She helped herself to more chicken. “That’s an interesting idea. It hadn’t occurred to me to formalize it. I mean they’re paying me, of course, but I hadn’t thought of it as a permanent arrangement.” She licked her fingers, frowning slightly. “It can’t be. I don’t know how long I’ll be staying, but no more than a few weeks.”
“In Manhattan you don’t do all the walking yourself, do you? You could recruit people.”
“Yes, and that part is hard work because we need reliable dog walkers. Do you know anyone who might be interested?”
“I’m pretty sure my vet tech might be interested. She loves dogs and she could probably use the money. And she has a couple of friends who work part-time. I could ask around if you like.”
“Thanks. I’ve thought about extending the business, but this option hadn’t occurred to me.” She finished the chicken and tore off a chunk of bread. “You think I could recruit enough dog walkers to enable me to run it from Manhattan?”
“Why not? You don’t do it all yourself in Manhattan, do you?”
“No. But it’s taken us a long time to build up a reliable team.”
“So start small. Build it up slowly. See how it goes. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.”
They talked it through while they finished the picnic.
“I need to crunch some numbers.” She wiped her fingers, then pulled her phone out of her purse and made some notes for herself. “I need to work out how many dog owners there are, and how many are likely to use the services of a reliable dog walker.”
“There are plenty of dogs. If you drop by the office tomorrow I can give you a number. We’re not the only vet clinic, of course, but it would give you an idea.”
“Could I put an advertisement on your bulletin board?”
“Sure.”
“I might be able to expand the business simply by walking the dogs of my grandmother’s friends.”
“If you’re walking Darcy, you’ll probably need to check him for listening devices.”
She grinned. “You think she’ll bug the dog in order to eavesdrop on my love life? That’s an interesting idea.”
“Never underestimate how far the locals will go to find out what they want to know. Are you saying Dora didn’t grill you?”
“Until I was charred. Cooked right through. They wanted to know everything about you.”
Knowing her as he did, he doubted they’d extracted much information from her. “So what did you tell them?”
“I told them there’s nothing happening between us. Because there isn’t.” Her gaze flickered to his and then away again. “They think you’re hot, by the way.”
Seth almost fell over the side of the boat. “Excuse me?”
“According to them you’re the most eligible man in the Hamptons, and that’s saying something.” She eyed him. “Martha thinks you have great shoulders. Dora likes your arms. For Rita it’s your eyelashes.”
“My eyelashes?”
“Don’t look to me for an explanation. I don’t get what they see in you. Personally, I don’t find you attractive at all.” She secured a strand of hair behind her ear. “Never did.”
He loved her sense of humor. The fact that it was reemerging now told him she was relaxing with him. “Right. So all that sex we had—”
“I don’t remember ever having sex with you. You must be thinking of someone else.”
“Maybe. She was a cute blonde who used to climb out of the kitchen window because the back door creaked.”
“Yeah? She sounds like trouble. You should have stayed away from her.”
“We weren’t good at staying away from each other.” And then later, when it had all gone wrong, he’d stayed away when he should have gotten closer.
They’d done it all wrong, he realized.