by Parker, Ali
I lifted the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Hello, it’s Winnie,” the young girl’s voice came over the phone.
I smiled as soon as I heard it. “Hello, Winnie,” I greeted her. “Is everything okay?”
“Do you like spaghetti and meatballs?” she asked.
I was a little surprised. “Uh, yes, I suppose I do. Why do you ask?”
“Because we want to cook you dinner to say thank you for everything you did for Tink today,” she explained.
I couldn’t help but smile. This girl was just too damn sweet for her own good. She really was. “You don’t have to do that—”
“But I want to,” she told me firmly. She had Harry’s way about her. It must have run in the family.
“In that case, I would love to,” I said, and I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. Dinner. With the two of them. I couldn’t remember the last time someone else had cooked an actual home dinner for me, invited me over to their place and made a meal.
I drove over there and carefully lifted Tink from his crate. Now that it was actually a little later in the day, not the ass-end of a stressful morning, I could take the place in a little better. It was less fancy than I had expected it to be. That was for sure. If I had the kind of money he did, I’d have been living in a palace on a private island somewhere far from the rest of the world. But then, he had grown up with the money. It probably didn’t seem anywhere near as special to him.
The door was flung open before I even made it up there. Winnie was standing there, her eyes wide as she watched me approaching with her little dog in my arms.
“Tink!” she cried, and she barreled toward us so fast I thought that she was going to knock the two of us over. Luckily, Harry managed to leap out just in time to stop her from doing too much damage.
“Hey, there,” he said with a smile. “Be careful with him now. He’s just had surgery.”
“Hey, look, he’s waking up,” I remarked as Tink snuffled back to life in my arms. Probably sensing that he was home and that his people were close. It was good to see that he had already become so attached to them.
“Sorry, if I’d known that I was going to be having dinner here, I might have picked out something a little more glamorous than these scrubs,” I said, gesturing down to the outfit I was wearing.
Harry shook his head at once. “Not at all,” he assured me. “You look great to me.”
“All right, well, you don’t have to lie to my face,” I teased him, and he gestured for me to come inside the house.
It was nice inside, but nothing crazy. It didn’t look like he went out of his way to bother with fancy furniture or decorations or anything. I supposed that since he’d come into caring for Winnie, none of that stuff could really take precedence, but it seemed like there was nothing even left over from before he’d started looking after her. I liked that. I could only imagine the number of rich guys out there who liked to flaunt their cash every single chance that they got.
“Dinner’s on the table!” Winnie called to me cheerfully, and I hurried through to the kitchen where she was waiting.
There was a small dining table, heaving with huge stacks of food. Spaghetti and meatballs, as promised, and bread that looked fresh, along with cheese that probably cost more than I would have spent on a good bottle of wine.
“This looks amazing,” I said, and I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. They had gone out of their way to make this so nice for me, and I actually felt a little emotional thinking about all of it. All the effort, just to make me feel welcome.
“Well, you were so good with Tink today,” Harry replied, smiling at me. “And he’s part of the family now. Seemed fair that you got a thank you from the whole family, huh?”
“I guess so,” I said, beaming.
We all sat down around the table. Tink, still a little wobbly from surgery, slipped down underneath Winnie’s chair and looked around, probably wondering if there were any more socks he could munch on.
“You think that Tink is going to be all right?” Winnie asked.
I nodded, hoping that I could go some way toward soothing her. I knew how scary it could be when your dog was sick, and I wanted to put her mind at ease.
“As long as you keep him away from any socks from here on out, I think you’ll be just fine,” I promised.
She smiled and reached under the table to pet her little buddy, and I smiled at the two of them. I knew that I shouldn’t be getting so attached to Winnie already, given that I hadn’t been out on so much as a second date with the man who was taking care of her, but I was already growing a little fond.
Winnie chatted away to me about Tink, and I told her about the dogs that I’d had growing up, and I found myself relaxing and enjoying the food and the company. I felt a little out of place, sitting there in my scrubs when they were both clean and fresh, but they had invited me straight from work, and they would just have to take what they got.
I offered to help clear away the plates when we were done with dinner, but Winnie insisted on doing it. Tink, finally looking a little more lively, trotted back and forth to the kitchen with her to help her tidy up. Or, more likely, probably hoping that she was going to drop a meatball at some point.
“Thank you for this,” I told Harry softly. “I don’t get a chance to do home-cooked food very often.”
“Well, this is about all I can make, so you best get used to it,” he replied.
“Get used to it?” I repeated, cocking an eyebrow at him. “So you can see something like this happening again?”
“Maybe,” he said, flashing me a smile. “Depends on if you play your cards right.”
“And heal up your dog again?” I shot back. “That’s a small price to pay.”
We gazed at each other for a long moment. When he looked at me, it felt like something was fizzing in my chest. And I knew for certain that this wouldn’t be the last evening I spent with him.
Chapter 19
Harry
“All right, Winnie. Let’s get up and help Tink to the car, okay?”
“Can I take another day off and just be with him?” she asked hopefully, poking her sleepy head out from beneath the covers. She had slept next to Tink all night long. I knew I should have been a little harder on her, but I couldn’t when she was just so happy to have him back.
“I think we need to get back to reality now,” I told her gently. “Come on. Why don’t you give me a hand getting him ready for the day?”
“Okay,” she agreed, and she carefully maneuvered herself around the dog and peeled herself out of bed. I doubted she would have slept much, what with the worry of checking on Tink every chance she got, but she would get over it soon enough.
He was clearly just fine. All he had done was eat a damn sock in the first place. Raina had teased me about what a drama queen he was, but frankly, I was just happy to know that he was back on his feet and doing well again.
Winnie went about the rest of the day slowly, taking her time, letting Tink follow her up and down the stairs and eventually out to the car. I was taking Tink to the office today to make sure that he was doing all right after his little incident. The last thing I wanted was for him to pull another dramatic turnaround on us.
Getting Winnie to say goodbye to him at school was hard. She clearly wanted nothing more than to stay with him all day, just like I had let her the day before, but I knew we couldn’t let this little guy get in the way of the real lives that we had to lead. I wanted him to be a supplement, not the focus, now that he was here. A few of Winnie’s friends came rushing over to see him as soon as they saw the car pull up.
“Is he okay?” one of them asked breathlessly, a little girl with slightly frizzy hair and wide green eyes. She reached over to give him a pat, and Tink reveled in the attention.
“He’s going to be fine,” Winne replied with authority, clearly enjoying being the center of attention, along with her little dog. “He just needs time to rest.”
&
nbsp; “And you need time to work,” I reminded her gently, leaning over and giving her a quick hug before I sent her on her way. I had to get to the office. I had taken yesterday off, and I was sure that there was going to be a bunch for me to catch up on, now that I was back.
When I arrived, Yara was actually waiting outside for me. She waved me down and bounded over to the car to greet me.
“Is Tink okay?” she asked worriedly.
I pulled open the back door so that she could get a look at him. “He’s just fine,” I replied, and she leaned over to give him a pet. I couldn’t help but smile.
This dog had already made such an impression on everyone he’d come into contact with. He really was a special little guy. I was lucky to have such a sweet thing in my life. I could have ended up with any dog in the world, but the universe had guided me in the direction of Tink, and that felt like a deliberate choice.
“What was wrong with him anyway?” she asked curiously.
I shook my head as I helped the dog out of the back of the car. “He ate a sock,” I replied.
She raised her eyebrows at me and then burst out laughing. “He ate a sock?”
“Ate a sock,” I repeated. “But luckily, the vet—well, she was able to get him all patched up without much trouble.”
I quickly skimmed over that part of the story, not wanting her to click into the fact that I had hit up the very woman she had set me up with in the middle of the night for help before I’d so much as thought about anyone else. I knew if she caught a hint of that, she would lock onto the information like a laser-sighted missile, and I would have to find some way to deflect her.
I took Tink upstairs to my office and settled him on a pile of blankets so I could actually think about getting some work done. But before I could get down to it, a video call flared up on my screen. George was calling me.
I answered it quickly, worried that something could have happened to him. “Hello?”
“Hello, Harry,” George greeted me. “I just wanted to see how things were going with that little dog of yours?”
“What do you mean?”
“Winnie left a message yesterday and said that he was doing pretty badly,” he said. “I hope that’s all over with now.”
“Yeah, it’s all fine,” I replied, and I wondered if anyone in the tri-state area had managed to miss the information about my dog. Had someone done it in skywriting over the city? Because that was what it was starting to feel like to me.
“Glad to hear it,” he replied warmly. “Winnie sounded in quite a state about it yesterday. I wouldn’t want her losing that little thing so soon after you got him.”
“Well, we’re lucky to have a good vet on call,” I assured him. “Nothing to worry about. She said that he was just being a drama queen anyway.”
“Who, Winnie?”
“No, the vet,” I corrected him.
“Seems like you’re spending a lot of time with her,” he teased lightly, leaning back in his seat and eyeing me with amusement.
I tried not to let his penetrating stare get to me. He liked to come out and act like he knew everything that was going on with everyone at any given point in their lives, but if Winnie hadn’t been there to fill in the gaps for him, I doubted he would ever have found out about this little escapade.
Once I managed to get rid of him, I focused back on my work. Tink was a little fussy that day, asking to go out more than he normally did, but much to my relief, Yara was there to cover for me anytime I needed her. She seemed happy to dote on him any way she could. She was crazy about him—not to mention the few other staff members who came in bearing treats after they’d found out what had happened to him.
Was this all it had taken to get the staff to like me after all this time? Just have a dog and let him eat a sock?
In truth, any other day, I might have been a little annoyed at the way they were acting when they should have been focused on their work. But my mind was all about the night before and how it had been to have Raina over for dinner.
It wasn’t what I had expected for our second date, but I would more than take it. It had been awesome to spend that time with her, eating spaghetti and laughing over Tink’s silly little accident. She had turned down the wine that I had offered her, and frankly, I was a little glad that she had chosen not to drink. Because I knew that if I got a single drop in me, I was going to have a seriously hard time keeping my hands off her.
There was just something about being around her that made it hard for me to function the way I normally could. She was tempting in a way that I didn’t want to have to accept because then I might actually have to do something about it, and I had no idea if I was ready for that kind of commitment.
I liked her for sure, and I liked spending time with her, and I was touched that she would drop everything and get up in the middle of the night to help us with a dog-related emergency.
But I hadn’t been with anyone in such a long time, not really. I didn’t know how the hell I was meant to actually do it. I hadn’t dated since before what had happened with my sister, and there was a good reason for that. Adapting to a new life with Winnie by my side had been hard enough, without even considering bringing someone else into all of this.
Because it was about more than just me. It was about finding someone who suited Winnie, too. It was her life as much as it was mine—and Tink’s, too, I supposed as well. I had to think about so many things when I thought about letting someone else in, and that made every choice I settled on all the harder to accept.
But I knew that Winnie got along with her. I knew that Tink did, too. In fact, it had been Winnie’s idea to invite her over for dinner the night before. I had gotten her to make the call, not wanting to seem too pushy. When Winnie had told me that she had agreed, I had started putting together my signature and only recipe, making sure that it was perfect. I wanted to impress her. To show her that I knew how to run a house and run it well, just in case she should ever want to come around and join mine.
I hardly got anything done the rest of the day, what with people coming in and out to see Tink, and I knew that this wasn’t going to work for as long as he needed me to keep an eye on him. I would have to keep him at home. I could work from there, and it would mean I wouldn’t have to worry about deflecting the attentions of the rest of the office in the process.
“You tell me if you need a hand with him, all right?” Yara told me once I had let her know about my plan for the week. “Or with anything.”
“I will,” I promised her. “And he’s going to be fine. He just needs some time to get himself together and rest up. It’s been a busy week for our little buddy, huh?”
“Really busy,” she agreed, and she scratched his head again. “Be prepared for me to take some time out of my schedule to come over and see him. I don’t want him to forget about me.”
“I’ll make sure to be wearing pants at all times,” I agreed.
She grinned at me. “Well, what’s the point of working from home if you’re not going pants-less? You take care of my new best friend for me, all right?”
“I will,” I promised her, and with that, I carefully tucked Tink in the back of the car and headed to the school to pick up Winnie. She would have been so eager to see him all day, I expected her to be standing outside the gates by the time I arrived. Probably jumping up and down with excitement to get her hands on his scrubby little head once more.
As I drove, I glanced at Tink in the mirror and smiled. Not just because he was well, though that was part of it. But because every time I looked at him, I found myself thinking about Raina. And the fact that I still had a date on the way with her on the books.
I could hardly wait to see her again and turn that flirtation from the night before into something a little more grounded.
Chapter 20
Raina
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself as the fourth cat that day took a swing for my finger. I snatched my hand away from the little ginger terror, bu
t she still managed to catch my finger and make me bleed.
“Damn, I know you’re pregnant, but that doesn’t mean you just get to act however you want,” I warned her.
The heavily pregnant momma cat just looked up at me, as though daring me to take her on again. I sighed and went back to the checkup. I wanted to make sure that everything was in order, and then I could go finish up this long-ass day and get on with the rest of my night—a night that I was going to get to spend with Harry.
Even thinking about that made my stomach fizz with excitement. I had been looking forward to it all day long, if not all week, and I was so ready to see him again.
But first, it seemed the universe had to toss this chaotic day at me to make sure that I had thoroughly earned a good night out that evening. All the cats that had come in had tried to go for me. They were usually not the happiest in the world, being here, but it never had been that bad before.
And then, one of the dogs had actually taken a chunk out of my finger. She was a young thing who had been badly abused in her past life, so I understood where her fearful nature came from, but I had to take twenty minutes out of my already busy day to make sure that all my rabies shots were up to date before I could get back to work.
Reed had called, upset because he and Lizzie had had a fight about something to do with the wedding. I honestly could barely take it all in because my brain was so fried, and I had been running about double-time because Hannah was sick with the flu and couldn’t make it in that day.
So, basically, it had been chaos since the moment I had stepped into the clinic. But maybe that was a good thing. I hadn’t had time to get too hung up on what I was going to do for this date tonight, and yes, I had been spending far too much time considering what I was going to wear and how I was going to look and if I was going to make a good impression on him.