When she sat, words poured out of Cole of their own volition.

  “You haven’t said too much, Lindsay. What you said was probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. And you have my word, I absolutely will not read more than friendship into any time we mutually decide to spend together.”

  When Lillie laid her head on Lindsay’s knee, Cole might have smiled, if not for the seriousness of the conversation he wasn’t done having. “Because as out of character as it is for me, I find myself thinking it feels right to spend time with you, too.”

  Her glance was long and intrusive. He had no problem whatsoever withstanding it.

  “You’re my boss.”

  “Only at work,” he told her. “And not really, because you’re contracted help. You’re your boss. I’m—or rather, Elite Paper is—your client. That aside, though, in a town the size of this one, if outside the workplace people couldn’t associate on a personal level with people with whom they worked, then...we’d all have to walk around ignoring one another.”

  Her grin lit up her face. And his spirits.

  “Then I’m glad we’re in a small town,” she told him.

  Dear Reader,

  I’m so glad you picked up this book! The story is what I like to read—meaty and emotional, with no easy answers and love that knows no boundaries.

  And there are two very special extras about this one. First, while it’s a Sierra’s Web book, it’s set in Shelter Valley, Arizona—a town I created twenty years ago writing for Harlequin Superromance. If you like the characters here, you’ve got fifteen other stories you can read that will keep you in a place where people reach out to each other, welcome strangers and always give second chances.

  The other extra here is Lillie. She’s an old dog. A rescue and service dog. Mostly, she tunes in to people and tries to offer strength and support when they’re emotionally distressed. Lillie reminds me of a dog I used to have. She’s in a canine body with human understanding. Or so it seems. She just has to look at you for you to see inside yourself and discover the truths waiting there. Old dog, new truth. She’s also fine with offering her fur to help soak up your tears. Or a lick on the cheek to help celebrate your joy.

  So read on... If I didn’t get it right, Lillie will!

  TTQ

  Old Dogs, New Truths

  Tara Taylor Quinn

  A USA TODAY bestselling author of over 105 novels in twenty languages, Tara Taylor Quinn has sold more than seven million copies. Known for her intense emotional fiction, Ms. Quinn’s novels have received critical acclaim in the UK and most recently from Harvard. She is the recipient of the Readers’ Choice Award and has appeared often on local and national TV, including CBS Sunday Morning.

  For TTQ offers, news and contests, visit www.tarataylorquinn.com!

  Books by Tara Taylor Quinn

  Harlequin Special Edition

  Shelter Valley Stories

  Their Secret Twins

  Sierra’s Web

  His Lost and Found Family

  Reluctant Roommates

  Her Best Friend’s Baby

  Furever Yours

  Love off the Leash

  The Parent Portal

  A Baby Affair

  Her Motherhood Wish

  A Mother’s Secrets

  The Child Who Changed Them

  Their Second-Chance Baby

  Her Christmas Future

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  To my Annie girl, Lillie’s look-alike. For Taylor Marie—my most faithful companion for seventeen years. And for LeeLee Marie, who grabbed Taylor’s torch and is forging her own way of blessing my life. I hope and pray that what I had/have to offer you was/is enough. You three all have my forever love.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Excerpt from Matchmaker on the Ranch by Marie Ferrarella

  Chapter One

  “We’re set to go?” Lindsay Warren-Smythe, heiress and charity chief fundraising officer—aka Lindsay Warren, bohemian artist—couldn’t help the nervous smile that trembled on her lips. Nor the jump in her heart rate as her friend of many years, Sierra’s Web expert lawyer Savannah Compton, met her look with a compassionate gaze—and a nod.

  Seated at a secluded table on the outdoor terrace of a private club overlooking a meticulously maintained golf course, the Phoenix valley and the gorgeous mountains beyond, Savannah slid a manila envelope across the expanse between them. “It’s all there.

  “The apartment is being rented through your Lindsay Warren, LLC.” Savannah’s words twisted the knot further in Lindsay’s stomach. “It’s small, one bedroom, outdoor entrance, second floor so you’ll have to walk up a set of cement stairs to get to it. Your key’s in there.”

  Lindsay looked at the big bulky envelope. Didn’t touch it.

  “You submitted a job application at Elite Paper using your Lindsay Warren email, with a link to your website and online shop, and have an interview at the home office in Shelter Valley this afternoon. Your apartment’s about a mile from the office. Elite Paper has the entire second floor of a building adjacent to the university. The town itself is small, an hour or so drive from here.”

  Listening, absorbing every word, Lindsay couldn’t slow the flutters in her stomach.

  “We purchased an old, but clean, sedan for you. It’s light yellow to fit Lindsay Warren’s nature. Has a handmade Navajo dream catcher hanging from the rearview mirror. It’s parked outside, back of the lot, west corner. The keys are in there.” Without breaking eye contact, Savannah nodded toward the envelope on the table.

  Almost as though she knew that if she looked away, Lindsay would get up and run.

  She could leave anytime. She was a free agent.

  A wealthy free agent.

  If money counted as wealth.

  Savannah and her partners at Sierra’s Web were officially working for Lindsay. At Lindsay’s expense.

  The reminder did nothing to calm her nerves.

  “You’ll be meeting with Chief of Personnel Cole Bennet this afternoon. He’s a big guy, six-three, red hair. Nice man.”

  Yada, yada, yada. Cole Bennet was a means to an end. He could be a total jerk as long as he gave her the job.

  Odd though, that the head of Elite Paper had hired what sounded like a bodyguard type for an employee relations position. Was that because one had something to hide? And needed protection in every aspect of his life? Watching his back?

  Fit the profile of a guy hiding from a previous life.

  “You sure you want to do this?” Savannah’s soft, warm tone lost all professionalism, her brown eyes pools of compassion. “We can make all of this disappear as easily as we set it up,” she continued.

  Lindsay didn’t shake her head.

  She didn’t nod, either.

  Her offhand, half joke to Savannah, months before at a charitable function Lindsay had been hosting, had snowballed and was changing her entire life.

  Even if she gave back the envelope and retreated to her lovely home on the beach in La Jolla.

  She’d never thought Sierra’s Web would actually find her father. Or, if they had, the irresponsible, heartless louse would be either in prison or dead.

  He wouldn’t be the owner of a company that was known for the artistic quality of the greeting cards, card stock and wrapping papers they produced.

  The job she’d be interviewing for was one she’d have jumped at when she’d graduated college. Right up her alley.

  If not for the grandparents who’d raised her.

  They forbade any hint of her bohemian artist soul to emerge into the air.

  “You change your mind?” Savannah’s gentle question held no judgment.

  “I’ve got a great life,” she said then, looking her friend of five years in the eye. “I’m really good at what I do...”

  “The best,” Savannah told her. “Sierra’s Web would love to have you on staff.”

  “I’m keeping several really important California-based national charities afloat,” she said, more for her own edification than in response to the expert lawyer. “I love that I can do that.”

  Savannah’s nod was accompanied by a smile as she said, “I know.” An open-ended offer to Lindsay to work at Sierra’s Web had come at the close of the first job Sierra’s Web had done for Lindsay. Savannah had successfully defended Amanda’s Army—an LA-based charity that donated to children’s hospitals—from a tax fraud charge that had been wrongfully brought. Lindsay’s fundraising skills had been under excruciating investigation not only by the prosecutor, but by Sierra’s Web experts as well. In the end, she’d come out as completely compliant with the law, innovative and
highly gifted at her job. Savannah had talked about charities all over the country that could benefit from her efforts.

  Problem was, she was still Grace and William Warren-Smythe’s only living offspring, and a grandchild at that. She’d been raised with an intense sense of obligation to the city and state, and to the people who’d raised her.

  Her grandparents were fond of Savannah. On more than one occasion, they had hired Winchester Holmes, the Sierra’s Web finance expert, to oversee particularly complicated investments. But they’d never ever, in a million lifetimes, approve of Lindsay deserting her full-time work for carefully chosen charities to pop in and out of hundreds all over the country. And the manila envelope on that table—would devastate them.

  As would the work Sierra’s Web had done to put it there.

  “You want to know what we found out about him? Other than that he’s the owner of Elite Paper Company and lives in Shelter Valley, Arizona?”

  Lindsay had yet to give a yay or nay to Savannah’s previous question, about going ahead or nixing the whole plan.

  And her friend, expert lawyer that she was, was giving Lindsay a nudge to get to the answer. She’d seen Savannah in action enough to know that much.

  Lindsay played along, nodding. She wouldn’t be in Phoenix, sitting at that table, if there wasn’t a need deep inside, driving her.

  “He’s married. Has been for twenty-five years, to the same woman. They have three kids. Two boys and a girl, ranging in age from eleven to fifteen.”

  At least he’d married one woman he’d knocked up.

  She had three half siblings!

  Nice of him to give them his legitimacy. His time.

  Two brothers and a sister!

  Who’d grown up with a father.

  Thoughts chased over themselves, nobody winning.

  “The public financials of Elite Paper are impressive,” Savannah dropped into the middle of Lindsay’s silent war. “Winchester’s report is in there, but he said to tell you that Brent Wilson appears to be a man who puts quality over making money. He could easily be a billionaire, but spends so much on high-end machinery and materials, on employee benefits, that he’s only worth millions. Since Elite Paper is a privately held company, he can get away with it.”

  Brent Wilson.

  The man who’d fathered her.

  And then abandoned her mother. Driving the woman to seek solace from her broken heart in the form of the fancy, expensive and very illegal drugs that had killed her...

  “You said you never got the whole truth about what happened between your mom and dad...” Savannah’s soft words floated on the artificially cooled air blowing from discreetly set air conditioners in the guise of planters around them.

  “My mother died of an overdose before my first birthday. And you know Mimi and Papa. They think it’s a futile course of action to dwell on the past. Other than regaling me with every picture, every memory of her they had before she met my father, of course.”

  Poor little rich girl. The image popped up to taunt her. Sitting outside in hundred-degree heat, blissfully cool, surrounded by hanging, gloriously colorful plants on an elegant balcony that overlooked one of the nation’s most beautiful cities.

  As Savannah motioned for refills of the prickly pear iced tea they’d both ordered, Lindsay picked up the envelope in front of her. Pulled a pen out of the big colorful cloth shoulder bag she’d purchased a few years back, but only carried on those rare occasions when she was far away from home, attending a gathering as Lindsay Warren.

  Before she realized what she was doing, she had a broken heart—half darkened, half outline only—drawn with shading and raw edges, taking up the center of the envelope.

  “You’re a fantastic businesswoman, Lins. A wonderful, attentive granddaughter, a loyal friend to so many. And look at you. Half of your heart is dark.”

  Savannah’s words, barely above a whisper, hit her like a tsunami. She jerked back. Looked at her drawing, and then up at her friend.

  “Think of how much more you’d have to give to them all if you could live with full lights shining.”

  She nodded.

  Acknowledged to herself that she’d been stalling because she hadn’t been able to back out. Savannah’s closing argument had given the Warren-Smythe part of her permission to pick up that envelope. Open it.

  And take out the keys to the rest of her life.

  * * *

  “Seriously, Nicky? You and Josh want me to be his godfather? What about Dane?” Sitting in his second-story, fully windowed corner office, Cole Bennet stared at the perimeter of elegant mountains surrounding Shelter Valley, grinning from ear to ear, even as he named Josh’s best friend.

  “Josh says he wants you, too. His sister is going to be godmother.” And he got it. He was Nicky’s pick. Her best friend.

  Also, her ex-fiancé, but that was all in the past.

  While leaving him at the altar hadn’t been her best move, he’d grown to understand how right she’d been to call off the wedding. She’d loved him so much she hadn’t wanted to lose him, but couldn’t bring herself to tell him that she hadn’t been in love with him.

  The story of his big, extra ten pounds overweight, red-headed life.

  But he’d learned over the years, most particularly when he’d been so genuinely happy for his friend at her wedding, that while he adored her, he hadn’t been in love with her, either.

  He’d been thrilled to have a real girlfriend. To have the prospect of a wife—and a family down the road. He’d loved Nicky as a friend.

  Still did.

  Just as he was already half in love with the kid she was carrying. “Then, of course, I’m his godfather,” he said, still smiling. “I’m going to teach that kid how to be friends with women,” he said. “Real friends, not just as a way to get in their pants.”

  Her burst of laughter made him chuckle, too.

  “You might want to wait a year or two before introducing the whole birds and bees thing,” she said, and gave him the rundown from her most recent doctor’s appointment. Still with three months to go, Nicky was reveling in every moment of the event she’d been waiting for her entire life. While some of the details blurred on him a bit, he was happy to hear her happiness.

  And would have listened to her gab on endlessly, if not for the upcoming appointment staring at him from the daily event calendar his assistant had placed on his desk first thing that morning.

  Lindsay Warren. Visual Artist. Whose work included pieces using dried flowers instead of paint to create landscapes. Jewelry pieces she made herself. Original paintings—mostly of flowers in random places, like growing between the cracks in a sidewalk.

  And exquisite greeting cards.

  The latter had his attention.

  He’d already been all over her shop on one of the top artisan-selling apps.

  Everything shipped from California.

  He’d need her to relocate. Couldn’t imagine, with her talent, inventory and Southern California address, she’d have any desire to do so. Their job listing had been for a contracted position, not an actual employee, but the position was full-time and had to be in-house. She’d have to give up a lot of her own work.

  Those were the things keeping her off the top of his list. While Elite Paper would benefit greatly from her level of ability and experience, he’d all but decided on hiring the young man he’d seen the day before, a Montford University graduate. With the small but elite university being right there in town, Victor had already done a residency with Elite and could start immediately. Cole just had this one last interview to get through before finalizing the deal.

  His conversation with Nicky still filling him with smiles, he was ready when Ms. Lindsay Warren was shown into his office.

  And immediately sobered. In her long black skirt—made out of what looked like thin T-shirt material—with a black-and-white lace and tie-dyed flowing tank-style top and three-inch-high flip-flops with lots of silver glitz on the straps, she was...stunning.

  The long blond hair that flowed around her shoulders, the perfectly shaped body and smiling lips beneath big brown eyes...

  He was on overload.