Thanks for the grammatical corrections in Chapter 2. Will get those corrected after this one is posted.

Hope you are all still loving the fluff!


Chapter 3

Harm strolled into the kitchen with a smile on his face. He had on a red and gray striped flannel with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his blue jeans, and cowboy boots from working with the rest of the town to put the Pumpkin Fest together. Mac and Grandma Sarah stayed at the home to bake more pies — her annual contribution to the town potluck.

"Smells good in here, ladies!" He said with a grin, his blue-green eyes focused entirely on the brunette who had on one of his grandmother's aprons over a loose gray sweater. One that he knew had "US Navy" across it. One of his old ones that he's never got back since first letting her borrow it. It was an image he never thought he would see, and he felt his heart tug, making sure to keep the core memory stored. His grandmother and Mac baking in the house gave him a sense of home when he was growing up, and after his ramp strike.

Harm felt her brown eyes focused on him.

"Afternoon Harmon," his grandmother greeted him, not taking her eyes off the pie. The older woman had a big smile on her face, and she could feel the difference in the air from Mac when Harm stepped into the room. She wanted to give those two a good old slap on the back of the neck to wake them up, but alas, Harmon was too tall to do so.

"Afternoon Grams," Harm said moving around the counter that separated him from the kitchen.

"So," Harm said pouring himself a cup of coffee and leaning against the cabinets as he watched Mac carefully braid the top of an apple pie. Things he never thought he'd see in his life. "Has she burnt anything yet?"

Mac's head snapped up, fixing him with a glare that caused him to grin wider.

"Harmon, don't you piss Sarah off," Sarah Rabb looked up at him, warningly wagging a finger at him. "She's been a great study, and I'm happy to let her inherit the recipes for the pies and the homemade fudge."

Harm groaned. "Are you giving her your recipe book?"

The older woman shrugged and winked in Mac's direction. "She's taken such good care of her grandmother's, I figured why not mine as well."

Harm looked at Mac in surprise, while she distracted herself with ensuring the crust was good on the pie before putting it in line with the others that were ready to bake. "I didn't know you had your grandmother's recipe book."

Mac shrugged.

Harm's eyes lit up with realization. "That curry — the lamb and eggplant one that I like. The one I can never find in any other restaurant. You made it?"

She nodded her head, not meeting his gaze. A bit embarrassed.

"Huh," Harm said leaning back on the counter again. "Seven years later, and you still find ways to surprise me, Ninja girl."

"Not like it's hard. You're not that observant," she quipped, wanting to change the air in the room from whatever it was that was trying to both stifle her, and release her.

"You take that back," he warned, placing his coffee cup down as he took a step closer to her. It was a small kitchen, and with his stride, he only needed to do one step to get into her personal space.

She shook her head. "And lie? Nope."

Harm dipped a finger into a bowl that had caramelized apples and plopped the finger on her nose with a laugh. "Pinocchio, your nose is getting longer."

Her mouth formed an 'O' in shock before she charged to tackle him, putting her whole hand into the bowl and reaching up to run her caramelized hand over his face.

Harm had a mask of apple pie filling while Mac stepped back and ran out of the room taking the opportunity to retreat.

Harm started after the direction he assumed she ran out to, leaving his grandmother in the kitchen with an ear-splitting grin across her face. She could not wait to call Trish and regale her with the stories of these two.

Meanwhile, Mac ran out of the house, laughter following her as Harm caught up, the apple pie filling continuing to drip down his face, to his shirt, and the floor behind him. Two paces after she got out of the porch, Harm caught her by the waist and pulled her close to him, burying his sticky face in her hair.

"Harm!" Mac squealed feeling her hair already clump and stick together.

Once he was satisfied that he got most of it on her neck, he started to rub the top of his head, on her neck causing her to flush and squirm in his grasp. He had no way of knowing that it was an area that she could not resist once touched at and tried her best to control her breathing.

Instead, she turned around in his arms in an effort to get more surface area to push him away. As she turned, he tightened his grasp around her, leaving no room for her to shimmy her hands and arms between them to shove him away.

"Uh, uh, Marine," he said with a laugh, knowing full well that, if she wanted to. She could have him pinned on his back with her knee or her foot. He was hoping that wouldn't be the case, until he felt her hook her (gorgeously long) leg around his knee, and in a matter of a split second, they were both on the ground.

They were laughing as they rolled around in the grass and foliage, trying to get the other pinned. It had been so long since they've spared, that Harm remembered who much he missed spending time with her and being the one that she took her day out on — in the gym, or with food in front of them.

He looked at her, and in a moment of weakness, he was on his back, with there on top. They were both still laughing, and the afternoon sun reflected on her tanned features, and her brown eyes reminded him of the caramel color of the liquid that started the food fight. His breathe was caught in his throat as he realized, once again, just how damn beautiful Sarah Mackenzie was. Apron and all.

When his laughter stopped, hers went on for another second before she noticed how intently he was staring at her. She felt self conscious, wondering if he was thinking about how he dodged a bullet by mistakenly thinking he had feelings for her. She cleared her throat and stood up from where she was straddling him and took a step back.

Harm grinned at there from the ground, noticing the twigs that was stuck all over her sweater and in her hair.

"Of course you'd make a ghillie suit out of an apron," Harm said sitting up, a smile still plastered on his face that his cheeks almost her.

Mac looked down at herself, then over at Harm. "I gotta tell you, you don't look any better."

"Of course not, we don't use ghillie suits, we have dress whites."

"And gold wings," she added for him. "You are such a squid."

"Yet you still love me," Harm teased him mouth shutting firmly and eyes widening when the words left his mouth.

Mac's mouth was opened, her response caught in her throat.

Then they both heard a whine coming from somewhere near them. Once soft, and then a bit louder.

"Did you hear that? "Mac asked him, hoping it wasn't her heart making those noises as she felt it sink to the pit of her stomach.

"Yeah," Harm said, all previous conversations forgotten for the quest of figuring out what animal was hurt. Mac followed behind his steps, trying to even her breathing and thank her luck that Hero-Harm was activated to take his attention from her.

They walked about a hundred yards to a small ditch that helped the water not pool to the house where they saw a small dog whining. It was a very young pup who most likely had fallen into the ravine, and could not get out because it was too short to jump or climb.

Harm quickly took his jacket off and stepped down to the ditch that was about two feet tall. He picked up the dog that was whining, it's white and black fur with some spots around its legs. "It's a puppy!"

Harm stepped out of the ravine, with the squirmy dog in his arms and presented the dog to Mac.

"Oh, poor puppy," Mac said running a finger of the small dog's snout to its head, following the spotted gray that separated the two blacks of the dog's mask.

"Looks like a farm dog," Harm noted, looking more at how Mac was doting on the puppy than the puppy itself.

"Do you think we should ask the neighborhood If someone's missing a puppy?"

Harm nodded. "We can ask Grams, she might know. And get the pup inside and maybe checked out, make sure it didn't get injured when it fell in."

Mac nodded her head then looked up to meet his eyes. "So adorable!"

"Yeah," he chuckled, definitely taking the scene in front of him as 'adorable.' "Makes you miss your mutt, huh?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "But Chloe and her grandparents are taking good care of him, I have no doubt he's being spoiled."

They walked towards the house with the puppy in his arms, and Mac cooing at the puppy occasionally.

"Gram?" Harm called out to the house.

His grandmother popped her head from the kitchen door. "There you two are."

She smiled at their appearance, hoping that maybe they had… rolled around the hay, when she saw the movement that was in Harm's crumpled flannel. Well there went her theory, she thought disappointingly. They probably got all those twigs in their hair trying to rescue what she hoped was not another squirrel as Harm used to do as a child.

"Know anyone around that's had puppies lately?" Harm asked her, showing her the small bundle in his arms.

Grams thought for a moment then shook her head. "No. Not a collie or a heeler, anyhow. Where'd you find it?"

"Fell into the ditch. I think I'll run down to the store and get some chicken wire to put on top, so animals don't get trapped."

"That would be great Harmon," Grams responded. "Is it injured?"

"Not as far as we can tell," Mac responded.

"You didn't see a mama or siblings anywhere?"

They both shook their heads.

"Well 'fraid it little pup may have gotten lost then," Grams said. "You could call animal control, or find him a home if nobody claims him tonight. We can ask around in the fest."

She appraised the two standing in front of her. "Alright you two, clean up before you come back to help me pack all these pies. Might as well throw the rascal in with one of you for a bath too. Harmon, you take that shirt of yours outback for a rinse after you've finished with the dog."

He nodded his head.

"You want to shower first, or should I?" He asked eyeing the one shower between their rooms.

Mac looked at the squirming bundle of fluff in his arms. "I'll go, and I can take the pup with."

Harm looked at her hesitantly.

"Cmon, Harm."

"It's squirmy! I don't want you to fall."

"And the showers too short for you already. Just let me take it."

He huffed. She had a good point, half the time he showered in the old home, he had to bend down to clean his face and make sure the shower head wouldn't smack him. A squirming puppy would increase the chances of black eye by shower head.

"Fine," he huffed and handed the squirming puppy to her.

She unwrapped the puppy from his flannel, and handed it back to him. "For you to put outside."

He nodded, taking the flannel carefully.

"Me and this little… guy… will be fine. We'll come out smelling fresh, won't we?"

The puppy wriggled.

"Hey now, there's no escaping me!" Mac corrected, changing the way she was holding the puppy. "We'll see you soon... stick boy."

She reached up and grabbed a twig that was sticking out of his hair and tossed it lightly at him with a laugh.


Thanks for the feedback ya'll!