Free Double Dog Dare (The Raine Stockton Dog Mystery Series) by Donna Ball Page B

when she saw him.  She said simply, “Miles.”  The word was like a sigh.
    After a moment in which whatever emotions he might be experiencing were masked by the sun in his mirror-gray eyes, he came forward, took her hands, and kissed her cheek.  He said, “Hi, Susan.  I heard you were here.  I was sorry to hear about Rachelle.”
    She nodded mutely, and it seemed to me she held onto his hands a moment longer than necessary.  “It’s been a nightmare,” she said.  “I still can’t believe it.  And now the police are questioning Alex, and the press is camped outside the gate…”
    Miles gave her an understanding nod and managed to extricate his hands, gesturing her toward the table.  “Come have some coffee.  Have you met everyone?”
    She said, “Yes. But I can’t stay.”  Her voice was tight, her expression urgent. “Miles, I need a favor.”
    Melanie demanded suspiciously, “How do you know Cocoa?”
    She managed a brief smile for the sake of the daughter of the man from whom she was about to ask a favor.  “There’s only one golden retriever on the beach,” she said, “or at least I thought there was.  Cocoa is—was—Rachelle’s dog.” She squeezed her eyes closed and gave her head a tiny shake.  Her voice was almost inaudible as she said, “That’s hard to say.  It doesn’t seem real.” 
    Miles touched her shoulder in a light gesture of comfort.  How many times had he done the same to me?  He said to Melanie, “So that was the dog you met yesterday.  It makes s ense.  The Barry estate is just a quarter mile down the beach.”
    “Anyway, Cocoa got away from his handler this morning and has the whole house in an uproar, as if it wasn’t already.  He’s probably home by now.  I’m sorry I thought he was your dog.  I can’t believe how much they look alike.”
    Melanie rested a proprietorial hand on Cisco’s head.  “Cisco isn’t my dog,” she told Susan in a tone that implied she was not only an interloper, but an ill-informed one as well.  “My dog is named Pepper and she’s at home in Atlanta.  Cisco is Raine’s dog.”
    Miles led Susan to the table with his hand still resting lightly on her shoulder.  “Come sit down.  Tell me what you need.”
    And that’s when I knew I didn’t want to be there anymore.  I said, “I’d better get Cisco cleaned up before he gets sand all over everything. ”
    But before I could reach for Cisco’s collar Melanie sprang up from the table and pushed in front of me.  “I’ll do it!” she volunteered. 
    I gave her a stern meaningful look but she replied with a big-eyed, Melanie Girl Spy tilt of her head toward the interloper, clearly indicating that I should not under any circumstances give up my ground.  Since I was now trapped between Melanie and Cisco, there was no way I could.
    “You didn’t finish your breakfast,” Rita objected.
    “All done.  Thank you, Grandma.” She reached for Cisco’s collar.
    “And?” prompted Miles.
    “And may I please be excused from the table?”
    Her grandmother murmured, “I suppose.” And, as she watched Miles seat his ex-wife next to the place that had been set for me, she looked as though she wished she, too, could ask to be excused.  I knew the feeling. 
    Nonetheless, I watched Melanie skip off with Cisco in tow and slid into the chair between Rita and Susan.  Susan smiled at Miles.  “I never pictured you as a father.  You’re good at it.”
    Miles poured coffee for her, and then for himself.  When he set the pot on the table again, I filled my own cup.  He sat down and regarded Susan in a friendly, if cautious, manner.  “It’s been a long time,” he said.
    I did dearly hope they were not about to start reminiscing. I grabbed the fruit bowl and plopped a spoonful of chopped mangoes and kiwis on my plate, then offered the bowl to Susan with a smile so saccharine it should have rotted my teeth. “Have some?”
    She replied with a brusque shake of her