Moonlight Over Manhattan(70)

That part wasn’t a lie.

The first step to not dying alone surrounded by foster dogs was to take care of herself. And taking care included the little things.

Or maybe not so little, she thought half an hour later as she studied the tall fir tree propped against the wall in a side street off Fifth Avenue.

“You don’t have anything a little smaller?”

“A week ago I had every size you can imagine. They’re all gone. That’s it, lady. Take it or leave it.” The man selling trees looked grumpy, which took away some of the magic. Surely selling Christmas trees should be a happy experience?

She blew on her fingers and stamped her feet to keep warm. Maybe she should have planned this more carefully instead of being spontaneous.

Practical Harriet would have walked away. The tree was too big for her apartment. She lived alone. Why did she need a tree that big? Why did she need a tree at all?

Because she was tired of being practical Harriet.

She wanted to be rash, impulsive Harriet.

“I’ll take it.” She spoke loudly, as if volume somehow made her decision more permanent.

She almost changed her mind when he told her the price, but she handed over what seemed like an obscene number of dollars.

She was now the owner of a large Christmas tree, which was almost certainly not going to fit into her apartment. And now she had a new problem. How to get it home.

She was going to have to drag it, which probably wasn’t going to do much for its appearance.

“I hope you’re hardy.” She pushed her hand through the spiky branches and tried to grab the trunk. “You’re going to need to be, living with me.”

The man went from grumpy to alarmed. “I’m not living with you.”

“I was talking to the tree.”

His expression told her everything she needed to know about his feelings toward women who talked to trees.

She talked to dogs all the time. Why not trees?

All the same, it was time to get out of here before his moody expression removed the gloss from her very expensive purchase.

She tried picking it up, but couldn’t see where she was going, so she put it down again and started dragging it by the trunk.

Great. At this rate the tree would arrive at her apartment already decorated with whatever was lying on the streets of New York and that wouldn’t be pretty.

“Do you need help with that?” A deep, male voice came from behind her and she turned and saw Ethan Black. His coat hugged his broad shoulders and the collar was turned up against the wind, but what really drew her attention was his smile. It creased his cheeks and warmed his eyes until looking at him made her feel warm too. Madi was next to him, wagging her tail.

“Ethan? Madi? I—” Delight gave way to concern and she dropped the tree and the branches scraped her leg accusingly. “Is something wrong? Is Karen okay? Did the journey make her worse?”

“Nothing is wrong, and Karen is doing fine.”

She stooped to make a fuss over the dog. “So why do you have Madi?”

“Would you believe me if I said I missed her?”

Was he winding her up? This was the man who had almost had a panic attack when he’d first seen Madi in his apartment. “You—” She cleared her throat and straightened up. “Seriously?”

“You have no idea how empty my apartment feels.”

She knew exactly how empty his apartment probably felt because hers was the same. The difference was that she’d never like it that way, whereas he had.

“You mean how tidy it is. And quiet, because you’ve had no complaints from your neighbors.”

His smile widened. “That’s part of it.”

What was the other part? “So you borrowed Madi.”

“Karen and Debra have driven to the airport to meet my brother-in-law. He’s been on a business trip. I said I’d take the dog and drop her round later.”

Because that was what families did. They helped each other, even when they had a job as punishing as Ethan’s.

She noticed the sheen of his hair and the width of his shoulders. Her heart gave a flutter. “Aren’t you a little out of your way?”

“I wanted to see you. I wanted to check on how you’re doing.”

So it was a charity call.

Her heart rhythm slowly returned to normal. “I’m doing fine, thanks. Why wouldn’t I be? You didn’t need to check on me.”

“No more jumping out of restaurant bathrooms?”

“Just the one time.” She stooped to pick up the tree again, wondering why he’d bothered traipsing across town to ask her that.

“If you take Madi, I’ll carry that up to your apartment.” He held Madi’s lead out to her and she paused.

She wasn’t sure she wanted Ethan in her apartment. So far it was an Ethan-free space. The only memories of him there were the ones in her head and she was struggling to erase those. She didn’t need him spreading himself around the rest of her life.

On the other hand, if he helped her, it would solve the very real problem of how she was going to get the tree where it needed to go.

“Thanks.” She took Madi’s lead and dug in her pocket for her keys.

“Do you have an old blanket? Or a sheet?”

“I have one I use for the dogs.”