A Nurse and a Pup to Heal Him by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-04-10T13:40:50+00:00

* * *

When he came back to bed, he wrapped her in his arms.

‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to...’ Her breath shuddered.

‘You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for,’ Ben said, stroking her face.

‘Apart from abandoning my dog.’

‘You’ve just made him wait a little bit longer for his dinner. And he loves you so he won’t hold it against you,’ he said. ‘I would ask you to stay, but is there anyone who could feed Archie and let him out?’

She grimaced. ‘I need to go home.’

‘OK. I’ll drive you home now.’

‘Sorry. I feel as if I’m being selfish and ungrateful and—’

He cut off her words by kissing her. ‘Stop apologising. We can think about this and overanalyse it another time. Right now, you need comfort. Help yourself to whatever you need in the bathroom.’

‘Thank you.’

While she sorted herself out in the bathroom, Ben got dressed; and then he drove her back to her cottage.

‘Thank you for bringing me home. Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?’ she asked.

Was she simply being polite and hoping that he’d refuse? Or did she really want his company but also didn’t want to impose on him by asking him to stay?

The sadness in her grey eyes decided him. ‘I’d love a cup of tea.’

Archie greeted them ecstatically when they walked into the kitchen.

‘I’ll make the tea while you sort out his dinner and what have you,’ Ben said.

‘Thank you.’ She let the dog out and refilled his water and food bowls. Archie scoffed his dinner in what seemed like three seconds flat, then came to sit at Toni’s feet, curling in close to her as if he recognised that she needed comfort.

‘Is there anyone you need to call?’ Ben asked, placing the mug of tea in front of her.

‘No. I’ll text Stacey in the morning. Thank you.’

‘Is that photograph on the fridge of your grandmother?’ he asked, gesturing to the snap of a middle-aged woman standing next to a sandcastle on the beach, with a much younger Toni and Stacey.

‘Yes. I would have been about six and Stacey was eight at the time. It’s one of my favourites.’ She smiled. ‘So many happy memories.’

And bittersweet, because they couldn’t be shared with her grandmother, he guessed.

‘I learned baking at her knee, too,’ Toni told him. ‘I loved my mum dearly—like Stacey, she was amazing with a needle and she was a costume designer for one of the West End theatres. But when it came to cooking, it was legendary that my mum could burn water. My dad had to do all the cooking, and he wasn’t that brilliant at it, either.’ Her mouth curved. ‘We ate a lot of sausages, chips and baked beans. And salad. It was one of the reasons we always loved coming to Gran’s—it meant we got perfect roast dinners and home-made apple crumble with proper custard.’

It made Ben feel slightly guilty that he’d pushed his family away, of late. He had something that Toni clearly missed so badly, yet he’d taken it for granted.

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