Chapter Twelve

Bile rose to the back of Ford's throat as he crouched down next to the small copper-and-white dog. "It's okay, little one. Maple will get you all taken care of."

It didn't take a genius or a medical professional to see that the dog was pregnant and in active labor. Her belly was hard and swollen, but the pup was as a limp as a dishrag, stretched out on the welcome mat to the pet clinic with her eyes closed. She didn't have a collar, tags or any other type of identification. Something wasn't right, and if Ford had to guess, whoever had dumped her here knew it.

How could someone do this? He felt sick just thinking about it.

Lady Bird seemed equally upset as she gently dropped to her belly and curled her body in a protective barrier around the distressed dog. The small pup gave a weak wag of her tail at the contact.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Maple caught up with them, stumbling onto the porch barefoot. She kneeled beside Ford, and her face crumpled as she assessed the situation. "Oh, no. You poor, poor thing."

"The puppies are coming, right?" Ford asked.

"They're trying. We need to get the little mama inside so I can see what's going on, but I'm guessing it's dystocia. She can't push them out." Her hands trembled as she rooted around her purse for her keys.

"Here, let me. I'll get the door." Ford took Maple's bag, found her key ring and unlocked the clinic while she gently scooped the dog into her arms and carried her inside.

The little thing couldn't have weighed more than twenty pounds, even heavily pregnant. Ford thought it best to let Maple handle her, since she was the veterinary professional. He did what he could, turning on lights and making sure Lady Bird didn't get in the way while she carried the dog directly to a table in the clinic's operating room.

Ford winced at the streak of blood on Maple's arm as she set down the pup and slipped into a white coat. Things weren't looking good. The dog could barely keep her eyes open, and she'd started shivering. Maple spoke to her in soothing tones as she did a quick exam, checking the dog's eyes, gums, body temperature and pulse. She scanned the dog for a microchip but couldn't find one.

Then she glanced up at Ford while she gently palpitated the pup's abdomen. "She's a little Cavalier King Charles spaniel. From the looks of it, not even a year old. Dogs really shouldn't have puppies that young. Their bodies aren't mature enough to handle the strain. Plus, Cavaliers have a high incidence of mitral valve disease. No responsible breeder would breed a dog like this until at least two and half years of age, and only then if she's been health-tested and found to be heart-clear, preferably by a veterinary cardiologist."

Ford gritted his teeth. "The very fact that we found her dumped on the welcome mat is a pretty good indication that whoever owns her isn't all that concerned with ethics."

"Owned."Maple's eyes flashed. "No collar, no microchip... Whoever had her before made sure we wouldn't be able to locate them. She belongs here now, and we're going to do everything we can to save her and her puppies. She likely came from a puppy mill, and when they realized it wasn't going to be an easy delivery, they got rid of her. At least they had the decency to drop her off at a vet clinic."

"I can't believe we found her," Ford said. If they hadn't, she wouldn't have made it until morning. That much was obvious. "What should we do now?"

Maple bit her bottom lip as she studied the dog. "Ordinarily, we'd start with a dose of oxytocin. It enhances uterine contractions. Lots of things can cause dystocia—low calcium, uterine inertia. This dog's small size doesn't help. I doubt she and her puppies have gotten proper nutrition during the pregnancy. She's probably also dehydrated."

"So you don't think the oxytocin would work?"

"It might, but we don't know how long she's been like this. The longer the labor goes on, the more dangerous this situation gets. She needs a C-section." Maple swallowed. "As soon as possible."

"Okay." Ford nodded. They were two medical professionals. They could handle this, couldn't they? "Let's do it. Tell me how I can help."

She glanced up from the dog long enough to flash him a smile. "You seriously want to assist while I do an emergency canine Cesarean section?"

"Of course, I do, but you might need to give me some instructions. We didn't cover this in med school," Ford said as Lady Bird shuffled closer to lean against his leg.

"You know what us veterinarians say, right?" Maple twisted her hair into a bun on the top of her head and miraculously secured it in place with nothing but a pencil from the pocket of her lab coat. "Real doctors treat more than one species."

It was such a Maple thing to say that he couldn't help but laugh, despite the seriousness of their circumstances.

He folded his arms. "Go on, then. Let's make a real doctor out of me."

"I take back what I said." Affection sparkled in her eyes. "You might not be so impossible, after all."

With Ford's help, Maple had the dog—whom she'd christened Ginger, because the sweet thing deserved to be called by a name—prepped for surgery within minutes. Once she'd gotten an IV catheter in place and administered the anesthesia, she got to work shaving Ginger's abdomen while Ford prepared a whelping box for the puppies. He placed a heating pad at the bottom and lined it with blankets for warmth.

With any luck, they'd be able to save Ginger's litter and actually get to use it.

"Ready?" she asked as she positioned the scalpel over the dog's abdomen for a midline incision.

"Ready, Doc." Ford nodded, eyes shining bright over his surgical mask. "You've got this."

She soaked up the much-needed encouragement. Maple had performed C-sections in vet school, but never in an emergency like this. She desperately wanted to save this dog...and her puppies. It might seem crazy, but finding a Cavalier in distress like this almost felt like a sign. Like Maple was in the right place at the right time. Like ending up here in Bluebonnet was meant to be, beyond the names that were printed on her birth certificate. A new Cavalier mom and her babies would certainly benefit from having a certified canine cardiologist in town.

But Maple was getting way ahead of herself. She still needed to perform the surgery. Plus, there was the matter of Grover. He was going to flip his lid when he found out about this. He'd demand to know why she hadn't called him before taking matters into her own hands, which was probably a valid question.

Except they didn't have that kind of time. Ginger's pulse was already thready. She couldn't let the dog down.

Maple pushed aside all doubts and got down to business. She held her breath as she made the incision, and then her eyes filled with tears as she caught her first glance at Ginger's moving uterus.

"We've got two puppies, and they're both alive." She pointed toward the squirming pups for Ford to see.

"Well, would you look at that?" he said in an awestruck voice.

"Get ready. I'm going to incise the uterus, and as soon as I remove the first puppy, I'm going to hand it over so you can clear its airway and stimulate breathing."

Ford stood poised with a towel in one hand and a suction bulb in the other.

Everything that happened next seemed to move in fast motion. Maple got the puppies out as quickly as she could. One of them was tiny and delicate, and the other was a downright chunk. The big pup, a boy, had likely been too large for the young mama's birth canal, contributing to her distress. The smaller puppy was a girl, and Maple had a feeling she'd end up looking just like Ginger someday. Mom and her babies all had the chestnut and pearly white markings that the Blenheim variety of Cavalier King Charles spaniels were famous for.

So whoever had unloaded Ginger on the doorstep had definitely been an unscrupulous breeder, angling to crank out a litter of purebred puppies for profit without regard to the health of the mother or her litter. Later, Maple would allow herself to feel properly enraged about that, but right now, all she felt was pure gratitude.

Thiswas why she'd become a veterinarian. Maybe she'd lost sight of some of the reasons she'd gone to vet school in the first place after she'd become bogged down with exams and all-nighters and the extra effort it took to get a specialty certification. After her disastrous attempt at dating one of her study-group partners, she'd closed herself to other students. She'd always been a driven pupil, but she'd doubled down after Justin had taken advantage of her academic prowess.

She'd once heard her mother tell a client that the best revenge was massive success, and Maple had internalized that message without even realizing it. The one time she'd put her heart on the line, she'd gotten hurt. So somewhere deep down, she'd decided to believe all the things her bitterly unhappy parents had told her—and shown her—about love. She'd closed ranks around her heart even stronger than before and decided the only path forward was to be the best. Untouchable in every possible way. In the long run, she could love herself better than anyone else could.

Except for dogs.

Maple had always known they knew how to love better than humans did, which was why she'd chosen this life to begin with. It's why she'd dug her heels in and taken the grant when her mom and dad refused to fund her education. But she didn't need to work in a sleek high-rise building or cater to wealthy Upper West Siders to help animals. She could make a difference right here in Bluebonnet. Maybe that's what Percy's grant and his requirement to work for a year at the clinic had really been about.

It was a humbling thought, and it made Maple's throat close up tight as she clipped the second puppy's umbilical cord. She handed the tiny girl to Ford, and the way he looked at her nearly did her in.

He still didn't get it. They weren't alike at all. She wasn't special. She really wasn't...

But this moment certainly was. And Maple wouldn't have traded it for anything.

"Hey there, welcome to the world," Ford cooed as he massaged the puppy with a soft towel to get her breathing.

Maple couldn't wait to join in and check the new babies out from head to toe, but first she needed to get Ginger stitched up. She wouldn't be able to relax until she knew for a fact that the new mom was out of the woods.

But once Ginger was resting comfortably, Maple finally allowed herself to breathe, take a look around and bask in a happiness so bone-deep that it took her breath away.

Ford was bottle-feeding the girl puppy while the boy slept in the whelping box. Lady Bird couldn't seem to decide whether she should stand guard over the puppies or Ginger, so she alternated between all three, keeping a watchful eye over the whole furry family as best she could. And as crazy as it seemed, Maple could almost sense Percy's presence there, too...or maybe that was just wishful thinking.

One thing she knew for certain: he would've been proud, just like Ford's Gram had tried to tell her the other day at the retirement home.

"You okay, Doc?" Ford looked up from the puppy in his hands, sucking greedily at the bottle. Once Ginger was awake, they'd introduce the puppies to their mama. She'd been through a lot, but it was important for her to try and nurse so she could bond with her babies. Even so, the pups would likely need supplemental bottle-feeding for the next few weeks. "That was a lot."

"It was a lot." Maple laughed and plucked the boy puppy from the whelping box so she could feed him. "But I'm good. I'm more than good, actually. I loved every minute of it. Tonight was..."

She shook her head and held the puppy close to her heart. "I don't think I have words for what tonight meant to me."

Ford stood, and without missing a beat of bottle-feeding duty, he walked over to Maple and kissed her cheek. "You did it, Doc."

"No." She shook her head and grinned up at him, half-delirious. Maple had no idea what time it was. The past few hours had passed in a blur, but she didn't want to close her eyes. She didn't want to miss a single, solitary second of this magical night. "We did it."

The magic ended early the following morning when Maple jerked awake to the sound of Grover's gravelly voice echoing throughout the pet clinic's operating room.

"What in tarnation is going on in here?"

Her eyes snapped open, and for a second, she forgot where she was. What was she doing, sleeping on the floor of the clinic, of all places? And what was Ford doing here, too? Other than providing her with a nice, strong shoulder to use as a pillow...

Maple sat up, blinking against the assault of the clinic's fluorescent lighting, convinced this was all a stress-induced nightmare. She'd been feeling so out of sorts lately, not to mention the calls and voice mails from her parents, which she'd been ignoring for days. A nightmare seemed par for the course at this point.

But then her gaze snagged on the whelping box beside Ford, who was just beginning to stir, and the events from the night before came rushing back to her. The abandoned dog... The surgery... Two perfect puppies.

And Ford had been there for all of it.

Magic.

"Good morning, Grover," Maple said. Even Grumpy McGrumperson couldn't spoil her mood today. Although it would be really great if he stopped looking at her like she was a teenager who'd just been caught making out with her boyfriend in a parked car. "I can explain."

Grover glanced around the room, frown deepening as he noticed Ginger resting on a soft dog bed in a kennel piled with blankets. "Please do, because for the life of me, I can't figure out if this is a slumber party or a veterinary emergency."

"Both, actually." Maple laughed. Grover, pointedly, did not.

"Hi, Grover." Ford stood and held out his hand for a shake. He had an adorable case of bed head, which probably would've look ridiculous on anyone else but somehow only made him more attractive. "You should've seen Maple last night. She saved that dog's life."

Grover accepted Ford's handshake, and eyed Maple dubiously.

"I would've called you, but there was no time. Someone abandoned Ginger on the steps of the clinic. She was in the latter stages of labor with obvious dystocia and needed an immediate C-section." She glanced at Ford. "We're lucky we even found her."

Grover regarded Ford, still dressed in the scrubs he'd worn to the hospital yesterday. "You assist with veterinary surgery now, Dr. Bishop?"

"Apparently so." Ford chuckled, and something about the deep timbre of his voice sent Maple straight back to last night and the lump that had lodged in her throat at the sight of him cradling a newborn puppy in his strong grasp. "It was fun. Maybe I can do it again someday."

He snuck a glance at Maple, and a million butterflies took flight in her belly.

I'm really in trouble now, aren't I?

Last night had changed things between them, and now there was no turning back. She knew he felt it, too. Ford held her fragile heart in his hands as surely as he'd held those puppies, and it terrified Maple to her core.

What was she going to do?

"Perhaps we shouldn't make a habit of it." Grover's eyes cut back toward Maple. "You do realize the pups will probably need supplemental bottle-feeding for the first few days, don't you?"

Maple nodded. "Yes, sir. We've already given Peaches and Fuzz two feedings, three hours apart."

"Peaches and Fuzz?" Grover's eyebrows rose. "You named them already?"

"Yes, and the mother, too. I'm calling her Ginger."

Grover's mouth twitched, as if he was trying not to smile. No way. Impossible. "So all these dogs are yours now?"

Overnight, she'd gone from owning one large dog to owning two adult dogs and two newborn puppies. It was going to take a full-size moving van to get her to New York when she finally moved back.

Ifshe moved back.

"It's just temporary," she said, doing her best to avoid Ford's gaze. "For now, they're completely my responsibility."

"Have you introduced the pups to the mother yet?" Grover asked.

"Yes, and it went really well. But she was still drowsy from the anesthesia, and I didn't want her to accidentally roll over the puppies, so I didn't think it was best to leave them all together unsupervised."

"And you're keeping them warm?"

"Yes."

"And you offered Ginger a small amount of food and water a few hours after the birth?"

"Yes." Again, Maple nodded.

The interrogation continued, with Grover barking out question after question about the surgery, Ginger's post-op treatment, and the care and feeding of her puppies.

Finally, when he'd exhausted his long list of concerns, he waved toward Ginger's kennel, the whelping box and the pile of old blankets Maple had found in the clinic's donation closet and used for a pallet for her and Ford to get some shut-eye in between puppy feedings. "Now clean all of this up, would you? I've got a poodle coming in for a spay this morning."

He stalked out of the operating room before Maple could respond.

She sighed and glanced at Ford. "Well, that went pretty much exactly like I thought it would. That man really needs to reconsider his stance on caffeinated coffee."

Ford grinned and raked a hand through his hair. "Speaking of caffeine, why don't I run over to Cherry on Top and get us a couple of large coffees real quick? I know I could use it before my practice opens in—" he glanced at his watch and winced "—just under an hour."

"I'd love one of their hazelnut cream lattes, if you have time. I think Adaline calls that drink Texas Gold. I'll get all of this cleaned up. For today, I think I'll see if June can keep an eye on Ginger and her babies up front in the reception area. I'll take everyone home with me tonight," Maple said.

She started folding one of the blankets and tried not to think about what Ford's sister would say when she found out they'd spent the night together...again. Not that medical emergencies should count. But still...

The purely innocent sleepovers seemed to be occurring with alarming frequency.

"Sounds like a plan," Ford said, and just as he swept a lock of hair from her face and Maple thought he might be about to kiss her goodbye, Grover stormed back into the room.

"One more thing," he bellowed.

Maple's heart hammered against her rib cage as she sprang backward away from Ford. "Y-yes?"

Grover jerked his head toward Ginger and the puppies, and his expression morphed into something approximating an actual look of approval. "You did a good job here last night."

She couldn't believe her ears. Grover wasn't Percy, but he'd been his business partner for a long, long time. She'd never get the chance to hear her father utter those words, but having Grover say them was the next best thing.

"Thank you, Grover. That means a lot," she said before he could stomp off again. "Especially coming from you."

"Right. Well." He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, clearly unaccustomed to issuing such effusive praise. "Keep up the good work."

Happiness sparkled inside her, and just this once, she didn't worry about tomorrow. Or the days or weeks that followed. All that mattered was this day. This place.

This life.

"I will."

The text came just after Ford dropped off Maple's hazelnut cream latte with June at the front desk of the pet clinic.

He'd gotten a coffee for June as well, and the older woman had gushed about what a fine man he was to help Maple deliver the puppies. Peaches, Fuzz, and Ginger were all snuggled together in a cozy playpen-like contraption behind the reception desk. Maple had already jumped right into an appointment when a walk-in client had shown up with a lethargic hedgehog.

Ford assured June that was just fine. He needed to get going, anyway. But he'd still paused to watch Ginger and her pups for a moment. The mama Cavalier's tail wagged as soon as she caught sight of him, and Ford couldn't help but marvel at the dog's sweet and trusting disposition, after all she'd been through. Joy warmed him from within just looking at the furry little family.

Something had shifted inside Ford the night before. He'd been drawn to Maple since he'd first set eyes on her—that much was undeniable. But even when she'd kissed him—even when he'd challenged her to do it a second time—he'd thought he'd had his emotions under control. He and Maple were nothing alike. She'd been clear about that right up front. She'd never once tried to hide who she was, unlike his former fiancée, who'd never once told him she had reservations about moving to Bluebonnet. In retrospect, he should've known she was lying. The signs were all there. That relationship had always felt too much like work, unlike the time he spent with Maple. With Maple, he could be himself. He could relax. He could breathe easy, because there was no danger of losing his heart. Maple been perfectly honest about the fact that she couldn't wait to put Texas and all it contained in her rearview mirror, Ford included.

But then she'd stayed.

She'd had chance after chance to make good on her word and leave, but she'd never actually gone. And still, somehow it wasn't until Ford helped her save that dog and her puppies that he'd realized he was falling.

In truth, it had been happening all along. He knew that now. How could he not, when he'd watched her spread joy and light on her pet visits with Lady Bird, even when she insisted it didn't come naturally to her at all? Maybe that's why her commitment to it meant more. Or maybe she was more tenderhearted than she wanted to believe. Either way, it had been a sight to behold. Ford couldn't have looked away if he'd tried.

Then it had felt so nice last night when she'd fallen asleep with her head on his shoulder. So right. Ford had stroked her hair and stubbornly refused to move, even when his arm fell asleep. He'd told himself he was simply savoring the moment. Holding on to something—someone—whom he'd known from the outset was never meant to be his.

Ford had been doing the right thing his entire life. He'd come back to Bluebonnet to care for Gram. He put his family and his town and his patients first. Always. He'd never once regretted any of it. Just this once, though, he'd wanted to give in to what he really and truly wanted. And he'd never wanted anyone as badly as he wanted Maple.

So he'd let himself believe it was okay to let his guard down...to brush the hair back from her face and caress her cheek and let his fingertips linger on her soft skin while he held her and let himself fall. It might be his only chance to feel this close and connected with the enigmatic woman who'd found her way into his heart when he least expected it.

When morning came, everything had still been okay. Sure, Ford felt like he was walking around with his heart on the outside of his body, but he was good. They were good. Even Grover was being decent for a change.

Then Ford's phone chimed with an incoming text.

"See you later, June. Thank you for keeping an eye on the little ones for Maple," he said as he reached inside his pocket for his cell.

He was already outside on the sidewalk soaking up the first rays of the Hill Country sunshine when the message popped up on his screen. He'd half expected it to be from Maple, but instead, the name that popped up above the text bubble was Pam Hudson's from County General Hospital.

Oliver Taylor's bone-marrow biopsy results are in. It's not good news. Thought you'd want to know. I'm sorry.