“I’ve always said you’d make the perfect doctor’s wife.”
“That’s insane.” Harriet stood up. “You talk as if doctors are one homogeneous being instead of individual people. And this guy doesn’t seem like the relationship type.”
“What have you packed to sleep in? Do not wear that old T-shirt with I love dogs on it.”
“It’s my favorite T-shirt and I do love dogs. It’s honest nightwear.”
“It’s not something you need to emblazon on your breasts when you’re spending the night with a sexy guy.”
“I never said he was sexy.”
“Is he?”
Harriet thought about the way he’d waited patiently while she’d struggled to get her words out. He hadn’t once tried to finish her sentence. True, he’d yelled but only that once and even she had to admit his frustration had been justified. And he’d apologized. She didn’t know many people who were big enough to apologize.
He’d let Madi sleep on his bed when she was distressed.
And the way he’d picked her up—
She sighed. “He’s sexy.”
“Whoa. Never heard you say that about a guy before. What do you like about him most? Shoulders? Abs? Great eyes?”
“He’s a good listener.”
“I’m talking about what makes him sexy.”
“So am I. That’s what makes him sexy to me. I like the fact that he didn’t interrupt me. He didn’t try to—” She stopped just in time. She wasn’t ready to tell Fliss that her stammer had come back. She wanted to deal with it by herself. “He didn’t try to dominate the conversation in the way some guys do.”
“So what you’re saying is that he’s totally unfortunate looking, but a nice person?”
Harriet laughed. “That’s not what I’m saying. But looks don’t matter, do they? My first internet dating experience kept checking his reflection on his phone.”
“Gross.”
“Exactly. And what Ethan looks like is irrelevant because this isn’t a date, it’s work. I’m doing this for Madi and for Debra. And for him, because he cannot make life-and-death decisions after three hours’ sleep.”
“I have been trying to talk you into dog sitting for ages. This is great.”
“This is a one-off. Don’t get any ideas.” Harriet could almost see Fliss making notes and plans. Next she’d be sending an email with suggestions for expanding their business into dog sitting and she really didn’t want that.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this.”
Harriet tried to close her bulging case. “I can’t believe it, either. But I’m doing it for Madi.”
For the dog. For Debra.
Not for any other reason.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“LIFE WOULD BE so much easier if I was better with people.” Harriet slowed her pace so that Glenys could keep up. The drop in temperature didn’t seem to have kept people inside. The streets were busier than ever and there was a buzz of expectation in the air that increased as they drew closer to Christmas.
Across Manhattan, the stores unveiled their holiday displays and people traveled especially to admire the store windows.
Harriet liked to wait until after dark and then wander along Madison Avenue, Lexington and Fifth Avenue.
When they were growing up, her mother had taken her and Fliss to see the store windows and Harriet remembered the special buzz that had come from being just the three of them. Without her father there, she hadn’t been so afraid to speak.