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

Stand up. Go to the door. Pause as Dee says something.


“I hope she sees that they’re wrong. I’ve grown rather fond of the pooch since he moved in with us. Damn it.”


“I know you have, Dee.” Mac turned to see the old woman hurrying up the stairs. Maybe they could get another dog.


But another dog would not be Hamburger.


Mac reluctantly pulled the door open and headed out onto the porch with Hamburger trailing behind him.


At first Hamburger didn’t notice the people seated on the glider and strained for the wide front steps that led down to the lawn. Mac looked at Clara and Flynn, hoping his breaking heart wasn’t obvious on his face. “Give us a sec,” he said.


Hamburger rushed down the steps and immediately lifted a leg on the shrub at the bottom of the stairs. He turned to look at Mac as if to ask if they should go clockwise or counterclockwise around the lake this afternoon.


And then he spotted Flynn and Clara, who had both stood up and were standing at the railing


Chapter 17