“Muffin’s gone,” she screamed, tears pouring down her cheeks.
“What?” he asked.
“My dog,” she sobbed, rushing past him to go back outside. “Muffin! Muffin!” She continued shouting that one word as she frantically searched her front yard.
He stepped onto the porch, wondering what kind of mess he’d gotten himself into. If he were sensible, he’d head back to the SUV, climb inside and maybe phone this into the police on his way back to the distillery But what kind of guy would leave a woman alone in a situation like this?
“Hey!” he called, still having no clue of her name. “What’s Muffin look like? I’ll help you look.”
She froze a moment, looking at him as if she couldn’t tell if he meant it or not, then, “He’s a golden cocker spaniel. About this high.” She gestured to just above her knee. “He’s wearing a red collar with a gold heart ID tag on it and he has a lot of fur.”
“Okay.” He nodded and shoved his phone back into his pocket. “I’ll have a quick drive around. Why don’t you go check if any of the neighbors have seen him?” She appeared more worried about the dog than the house and the culprit looked long gone, so he decided to focus on the mutt first, as well.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice choked as she rushed over to the house on her right.
Callum jogged back to his SUV, climbed in and, shaking his head, turned the key in the ignition. When he’d woken up that morning he’d been engaged and planning a wedding. Now it appeared he was single and looking for a stranger’s dog. What crazy thing could happen next?
* * *
The McKinnels of Jewell Rock
A Dog and a Diamond
Rachael Johns
RACHAEL JOHNS is an English teacher by trade, a mum twenty-four-seven, a chronic arachnophobe and a writer the rest of the time. She rarely sleeps and never irons. A lover of romance and women’s fiction, Rachael loves nothing more than sitting in bed with her laptop and electric blanket and imagining her own stories. Rachael has finaled in a number of competitions, including the Australian Romance Readers Awards. Jilted, her first rural romance, won Favourite Australian Contemporary Romance in 2012, and she was voted in the top ten of Booktopia’s Australia’s Favourite Novelist poll in 2013. Rachael lives in the West Australian hills with her hyperactive husband, three mostly gorgeous heroes-in-training, two fat cats, a cantankerous bird and a very badly behaved dog. Rachael loves to hear from readers and can be contacted via her website—www.rachaeljohns.com. She is also on Facebook and Twitter.
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For Beck Nicholas and Jackie Ashenden—two awesomely talented writers who have been with me almost from the beginning of this crazy journey and have become great friends in the process.
Contents
“You have arrived at your destination,” announced the deep, monotone voice of Chelsea Porter’s GPS.
She slowed her car, frowning as she looked up at the sign that loomed above the private bridge to her right: McKinnel’s Distillery—Oregon’s Best Whiskey since 1977.
Definitely not a place of residence. Perhaps she’d misread the name and address on the client form. Before continuing, she grabbed her cell out of her purse, pulled up her email and checked the details that one Miss Bailey Sawyer had supplied.
Mr. Callum McKinnel, and then what she’d assumed was