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‘Say something bitter.’
‘I’m removing all fireside implements from rental properties.’
‘That’ll do,’ she said and let him go back to sleep.
At four she checked him again. Another slurred response but just as together. Excellent. One more check would get her in the clear, she thought. No more inspections of semi-naked landlords.
She wasn’t sure whether to be glad or sorry.
Glad, she told herself, astounded where her thoughts were taking her. Of course, glad.
She went back to bed. Tried not to think of half naked landlords.
Didn’t succeed.
At five-thirty Gabe’s phone rang. She was on her side of the wall with Gabe’s phone beside her bed. She answered. A woman’s voice. ‘Gabe? Where are you?’
‘Hi,’ she said cautiously. ‘This is Nikki, Gabe’s next door neighbour.’
‘The city chick,’ the woman said blankly.
‘That’s me.’
‘Where’s Gabe?’
‘I’m sorry, but Gabe had a bit of an accident last night. He won’t be in this morning.’
‘He won’t be in …’
‘He can’t come to work.’
‘What sort of an accident?’
‘He fell. He almost knocked himself out. He’s got a headache and a badly bruised face.’ No need to mention he had the bruised face before he fell.
‘Gabe turns up for work when he’s half dead.’ The woman sounded stunned. ‘How bad is he?’
‘Determined to come in but I’ve taken his alarm and his phone and he hasn’t woken up.’
There was a moment’s awed silence. Then … ‘Well, good for you, love. You’ve got him in bed, you keep him there. When he wakes up, tell him Frank’s rung in and his head cold’s worse, so it would have only been me on board with him. The Mariette’s short a crew member as well, so I’ll go on the Mariette and the Lady Nell can stay in port. That’ll play into your hands as well. He no longer has a crew. You keep him in bed with my blessings, for as long as you want. Go for it, girl.’
She disconnected. Laughing.
Nikki stared at the phone as if it stung.
This was a small town. This’d be all over town in minutes.
How would Gabe react?
Um … what had she done?
Whatever. It was done now. She had an hour before the next check.
She really was incredibly tired.
She put her head on her pillow and closed her eyes.
She forgot to set the alarm.
Gabe woke and sunshine was flooding his bedroom. This on its own was a novelty. If the weather was decent he was out fishing, as simple as that.
He opened one eye and tried to figure it out. Why the sunbeams?
His head hurt a bit, not too much, just a dull ache. If he lay still and only opened the one eye it didn’t hurt at all.
The sun was streaming through his window. He felt …
Suddenly wide awake. He turned to the bedside table, looking for his clock in disbelief.
No clock.
He groped for his phone.
No phone.
What the …?
His watch.
It was eight o’clock. Eight! He’d slept for ten hours.
The boat. The crew. They’d be waiting.
Where were his …?
Nikkita.
Hitting him on the head was one thing; making him miss a day’s fishing was another. She was so out of here.
He threw back the covers and headed for the door, thumping the wall as he went, just to make sure she was awake.
Anger didn’t begin to describe what he was feeling. Women!
The thump on her bedroom wall was loud enough to wake the dead. She sat bolt upright. Stared at the clock.
Uh-oh. Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh.
Eight o’clock. She might just have slept in.
She’d missed a check.
At least he wasn’t dead, she thought. He should be grateful.
By the sound of the thump on her wall, he wasn’t grateful.
By the sound of the thump, he wished for her undivided attention.
Her door was locked. A lesser woman might have tugged the duvet over her head and stayed where she was.
There were a lot of things a lesser woman might do. After today she was going right back to being a lesser woman, but right now …
There wasn’t a lot of choice.
She grabbed her robe and headed next door to face Gabe.
She opened her door right as he opened his. The dog was lying right across the porch. Her Hound of the Baskervilles. Horse.
CHAPTER THREE
NIKKI almost tripped and so did Gabe. They were focused on each other. Gabe’s face was dark with anger, and Nikki was just plain terrified. Gabe was still only wearing boxers and that didn’t help. Neither was looking at their feet and the dog was sprawled like a great wet floor mat.
Both of them stumbled and both had to grab the door jambs to keep their balance.
Both stared down in amazement.
The dog was even bigger than Nikki had thought last night. Four feet high? It was impossible to tell. All she knew was that, prone, he practically covered the small porch.
He was almost as flat as a doormat. He lay motionless, only the faint rise of his chest wall telling her he was alive.
‘It’s Horse,’ she said blankly.
The big dog stirred at her voice. He hauled his great head off the floor, as if making a Herculean effort. He gazed up at her and all the misery of the world was in that gaze. It was a ‘kill me now’ look.
She didn’t know a thing about dogs. If she’d been asked, she’d confess she probably didn’t like them much. But that look …
Her heart twisted. In the face of that look, she forgot her landlord and she sank to her knees. ‘Oh, my … Oh, Horse …’
‘What do you think you’re playing at?’ Her landlord’s voice was like a whip above her. ‘You’ve brought him in here …’
She wasn’t listening. The big dog was so wet he couldn’t get any wetter. While she watched, a shudder ran though his big frame and she thought … she thought …
She had to help. There was no way she could walk away. Not your problem? Ha.
‘Hey, it’s okay.’ She ignored Gabe. She could only focus on the dog. She could only think about the dog.
‘You caught him.’ Gabe’s voice had lost its edge as he took in Horse’s condition.
‘I didn’t catch him. Maybe he found the meat and followed our scent. Pushed into the porch. Do you think he wants more?’
‘Has he been here all night?’
‘Are you nuts? Look at him. He’s soaking. Why doesn’t he move? Should we take him to the vet? Will you help me carry him to the car?’
‘Fred will put him down,’ Gable said bluntly.
‘Fred?’
‘The vet.’
That brought her up short. Last night’s phone conversation was suddenly replaying in her head.
This dog had been on his way to be put down when he’d escaped. If they took him to the vet, that was what would happen.
‘No,’ she said. It was all she could think of to say.
‘Do you want a dog?’
‘I …’
She swallowed. Did she want a dog?
She didn’t. She couldn’t. But she wasn’t thinking past now.
‘I’ll think about that later,’ she said. ‘He’s not going anywhere until he’s dry and warm and fed. Can you help me take him into my place?’ She looked up at Gabe, and then she thought …
Anger. Uh-oh.
Maybe there were a few unresolved issues to be addressed before he’d help her.
She was aware again of his body. That chest. Those shoulders.
Hormones.
Anger.
‘I slept,’ he said, carefully neutral. ‘Through my alarm. That might be because it was moved from my bedside table.’
‘I slept through it too,’ she confessed. ‘That’s because I forgot to set it.’
‘My crew …’
Act efficient, she decided. Brisk. As if she knew what she was doing. ‘Hattie’s on the … let me think … on the Mariette,’ she told him. ‘Because they’re short a crew member. Frank called in sick so the Lady Nell’s staying in port. You have the day off.’
He didn’t answer. He looked speechless.
‘So can you help me with the dog?’ she asked.
‘You took my alarm.’
