Old Dogs, New Truths by Tara Taylor Quinn

Author:Tara Taylor Quinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-04-24T20:34:52+00:00

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Cole had learned early how to make temporary friends. How to enjoy people, get close to them quickly, knowing that he only had a window of time with them. That either he, or they, would come home from school one day to a parent’s news that they were being transferred, and off they’d go to another new world. You shed a few tears—when you were young enough that you didn’t know better—and then you found new friends to have fun with.

Shelter Valley had changed all of that for him.

Because he’d also learned young that he didn’t want to spend his life in temporary relationships. He wanted lifelong friends. Stability for himself and any family he created.

That next week, the two worlds seemed to meld for him. The security of a solid home in a town he loved allowed him to get closer to a woman even knowing that his time with her would be short. Mia Jones, owner of Homestead Ranch, but also an accidental social media influencer, had come to the lunch on Tuesday with Mariah, wanting to do all she could to help with Lindsay’s fundraising venture. Mia ended up taking over publicity for them. Mariah provided all official content regarding the work that Forever Friends did, including, at Lindsay’s encouragement, real-life stories of people who’d been helped by the horse rescue program.

Some would remain anonymous, but as their small team reached out, they found many former Forever Friends clients who wanted to help spread the word.

Cole got almost one hundred percent local business participation, in four different categories. And Mia grew the project to a wider area, setting up online donations where businesses from outside Shelter Valley could join any of the four established categories and be entered to win a shout-out on Mia’s social media accounts.

No matter how the project grew, Lindsay was right there, on top of things, organizing it all, making spreadsheets, keeping track, monitoring. All in her spare time.

Project Forever Friends, as their efforts had been named, had Cole and Lindsay together every evening over the next week, as they finalized plans and got things in place for an official rollout the following Monday at the open of business in Shelter Valley. But they were rarely alone.

More his call than was absolutely necessary.

He wanted to give Lindsay time to get to know the real him. The working, Shelter Valley citizen guy who lived a relatively simple life. And if she still thought she was attracted to him once things rolled out and their nightly work quieted down some, then, maybe, he’d kiss her again.

And see where it led.

Or, maybe not. The decision didn’t have to be made ahead of time. Or at all, if that’s how things fell.

Saturday afternoon, though, when he and Lindsay ended up alone on the floor of her apartment—affixing labels she’d designed and had printed to the collection jars she’d ordered, in preparation for their delivery to all of the participating Shelter Valley businesses the next day—he had little doubt as to how things were falling for the gorgeous blonde.

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