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Crazy with excitement, the dog wagged its tail and walked all over their rug with sandy paws, barking madly.
Archie shrank against Kat, his eyes huge. ‘That dog ate our lunch.’
Kat nodded. ‘Looks as though he did, but he seems friendly.’ Cautiously she stretched out a hand and Hopeful slobbered over that, too. ‘He’s not going to hurt you, Arch, he just fancied your lunch.’
‘I fancied it, too.’ Archie looked at the empty plates and giggled. ‘He’s eaten everything.’
‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’ A very pregnant young woman walked up to them and snapped her fingers at the dog. ‘Hopeful, when I call you, you’re supposed to come!’ Her voice was stern but the dog continued to wag his tail happily, completely unrepentant. ‘Please, could you look a little sorry? Have some sensitivity! Think of the amount I forked out on dog-training classes!’
Kat smothered a grin as the dog trampled over the plates, his paws in the remains of the ketchup. She watched in a mixture of despair and amusement. She was going to be spending her afternoon washing the rug. ‘He’s been to dog-training classes?’
‘Hard to believe, isn’t it?’ The girl looked gloomily at the dog, who was now nudging her leg. ‘He wasn’t the best student. Mac, my husband, thinks what he really needs is a psychiatrist. It isn’t really poor Hopeful’s fault. He had a terrible upbringing and he’s very damaged psychologically.’ Her eyes scanned the rug. ‘I’m really sorry about your picnic. Hard to tell from the empty plates, but I’m guessing it was probably sausages.’
Archie stared at her with admiration. ‘Wow. How did you know that? Do you do magic?’
‘No, but sausages are Hopeful’s favourite and those plates of yours are so clean that it just had to be sausages.’ She winced and rubbed a hand over her stomach and Kat frowned. The young woman was extremely pregnant.
‘Are you all right?’
The girl pulled a face, her hand still on her stomach. ‘Not sure, to be honest. I suppose so. Never been pregnant before and I feel like a whale, but maybe that’s normal. And the weather is just so hot at the moment. I don’t stray far from home these days, but I was dropping something off at my brother-in-law’s house and Hopeful bounded off before I could stop him.’
Kat frowned. ‘Are you talking about Josh? Are you Louisa?’
The girl looked startled. ‘Am I suddenly famous?’
Kat smiled. ‘I work in A and E so I’ve heard your praises sung a few times, and obviously I’ve heard about Mac. Josh mentioned that his sister-in-law is pregnant so I put two and two together.’
Louisa’s face brightened. ‘You know Josh? Well, of course you know Josh.’ Her eyes narrowed as she studied Kat. ‘You’re incredibly pretty, so it goes without saying that you know Josh.’
Kat flushed and cast a look in Archie’s direction, but he was playing with Hopeful, totally enchanted by the dog.
‘I’m one of the new SHOs.’
‘Oh. You lucky thing. I miss it so much.’ Louisa pulled a face and stroked her stomach. ‘I think I’d better be getting back. Walking in the sun with this bump, which, by the way, Josh tactfully informs me is definitely a hippo, is not my idea of fun. Too much sand and Hopeful would make a very unreliable midwife.’
Kat laughed. ‘Our house is just up there.’ She waved a hand towards the cottage. ‘You’re very welcome to a cup of tea and then we could give you a lift home.’
Louisa glanced up at the house, measuring the distance. ‘Really? The white cottage? You live next door to Josh.’
Archie stopped playing with the dog. ‘He has a boat and he helped me with my knots, but Mummy won’t let me go over there again.’
‘You’ve been over there?’ Louisa stared at him, a thoughtful expression in her eyes. ‘When?’
‘Yesterday morning but Mummy shouted—’
‘Only because you didn’t tell me where you were going,’ Kat interjected quickly. Not keen to dwell on the subject of Josh, she changed the subject neatly. ‘Come and have a cup of tea, Louisa. You look as though you need one.’
‘I always need tea. That would be really great.’ Louisa tried to grab Hopeful by the collar, but she wasn’t fast enough and he bounded back to a delighted Archie. ‘I’m just too fat to catch him these days. Maybe we’d better leave Hopeful outside.’
Kat glanced across to Hopeful, who was now being hugged tightly by her little boy. ‘Wouldn’t it be safer to have him inside where we can see him?’
‘You’d think so, wouldn’t you?’ Louisa chewed her lip. ‘Trouble is, he misbehaves even when people are watching so it doesn’t always make a lot of difference. It might be a decision you regret for a long time. Are you sure about this? Do you have valuables?’
‘He’s being hugged by my valuables.’ Kat looked at the expression on her son’s face and smiled. It was great to see him so relaxed and happy. She gathered up their things and stuffed them into the rucksack she’d used to transport everything to the beach. ‘Come on, Archie, we’re going back to the cottage. You’d better be in charge of Hopeful.’
Archie stroked the dog’s head. ‘He’s coming, too? Cool.’ A satisfied smile spread over his face. ‘He’s lovely.’
Louisa sighed. ‘You’re probably the only person who thinks so at the moment. Yesterday he ate his way through Mac’s best pair of shoes and the latest copy of The Lancet. Then he proceeded to sick all of it up on our new bedroom carpet.’ She picked her way across the sand, one eye on Hopeful. ‘Mac is Josh’s older brother, but I suppose you know that by now. He works in A and E too but he’s been on holiday for a week so I suppose you haven’t met him yet.’
