Chapter 7
Derek POV
Eleanor was still checking the gala email when the car stopped outside the house.
“We’re here,” I said.
She looked up, then locked her phone.
“Sorry.”
She put it away and reached for her bag. I got out first and waited while she stepped onto the sidewalk.
Another car pulled up behind ours.
Eleanor turned at the sound, and Olivia waved through the windshield.
“Perfect,” Eleanor said under her breath.
I glanced at her. “You’re expecting someone?”
“Olivia said she’d come by when we got back.”
Olivia climbed out and opened the rear door of her car.
“Before you say anything, he ate all of it,” she called. “He just wants you to think I’ve been starving him.”
Eleanor went toward her.
I stayed by the steps, watching Olivia reach into the back seat. She emerged with a bag over one shoulder and a small golden dog in her arms.
The dog spotted Eleanor and immediately tried to climb out of them.
“Careful,” Eleanor said, taking him. “I’ve got you.”
He wriggled against her coat, paws scrabbling for a hold. She adjusted her grip and bent her face away from his tongue.
Then she smiled.
I looked from her to Olivia.
“Whose dog is that?”
Olivia stopped halfway up the steps.
Eleanor looked at me over the dog’s head.
“Mine.”
Inside, Olivia put the bag on the floor and began taking things out of it. A bowl. A leash. A towel that apparently belonged to the dog now.
I shut the front door.
“Since when do you have a dog?”
“Last week.”
“And he’s been where?”
“With me,” Olivia said. “I’ve been helping her look after him.”
The dog kicked against Eleanor’s arm. She crouched and put him down, keeping a hand on him while he inspected the floor.
“His name’s Sunny,” she said.
I watched him sniff my shoe.
“Don’t.”
He looked up at me, then tried to put a paw on it.
Eleanor moved him away before I could step back.
“He’s a puppy.”
“I can see that.”
Olivia held out the leash. “You want me to take this through?”
“Kitchen, please.”
I took off my coat while they carried the dog and his things down the hall.
This morning, I’d learned my wife owned a flower shop. Tonight, I apparently owned a house with a dog in it.
I followed them.
Olivia was filling the bowl. Eleanor had taken off her coat and was kneeling beside Sunny, checking that his leash wasn’t caught around a leg.
“Where did you get him?” I asked.
“He was outside the shop in the rain. Soaked through.”
“You found him?”
“Yes.”
“And decided to keep him.”
She stood, the leash looped around her hand.
“I wasn’t going to put him back outside.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I know.”
Olivia looked between us, then set the bowl down. Sunny went straight to it.
“There’s food in the bag,” she told Eleanor. “And he’s already been out, but you’ll probably want to take him again before bed.”
“Thank you.”
“Text me if you need anything.”
She gave me a look on her way past. I let it go.
Eleanor walked her to the door. I stayed in the kitchen with the dog, who finished drinking and immediately came to investigate my trousers.
I moved away from him.
He followed.
“You’re persistent.”
He sat on my foot.
I looked down at him. “That wasn’t an invitation.”
Eleanor came back before I’d worked out how to move him without encouraging him.
She picked up the leash.
“Sunny. Come on.”
He got up and went with her.
I leaned against the counter as she put away the things Olivia had brought.
“You know I don’t like dogs.”
“I know.”
“They shed. They chew things. They get on the furniture.”
“I’ll keep him off yours.”
“It’s all in the same house, Eleanor.”
She folded the towel and placed it beside the bag.
“He can stay downstairs. I’ll clean up after him.”
I looked at the dog, then back at her.
“You’ve already worked this out.”
“He needs somewhere to live.”
“There are other options.”
Her hand stopped on the edge of the counter.
“I’m keeping him.”
She said it quietly, looking straight at me.
I hadn’t raised my voice. Neither had she. Still, something about the way she’d gone still made me straighten.
“I haven’t told you to get rid of him.”
“All right.”
“I’m saying I don’t want him all over the house.”
“Then we agree he won’t go upstairs.”
I hadn’t agreed to anything. She seemed aware of that, but she waited without filling the silence.
Sunny sat beside her ankle and began chewing the end of his leash.
She bent to take it out of his mouth.
“Not that.”
He caught it again.
She loosened his grip and put the leash out of reach, then rubbed a hand over his head.
I watched him lean into her palm.
“He stays out of the bedroom,” I said.
“Yes.”
“And my clothes.”
“I’m not going to put him in your closet.”
There was no smile with it. She simply went back to unpacking his food.
I took my phone from my pocket, checked the screen, and put it down again.
She’d been prepared for an argument. I could see it in the care she was taking not to have one.
I didn’t particularly want to spend the evening arguing about a dog, either.
“Do whatever you need to do with him,” I said. “I’ve got a call to make.”
She nodded without looking up.
The call took longer than it should have.
I sat at the dining table with my laptop open while someone in London went through information I’d already read. Every few minutes, I heard Eleanor moving in the kitchen.
Once, the dog barked.
I looked toward the doorway.
“Sorry,” she said softly, moving him away.
I turned back to the screen.
By the time I’d finished, there was a new email waiting and two documents I needed to check before morning. I opened the first one.
Eleanor passed the dining room with Sunny on his leash.
“Taking him out,” she said when I looked up.
I nodded.
She picked up her coat and keys. The front door opened, then closed.
I read half a page before looking at the time.
She came back a few minutes later, rubbing her hands together after taking off the leash. The dog trotted beside her, pleased with whatever he’d found outside.
She didn’t stop at the dining room this time.
I heard water running in the kitchen, followed by the sound of a cupboard closing.
There was no reason for any of it to distract me. I’d worked through worse noise than this. Thomas could turn a quiet dinner into something audible from the street.
But every small sound made me look up.
I’d expected to come home, unpack, work, sleep. Now there was a dog wandering around downstairs, and Eleanor was moving through a routine I didn’t know.
She hadn’t asked me to be part of it.
I returned to the document.
“Do you want anything before I go up?”
I lifted my head.
Eleanor stood in the doorway. She’d changed out of the blouse she’d worn to dinner, and her hair was down.
My attention stayed on her a moment too long.
She noticed. Her hand tightened on the folded towel she was carrying, but she didn’t move away.
“Water?” she asked.
“I can get it.”
“Okay.”
She turned toward the kitchen.
I watched her go, then shut the document without finishing it.
Sunny had settled on his towel when I went in.
Eleanor crouched beside him, one hand resting on his back. He was asleep, or nearly there.
She lifted her finger toward her mouth when she saw me.
I stopped in the doorway.
Apparently, I was being asked to be quiet in my own kitchen.
She stood carefully and stepped around him.
“He’s finally settled.”
“Congratulations.”
She ignored that and reached for the light switch.
“You’re leaving him here?”
“For tonight. I’ll hear him if he wakes.”
I glanced around the kitchen. The counters were clear, the dog’s things put away except for the bowl and towel.
“Who’s dealing with all this during the day?”
“I am.”
“You’re at the shop.”
“I’ll make arrangements.”
I looked from her to the bowl on the floor.
There should have been someone here to ask about that. Someone who knew where things were, what had changed, and why I was only finding out now.
“Where’s Mrs. Hughes?”
Eleanor’s hand stopped beside the switch.
Then she turned to face me.
“She doesn’t work here anymore.”
