Free Lost and Found in Cedar Cove by Debbie Macomber Page B

wasn’t under the table. Nor was he curled up in front of the refrigerator.
    “Did Rover come in with us?” He followed Jo Marie everywhere. It wasn’t like him to stay outside, especially when it threatened rain.
    “I didn’t notice.”
    Jo Marie hadn’t, either. She opened the door off the kitchen and called for him.
    “Rover.”
    Nothing.
    “Rover,” she tried again.
    Nothing.
    “He can’t have gotten far,” Mark said. He shouted out her pet’s name himself and didn’t get a response.
    “I’m sure he must be around here,” Jo Marie insisted. The inn was his home. They were good for each other, kept each other company. With this inn they’d both found a safe harbor, a place of healing. She’d come to rely on Rover, on his presence, his protection. It would sound half crazy to explain to anyone, in particular to Mark, that she genuinely felt Paul had sent Rover to her as a friend and constant companion.
    For a long time, Jo Marie had toyed with changing his name. Rover was the name the animal shelter had given him. It was clear when he was brought in that he’d been on his own, roving for a good long while. It was such an ordinary name, though, so bland. Over the last fewmonths she’d scoured pet-name books and come up with several unique and funny names, like Soldier (Paul would have loved that), or Wilson, after one of her favorite Seahawks players. Any number of good, solid dog names came to her, but none suited him better than just plain Rover.
    Together with Mark, she searched the entire property, and Rover was nowhere to be found.
    “Has he done this before?” Mark asked.
    “Never.”
    “He’ll be back. He knows where his dog dish is.”
    If Mark thought he was helping, he wasn’t. “I want to find my dog,” she said, in danger of losing her composure. She hurried to the end of the driveway and looked both ways up and down the street.
    Rover was nowhere in sight.
    Mark waited for her on the porch steps. It had started to rain in thick sheets, but Jo Marie was oblivious to the hammering downfall.
    “Don’t look so worried, he’ll be back,” Mark said again.
    Jo Marie ignored that and raced inside the house for something warmer and her umbrella. “You don’t understand. It isn’t like him to disappear like this.”
    “There’s no need for you to panic.”
    “Yes, there is,” she snapped.
    “I’ve had pets,” he challenged. “They like to explore. You’re overreacting.”
    “I’m not!” she insisted. “Rover doesn’t leave the property. This is his home now, and he knows that, and furthermore, he’s more than a pet to me.”
    She quickly jerked her arms into the sleeves of her rain jacket. Generally she avoided an umbrella, but the rain was coming down too heavy now.
    “You aren’t seriously considering going out in this weather?”
    “I told you I need to find my dog.” She wouldn’t explain why she was so strongly attached to him because Mark would find her fanciful ideas amusing. Too many factors about Rover convinced her that this was no ordinary pet.
    First and foremost, Rover had chosen her and revealed an uncanny ability to comfort her. It was almost as if he could read her mind. From the moment she’d brought him home from the shelter he’d been by her side. He sensed her moods, and when she was especially sad, he would place his chin on her knee and look up at her with dark, soulful eyes as if to assure her she would laugh again, love again. Which was why she was convinced that he was a special gift from Paul.
    “I’ll drive around the neighborhood and see what I find,” Mark offered.
    Jo Marie appreciated the effort. “Thank you.”
    “I’ll meet you back here in twenty minutes.”
    Jo Marie checked her watch. “Okay.”
    Despite the rain, she took off, her steps filled with purpose. Rover had never done anything like this before, and she couldn’t imagine what had possessed him to leave. If the sun was shining and he’d been chasing butterflies,