Page 60 of Sit, Stay, Love
He stared at her, his brow furrowed. ‘Sorry.’
‘No, you’re not.’ She spun around and kept walking.
He fell in beside her again. ‘He’s arrogant.’
‘He’s not. You’ve just decided he is. He’s actually a little unsure of himself. His mum doesn’t like him being an actor, and he’s super stressed about the dog thing. He’s just…normal.’
Toby groaned, ‘Oh, god. Please.’
She tutted and called out, ‘Ethan!’ She checked the kennels. ‘Where the hell is he?’
‘Maybe he got grossed out and took off.’
‘What did you do with the Maltese?’
‘I put her in with the other dogs.’
‘Bloody hell, Herriot!’ she scolded. ‘She’s half-terrified all the time.’
‘I didn’t know that. She was fine with me.’
She shoved past him with a glare. ‘Ethan?’ she called again as she headed towards the back of the rescue.
That’s when she saw him, sitting in the corner of the exercise area with his head on his knees.
‘Ethan. What happened?’ She opened the gate and raced in. ‘Herriot, get the dogs out of here.’
Toby instantly started marshalling the dogs. ‘Come on, you lot. Out. Out.’
‘Ethan?’ Sera kneeled in front of him and placed her hand on his knee. ‘Are you okay?’
He looked up and shook his head. His face was devoid of colour and when he held out his hand, she could see he was trembling. There was a small puncture wound by his thumb.
‘Did one of them bite you? Which one?’
‘The small white one. I tried to pat it, but it snapped and I was too slow to pull my hand away. Then the dogs were jumping and barking, I couldn’t get past them, and I didn’t know what to do. So I sat here like the idiot I am, waiting to be saved.’
‘Why didn’t you call me? Don’t you have your phone?’
He pointed to a post with his phone sitting on top of it. ‘I put it down to open the gate.’ He shook his head. ‘I just… wanted to prove to your vet that I’m not some stupid useless actor.’
‘He’s not my vet.’
‘And I’m not your movie star.’
She puffed out an exasperated breath. ‘Shove over,’ she said, dropping in beside him as he wiggled across the grass. ‘You don’t have to prove yourself to me, and you certainly don’t have to prove yourself to Toby. You’re not the first person to be scared of dogs, and your reason is a pretty bloody good one. You’ve been doing amazing. Look how far you’ve come with Buffy.’
‘She’s just one dog.’
‘You were good with Kevin too, and he’s the size of a horse. And with Ernie. Besides, in the movie, it will only be one dog. Just one. That’s all you’ll have to work with.’
He shook his head. ‘I’ve been thinking about coming clean to my agent. Maybe I can head to the States early and get some therapy or something.’
‘I thought you tried therapy.’
‘I have. But obviously this plan isn’t working. Dogs hate me. How am I ever going to pretend they don’t?’
‘Oh, Ethan. Dogs don’t hate you and getting bitten isn’t your fault. Not now and not back when you were a kid. Dogs are dogs. It happens. In the last week, you’ve gone from someone who could barely look at a dog to someone who lets my clingy Staffy lie all over him. That’s progress. It is.’
