Lost, Found, and Forever
Page 1
Praise for Lost, Found, and Forever
“Like the proverbial dog with a bone, I devoured this book in almost one go. It’s the adorable tale of a movie-star dog at the heart of a rescue doggy custody battle . . . which is actually a love match rescue. Pure delight!”
—Julia London, New York Times bestselling author of You Lucky Dog
“The most charming love triangle of the season. It’s a good thing one of them has dog sense. I especially loved the inside peek at moviemaking with the cutest canine ever. Spencer will steal your heart.”
—Shelley Noble, New York Times bestselling author of Imagine Summer
“For everyone who has loved a dog—or a human—this warm and fetching story is an absolute delight. With a charming and intimate small-town setting alongside Hollywood glamour, a winning romance, and one precocious pup, all wrapped up in a bighearted tale of a woman’s journey toward passion and purpose, Lost, Found, and Forever is a real treat.”
—Phoebe Fox, author of A Little Bit of Grace
Praise for Who Rescued Who
“Move over Marley and Enzo—there’s a new dog in town! Chock-full of heart and humor, anyone who has ever been redeemed by the love of a dog will treasure this uplifting, bighearted novel. A treat from start to finish!”
—Lori Nelson Spielman, New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
“Victoria Schade is that author who could write anything and I’d read it. Who Rescued Who is the perfect feel-good book with charismatic characters, swoony romance, family secrets, and snuggly puppies. Grab your furry friend and start reading now.”
—Amy E. Reichert, author of The Kindred Spirits Supper Club
“Pet lovers will rejoice over this too-cute ‘tail’ about Elizabeth Barnes, who travels to her late father’s family homestead in the English countryside.”
—Woman’s World
“A delightful romp through the English countryside . . . resplendent with sheep, dogs, cats, and lovely people. Beyond her irresistible story, Schade writes with beautiful descriptions. Readers will laugh, cry, and love this charmer.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“You don’t have to be a dog person to love this heartfelt book, but you will be by the time you finish it. Victoria Schade has written a timely, heartwarming story for everyone who longs to break free of the rose-colored filter of our Instagram age and rediscover the messy perfection of life, love, and the people—and pets—who shape us.”
—Lyssa Kay Adams, author of Crazy Stupid Bromance
“I loved it so, so much. It made me cry, but mostly it made me want to throw away my phone, buy some sheep, and move to the English countryside to rescue dogs and live in a rom-com.”
—Teri Wilson, author of The Story of Us
“As satisfying as a basket of fresh scones and as heartwarming as puppy kisses. I didn’t want this book to end.”
—Lindsay Emory, author of The Royal Bodyguard
“A charming fish-out-of-water story about finding your heart and home in the place you least expect. After reading this book, I wanted to adopt a puppy and relocate to rural England. I absolutely adored it.”
—Sarah Smith, author of Simmer Down
“Once again, Schade comes at us with her trademark smarts and humor to deliver a story with everything to love. . . . A winner.”
—Kristine Gasbarre, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Love an American Man: A True Story
“The engrossing, evocative prose whisked me away to an utterly charming British chocolate-box village, where I would have loved to stay. Who Rescued Who is certainly a special treat for dog lovers, but also for anyone who enjoys a multilayered story about finally finding a family in every sense.”
—Evie Dunmore, author of A Rogue of One’s Own
Praise for Life on the Leash
“Charming and heartfelt, Life on the Leash will delight readers. The perfect book for dog lovers!”
—Chanel Cleeton, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Train to Key West
“Even cat lovers will get wrapped up in this delightful story of girl, girl’s best friend, girl’s best girlfriends, and a couple of guys. Cora’s canines in training will steal your heart. I couldn’t wait to see what happened next!”
—Shelley Noble, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky’s Beach
“Life on the Leash is the novel you’ve been waiting for all year—a strong, funny, bighearted heroine to cheer for in life and in love, plenty of ‘I’ve-been-there’ dating moments, and adorable, endearing, sometimes mischievous dogs to love on every page.”
—Nicolle Wallace, dog lover, author, and MSNBC host
“A bighearted and witty debut from a writer with remarkable insight into the minds of dogs and those who love them. The winsome cast of characters will have you hooked on Life on the Leash from the first page.”
—Meg Donohue, USA Today bestselling author of You, Me, and the Sea
TITLES BY VICTORIA SCHADE
Life on the Leash
Who Rescued Who
Lost, Found, and Forever
A JOVE BOOK
Published by Berkley
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
penguinrandomhouse.com
Copyright © 2021 by Victoria Schade
Readers Guide copyright © 2021 by Victoria Schade
Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.
A JOVE BOOK, BERKLEY, and the BERKLEY & B colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schade, Victoria, author.
Title: Lost, found, and forever / Victoria Schade.
Description: First edition. | New York: Jove, 2021.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020046447 (print) | LCCN 2020046448 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780593098851 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780593098868 (ebook)
Subjects: GSAFD: Love stories.
Classification: LCC PS3619.C31265 L67 2021 (print) | LCC PS3619.C31265 (ebook) |
DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020046447
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020046448
First Edition: March 2021
Cover photo by Nicole Mlakar / Offset Shutterstock
Cover design by Rita Frangie
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
pid_prh_5.6.1_c0_r0
For Frances O’Neill, my very own fairy godmother
contents
Cover
Praise for Victoria Schade
Titles by Victoria Schade
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Ch
apter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Readers Guide
About the Author
chapter one
Justine Becker held the base of the foot-long oblong pink dog toy in her fist, like she was swishing a sword at her employee. Her dog, Spencer, dropped into a play bow at her feet with a tongue-lolling grin, ready to give the new product a test-drive.
“Sienna, seriously?”
Sienna Fisher looked up from the packing slip and spit out the end of her dirty blond braid. “What? Dogs love that thing. USA made, no phthalates, natural rubber . . .” She trailed off when Justine started stroking the toy with an unmistakable up-and-down motion. “Oh my God, how did I miss that?”
“Yeah, I guess Tricks & Biscuits is now stocking dirty stuff with the dog toys. Remind me again why I let you take over ordering?” Justine laughed and shook her head as she peered inside the box and quickly counted the penis-shaped toys. “Two dozen? We have to sell twenty-four of these things? What will Mrs. Zwyicki think?”
Spencer stood on his hind legs and placed his front paws on the edge of the box, his feathered tail thumping against the bright blue counter as he leaned in and tried to grab one of the toys.
“Don’t you worry, I’ll sell the hell out of these. Give me a chance and I’ll make them go viral,” Sienna said.
“I know you will, and that’s the only reason I’m not returning the order.”
Sienna whistled to Spencer. “Hey, Spence, you wanna take some PG-13 pics?”
Justine peeked at the invoice total and felt a wave of relief wash over her when she saw the “net 30” stamp. She’d stretch it to “net 45” with apologies and promises to be better next time, but she’d make sure they eventually got paid, like every other vendor. Three years in business and she’d become an expert at juggling funds that didn’t exist. She felt lucky she could afford to have Sienna on the payroll for twenty hours per week. The boho twentysomething’s Birkenstocks and flowy skirts camouflaged a talent for CEO-level strategizing, and her growing pet-sitting business, Like Family, almost kept her busy enough to not need the hours in the shop.
“Are you ready to talk about my big plans yet?” Sienna asked with an overwide smile on her pretty, angular face. “T&B will be so much more profit—” She stopped abruptly and cleared her throat. “We’ll have more, uh, more growth, if you go for it.”
Justine leaned back against the exposed brick wall next to the leash and collar display and crossed her arms. Sienna kept pushing her to move to all-natural product lines and add an online shop, convinced that the changes would be enough to reverse Tricks & Biscuits’ flatlining. But her suggestions didn’t come cheap. Natural products meant higher price tags, and creating an e-commerce site would set Justine back a few grand that the store didn’t have. She was embarrassed that her employee was more gung ho about profitability than she was, but Sienna didn’t know the tap dancing Justine was doing behind the scenes at T&B. The three nearly maxed-out credit cards and the past-due calls she occasionally got from her dog food distributor kept her awake at night, but she didn’t want to burden Sienna with the details.
“Can we talk about it later?” Justine asked. “I’m starving; I’m going to run to Monty’s real quick.”
“Are you bringing it back or eating there?”
Justine could tell by Sienna’s expression that she was eager to start brainstorming, what with the steady rain outside and the lack of humans or canines walking in the door. It didn’t matter what she was about to suggest they try; Justine would still feel like she was using a teaspoon to bail out her sinking ship.
“I think I’m going to eat there. Maybe the rain will let up by the time I get back and we’ll actually get some customers in here. Want me to bring you something?”
“Nope, I’ve got my famous quinoa-and-broccoli bowl.” Sienna paused when Justine grimaced. “Oh yeah, the smell. I totally forgot. I’ll light a candle, promise.” She held three fingers in the air like a Boy Scout.
“The vanilla one, please. Vanilla makes people hungry, and hungry people buy dog biscuits.” Justine paused. “If anyone would come in.”
“The rain is going to stop; I can feel it in my bones,” Sienna said, wiggling her fingers in front of her like she was casting a spell. “And this little lag means I’ll have a chance to get everything unpacked for the weekend. There are two more boxes in back. I went a little crazy because you can’t sell what you don’t have. And I’d love to get my hands on your messy office. Hold on—maybe I’ll sage the place too! That’s even better than a candle.”
“Whatever you think is most important, do that. I trust you.”
Justine felt a wave of gratitude for Sienna the witch goddess. Her positivity was the only thing keeping Justine from flipping the closed sign for good. That and the shop’s core of loyal supporters, who told her, in one way or another, that the little dog-friendly shop was their happy place. Every time she imagined shutting T&B, she pictured customers like lonely widower Frank Mancini, who held court at the counter every Saturday morning with an everything bagel and his Yorkie named Flossie. Or Miranda Leahy and her son Brandon, who at seven was still nonverbal, but who chattered his own language with every dog that walked through the door. The shop was in free fall, but no one, from her customers to Sienna, had a clue.
“Hey, I forgot to tell you that Seth stopped by looking for the lease. Have you signed it?” Sienna asked.
Justine shook her head. “Not yet.”
Putting her signature on the lease meant three more years of financial gymnastics. Three more years behind the counter.
And three more years of trying to figure out what the hell she was actually doing with her life.
“Spence, c’mon,” Justine called to her dog, who was still halfway in the box eyeing the questionable new toys. He hopped out in a single bound and trotted to her.
“Seth didn’t seem mad or anything, but he wants to talk to you,” Sienna added. “Is everything okay?”
Justine flushed, remembering how she’d asked her landlord for a payment extension the prior month. He probably wanted to revoke her option to renew.
Which wouldn’t be the worst thing.
“Everything is fine,” she lied as she clipped the leash on Spencer and grabbed her Dalmatian-print umbrella. “I’ll be back in a bit. Good luck dealing with the crowds.” She gestured around the empty store with the tip of her umbrella.
“I’ll run it like I own it!” Sienna replied with a salute.
chapter two
Spencer trotted along glued to Justine’s side beneath the umbrella, doing his best to avoid getting hit by a single raindrop. It was one of those cold early fall days that were a coming attraction of the ugly season to come. Justine wished she was in bed under a down blanket with a book,
a mug of hot tea, and Spencer curled behind her knees.
“You love to swim; why do you hate the rain so much?” Justine reached down to scratch her dog’s scruffy head. He looked adorable in her friend Ruth’s latest creation, a navy bow tie with a tiny repeating hedgehog pattern. Spencer glanced up at her and held her gaze for a few steps, and Justine’s heart swelled Grinch-style. “Spence, you are the most amazing dog. Do you know that? How did I get so lucky?”
He wagged back at her as they paused beneath the awning outside Monty’s.
“Shake off, bud,” Justine said. Spencer obliged, getting rid of any rain that had settled on his fur and making it stand up in little peaks all over his body. She nodded at him. “Better. But you still need a bath and a trim. You’re a mess.”
Sometimes, when the wiry fur above his eyebrows and the wisps of his beard got too long, Spencer looked like a friendly wizard. People always tried to guess what he was and suggested everything from an Irish terrier mix to an obscure German breed called a Kromfohrländer. Justine was occasionally tempted to do a DNA test on him, to try to figure out where his soulful black eyes came from, and which breed was responsible for his mix of tenacity and goofiness. But in the end she decided that she liked not knowing. All that mattered was that they belonged to each other.
Their love affair had begun a year prior when she’d found Spencer’s Petfinder post, after losing her beloved but anxiety-ridden shepherd mix, Flynn. Justine hadn’t been actively looking for a dog, but he’d found her just the same.
I’m yours, his expression in the photo seemed to say. Meant to be.
At their first introduction he’d run to her like they were meeting at the top of the Empire State Building at midnight, like he knew that Justine was his person. Even the volunteer from the rescue had been shocked by the immediate connection between them. It wasn’t love at first sight; it was flat-out mutual obsession.
Justine fumbled in her pocket for the quarter-sized key fob to unlock the door to the private dining club as a couple with a child in a stroller approached her tentatively.