Hank shrugged his powerful shoulders. “No problem.”

He regarded her in silence.

Another jolt of attraction swept through Ally. Suddenly, the dog wasn’t the main danger to her well-being-the sexy cowboy in front of her was. “Well…” She gathered her composure around her like a shield. “I’ve got to change and go into town…for a preliminary meeting with Marcy Lyon at Premier Realty.”

Hank’s eyes softened unexpectedly. His assessing gaze took her in head to toe, lighting wildfires everywhere it landed. “No business suit for that meeting, hmm?” he chided.

She fought back a self-conscious flush. “Everyone wears jeans in that office. You know that. Since they deal primarily in ranch property and are always climbing over fences and what not.”

Hank nodded and said nothing more.

But then, Ally thought sadly, he didn’t have to. He did not approve of her decisions and actions any more than her parents had, when they were alive. Now, as then, she told herself it did not matter. And still knew that some way-somehow-it did.

AN HOUR LATER, Kurt McCabe stopped by, vet bag in tow. “You were right,” he told his cousin, when he had finished his examination of Duchess. “Those puppies are coming soon.”

“How soon?” Hank asked.

Kurt shut off the portable ultrasound and folded the keyboard back against the monitor before latching it shut. “The next twenty-four, forty-eight hours.”

Hank figured they had time to prepare. “Any idea how many?”

His cousin slid his stethoscope back into his vet bag. “Looks like ten, from what I could see on the ultrasound, but the way they’re packed in there, there could be one more.”