Page 28 of The Secret

As with nearly every time before, he remained silent, listening to me and doing what I’d said, but offering nothing back except a slight raise of his eyebrow which flared my pulse until every inch of my body hummed. Then the kiss he gave Bell before he slipped her into the harness made my heart thud erratically, just like it had done earlier, and I tried to rub away the spinning feeling again.

There was definitely something wrong with me. Maybe I should grab a cereal bar on the way out. Or stop drinking caffeine. Forever.

I added a blanket to her, tucking her in tight, all while very consciously trying not to touch Murray in any way, which was much harder than it sounded. Virtually impossible.

“We’re all good. Ready?”

His low chuckle did nothing to ease the tightness building in my chest at the sight of them together. “Ready.”

Five minutes later, we walked out of the building doors into the crisp, bright sunshine that was counteracting the cold bite of the New York air, and across the road straight into Central Park, Murray carrying Bell, and me holding Barclay on his leash. I hadn’t been out to explore the neighborhood yet, managing only a couple of runs during my breaks, but even in the two days since I’d last been, the spring flowers had emerged properly; the bright yellow daffodils confirming that winter was finally over.

We started down the path which led to the lake. “You can let Barc off.”

I unclipped his leash and he bounded off to the nearest tree.

“I like that you like Barclay,” he said quietly.

I looked up at him curiously. “Who wouldn’t like him? He’s beautiful.”

He shrugged, not offering any more of an explanation, his concentration on Bell, and we continued walking in silence. I soon found myself almost jogging to keep up with Murray’s long strides until he realized what was happening, trying to hold back the amusement creeping up the corner of his mouth.

“Sorry. I always forget to slow down. Franks always shouts at me for it, and she’s even shorter than you.”

As if to illustrate how tall he really was, he ducked under a looming branch.

“Who’s Franks?”

“Freddie,” he clarified. “Her first name is Francesca. Her initials used to spell Fred before she married Coop, but I always called her Franks because I couldn’t pronounce Francesca when I was little.”

My heart squeezed again.

“You English love a good name change. Wolf, Freddie, Bell…” I grinned at him.

“Yeah, I guess we do.” A smile twisted his lips, as he gently stroked Bell’s head. “But are you telling me Kit isn’t short for Katherine?”

“Yep.”

“Wait, that’s yourwholename?” He blinked in surprise, almost shocking himself out of the quiet brooding I’d only known up to now. “Kit?”

His clipped British accent, and the way he emphasized the T at the end, commanding and final, licked along my spine, transporting me straight back to my sixteen-year-old self discovering that Jake Torre, star wide receiver of Oakbay High Football team, and Number One Crush, knew her name. It was the greatest day of my young life.

“Kit Isobel Hawkes, yes.”

Barclay ran back to us with a loud woof, bouncing around on his paws in front of Murray, until he pulled a ball from his pocket and threw it.

“Huh, can’t really shorten that. Where does Kit come from?”

I rolled my lips, pausing before I told him, unsure I wanted to share. He noticed, even as we both watched Barclay sprint after the ball.

“Okay, now you have to tell me. There’s a story there.”

I gave him a wry smile. “My dad collects classic cars, and his favorite is his Fifty-Seven Chevy, which he restored before I was born. And it was called Kit. So, yes, I’ve been named after a car.”

He laughed loudly. “That’s brilliant. What does your dad do?”

I wasn’t sure what I’d expected from this walk. I still hadn’t quite got a grasp on how different he’d been this morning compared to every other day, but I was finding him surprisingly easy to talk to for someone who’d got by using as few words as possible up to this point. This wasn’t a stilted, polite conversation; he seemed genuinely interested in finding out the answers to his questions.

“He works for Nike. I grew up in Oregon, and he’s worked there since I was a kid.”

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