Read Online Practically Perfect by Katie Fforde - Free Book Online

doing something extremely naughty. He really was a strange man, given to quick bursts of temper one minute, humour the next and back again to temper. He obviously had a short fuse, but she wasn’t standing for it.
    ‘You can see!’ went on Anna, in a sort of shouted whisper. ‘She’s hiding!’
    Caroline had indeed buried her head in Anna’s sleeping bag and Rob Hunter, momentarily so angry, was transformed. He walked over to where Caroline’s back end could be seen. ‘Hello, darling.’
    Something happened. Caroline’s head emerged and she regarded the man. He went towards her, murmuring sweet nothings, and she rolled over and lay on her back with her legs in the air in an attitude of complete submission. When he started rubbing her chest and throat, she went into a state of bliss. She let her legs swing down and when the man began to caress her throat, she stretched her neck to give him greater access. It was a miracle. ‘Well, she doesn’t appear to hate me.’
    ‘She knows you a bit by now, since you dragged her home,’ said Anna crossly, refusing to notice that he’d stopped being angry and was twinkling again.
    ‘Look,’ he said, his words honeyed with sweet reason, ‘why don’t you make us a cup of coffee? We both need one.’
    She was indeed desperately in need of something – even a glass of water – but should she give in to this man’s demands? As he wasn’t paying her any attention, concentrating his social skills on the dog instead, she decided that she could put the kettle on without appearing to capitulate. Caroline was now sitting up, giving him a paw. Anna suspected that if she’d had any furniture beyond a kitchen chair, and he had sat in it, Caroline would have jumped on his lap in an instant.
    When Caroline stood up, so did her uninvited guest, and he ran his hands all over her.
    ‘What are you doing now?’ demanded Anna, affronted and amazed at the same time. ‘It looks as if you’re checking for broken bones.’
    ‘I am.’ He continued to pull Caroline’s silken ears through his fingers, over and over, while she leant against him, gaga with adoration.
    ‘Oh,’ said Anna, less amazed and more affronted. ‘Did you find any?’
    ‘No.’
    Now he opened her mouth and inspected Caroline’s teeth. ‘These need a bit of attention. Have you taken her to the vet since you’ve had her?’
    ‘No.’ She tried not to sound defiant, and failed. ‘I haven’t had her long. I thought she should get used to me before I dragged her off to the vet.’
    ‘But you were quite happy to drag her off to the market and let her get traumatised by a backfiring car?’ His reproach was accompanied by a half-smile, but it was still a reproach.
    ‘Listen, she was fine until that happened! And how could I have known a bloody car would make a noise like a gun going off? You’re being totally unreasonable.’ And Anna felt totally wrong-footed.
    He sat back on his heels and looked up at her. ‘I’m sorry if I seem like that, but it’s my job to check out your house to see if it’s suitable. And quite obviously, it’s not. And if I may say so, I’m not convinced you’re a responsible-enough person to have charge of her, either.’
    ‘Well, it’s bit late to find that out! I’ve had Caroline for a …’ She hesitated. She had actually had Caroline for a week, but did he need to know that? ‘For quite a bit. And I’m not giving her up!’ It was only now that Anna realised how important the dog was to her. Up until then, she’d thought that if Chloe said she and the family were moving to a bigger house and wanted to take Caroline with them, she’d have been delighted. Now she suddenly knew that she and Caroline were a team, and inseparable. ‘And if you really want coffee as badly as you said you did, you’d better stop treating me as if I’m a dog-molester!’
    He chuckled but went on seriously, ‘None of the proper procedures can have been gone through when you took Caroline,’