Falling for you

‘Sara? Could you get back to your desk now? I think I can handle this myself,’ said Kerr.

‘It’s OK, we’re going now anyway,’ Marcella consoled the disappointed receptionist.

Taken aback, Kerr said, ‘We?’

‘ You’re the boss around here, aren’t you? Surely you can give yourself the rest of the afternoon off.’ Breaking into a smile, Marcella said, ‘It’s the least I can do for my daughter.’

‘And no gossiping with the others,’ Kerr firmly instructed Sara as he left with his jacket over his shoulder and Marcella in tow.

‘No gossiping.’ Sara obediently zipped her mouth shut.

‘You can count on me.’

‘And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything,’ Kerr murmured as they headed down the stairs.

‘There’s something I don’t get here. When you thought my brother had caused the accident, you refused to speak to me. Now you know it was my mother, you’re fine. But it was still a member of my family. I don’t understand—’

‘Hey, don’t worry.’ Marcella’s tone was soothing. ‘It makes sense to me. And that’s what counts.’

Chapter 59

‘Look, you have to cheer up, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later.’

Kate gave the bar a final violent polish. Dexter was doing his best, but he really wasn’t helping matters. If she was honest, she’d been quietly fantasising to herself that Barbara Kendall might e-mail them from Sydney, announcing that she’d decided to stay there for good.

‘I tell you what, we’ll go out this weekend and get you a dog of your own,’ said Dexter.

If he didn’t shut up, Kate thought she might stuff her polishing cloth down his throat. He might mean well, but another dog wasn’t what she wanted. It wouldn’t be the same.

‘I want Norris.’

‘It’s ten past three. We’ve got this party to go to,’ said Dexter.

Kate heaved a sigh. Tiff’s welcome home party wasn’t what she was in the mood for. Was this how foster mothers felt? Just as you began to truly bond with your charge, he was brutally snatched away? God, it was inhuman.

Except Norris wasn’t a human, he was a dog.

But it was just so unfair. It shouldn’t be allowed. Kate wiped her eyes, which had been leaking, on and off, throughout the lunchtime session. She knew she had to pull herself together, but that was easier said than done. The prospect of never hearing Norris’s lovely snuffly breathing again, or never stroking his velvety jowls, was just ... just .. .

‘Come on,’ said Dexter, ‘don’t cry. I’ll give you five minutes to do your face while I close up, then we’re off.’

Locking the front door behind them, they set off up the road. Kate was touched by Dexter’s concern; he had his arm round her and was being extra nice. What would happen to the two of them in the long term she hadn’t the faintest idea. Would their relationship last? Who knew? She wasn’t under any illusions where Dexter was concerned. Nuala may not have been the right girl for him, but he had treated her poorly. It stood to reason that, as time passed, he might start to take her for granted too.

Then again, he might not. At the moment she still got that squiggly excited feeling in her stomach every time she looked at him, but whether they’d last as a couple was anyone’s guess. She certainly wouldn’t put up with any nonsense. The only thing to do was maintain the upper hand and take the relationship one day at a

‘Watch out,’ Dexter said sharply, yanking her back as she was about to cross the road. A grubby red Audi rounded the corner and shot past in a cloud of dust.

Kate wondered if she was seeing things. Her mouth dropped open and her heart began to bang. Was that really who she thought it was, sitting in the passenger seat?

‘Norris!’ she gasped, and Dexter gave her waist a sympathetic squeeze.

‘Sweetheart, it just looks a bit like Norris. You can’t—’

‘What’s going on?’ Kate, who knew better, held her breath as the red Audi went into a handbrake turn, circling the war memorial at the end of the street before roaring back up the road towards them.

Another squeal of brakes and it drew to a halt beside Dexter and Kate.

‘Oh my God,’ Kate said faintly as Barbara Kendall buzzed down her window and Norris, clambering across her with no regard whatsoever for MaxMara trousers, squeezed like toothpaste through the narrow gap onto the pavement. Hurling himself joyfully at Kate, Norris let out a volley of high-pitched yodelling barks.

Rather than follow him through the open window, Barbara Kendall opened the driver’s door and stepped out.

‘There you are! I just drove up to your house but there’s no one at home. Thank goodness I caught you. All he’s done since we got him home is howl nonstop.’ Her words spilled out in a torrent. ‘It’s driving us insane. We can’t hear ourselves think. Can I be frank with you? Bernard and I have actually enjoyed not having the responsibility of caring for a pet for the last six weeks. If we didn’t have one, we could take so many more breaks, whenever we wanted, and to be honest, neither of us finds it much fun having to take this one for walks. So we wondered if you were serious about taking Norris off our hands, because if you are, well, we wouldn’t mind a bit.’

Kate would have marvelled at Barbara Kendall’s couldn’t care-less attitude but she was too busy kneeling on the hot dusty pavement getting her face thoroughly licked by an ecstatic Norris. Dexter, who had heard what had gone on in the kitchen at Dauncey House this morning, frowned.

‘So why didn’t you say this before? When Kate offered to keep him?’ And save me having to put up with all this grief for the last three hours?