Free Rescue Me by Catherine Mann Page B

back to the station.”
    â€œAnd? Details, please. Tell me more about the Greek-god cop,” she said with a wicked but determined twinkle in her blue eyes. Sierra wasn’t going to give up.
    â€œHe’s a police officer. Wyatt’s cousin, which you probably already know.” She pulled out another baking pan to ready more cookies for the oven. “AJ brought me home tonight to help Lacey and save me cab fare.”
    Sierra frowned. “You’re really going to keep insisting you’re not interested in him?”
    She shrugged, unable to push the lie out in words.
    â€œWell, I see you don’t want to talk about him, which says all I need to know. So I’ll just leave you with your hot thoughts and hot oven.” Sierra pushed away from the table. “I should help Mom anyway. She’s acting kind of strange. She didn’t breathe any of those meth fumes today, did she?”
    â€œActually, no. She stayed outside the whole time logging in the animals, and left straightaway after delivering the crates the shelter.” Which wasn’t like Lacey at all. She was usually the last to leave. But then even the most seasoned rescuers could be shaken.
    â€œSounds as if she really does need my support tonight. You and I can talk more tomorrow.” Sierra hugged her hard again. “I really have missed you, Mary Hannah.”
    â€œI really have missed you, too.” And she meant it. She just wished she was able to talk as easily as she could listen. “Be careful on your way back to the house.”
    â€œI look more awkward than I actually feel.” She paused at the door, tucking her feet back in her boots. “Merry Christmas.”
    â€œYou, too, my friend.”
    The door closed behind Sierra, leaving Mary Hannah alone for the first time since she’d headed out this morning expecting to liberate hoarded animals. Her own pain was never far from the surface, but today had torn away all her defenses on so many levels.
    Her work with the rescue usually brought her comfort, knowing she’d helped the animals and the people whose lives they would touch. Today, though, it was tougher to imagine how things would end happily for all the dogs they’d seized.
    She’d seen such hopelessness in Mama’s expression as she thrashed against the restraints. And if she was beyond rehabilitation?
    Squeezing her eyes shut, Mary Hannah sagged onto the fat sofa, exhausted. Heart tired. One day at a time, she reminded herself. Get through the moment and control what she could. And above all, no self-pity.
    Her head lolled back, and exhaustion tugged at her until she slumped to the side, a throw pillow under her neck. She swung her legs up on the sofa. Just a quick catnap and she would get back to the cookies.
    In the late-night quiet her thoughts grew louder, memories swelling to fill the corners of her brain. Five months ago she’d been driving home after meeting with a new client, a soldier who’d lost an arm and leg overseas. He’d been out of it, but his wife and son had been with him, supporting. That frail family unit had tugged at her heart, shredding her professional objectivity all the more given it was her anniversary. Or rather it would have been except she was divorced.
    Recognizing she was in no shape to drive, she’d pulled into a truck-stop bar/restaurant for food and time to recover her composure. Only to have that composure shattered all over again by a lean, sexy man with compelling blue eyes sitting at the bar with chili cheese fries and a beer.
    She’d been drenched from a summer storm and ditched the professional suit jacket she’d worn over her silky sundress. The heat of his gaze had almost steamed the clinging fabric dry. His jet-black hair, a little long in a bad-boy way, had curled at the ends, damp from the rain. Without thinking, she walked past the private corner booth and parked herself on a barstool, leaving only