Moonlight over Manhattan (From Manhattan with Love 6)

She wondered what Ethan was doing. Working, probably. Saving a life.

Whereas she was walking dogs.

She hadn’t even had a chance to say a proper goodbye.

She’d been so exhausted after her weekend of playing nurse, she’d fallen asleep on the bed when she’d finished packing and woken to discover he’d left for work.

He’d left her a note. Two words, scrawled in bold black ink. They were close to illegible, but after five minutes of staring at the letters, puzzled, she’d finally decided it said thank you.

Was he thanking her for taking care of Madi, or him?

She was surprised he’d found the energy to return to work so soon, but Ethan Black wasn’t the type of guy to languish in bed for long.

She’d gathered the last of her things, and shortly after that Debra had arrived with Karen. It had been a crazy, emotional few moments during which Madi temporarily forgot all the manners Harriet had taught her over the previous week. Ecstatic, the little dog had returned home and so had Harriet.

And that, Harriet thought, was the end of that.

Madi was happy, Debra was happy, Ethan was most certainly happy.

The only person who would have liked the situation to carry on indefinitely, was Harriet.

She watched as Brutus and Valentine tumbled together on the snow, apparently indifferent to the cold.

After a good walk, she returned them to Molly, who had now moved into Daniel’s Fifth Avenue apartment and had been catching up on some work.

“You’re an angel.” Molly hugged her. “Do you want to come in? I’ve made tea.”

Molly was British and seemed to think hot tea was some kind of life-giving liquid. Harriet wondered how that worked for Daniel, who thought good wine was the most important liquid.

“I should probably get home. I haven’t had a chance to unpack and sort out my apartment.” The thought of it wasn’t exactly thrilling. There would be no Madi. And no Ethan.

Maybe it was time for her to get a life.

It was certainly time for her to think about getting a dog of her own.

“One cup.” Molly all but pulled her inside. “I haven’t seen you for a couple of weeks. I want to hear all about the sexy doctor you’ve been living with.”

“You’ve been talking to Fliss?” In her family, nothing was a secret it seemed. And Molly was as good as family.

Molly eyed her. “We might have exchanged a few words.”

“I was dog sitting.” She glanced round the apartment, feeling a twinge of envy as she noticed the huge fir tree covered in sparkling lights. “I love your tree. How did you talk Daniel into that?”

“I didn’t.” Molly put a mug of tea in front of her. “I bought it without checking with him. So much harder to protest once something is done, don’t you think?”

Harriet laughed. “Daniel never decorates.”

“He does now. Or rather I do, and he raises an eyebrow but says nothing. I love decorating for the holidays.” Molly thrust a book into her hands. “You need to read this.”

Harriet glanced at the book. “Mate for Life—I already have your book. I’ve read it cover to cover at least three times. I can pretty much recite the chapters. Right now I’d be happy to mate for five minutes. Mating for life seems an overly ambitious objective.”

“What I’m trying to say is that I think Ethan is perfect for you. If you apply some of the criteria I outline in my book, you’ll see what I mean. He’s responsible, kind, caring and he has leadership skills—”

“How do you know? You’ve never even met him.” Harriet kicked off her shoes and flopped onto the sofa, unable to resist the opportunity to talk about Ethan. Molly knew plenty about relationships. Maybe she could put her head back together. “You’ve spent too much time talking to my sister, that’s all.”

“Not just that.” Molly grinned. “I might have spent a morning watching his series filmed in the ER.”

“A whole morning?”