The Plus One Rescue by Jo Grafford

With a heroic-sounding name like his, Axel Hammerstone naturally made all the “most likely to succeed” lists in his high school yearbook. So it comes as no surprise to his friends when their favorite defensive tackle player returns from Afghanistan with a Purple Heart for wounds sustained while saving a bunch of fellow soldiers during an ambush. He’s the only one who blames himself for the one man he failed to rescue during the ensuing explosion. Despite his own injuries, he’s determined to atone for the loss of his best friend and battle buddy by devoting the rest of his career to search and rescue operations.
Kristi Kimiko was first called the “dog whisperer” on her sixteenth birthday when she coaxed a wounded Boston Terrier from their burning apartment complex. Seven years later, she’s living her dream as an expert search and rescue trainer in Disaster City, Texas. Unfortunately, it leaves her little time for dating or any sort of social life, for that matter. When the hunky Axel half-limps and half-swaggers his way into her renowned dog training course with his beautiful golden retriever, she senses her life is about to change — especially after he somehow manages to coax her into serving as his Plus One at a big family birthday bash the following weekend.
If she’s learned anything in her line of work, where there’s smoke, there’s a fire; and this particular hunky firefighter has a way of making the sparks fly every time he looks in her direction!