“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?