Moonlight over Manhattan (From Manhattan with Love 6)

“If you’d like me to.”

“It’s Christmas Day. Don’t you have anything better to do on Christmas Day? Aren’t you seeing your sister? Your brother?”

“Not this year. Daniel is going away with Molly, and Fliss is spending Christmas with Seth’s folks. I’m staying by myself.” She said it brightly, as if she couldn’t imagine anything more exciting than being on her own for the holidays.

He felt a stab of anger. “They didn’t invite you?”

“Oh yes, they invited me. But I’ve never spent a Christmas without them before and I thought I should.”

She’d chosen to spend Christmas on her own? He was trying to understand why someone like her would do a thing like that, when the answer came to him.

“Challenge Harriet?”

“Yes.”

It didn’t sound like a challenge to him. It sounded brutal. “Harriet, this is—” He broke off and started again. “Why deprive yourself of family, when family is so important to you?”

“That’s why.” She stood up. “Because I need to know I can survive by myself.”

Survival sounded like a pretty brutal goal too.

Telling himself it was none of his business, he changed the subject. “My sister is coming tomorrow to pick up Madi. I’m hoping to be back at work.”

“Ethan, you could barely walk to the bathroom.”

“I’ll take a cab to the hospital.”

“I don’t know much about the ER, but I assume the doctors aren’t supposed to be sicker than the patients.”

“I’m improving by the hour. My cough is better. By tomorrow I’ll be fine.”

She opened her mouth as if she intended to argue, and then closed it again. “Great. If you tell me what time I’ll make sure I’m here when they arrive. And I’ll move out after that.”

He had no idea why the prospect of that made him feel disappointed. “No hurry.”

She paused, her hands on the tray, a strand of hair sliding forward. “If Madi isn’t here, why would I stay?”

It was a fair question.

Because his apartment was a whole lot nicer with her in it?

Because having her around lifted his mood?

Because she was gorgeous?

Any one of those replies would have earned him one of her questioning looks, so he didn’t give

voice to any of them.

“All I meant was that you don’t need to rush off. There’s no pressure. I’m grateful for what you’ve done. Move at your convenience.”

“Right.” She straightened and picked up his tray without looking at him. “I’ll do that.”

MONDAY MORNING CAME too quickly.

Harriet packed her things into her case with the same absence of enthusiasm she’d felt when she’d packed to come here, which made no sense. She’d moved in as a favor to a client and for Madi. Her services were no longer needed.

Crazy as it was to admit it, she’d enjoyed the weekend. Crazy and a little selfish maybe, because Ethan had been sick. There had been something comforting about being just the two of them, closeted in his apartment while snow fell outside the window. It was as if they’d stepped out of their lives for a moment and inhabited a different world.