Marion Lennox - Nikki and the Lone Wolf / Mardie and the City Surgeon - Nikki and the Lone Wolf / Mardie and the City Surgeon

‘He’ll stand at the door and howl,’ she said, and he looked at her face and saw the tracks of tears. What had he said to upset her?

‘Only if you let him.’

‘How do I not let him?’

He sighed. ‘Where’s he sleeping?’

‘In my bedroom.’

‘Not on your bed. You’re pack leader.’

‘I know that much. Besides, the bed’s not big enough.’

‘So show me.’

She swung open the bedroom door. A bed, single, small. He looked at her in surprise. He hadn’t been here when her furniture was delivered so he was seeing this for the first time. It was practically a child’s bed.

‘You don’t like stretching?’

‘Not if there’s no one to stretch to.’

Silence. There were a million things to say, but suddenly nothing.

The bedroom was chintzy. Pretty pink. Dainty. It made a man nervous just to look at it.

Horse whined and he thought I’m with you, mate . To sleep in a bedroom like this …

But at least Horse had a sensible bed. Henrietta knew dogs, and she’d provided a trampoline bed that was almost as big as Nikki’s.

‘Say “Bed”,’ he told Nikki.

‘Bed.’ Horse didn’t move an inch.

Gabe sighed. ‘Bail the dratted boat.’

‘Bed!’ That was better. Sergeant major stuff.

Gabe shoved Horse from behind. Horse lumbered up onto the trampoline.

‘Say “Down.”‘

‘Down,’ Nikki said and the dog rolled.

‘Stay,’ Nikki said and stepped back and grinned as Horse did just that.

Horse looked up at her and put a tentative paw down onto the floor.

‘Stay!’ Her best ‘bail the boat’ voice.

The paw retreated.

‘How about that?’ Nikki said, her smile widening. ‘I’m a pack leader.’

‘You’ll make a great one.’

‘I will,’ she said and turned to him. Fast.

She was suddenly a bit too close.

She was suddenly very close.

‘Make sure the dog stays there,’ he said, a bit too gruffly. They were by the dog’s bed, so close they were almost touching. They were by Nikki’s bed as well. It was just as well it wasn’t his bed, he thought, the wide, firm, king-sized bed he’d bought for himself when he’d come back here to live.

He had a sudden flash of recall. Last night. Nikki tiptoeing in to check he wasn’t dead, leaning over him …

He could have …

No.

But she was so close. He turned to go—a man had to make a move—but suddenly she’d taken his hands in hers, tugging him back to face her.

‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘For coming down to the beach to find me.’

‘You’re welcome.’ He hadn’t gone down to find her, he thought, but he wasn’t thinking clearly and it seemed way too much trouble to explain.

‘And I can see why you don’t want to get involved. I won’t ask you to. I’ve been a nuisance. But I meant well. I mean well.’

‘You do.’ Big of him to concede that much.

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