Holiday In the Hamptons (From Manhattan with Love 5)

“You did plenty. If it weren’t for you, Matilda would have been on her own.”

“Hero takes the credit for that. He came to find me on the beach. That dog is supersmart.”

“You stayed with Matilda through the whole thing.”

“Believe me, if there had been anyone else within shrieking distance I would have been out of there.” She made it sound like a joke, but he knew she wasn’t laughing.

“But you stayed. And it must have been hard for you.” He was probably the only one who had any idea how hard. He could imagine how it must have ripped open wounds she’d carefully sealed and exposed feelings she’d kept hidden.

“Not hard at all.”

He thought back to the way

she’d sobbed on him the night before and felt a rush of frustration. “Fliss—”

“Obviously I don’t know anything about delivering babies, but Matilda seemed to manage that part just fine by herself. I was little more than a cheerleader. All I had to do was say, ‘Yay! Go you! Wow, a baby!’ That kind of thing.”

It was like trying to crack his way through a reinforced steel wall. She had defenses that would have been the envy of any security force in the world.

The fact that he understood her reasons didn’t make it easier to handle.

“So last night on the beach when you were drenching my shirt, sobbing as if your heart was going to crack—which part of cheerleading was that?”

“Witnessing the beginning of a new life is an emotional thing.”

Last night he’d caught a glimpse of the feelings she was keeping locked inside, and it hadn’t been pretty.

He wanted to ask if she’d slept, if she’d shed more tears, but the answer to that was visible in the bruised shadows under her eyes, and he knew that the emotional events of the night before had stolen her sleep in the same way they had his.

She paced around the kitchen, admiring, touching, and gave a low murmur of approval. “Nice.” She ran her hand over the countertop and glanced at him. “Chase did this?”

She looked exhausted, but he decided there was no point in asking more questions she would evade.

“Not personally. He has a good team.” He opened the fridge, forcing himself to be patient. Haste had destroyed the fragile roots of their relationship last time. He wasn’t going to let that happen again. “Drink?”

“Please. Something cold. Nonalcoholic, as I’m driving. I need to keep my eye out for dogs who lie down in the middle of the road.” She gave Lulu a pointed look. “How do you train a dog to play dead? Maybe that’s a way we could expand. Dog training.”

“You’re looking to expand?”

“Yes. We practically own dog walking on the east side of Manhattan. I’ve decided we need something else. I was thinking maybe dog grooming, or even boarding.”

“Do you have premises?”

“No. That’s the downside.” She shrugged. “But also the upside because I’m tired of falling over paperwork in our apartment.”

“You share with Harriet?”

“Yes, of course. We live in Manhattan. An apartment to yourself is the stuff of dreams. And we’re in tight quarters. Harriet hates paperwork or anything to do with accounts, so she pushes it into a corner and pretends it isn’t there. Before I can process it, first I have to find it.”

“You can’t run the business online?”

“A lot of it is online, but there’s still paper.”

“Do you have to expand? Why not just keep the business small?”

“Now you’re starting to sound like Harriet. She’s happy the way things are. I handle the accounts and the clients, she handles the animals and the dog walkers. So maybe dog training might be the way forward. Heaven knows, we’d have enough clients who would benefit.”

“Do you ever refuse to walk a dog?”