30
Grace was stuffingher lipstick into her bag and hurrying downstairs when she heard her phone ringing from somewhere in the house. Realising she’d left it in the kitchen, she picked up her pace to reach it and answer the call.
When Miriam had phoned twenty minutes ago and asked her to join them for an afternoon walk, Grace had tried very hard to turn down the older lady’s invitation. Not only was it important that Miriam spend proper quality time with her grandson without Grace constantly hanging around in their way, but after the strained conversation with Ryan in his kitchen that morning after the York job opportunity had arrived in her email, Grace felt that it was probably better if they had some time apart.
For the past five days, they’d almost been joined at the hip, seeing one another every day for hours and hours at a time. That wasn’t healthy, surely?
And surely it wasn’t healthy for Grace to be confused by Ryan’s encouragement about the job opportunity that she’d told him about. What did she want him to do? Beg her not to apply for the job? Beg her to commit to staying in Hamblehurst with him, forever and ever?
That was obviously ludicrous, and not what she wanted at all, and not what sheexpectedat all, either.
And yet… did Ryan have to be quite so cheerful and blasé when he’d told her to apply for the job in York?
As these were the silly and childish thoughts currently racing around Grace’s head, some time spent away from Ryan had seemed like a very good idea in order to get a bit of perspective before she blew all of this completely out of proportion.
Which was why she’d tried to turn Miriam down when she’d invited her along for another jaunt. Miriam, however, had refused to take no for an answer. When the older lady had informed her that a last-minute change of plans meant she would be leaving Hamblehurst later that day and wanted very much to enjoy her company again before she went, Grace felt she had no choice but to agree to Miriam’s request.
Now, as Grace hurtled downstairs to answer her ringing phone, she wondered if it might be Miriam again, calling to say they were on their way to pick her up a littler earlier than agreed. But when she finally grabbed her phone from the kitchen counter, it wasn’t Miriam’s number on the screen.
Instead, it was the number Grace recognised as belonging to the dog warden’s office.
Stanley was racing around her feet, excited by their speedy rush downstairs together, and as Grace pressed the button to answer the call, she glanced at the scruffy mutt and felt a sharp sense of anticipation about what the dog warden was phoning about.
She knew it could really only be one of two things. They’d either found Stanley’s owner, or they hadn’t.
“Hello? This is the dog warden here. I’m phoning up about the stray dog you’ve got. As the seven-day period ends tomorrow and no owner has come forward to claim the animal, it’s my duty to send him on to one of the local rescue centres we work withand which will now be responsible for rehoming him. I can come tomorrow at three o’clock to pick him up. Does that suit you?”
The dog warden’s barrage of chatter down the phone left little room for her to get a word in edgewise. She realised she’d lost track of time over the past days because of the lovely moments she’d spent with Ryan. Although she’d known that Stanley’s seven days with her were drawing to a close, she hadn’t let herself think about it too much. The distraction of being with Ryan had been a useful foil.
Now, she felt a hard jolt at the thought that Stanley would be leaving her, if the dog warden had anything to do with it.
“Um, is there any way the dog could stay here with me for a few more days?” Grace asked. “You see, the thing is?—”
“Sorry, that’s against our procedures,” the warden interrupted before she could explain any further. “I’ve already gone out on a limb and let you keep the dog during the statutory seven-day period when the council is required to provide shelter and care for a stray, in case an owner comes forward to claim him. Now, we must relinquish our duties and pass the case on to the rehoming charities. That’s all there is to it. So, is three o’clock tomorrow suitable for me to collect the animal?”
The dog warden’s sharp tongue and brusque manner left Grace lost for words. Just then, a car horn tooted out on the street, and when she walked through from the kitchen to look out the living room window, she saw Ryan’s car pulling into a parking space outside her house. A message pinged on her phone at that same moment, too, and a quick glance at the screen revealed a text from Miriam to say they had arrived to pick her up.
“Ms Burton? Are you still there?” the dog warden said impatiently on the phone. “Is three o’clock tomorrow suitable to collect the dog?”
Grace looked down at Stanley, who’d come with her when she’d hurried through to look out the living room window. He was smiling up at her, his tail wagging. He was such a sweet dog and…
… and Grace had a big decision to make about whether she was able to say goodbye to him.
But between the grumpy dog warden on the phone and Miriam and Ryan waving at her from the car out on the street, this was not the time to make that decision.
“Yes, three o’clock tomorrow is fine,” Grace said at last to the dog warden, knowing that agreeing to his arrangements would give her breathing space to work out what she wanted to do next.
The warden uttered a brief goodbye and hung up. Grace waved out the window to Miriam and Ryan, signalling she was on her way, and then grabbed her bag and clipped Stanley’s lead to his collar. The little dog licked her hand before scurrying to the door, excited to get out and about.
She locked the front door and watched the dog tear off along the garden path and bark in excitement when Ryan appeared at the back of his parked car to open the boot and help Stanley inside. It made her heart glad to see the friendly little animal looking so happy.
Can I really give him up?Grace wondered.And is keeping him even a possibility, or am I romanticising something that’s a lot more work than I’m able to take on?
The early afternoon walk that Miriam chose was a relaxed stroll around a nearby country park which featured an assortment of woodland and wildlife areas and a pretty lake at its centre. Miriam wanted to look at the educational wildlife exhibit ondisplay in a small wooden building used by volunteers for their various ecological projects and told Ryan and Grace to enjoy an additional loop around the lakeshore in her absence.
This sounded like a rouse to Grace, and a not very subtle attempt to give the two of them time alone, but after a week in Miriam’s company, she knew the woman wouldn’t be deterred from her scheme.
As they set off for a second walk around the pretty lake, Ryan gave Grace a smile and squeezed her hand.
