Moonlight Over Manhattan(29)

Because she’d been trying to be more independent.

“I’m good. Busy.” She opened the door to her apartment. “Where is Molly? And where are the dogs?”

“She stepped outside to take a call and took the dogs with her. What are you doing walking round Manhattan this late?”

“It’s not late, Dan.” She hung up her coat. “It’s only nine o’clock.”

“You’ve been on another date?”

Molly thought about the evening she’d had. “Not exactly.”

“Fliss told me your last date didn’t go so well. I don’t like the idea of you meeting strangers. Why didn’t you call me?” He scowled at her. “I would have come to your rescue.”

Which was why she hadn’t called. She’d wanted to rescue herself.

Whatever trouble she found herself in, she wanted to be the one to find the way out.

“I handled it.”

“Since when did you walk dogs this late?”

She might not have a father who cared about her, but her brother more than made up for that lack of parental concern.

“Since my client went away and left a dog who is finding it hard to settle in her temporary home.”

Daniel strolled through to her kitchen and opened the fridge, totally at home in her apartment. “I’m surprised you didn’t just bring it back here. You used to do that when we were kids. I hid that kitten under my bed for a week, remember?”

“I remember.” She’d found it in one of the backstreets, injured and abandoned by its mother. She’d guessed it was no more than a few weeks old and she’d smuggled it home under her sweater and hid it in a box under the bed, where she’d cared for it until it was stronger. She intended to keep it, and hoped her brother would find a way to help her figure that out. Daniel always found a way to work with the circumstances. It was the reason he was such a great lawyer.

“You made me walk with you to the vet’s so that you could ask for advice. That was when I realized you would do just about anything for an animal, even if it meant making Dad crazy.” He pulled out a beer. “This has my name on it.”

Harriet rolled her eyes, put her bag down and closed the shutters.

He was right, of course. If her father had known, he would have killed her.

And she’d cared about that, but not as much as she’d cared about that kitten. She knew how it felt to be vulnerable, and she was determined to be the protector as often as she was the protected.

She heard the thunder of paws, a bark, and then Molly burst through the door with two large dogs.

“I’m going to buy a sled—” she panted, hauling on their leads “—and these two can pull it. Work off some of that excess energy. It could be a whole new way of commuting in the snow.”

Daniel snapped the top off the beer and pulled a second one from the fridge. “It’s not a new way if you live in Greenland. It’s a way of life.”

“Do you ever stop being a lawyer?”

Daniel handed her a beer and took a mouthful of his own. “That’s not being a lawyer. That’s general knowledge.”

“You always have to lay out the facts!”

“Ah, in that case I definitely wasn’t being a lawyer. At best we lawyers are selective with our facts.” Ignoring the dogs, he tugged Molly against him and kissed her long and hard. She sank against him and for a moment they blended, a perfect unit.

Watching them, Harriet felt an ache behind her ribs.

Great.

Love was all around her. Or that was how it seemed.

She wasn’t going to be envious. She loved Daniel. She loved Molly. She was genuinely happy for them.

And jealous.

She was jealous. Jealous of her brother and jealous of her twin.

What did that say about her?

Annoyed with herself for not being the person she wanted to be, she dropped to her knees and hugged Valentine, Molly’s Dalmatian. “Who’s a gorgeous boy?” Valentine answered that with an enthusiastic wag of his tail and Brutus, Daniel’s German shepherd, head-butted Harriet, vying for her attention. Harriet lost her balance and thumped down on the floor. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who had a jealous streak. “You’re gorgeous too. Even when you knock me on my butt.”

Molly eased away from Daniel. “He’s not that gorgeous.” She dropped the backpack she was carrying and pulled off her coat, still balancing the beer in her hand. “He rolled in snow and he’s soaked. Sit, Brutus. So tell me what happened with that last guy you dated, Harriet. He sounded great. Are you seeing him again? How did the date end?”

With her climbing out of the window and spraining her ankle.

Harriet decided not to tell them that. Some things were best left unsaid. Molly was a psychologist and she had a tendency to try and analyze everything. Harriet didn’t want her analyzing this. “It didn’t pan out.”

“No? Shame. I had high hopes.” Molly dragged a towel out of her bag and rubbed Brutus’s fur. “So who is next? What’s new?”

What’s new was that she’d stammered. After years of not stammering, she’d stammered.

The feelings churned inside her, a toxic mix of panic and disappointment.

Dating had always been a challenge for her, but now it seemed as if she’d slipped back to the bottom of a mountain she’d been climbing. It felt huge, but so far she hadn’t had time to absorb it properly. How was she ever going to get to know someone if she couldn’t get past that first awkward meeting?