A Nurse And A Pup To Heal Him. Kate Hardy

she offered him coffee. But he was really enjoying her company and it was too hard to resist.

      He liked her living room, too. The large window looked out over the salt marshes, and there were watercolours of what he guessed were local scenes on the walls—a stripy lighthouse, bluebell woods, and a sunset over the sea. She had a small TV in one corner, a large bookcase with an eclectic mix of novels and medical textbooks, and a speaker dock for her phone. And there were lots of framed photographs on the mantelpiece: with another woman who looked so much like her that she had to be Toni’s sister, with a couple he assumed were her parents, and with an elderly woman he guessed was her grandmother.

      Archie trotted into the room behind them; when Toni sat down, the dog sat with his chin on her knee, looking imploringly up at her.

      ‘All right, then.’ She lifted her hands and the dog hopped up lightly, settling himself on her lap. She gave Ben a rueful smile. ‘He’s too big to be a lapdog, really, but he’s sat on my lap like this ever since he was tiny.’

      Just to prove the point, the dog closed his eyes and started snoring softly.

      Ben was shocked by how at home he felt here, how relaxed. His own—rented—accommodation was really just a place to eat and sleep and store his things, and his house in London hadn’t been the most relaxing place for the last year he’d lived there. But here... Here, he felt a kind of peace that had escaped him for a long time. And how unexpected that it was in Toni’s company—and that of her dog. He wasn’t sure whether it reassured him more or scared him. Maybe both.

      ‘I ought to make a move,’ he said. ‘Can I wash up, first?’

      ‘No, you’re fine.’

      ‘Then thank you for dinner.’

      ‘Thank you for pudding,’ she said, gently ushering the dog off her lap and standing up.

      ‘See you tomorrow morning.’

      ‘Afternoon,’ she reminded him. ‘Wednesday mornings during term time is Archie’s session at infant school.’

      ‘Enjoy your reading,’ he said.

      ‘We will.’

      He looked at the dog and took a deep breath. ‘Bye, Archie.’

      The spaniel, as if realising that Ben couldn’t quite cope with making a fuss of him, gave a soft and very gentle ‘woof’.

      And all the way home Ben couldn’t stop thinking about Toni Butler’s smile.

      He was really going to have to get a grip.