Free Lauraine Snelling by Breaking Free Page A

face.
    Eddie shrugged. “Just thought I’d ask.” He glanced out the window, then smiled at his father when he caught his eye in the mirror. “She’s not married.”
    “Well, she’s too old for you, sport.”
    “Daaad!”
    Pulling into the driveway a short time later, they heard Bonnie’s usual miss-you greeting. Her deep aroooohs echoed inside the house, and as soon as Eddie drove inside she skidded to a stop on the tiled floor beside his chair, wriggled furiously while he petted her head and ears, then tore down the hall, through the kitchen, sliding her long body around corners, up on the leather couch, off the other end, back to Eddie and off tearing around again. All the while barking and singing her ahroos.
    “And that’s the Basset Five Hundred.” Eddie laughed along with his dog.
    Gil stooped to pet her when she stopped, panting, in front of him, long black-spotted tongue lolling out the side of her mouth. “Bonnie, you are one crazy dog.”
    “I went online with that group of Basset Rescue people I told you about. Others write about their dogs doing the same thing. They say there’s a basset-tude too.” Eddie leaned over and scrunched her ears up in his hands, rubbing white nose to black, to get a slurpy kiss from chin to hairline.
    “You talk to people you don’t know?”
    “You told me not to.”
    “I know. But that’s not what I asked you. Do you go online to chat rooms and such?”
    “Some.”
    “Some meaning what?” Sometimes being a father wasn’t his favorite role.
    “Well, I go on the Basset one, there’s also a group for kids with spina bifida. I check out the therapeutic riding sites, like Rescue Ranch, and then I look up stuff I’m curious about. Oh, and I found some horse rescue sites too.”
    “Near as I can tell, you are curious about most everything.”
    With a shrug, Eddie gave his chair a push and headed for his room. “I’m going swimming, you want to come?”
    “I’ll bring lunch out in an hour or so.” Maria smiled at him from the arched entry to the kitchen.
    Did he need to pursue this with Eddie now, or should they talk more about it later? Later sounded like a good idea, along with the pool. Sometimes Gil felt Eddie and Maria were in league together to keep him from working, and sometimes, like now, he was grateful. He knew he’d become a workaholic, saved only by the grace of a woman strong enough to stand against him and a son gentle enough to forgive. He whistled his way down the hall and into his bedroom to change into swimming trunks, ignoring the blinking light on the message machine, just like he’d turned off his cell phone on the drive to Horse Country.
    “I have to work this afternoon,” he announced after a lunch of BLTs on foccacia bread, fruit salad, and tall glasses of iced tea and lemon cookies.
    “I know.” Eddie looked up from slipping Bonnie a bite of bacon. “I’m going over to Arthur’s to play video games.” Eddie’s best friend, Arthur, lived three houses over on the cul-de-sac. “His mom made caramel corn. You want me to bring you some?”
    “That’s a bit of an imposition.”
    “Nope, she makes extra, just for you. She said everyone needs at least one vice.” Eddie laughed as he wheeled his way into the house to change out of his wet board shorts. His voice floated back. “Be neat to have a mom that did stuff like that.”
    A pang struck Gil. “Maria, how long since we’ve had the Owens over for dinner?”
    “Not since . . .” she squinted her eyes in thought. “Couple months anyway.”
    “Okay, let’s invite them for a pool party and barbecue on Saturday or Sunday, whichever they can make.”
    “Bueno. Anyone else?”
    “We need to do more entertaining. Ask the Grandleys too. We’ll do steaks, hot dogs, and hamburgers. And make a couple of pitchers of your special lemonade.”
    Gil heard Eddie whistle for Bonnie, and the two of them went out the door as he settled into his study to begin returning phone calls,