Page 10 of Sit, Stay, Love
She laughed. ‘Sounds like it.’
‘Unless you help me.’
‘Ethan—’
‘I’ll pay you,’ he added hurriedly. ‘I don’t expect you to do it for free. I’ll pay you for your time. And I’ll be a great student. I’m serious about my craft. I’ll work hard, I promise.’
‘It’s just, with my copywriting commitments and the shelter, I’m pretty busy. I don’t have a lot of—’
‘I’ll cover whatever you make writing, and then some. Name your price. And,’ he went on, nodding enthusiastically, ‘I could do some promotional work for you. I could throw a fundraiser for the shelter?’
Sera chewed the inside of her cheek. The financial situation of the shelter was a constant worry. She couldn’t count the number of nights she’d spent tossing and turning, wondering how Rose’s would survive another month. And there were so many improvements she wanted to make. Donations came in, but never enough, and her small salary barely covered her own bills. She couldn’t keep accepting help from her parents; Rose’s was her dream, not theirs, and it was her responsibility to keep it going.
‘I’ll work around your hours,’ Ethan continued. ‘My schedule is pretty clear for the next month. What do you say, Sera? Will you take pity on me?’
His impossibly blue eyes were wide and hopeful, his smile blindingly bright and his dimples so deep, she felt as if she could dive into them and never surface. Bottomless dimples.
She swallowed a sigh, glanced away and scratched Ernie’s head. She needed the money desperately, and a little extra cash for a month would definitely prop up the quickly depleting bank balance. And she had to admit, it wouldn’t be a hardship seeing more of Ethan.
‘I guess we could start with some walking.’ she said. ‘We always need dog walkers.’
‘Seriously?’ His face lit up. ‘And you’d be walking with me? I feel like I can trust you. I can tell you’re a decent person, and I think we’ve kind of clicked, don’t you?’
Heat filled Sera’s face, and she knew her cheeks must have reddened again. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘I’m sure we can work something out,’ she said, trying to ignore the flutter in her belly.
Ethan excitedly punched his fist into his palm. ‘Thank you, Sera. This is going to be great. When should we start?’
She held Ernie’s leash out to him. ‘We can start now.’
He stared at the leash, then looked at her, his eyebrows pulling together in a frown.
‘First lesson.’ Her voice softened. ‘Don’t panic. Dogs can sense when they have the upper hand.Youneed to lead. Walk Ernie back to the shelter now, and we can talk about the rest later.’
‘I’m not walking him by myself, am I?’ There was real fear in his eyes.
She took his hand and placed the leash across his palm. Whatever was going on with him was more than simply not being great around dogs. ‘Of course not. I’ll be right beside you all the way.’ She waved her arm towards the track back to the shelter. ‘After you, Lord Jasper.’
Chapter Three
Sera took a swig of home-brew beer and spluttered, put the bottle on Toby’s coffee table and pushed it out of reach. ‘You’ll never guess who came to visit me today,’ she said, pulling a cushion into her lap.
Toby was sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch, his shoulder resting on Sera’s leg. ‘Who?’ he asked, absently stroking Buffy, who was sprawled across his lap.
‘Lord Jasper himself.’
He spun around. ‘Ethan James?’ He pushed Buffy to the floor, and the dog gave a disappointed grunt.
‘Yep.’
‘Why?’
‘He needs my help.’
‘Doing what?’
She pointed to a pizza box on the floor. ‘Pass me a piece of the four cheese, and I’ll tell you.’
He handed her a slice of pizza.
