by Susan Hatler
Cooper laughed, checked down the country road once more, and then switched off the ignition. He looked so good as he climbed out of his car: hair a little less perfect, shirt untucked, the hem of his jeans torn from where Banana scratched at them during movie night last week.
“Okay, okay,” he said, putting his hands into his pockets. “I’m here. What’s so important?”
I smiled and pointed at the sign. “I need your help with this.”
He tilted his head. “You got a new sign for the farm?”
“Yup. Can you help me pull this sheet?” I watched as his forehead wrinkled in confusion. “I’m holding Banana.”
It was the first lame excuse that popped into my head as to why I couldn’t simply pull the sheet off myself. Because he was the best man to ever walk the planet, Cooper stepped forward and pulled the sheet away from the sign.
“There,” he said, folding the sheet over and over neatly into a square. “Now can we go up to—”
I watched Cooper’s face the whole time and smiled when he finally noticed the new sign also had a new name. Reagan’s dog rescue was no longer just Rescue at the Barn. I’d asked her two weeks earlier about the change and she’d agreed wholeheartedly. I watched as Cooper mouthed the new name, frozen where he stood.
He turned to me. “Rescue at the Barn & Harrison’s House?”
I nodded. “There’s a section of the house now dedicated solely to puppies.”
“You added Harrison’s name?” he asked, seeming barely able to get out the words.
“I figured the donation was made in his honor so . . . oof!” I yelped in surprise when Cooper pulled me into his arms and lifted me off the ground, with Banana between us.
“You have no idea how much this means to me,” he whispered, squeezing tighter. When he pulled back I noticed the hint of tears in his eyes.
I pressed my hand to his cheek and smiled. Then, because I didn’t want to cry before the party, I nudged him toward his car. “Hey, who said you could illegally park here, Officer Hill?”
He laughed and shook his head.
“Don’t make me report you to the police,” I added, winking at him.
He held open my door and stopped me before I got in to give me a quick kiss.
“Thank you,” he said.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Thank you.”
The grand opening of Harrison’s House was a massive success. With Cooper’s help we were able to make it into more than just a dog rescue. Now that there was no rent to pay each month, Reagan had funds to partner with Founding Friendships to offer part-time jobs to the homeless to come and work with the animals on Reagan’s farm.
Donations flooded in that morning and more dogs were adopted in those few hours than had been in the past few months, including one special poodle-mix now named Atticus, who was adopted by Courtney Carmichael. As the crowd started to thin out, I searched for where Cooper had disappeared to and found him with Reagan signing paperwork that looked very similar to the paperwork I signed to adopt Banana.
Could this guy get any more perfect? Happy sigh.
“Abigail,” Cooper said as he saw me hurrying toward him. “I want to introduce you to someone.”
I wrapped my hands around his arm and squealed. We stood outside the pen where the dogs played while he pointed.
“Meet Fido.”
I searched through the dogs. It looked like he was pointing to this fuzzy guy in the corner. “You mean the terrier mix?” I asked.
“No, Abigail,” Cooper said, laughing as he gestured to the opposite corner. “The big one there. The big one is coming home with me.”
“A black lab mix, who is hyper and huge? Are you crazy?” I threw my hands up into the air as I turned to face him. “He’ll eat Banana alive. He’ll squash him under one of those massive paws and we’ll have nothing left of Banana but a pancake. Oh, banana pancakes sound so good right now. Do you want to go get some banana pancakes after this?”
“Abigail.”
“No, you’re right that I’m getting distracted,” I said, shaking my head and jabbing my finger repeatedly against my forehead. “Focus, Abigail. That’s not the point. The point is that there is no way at all our pooches are going to get along, Cooper. No way at all. One wag of Fido’s tail and Banana’s going to go flying!”
“Abigail.”
“A single bark is going to blast poor little Banana’s poor little ears.”
“Abigail.”
“What if your puppy sits on Banana?” I asked, my voice was rising higher and higher. “What if your puppy rolls over on Banana? What if—”
He suddenly put an arm around my shoulder, whirled me around, and then pointed to the corner of the pen. “Abigail, look,” he whispered calmly in my ear. “Would you be quiet for two seconds and look?”
I turned back to the pen and found the big dog, Cooper’s dog, Fido, nuzzling Banana. And he was nothing less than the gentlest giant with my tiny man.
“Guess what?” Cooper whispered in my ear. “Sometimes opposites attract.”
I shifted so we were face to face. “They sure do.”
“Guess what else?” He ran his thumb across my cheek and then leaned in close, gazing at me with those beautiful blue eyes. “Sometimes opposites fall deeply and madly and crazily in love.”
“I love you, too.” I smiled, went up on my tippy toes, and pressed my lips to his. So many emotions rolled through me as we kissed that I didn’t know which to choose, so I felt them all at once fully, deeply, passionately, and with my whole heart.
The End
If you enjoyed spending time
with these characters,
be sure to read Jennifer’s story in:
The Double Date Disaster
(Do-Over Date series, 2)
About the Author
SUSAN HATLER is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author, who writes humorous and emotional contemporary romance and young adult novels. Many of Susan’s books have been translated into German, Spanish, French, and Italian. A natural optimist, she believes life is amazing, people are fascinating, and imagination is endless. She loves spending time with her characters and hopes you do, too.
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Titles by Susan Hatler
Do-Over Date Series
Million Dollar Date
The Double Date Disaster
The Date Next Door
Date to the Rescue
Fashionably Date
The Wedding Whisperer Series
The Wedding Charm
The Wedding Catch
My Wedding Date
The Wedding Bet
Kissed by the Bay Series
Every Little Kiss
The Perfect Kiss
Just One Kiss
The Sweetest Kiss
A Christmas Kiss
All About That Kiss
Forever in a Kiss
A Kiss for Santa
Christmas Mountain Clean Romance Series
The Christmas Compromise
‘Twas the Kiss Before Christmas
Better Date than Never Series
Love at First Date
Truth or Date
My Last Blind Date
Save the Date
A Twist of Date
License to Date
Driven to Date
Up to Date
Déjà Date
Date and Dash
Treasured Dreams Series
An Unexpected Date
An Unexpected Kiss
An Unexpected Love
An Unexpected Pro
posal
An Unexpected Wedding
An Unexpected Joy
An Unexpected Baby
Young Adult Novels
Shaken
See Me
The Crush Dilemma