She smiled then, the tentative smile of a true animal-lover who thought she scented a happy ending. ‘So Misty’s saved one-and your little boy wants the other?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Nick had visions of something cute. Surely Bailey had visions of something cute.
‘Whippets can run,’ Bailey breathed.
‘How do you know?’
‘There was a book about dogs at the hospital,’ Bailey told him.
‘I know that book,’ Misty said. ‘Ooh, I bet she could run on our beach.’
Our beach. That sounded okay. Nick crouched to get a better view of the…whippet? He knew zip about dogs.
‘She’s really skinny,’ Bailey said.
‘Are you sure she’s safe with kids?’ Misty asked, and Henrietta chuckled and nodded and opened the cage. The skinny dog wriggled out and wormed ecstatically around Ketchup. Misty and Bailey were sitting on the concrete floor now and the whippet wound round them and back, round them and back. Ketchup whimpered but it was a whimper of delight.
‘Uh oh,’ Misty said.
‘Uh oh?’ Nick queried.
‘I need to tell you.’ She smiled and sighed, letting the whippet nose her way into her arms along with Ketchup. ‘What are lists, anyway? If you don’t want this little girl, then I do.’
‘Do you want her to live on your side of the wall?’ Bailey demanded, watching the skinny dog with fascination.
‘If you and your dad don’t want her,’ she said. ‘But if you do…these two are obviously meant to be together.’
‘So could we cut a hole straight away?’
‘I guess we could,’ she said, glancing at Nick. Who was glancing at her. Only he was more than glancing.
She’d take on the world, he thought. She’d taken on Ketchup. She’d take on this skinny runt of a dog as well.
Would she take on…?
No. Or…way too soon.
Or way too stupid.
‘You want her?’ Henrietta was clearly delighted. She checked out Nick, clearly figuring if she could go for more. ‘If Misty wants hers plus the whippet, and your little boy wants another, then we have plenty…’
‘No,’ Misty and Nick said as one, and then they grinned at each other. Grinning felt great, Nick thought. Even if it involved a whippet.
‘Do you think she’ll let me pick her up?’ Bailey asked.
‘Try her out, sweetheart,’ Henrietta said and Bailey scooped her up and the whippet licked his face like Ketchup had licked Misty’s.
‘There’s been kids in these dogs’ background,’ Henrietta said, surveying the scene in satisfaction.
‘And pizza,’ Misty said. ‘I bet this little girl likes pizza.’
‘That means we need to have pizza tonight,’ Bailey said. ‘On the beach again. Or on the veranda. We’re going to live together,’ he told Henrietta. ‘Can we take her, Dad?’
‘I guess…’
‘Then she’s Took.’
‘Took?’ Nick said, bemused.
‘Yes,’ Bailey said in satisfaction, cuddling one scrawny dog and one battered teddy. But then he glanced along the row of dogs and looked momentarily subdued. ‘But… Only one?’
‘Only one.’ That was Misty and Nick together again.
‘Okay,’ Bailey said, with a last regretful look at the rest of the inmates. He hugged his new dog closer, as if somehow loving this one could rub off on the rest. ‘She’s mine. I’m calling her Took ’cos that’s what she is.’ He smiled shyly up at Henrietta. ‘Me and Dad and Ketchup and Took are going to live on both sides of Miss Lawrence’s house and we’re going to cut a hole in the wall.’
‘Why not just open the door?’ Henrietta said, and chuckled, and went to do the paperwork.
They took the two dogs back out to the farm and left them in the laundry while they shifted Nick and Bailey’s gear.
That took less than an hour.
The laundry was shared by both sections of the house. In theory, they could put the dogs there to sleep. During the day Misty could take Ketchup to her side of the house and Bailey could take Took to his side. But it was never going to happen. Bailey was in and out of Misty’s side about six times in the first fifteen minutes.
‘I need to go see Gran,’ Misty decreed at last, so both dogs settled in the sun on the veranda. Together. When Misty came home, both dogs and Nick and Bailey were on the veranda. Together.
Two days ago, this veranda had been all hers. Now…
Now she had emotions running every which way.
But why quibble? If she had to put her dreams on hold, maybe this was the next best thing.
They ate pizza again-‘Just to show Took we can,’ Bailey explained. Then Nick read his son a bedtime story on his side of the house and he came outside again as Misty was thinking she ought to go into her side of the house. But Took had left her now-sleeping owner and come back to join Ketchup. Both dogs were at her feet. Why disturb them?
Rockers on the veranda? Any minute now, Nick would offer to make her cocoa.
‘Can I make you cocoa?’ Nick asked and she choked.
‘What?’ he demanded.
‘It needed only that.’
‘It is…cosy,’ he ventured and she grinned and shook her head.
‘Ma and Pa and Kid and Dogs. It’s not the image I want to take to bed with me.’ She rose and picked up her dogs. Her
It was the same as cocoa.
She’d settle them in the laundry and go do some schoolwork, she told herself and turned to the door. But Nick was before her, opening the door, and then, as she struggled to keep Took’s long legs under control, he lifted Took from her and followed her.
They’d set up two dog beds. They put a dog in each, side by side. Ketchup whimpered and Took sidled from her basket into Ketchup’s. She sort of sprawled her long legs around Ketchup so Ketchup was wrapped in a cocoon of whippet.
‘These guys are great,’ Nick said, smiling and rising, and Misty smiled and rose, too, only she rose too fast and Nick was just…there.
His face was right by hers. His hands were steadying her.
Back away fast. She couldn’t.
There was something between them she didn’t recognise. There’d been no guy in Banksia Bay who made her feel…like she felt like she was feeling now.
She didn’t want him to let her go.
They were standing in her grandmother’s laundry. How romantic was that? The dogs were snuffling at their feet. That was hardly romantic, either.
She didn’t feel romantic. She didn’t feel…
She felt…
She was tying herself in knots. She had to step away, but his hold on her was tightening. He was looking down at her, his eyes questioning. If she tugged then he’d let her go. She knew it.
How could a girl tug?
She smiled up at him, a silly quavery smile that said she was being a fool. A sensible adult would step away
