New York, Actually (From Manhattan with Love 4)

It was a ten-minute walk to Fliss and Harriet’s.

Fliss opened the door, looking flustered. “Molly. You’re early.”

“I’m sorry. Do you mind? I’ll pay you extra of course, but I need to buy a gift for my editor on my way to the office.” She smiled as Valentine shot past her into the apartment. “He’s so at home here. He loves it.”

Fliss’s response was drowned out by a cacophony of excited barking.

Molly peered over Fliss’s shoulder toward the noise. “Is Harriet fostering again? What—” She broke off as Valentine came bounding back to her, a large German shepherd by his side.

Even if his markings hadn’t been unmistakable, Molly would have known who it was from Valentine’s ecstatic greeting. “Brutus? What are you doing here? That’s a coincidence.” Smiling, she bent to rub Brutus’s head. “I know this dog. He belongs to a guy I see in the park most mornings. He’s adorable. The dog, I mean, not the guy. Although if I’m honest the guy is pretty adorable, too.” She flushed as she realized she was babbling like a teenager. “He never told me

he used dog walkers.” She glanced up and saw the frozen expression on the Fliss’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“Say that again. That thing you said.” Fliss spoke between her teeth. “You meet a guy in the park—you mean you see him and run past him?”

“To begin with, but then we got to talking. Now we meet up most mornings. It’s no big deal. This is definitely his dog. I’d know him anywhere. Brutus.”

Brutus wagged his tail crazily and Fliss swallowed. “Crap. Molly—” She opened the door, her face a few shades paler than it had been a few moments earlier. “You’d better come in.”

“Why? I have a ton of things to do, and—”

“Come in. Harriet!” Fliss bellowed her sister’s name. “Come in here now, I need you. We have a situation, and I’m not good with situations.”

“What situation?” Confused, Molly followed Fliss into the apartment while Valentine and Brutus played a lively game that involved barking and rolling on the rug in the center of the room. “The two dogs are great together. It will be like a boys’ day out, so you don’t need to worry about walking them together.”

“What’s wrong?” Harriet appeared, a toothbrush in her hand. “Hi, Molly. I’m a bit behind because I had to go and pick up some abandoned kittens in the night. We’re so looking forward to having Valentine today, though. He’s the best dog ever.”

“Hold that thought. She may not be leaving him with us,” Fliss muttered and Harriet looked puzzled.

“Why not? What’s happened?”

“I have no idea.” Uneasy now, Molly glanced from one twin to another. “What’s going on?”

Fliss clenched her jaw. “Molly has been walking Valentine in the park every morning, and she’s been meeting up with Brutus. He and Valentine know each other well.”

Harriet’s face brightened. “That’s great. It makes it so much easier that they’re already friends, because now the two of them can—” She stopped in midsentence and her eyes widened. Delight changed to consternation. “Oh!”

“Yes, oh.” Fliss jabbed her fingers into her hair. “Molly, there is no easy way to say this, so I’m going to come right out with it and then you can blacken my eye. Go for it. Don’t hold back. That man in the park… Brutus doesn’t belong to him.”

Molly smiled. “Yes, he does. I’ve seen them together every day. They love each other.”

“I knew we should have said ‘no.’” Temper boiling, Fliss paced across the floor. “He came to us last month and said he wanted to borrow a dog so that he could meet a hot girl. How the hell was I to know it was you?”

“Excuse me?”

“Daniel. Came to us.”

“Wait. How do you know his name?”

“I’ve known his name my whole life. Daniel is our brother.”

It took Molly a moment to comprehend what Fliss was saying. “Your brother?”

“Yes.” Fliss let out a breath. “It didn’t occur to us that you were the hot girl. You’re going to kill me. And then you’ll probably kill him. And neither of us would blame you for that. In fact there have been plenty of times when we’ve been tempted to do the same thing ourselves.”

Molly stared at Brutus. Daniel’s dog. Except that he wasn’t his dog.

He’d borrowed the dog so he could meet her. And she’d fallen for it.