering and looked as though he was on his last legs. Mac shook his head, forcing the image out of his mind. It was just too painful to remember Hamburger like that. He had originally intended to simply drop him off at the Green Lake Animal Hospital, close to the park, over on Woodlawn Avenue. But the dog wouldn’t, or couldn’t, move. He’d plopped down at Mac’s feet that gray, wintry day and refused to get up. Mac perceived it as the dog seeing something within him that he needed or wanted.


Chapter 5