Page 124 of Sit, Stay, Love
He laughed. ‘By the way, good morning,’ he said in a husky voice that instantly made her shuffle her feet and snap her legs together.
‘Can I take her home?’ she blurted.
He brushed her arm with his hand as he moved past her.
She jumped and shuffled backwards.
He glanced at her. ‘What’s wrong with you?’
‘Can I take her home?’ she asked again.
‘I heard you the first time. Why are you being weird?’ He bent down, ran his hand over Buffy and gently poked her belly while Sera glared sulkily at his lovely firm arse.
Buffy lifted a leg, expecting a scratch. ‘I’d prefer to keep her here for the day,’ he said. ‘I’ll bring her to you this afternoon.’
Tears pooled in the corners of Sera’s eyes and she wiped a frustrated hand over her face. But she couldn’t stop them from falling, and they tumbled down her cheeks and dripped from her chin to the floor. In the last few weeks, her world had gone from something resembling contentment to utter turmoil. All she wanted was for everything to go back to normal, where she didn’t have life-altering decisions to make, and her best friend didn’t cause the insides of her thighs to sizzle.
‘She’s fine,’ he said, tenderly touching her hand, misreading everything. ‘I’m just being cautious.’
‘I’d better go.’ She pulled away from him. ‘Ring me later and let me know what’s happening.’
Because she had no idea. She had absolutely no idea.
Sera dropped onto her couch and cried. Not just cried; she bawled. Everything was spotlessly clean. Not just the reception area, but the entire house, her private rooms included. There were no piles of dog vomit stretching up the hall, not even a whiff of it in the air. There were even fresh flowers on the reception desk. While she was at Toby’s, her team, her wonderful, dedicated team, had completely transformed the place. Even the uprooted daffodils had been swapped out for dog-friendly lavender. At least if Buffy ate that, her breath would smell sweet.
Tia opened the door and Sera jumped up and threw her arms around the young woman.
‘Did you have anything to do with this?’ Sera asked.
‘Carol was the instigator. She called in the troops.’
Sera started sobbing again. ‘Thank you.’
Tia gave her a squeeze. ‘You do so much, and we know you’re a little stressed right now, so we wanted to try to help.’
‘I’m hopeless, I’m barely holding it together. I feel like I’ve been barely holding it together for two years.’
‘Which makes you even more impressive. Because no one would ever know. This place is amazing. You need to be proud of it. We all love working here. We all love you.’ She squeezed Sera’s hand. ‘How’s Buffy? Dr McManus told us she was going to be fine.’
Sera nodded and smiled. ‘He’s dropping her home later. Did he help with this too?’
Tia popped her bag behind the desk. ‘He brought the lavender, and he took all the dogs out and cleaned up the barn and helped us hose downthe walls of the house and the kennels. He’s a good egg, that one. Kind of adorable too. And such a hottie.’ She giggled.
Sera smiled. Hewasa good egg. The best egg. And a total hottie, and if she could just make it through the next couple of days without becoming a complete wreck, she might have a chance to breathe and clear her mind and figure out what the hell she was doing.
‘Coffee?’ Tia asked.
‘Yes, please. Also, I need to talk to you about something.’
Sera filled Tia in on Ethan’s offer to go to Los Angeles with him, and how she hoped Tia would manage the shelter while she was away. If she went.
‘I know we’d have to find you a couple more volunteers,’ she said. ‘But I’m sure we can.’ She took a mouthful of coffee. ‘And regardless of what I end up deciding, I’d still like to talk about increasing your hours.’
‘But you’re going to LA though, aren’t you?’ Tia asked. ‘It would be amazing. Working on a movie with Ethan. Oh my god, I would die!’
Sera sighed deeply. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll see how Wednesday night goes before I make any decisions. Maybe we’ll get some amazing sponsors and I can finally do everything I want to the place, and I’ll be too busy to go anywhere.’
‘Fingers crossed,’ Tia said. ‘But I still think you’d be crazy not to go. And of course, I’ll take care of everything.’ She made a squealing noise into her fists. ‘This is so exciting!’
