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

“We realized, me especially, that kids need both parents. Even when the parents don’t need each other anymore. So we shared ‘em. What worked for us was one week on and one week off. Mr. Weeda lived a couple blocks over, on Ravenna Boulevard, so it was easy to exchange them, and nobody had any school worries because we all lived in the same district


“It worked. The kids got love. Me? Coming so close to losing them, I cleaned up my act. I haven’t had anything stronger than this—” she lifted her glass, almost as though in a toast “—in a very, very long time. I’m not going to specify just how many years, no sir!” She laughed. “I think you can see the point of my story.”


There was silence in the room. Flynn looked over at Barley, now stretched out full-length on his side, mouth open and his tongue, a pink banner, lolling out. Flynn smiled. He’d thought, just a short time ago, he’d be leaving with Barley today.


Chapter 20