And what? Carrying her back to New York? He surely couldn't see Tori in his sleek Manhattan apartment. She'd have to walk Itsy in Central Park.
He'd known her for, what, two days? So maybe in this at least his mother was right. You fall in love and you start being stupid.
He concentrated on payment. He felt Tori look at him for a long moment, and then she turned her attention back to Itsy.
Bitsy was chewing his shoelaces. He glanced down at the little dog and he thought Bitsy was the stupid side of him as well.
The breeder scooped him up and put him back into the pen. Bitsy looked out through the bars as if he'd just been put in solitary confinement.
'Will he sell?' He couldn't help asking.
'Oh, yeah,' the breeder said confidently. 'He's the best of the litter. I'm thinking, though, that I'll keep him myself for stud. Look at those bones … '
Bones? All he could see was eyes, looking out through the bars as if he'd personally betrayed him.
He glanced at Tori, who was also looking wistfully at Bitsy-while clutching Itsy and Rusty.
'I can't,' she whispered.
She couldn't. He could see that. They had to get out of here before they had the whole litter.
'Just Itsy,' he said.
'Just Itsy,' Tori whispered. 'Two is enough.'
Two dogs?
That was what she meant. She had her house now. She had her dogs. She'd start a new job, a new life … and he'd go back to New York.
What was wrong with that?
They made a fast visit to a pet shop to buy Itsy supplies. Then they headed back to the shoebox to drop off the flowers. They also did two medical consultations. It seemed that word had already spread that Dr. Nicholls had moved into Shoebox Mansions. They arrived back to find a border collie with a grass seed in its paw, and a corgi with flatulence, dogs and owners waiting patiently at her front door.
To Jake's surprise Tori took it in her stride-in fact, she even seemed pleased. While Rusty and Itsy explored their miniscule backyard Tori sat on the doorstep and turned into a vet again. While Jake and the owner held the big, docile collie still, she carefully tweezed out a cruel-looking hayseed. She cleaned the paw and disinfected it.
She then told the corgi's owner where to buy charcoal tablets, and to add a little yoghurt to her meals. Both owners went away happy.
'You'll be inundated,' Jake said, thinking of his mother; of the way she'd hated patients' demands.
'I like it,' she said simply. 'It makes me feel like I belong.'
He thought of his work; of the careful distance he kept. He worked long hours, but to have someone approach him out of context, a neighbour, someone in his gym …
This wasn't his world.
Tori wasn't his world, he thought. But how could he leave her?
Maybe he couldn't.
It was a bit after five before they arrived back at the hospital to pick up Rob and Glenda.
'We're a wee bit late,' Tori said, starting to apologise, but then Glenda spotted Itsy and no apologies were necessary.
Glenda was beaming. The new painkillers were obviously working. The tight lines of pain around her eyes had eased and, even though she was still cradling her arm, there was a huge sense of relief about her. Doreen had gone through the surgery with flying colours. The cardiologist had spoken to her and had been completely reassuring and Rob had promised to take her to see her tonight.
'And the hand therapist is wonderful,' she told them. 'He didn't do very much-he says I need really good pain control first and he's only going to work within the limits of what doesn't hurt-but he massaged really gently and I did tiny exercises, and already it's feeling better. He's given me a sheet of exercises to do at home, but I'm to come here every day because he says if we hadn't caught it now there might be long-term loss of function.'
There might already be a little, Jake thought, but he watched Glenda's shining eyes and thought a little loss of function would be nothing now that the pain was relieved.
'So we're both going to be okay,' Glenda said happily. 'But Dr. Fulton says we have to persuade you to stay here. She says anaesthetists make great pain specialists, and this valley needs a pain specialist so badly and if you're anything like your father you'd be wonderful. She says there're so many burns victims with long-term problems, long-term pain, that we all need you.'
And suddenly they were all looking at him. Glenda, Rob, Tori … even Rusty and Itsy.
'No,' he said, really fast, and Glenda's face fell. Tori's face didn't change, but he thought he saw the smallest quiver …
Don't go there.
'We need to get back to the lodge,' he said, still too fast, and Glenda took the hint and turned her attention back to Itsy.
'Is Itsy coming to stay?'
'I'm only coming back to get my car,' Tori told them. 'I've moved into my new house. Itsy and Rusty and I need to go home.'
Home. There was that word again.
'Oh, my dear, that's a shame,' Glenda said, throwing Jake a reproachful look-as if somehow he could have persuaded her to stay but had chosen not to. 'Oh, and Itsy would have made the lodge much more fun.'
'Where's your cat?' Tori asked her. 'Pickles?'
'In the cattery on James Street,' Glenda said. 'But-'
'Then let's go spring him and take him back with us.' Tori grinned happily at them all. 'Rob says the rule is no animals but I'm thinking he's the manager and Jake's the owner. Jake, your stepmother set the lodge up as an indulgence for the wealthy. That's gone out the window. What it needs now is to be a place people can come to recover. If I were you I'd think about pushing that aspect hard. Even when the fire's forgotten there'll always be people who need an interim place, between hospital and home. Pets are the first thing. Rob could make individual runs attached to the bedrooms. Guests can contain their own pet as much as they like, but still take it for runs or cuddle it in bed at night.' She hugged Itsy and Rusty. 'Like I do. It'll be great.'
And there it was again, that queer lurch he didn't know what to do with.
'Oh, if we could keep our cat … ' Glenda said, while he tried to figure what exactly he was feeling.
'And you know what else? You could organise medical visits,' Tori said, and she was speaking directly to him now. 'Maybe you could set up treatment rooms so you could have visiting doctors, physiotherapists, hand therapists, counsellors, anyone you need.'
'You're talking staff,' Jake said, trying to focus on business when he just wanted to focus on Tori.
'You can afford it,' she said blithely and grinned. 'I chose a very cheap pup.'
'You did.' He was distracted, but his mind was on what she'd said. Manwillinbah Lodge as a health resort?
He looked at Glenda and he thought, It could work.
Maybe Rob would enjoy the challenge.
Maybe he'd enjoy the challenge, he thought fleetingly, but he stomped on that thought almost before it had a chance to reach the surface.
'Maybe,' he said, trying to sound dampening, but neither Tori nor Glenda would be dampened.
'It'll be lovely,' Glenda said, smiling and smiling. 'Doreen and I will come and stay all the time.'
'He hasn't said we can take Pickles yet,' Rob reminded her
'Are you allergic to cats?' Glenda asked, suddenly frowning. 'Like your stepmother?'
He knew nothing about his stepmother. 'I'm not allergic,' he said shortly.
'Do you like cats?'
'Yes, but-'
'Then there's no problem,' Rob said.
'You could buy a cat,' Tori told him, and they all looked at her. She coloured a little but held her ground. 'He … Jake said he couldn't buy a puppy because he works fourteen hours a day.'
'Do you, dear?' Glenda demanded. 'That's far too long.'
'Yes, but he could still have a cat,' Tori said patiently. 'Or better still, two cats. Cats are fiercely independent but they're still there when you get home at night.'
'You need someone,' Glenda said, and glanced at Tori, who was still colouring, and amended her statement. 'I mean … something.'
'I think I know someone with a litter of kittens,' Tori said.
'No!'
'No?' Tori said cautiously, and he thought he heard laughter behind her tentative query.
'If I want a cat I can get one in New York.'
'Yes, but will you?'
'No.'
'No?'
'I don't have room in my life for anything.'
'Or anyone?' Glenda said, forgetting to be innocent, and she was looking from Tori to Jake and back again.
'No,' Jake said, steadier this time, and firmer. 'And Mrs. Matheson will have dinner on. We need to get back.' And he swung himself into the driver's seat without another word.
She sat in the passenger seat holding her dogs, while Jake concentrated on driving. Rob and Glenda were chatting in the back seat. Jake was staring straight ahead and she thought there were things in this man's past that were hurting now.
She'd noticed the way he'd watched the crazy little male pup as he did his round-ups. He'd looked … hungry. She saw the same expression when he glanced at her. As if he was looking at something he wanted but couldn't have.
Fair enough, she thought. She felt a bit the same. Or, okay, she felt a lot the same.
They collected Pickles from the cattery. The ancient tabby purred with pleasure when Glenda collected him. He eyed the dogs with weary indifference through the bars of his cat cage, as if to say, If this is what I have to put up with to be free, then so be it.