Moonlight Over Manhattan(28)

She wondered if he was making fun of her but his expression was deadly serious. “I’ll take her out for some fresh air and exercise, always assuming the snow isn’t too deep, and then I’ll spend time with her here.”

“And you can do that? How many other dogs do you walk in the day?”

“It varies. Tomorrow I have a pretty busy day, but I can pass at least two of my walks on to another dog walker, so that’s what I’ll do. Until she’s happier, Madi is my priority. I can bring some paperwork and do it in your apartment, if you’re comfortable with that.”

“Anything! I owe you in a big way. Thank you.”

“I’m not—”

“I know.” He interrupted her with a wry smile. “You’re not doing it for me. You’re doing it for the dog.”

“Madi. I’m doing it for Madi.”

“You’re as sensitive as my sister. She is a dog. Why can’t I call her that?”

“Probably for the same reason people don’t call you ‘the human.’ It’s not overly friendly.”

The food arrived and Ethan spread the cartons across the kitchen island and handed her a plate.

“Help yourself. And tell me more about your business.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m interested.”

“What do you want to know? We walk dogs. We cover the whole of the East Side of Manhattan.” And she was proud of that. Proud of the way they’d built their business from nothing.

“Presumably you don’t do it all by yourself. You mentioned a sister—”

“Fliss. We’re twins. We run it together.”

“And you employ dog walkers?” He spooned noodles onto her plate. “How does that work?”

“They’re often college students. Sometimes people who are retired. We don’t really care about the background. The important thing is that they love dogs and are responsible. Our business is built on our ability to deliver a top quality service to our clients.”

“So how many dogs do you walk at a time?”

“We only offer solo walks. It’s a personal service. Easier to meet the needs of the dog that way.”

“And you take them to the park?”

“It varies.” She twisted the noodles onto her fork. “Sometimes we take them to the park, but that doesn’t work for all dogs. Sometimes we just take them for walks around the neighborhood.”

“So tomorrow—do I have to bathe Madi when I come in after a walk? Clean out her paws? Because I have no idea how to do that.”

He was a guy who spent his days handling life-threatening situations and he was thrown by a little dog. “Just wipe her down. I’ll do the rest when I arrive.”

“And you will arrive? You’re not going to leave me in the lurch to punish me for my earlier behavior?”

“I wouldn’t do that to Madi.”

He pulled a face. “So you’re doing it because you’re afraid to leave her in my care. I shouted at you, and now you think I’m beyond hope as a dog owner, and possibly even as a human being. Can you forgive me?”

She tried not to smile. “I don’t know, Dr. Black. I have yet to make up my mind about you. I’ll let you know when I do.”





CHAPTER EIGHT


HARRIET RODE THE SUBWAY, and then walked the rest of the way to her apartment. She was desperate to whip out her phone and search for “recurrence of stammering,” but it was freezing cold and she told herself that impatience wasn’t a decent trade-off for possible frostbite.

Anxious to do some research, her heart sank when she arrived home to find Daniel waiting outside her apartment.

Normally she would have been pleased to see her brother, but he was one of the few people who was likely to be able to see beneath the fake smile and want to know what had happened.

And she didn’t want to talk about it.

She wanted to deal with this herself, preferably by opening her laptop and doing research. She needed answers.

Why had it come back? Did the fact that it had come back briefly mean that it might come back again?

When? Under what circumstances?

Maybe the evening had ended well enough but still it felt like a huge setback.

If she’d stammered tonight, then she could stammer again.

It was something she hadn’t had to think about in a long while.

Should she contact a speech therapist? Ethan didn’t seem to think she should, but she wasn’t convinced.

She had a thousand questions churning inside her but she knew if she voiced any of this aloud to Daniel he’d go into overprotective mode, so she filed away her questions even though it almost killed her to do it.

“Isn’t this a bit late for you to visit? Normally you drop round when you’re hungry.” And her brother had done that less and less since he’d fallen in love with Molly. Given that the only thing she’d thought her brother was ever going to be wedded to was his single status, she found it encouraging that he was now crazily in love.

If he could find someone in the crazy tapestry of humans that populated Manhattan then surely there was hope for her too?

“Molly and I were taking the dogs for a walk and we thought we’d drop by and see how you’re doing. Haven’t heard from you in a while.”