Page 72 of Sit, Stay, Love
‘Mum keeps telling me to take care of Toby. She seems to think he may have…’ She sighed. ‘Feelings for me. Do you think that too?’
‘Of course he does. He adores you.’
‘I’m talking, you know,feelingsfeelings.’
‘Have you asked him?’
She stared at the phone on her desk in horror. ‘God, no.’
‘Maybe you should.’
‘No. Definitely not. What if…’ She chewed the side of her cheek as she ran it through her mind. ‘Dad, what if he said yes?’
‘You two have definitely got something special. Would it be so terrible?’
She put her chin in her hands. ‘Yes. No. Oh god, I don’t know, Dad.’ She sighed, long and heavy. ‘Okay. Let’s say he did say yes and let’s say I decided to give it a shot. I’m not saying I would, this is only a hypothetical, but let’s say I did. What if it didn’t work out? What if we broke up? I’d lose him. I can’t risk that. I won’t. It’s not worth it.’ She took a breath. ‘Anyway, that’s not what either of us wants.’
‘Okay, poppet.’
‘I should go,’ she said. ‘Thank you for the donation. Please don’t do it again.’
‘Now you’ve told me about the email thing, you’ll never know.’
‘Daaad.’
He laughed. ‘Bye, sweetheart. Call your mother. She wants to organise a dinner for you and your actor friend.’
‘Bye, Dad.’
Sera hung up, dropped her head to the desk, lightly banged it and groaned.
‘Hello?’ she heard from the front room.
She snapped up, tucked her hair behind her ears and straightened her top. ‘Back here, Ethan.’ Then she remembered Francine the Maltese was somewhere in the house. ‘Wait!’
‘A little help?’ he called back.
Ethan was standing in the doorway, filling the frame with his broad shoulders and long legs, and staring down at Francine, who was blocking his way like a tiny, fluffy white sentinel.
He looked up, relief washing over his face when he saw Sera.
‘She’s wagging,’ he said.
‘A wagging tail is not always friendly.’ She scooped up Francine.
His shoulders relaxed. ‘She seems friendly enough with you?’
She nodded her head for him to follow her up the hall. ‘I’ve got a crate in my office. I’ll pop her away.’
‘Where is everyone?’
‘Carol, one of my volunteers, is down in the kennels. I’ll get her to chase Buffy up, we need her for today.’ She popped Francine into her crate, turned to Ethan, smiled and said, ‘Hi.’
‘Hi.’ His face lit up and dimples exploded in his cheeks. ‘I missed you.’
She hitched a breath and clutched the back of a chair.
‘This is my first time behind the scenes. So, this is your office,’ he said as he looked around.
