A Nurse And A Pup To Heal Him

‘That’s good.’ He kept the conversation neutral until pudding.

‘Oh, now this is sublime. Thank you so much.’ She ate the lemon tart with relish. ‘Lemony puddings are the best—and it’s the perfect pairing with raspberries.’

‘Agreed.’ He couldn’t help smiling. ‘So you’re a foodie?’

‘Guilty as charged,’ she said, smiling back. ‘I’m really interested in nutrition, and because I’m in charge of the diabetic patients I was thinking about trying to do something to teach them to tweak their favourite dishes to make them diabetic-friendly. And I’d quite like to do the same for our cardiac patients. So maybe I could run a cookery class or maybe develop a section on the practice website to help with meal plans and recipes.’

‘That sounds good. The diet and exercise routines that work best are the ones you enjoy, because you stick to them,’ he said.

‘I’ve already gathered that you’re a foodie, too; do I take it from the brownies that you’re a cook as well?’ she asked.

‘I’m reasonable,’ he said. Karen had left all the cooking to him, and he’d enjoyed it, finding it relaxing. Though he hadn’t bothered much since she’d left him for Patrick. Cooking for one felt too lonely, and the brownies were the first cakes he’d made in months.

‘Maybe we can work together on the project?’ she suggested.

The previous day, Ben had disliked Toni and he hadn’t been able to work out why everyone else seem to adore her. Now, he could see exactly why they did. Her warmth, her bright ideas, the way she tried to include everyone.

If he was honest with himself, he was attracted to her as well as liking her. But he had no intention of acting on that attraction. He wasn’t setting himself up for things to go wrong again.

But colleagues and friends—he could do that. With pleasure.

‘I’d like that,’ he said. ‘Do we have regular clinics for our diabetic and cardiac patients?’

‘Diabetics, yes—that’s me on Thursday mornings,’ she said.

‘It might be worth asking them for suggestions of dishes they’d like us to help them tweak. And maybe we could look at regular clinics for our cardiac patients and do the same with them.’

‘Great idea.’ She smiled at him. ‘I’ll work up a proposal, we can fine-tune it together, and then we can talk Ranjit into it.’

‘Deal.’

Shaking her hand was a mistake. Awareness of her prickled all the way through him. He was going to have to be very careful to keep things professional.

Part of him knew he ought to make an excuse when she offered him coffee. But he was really enjoying her company and it was too hard to resist.

He liked her living room, too. The large window looked out over the salt marshes, and there were watercolours of what he guessed were local scenes on the walls—a stripy lighthouse, bluebell woods, and a sunset over the sea. She had a small TV in one corner, a large bookcase with an eclectic mix of novels and medical textbooks, and a speaker dock for her phone. And there were lots of framed photographs on the mantelpiece: with another woman who looked so much like her that she had to be Toni’s sister, with a couple he assumed were her parents, and with an elderly woman he guessed was her grandmother.

Archie trotted into the room behind them; when Toni sat down, the dog sat with his chin on her knee, looking imploringly up at her.

‘All right, then.’ She lifted her hands and the dog hopped up lightly, settling himself on her lap. She gave Ben a rueful smile. ‘He’s too big to be a lapdog, really, but he’s sat on my lap like this ever since he was tiny.’

Just to prove the point, the dog closed his eyes and started snoring softly.

Ben was shocked by how at home he felt here, how relaxed. His own—rented—accommodation was really just a place to eat and sleep and store his things, and his house in London hadn’t been the most relaxing place for the last year he’d lived there. But here... Here, he felt a kind of peace that had escaped him for a long time. And how unexpected that it was in Toni’s company—and that of her dog. He wasn’t sure whether it reassured him more or scared him. Maybe both.

‘I ought to make a move,’ he said. ‘Can I wash up, first?’

‘No, you’re fine.’

‘Then thank you for dinner.’

‘Thank you for pudding,’ she said, gently ushering the dog off her lap and standing up.

‘See you tomorrow morning.’

‘Afternoon,’ she reminded him. ‘Wednesday mornings during term time is Archie’s session at infant school.’

‘Enjoy your reading,’ he said.

‘We will.’

He looked at the dog and took a deep breath. ‘Bye, Archie.’

The spaniel, as if realising that Ben couldn’t quite cope with making a fuss of him, gave a soft and very gentle ‘woof’.

And all the way home Ben couldn’t stop thinking about Toni Butler’s smile.

He was really going to have to get a grip.

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