Rainy Day Sisters by Kate Hewitt Page B

in the simple act of having gotten here, in having the stiff, salty wind sting her cheeks. Then she heard a frenzied, terrified barking, and with a lurch of alarm she knew something had gone wrong.
    She searched the beach, the shapes of dogs blurring as her eyes watered from the wind; finally she saw Milly and Molly cowering from a rather fat black Lab who looked, Lucy thought, a bit overeager but unlikely to hurt a fly, much less two greyhounds.
    She marched off towards the dogs, calling their names and snapping her fingers to seemingly no purpose, when her step faltered and her heart stilled and then sank as she saw the owner of the black Lab.
    Alex Kincaid.
    He hadn’t seemed like a dog person, was her first irrelevant thought as she approached. Alex had managed to get a lead around the Lab’s neck and was pulling the dog to heel. The dog, Lucy saw with some amusement, had dug his paws into the sand and was resisting with all his might. She remembered her little fantasy about walking through the fields with a Lab and nearly started laughing.
    â€œMilly, Molly,” she called, and then she did laugh at Alex’s expression when he caught sight of her. He looked like she was the last person he wanted to be the owner of the dogs that his own dog was frightening.
    â€œSorry,” he bit out as he pulled on the dog’s lead. “He’s not very well trained, I’m afraid.”
    Lucy looped the leads around Milly’s and Molly’s heads with an easy confidence that was both amazing and faked. “Now, that surprises me.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œI would have expected your dog to come to heel at just a look,” Lucy answered. “
I
practically do.”
    For a second she thought he was going to smile; the corner of his mouth tugged upwards slightly, but then his expression ironed out. “I’m not that terrifying, surely.”
    â€œTrust me, you are.” She kept her voice light, maybe even the tiniest bit flirtatious. Alex was so good-looking it was hard
not
to flirt. “I have to give myself a pep talk in the mirror every morning before I go into school.”
    His mouth tugged upwards again, but only briefly. “I think that might be your issue, not mine.”
    She laughed, enjoying this banter. “Actually, you might have a point there.” She nodded towards the fat Lab. “So why isn’t he well trained?”
    â€œNo time. Getting a dog was a somewhat ill-conceived notion on my part, I’m afraid, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
    â€œIt always does, I suppose.”
    He glanced down at Milly and Molly, who had been butting Lucy’s legs rather insistently with their long, pointed noses. “Those are Juliet’s two. Are you much of a dog person, then?”
    â€œNot really. I’ve never had one of my own, anyway.”
    Lucy could feel the conversation petering out and she wished it wouldn’t. She’d enjoyed the round of gentle teasing, was ridiculously glad that Alex Kincaid did, in fact, possess at least a small sense of humor.
    The sky had darkened ominously as they’d chatted, and now the first few raindrops spattered onto the sand, the heavy, large kind that almost always preceded a torrential downpour. Even so, Lucy didn’t want to leave.
    â€œLook,” she blurted before she could lose her nerve, “it looks like it’s about to rain. Again. How about a cup of coffee?” She nodded towards the beach café at the end of the promenade. “My treat.”
    He stared at her for a moment, looking so nonplussed that Lucy felt as if she’d suggested something utterly inappropriate. And maybe she had. Maybe you didn’t offer to buy your boss a cup of coffee. Did he think she was asking him out?
    Was she?
    No, she just wanted a friend, even if it was grumpy Alex Kincaid. Someone to talk to over a hot drink. Was that too much to ask?
    The torrential downpour