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

“I guess I said that about a mom and dad because sometimes I don’t really feel like I have parents. Sure, they’re alive, living in relative splendor just across Lake Washington in Bellevue. They gave me so much growing up—tennis lessons, riding lessons, swimming at the club in the summer, trips to Spain, to England, to France. Cruises. The best clothes. On my sixteenth birthday, a bright red brand-new Beetle waited for me in the driveway of our house.”


Mac whistled. “That doesn’t sound too shabby, Flynn. I lived in a trailer, and getting takeout pizza on my birthday was the height of luxury for me.”


“I know. I know. And I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. Probably to your ears, I’m sounding like a spoiled brat who has a lot of nerve complaining.”


“So what’s the problem with your mom and dad, then?”


Chapter 56