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

But Mac just said, “Well, thanks for the outing.” He turned toward Barley in the backseat. Even though he was snoring, Mac called, “Be a good boy!”


He turned back and gave Flynn a tepid smile, which made Flynn’s heart fill with tenderness. Not only did Mac possess incredible looks, but he was kind and caring and sensitive. What kind of person mourns a dog even he described as a “monster” and “cold”? And he hadn’t even seen the dog, the way Flynn understood it, in months. But yet here Mac was, obviously shaken by the very high probability that poor Luz was dead.


“You want me to come in?” Flynn asked. He wasn’t being totally selfish. He thought Mac could use the company.


Chapter 41