JayB watched it go. “Well, I guess we won’t be following them, since I’m not willing to go ninety miles an hour in a thirty-five.”

  “I’ll navigate on my phone,” Alana assured him.

  “Okay, thanks.”

  “It’s a good thing you have an SUV, now that you’re a full-time dog walker,” she teased.

  “It’s a regular dogmobile.”

  “So, if you don’t mind me asking, how long have you and Maddy been together?”

  JayB shook his head. “Never.”

  Alana smiled. “That’s not what Maddy thinks.”

  “Right, I do get that. But we only went out a couple of times, and she broke up with me each time.”

  “So if you’re not dating, why’s she always around?”

  “Meaning, why don’t I tell her to go away?” JayB looked thoughtful. “I can’t really think of a gentle way to do that. And … I don’t know. I guess I spent most of my childhood trying to help my father get over losing Celeste. It seems better to let her decide to leave on her own than to force the issue. Besides, when I’m with Maddy, I feel as if I’m learning English as a second language.”

  Alana’s grin broadened.

  JayB nodded. “How about you and Guy? How long’ve you two been together?”

  Alana’s smile winked out. She turned and looked out the window for a moment, then turned back. “A few years. You’d like him. He’s nice.”

  JayB nodded noncommittally.

  “He does things I can’t stand to do myself, like negotiating our new lease, or getting the moving company to pay for some holiday decorations they broke.”

  “That’s great.”

  The car drove on, stopping occasionally. The dogs got to their feet every single time, then flopped back down when it became obvious we’d fallen for a false alarm.

  “You know,” Alana remarked after a time, “I always thought it would be fun to open a restaurant.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “I’m not kidding. I worked in one for a while; started as hostess, then waitress, then in back as a cook. Your dad’s right, in a way—the operation’s not that complicated. It’s the same everywhere—take the order, cook the food, serve the food, clean the dishes. It’s the decisions you have to make about what kind of place you’re running, the menu, all of that—that’s what can trip you up.”

  “And it’s in those types of decisions,” JayB observed shrewdly, “where you thrive.”

  Alana regarded him carefully. “You really pay attention to the things I tell you. Not too many men do that.”

  They exchanged small smiles, then Alana’s expression turned cautionary. “Just don’t tell your father I have experience. I’m afraid I’ll get dragooned into working for him.”

  “Oh, my dad is not going into the restaurant business. I’ve had to talk him out of crazy schemes before, like when he wanted to start a professional basketball league where no one could be taller than five-nine.”

  Alana laughed.

  Soon, Odin and I were lifting our noses with interest, because we could sense a change outside the car. A grassy smell was coming to us, with the promise of open terrain. We were both wagging with our noses pressed to the glass when we stopped. Walter and Rodney were already in a parking lot, standing next to Walter’s car and laughing. JayB opened the doors and we all scrambled out.

  We dogs assessed where we were, sniffing along tree stumps and lifting our legs. The ground was flat, the grass fresh and cut. I saw a fenced-in area with an open gate that led to another fenced-in area with an open gate that led to another, like a series of dog parks all linked together. Some of them were cement pads instead of grass.

  It was so alluring that Odin couldn’t resist; suddenly shaking off the cloud of sadness that he’d been carrying, he began to play like a regular dog, jumping up and twisting and rolling on his back in the grass.

  Watching him cavort, I realized how much I’d come to treasure Odin. He was my best dog friend.

  I hoped this would be one of those destinations that my person elected to revisit, because Phoebe would love this place. I imagined her galloping, her sleek fur ruffled by the breeze, the two of us leaving stolid Spartan far behind.

  The image made me wag.

  I readied myself to run, but then the leash clicked into my collar and I realized this was not a day for running.

  “Rodney and I made an executive decision on the way down,” Walter told JayB. “We figured that, of all of us, the only one with experience in this industry is Maddy.”

  JayB briefly closed his eyes.

  “So we’re going to invite your girlfriend to be part of the team,” Rodney interrupted.

  “The team?” JayB repeated cautiously.

  Walter grinned. “This is bigger than us. We called her from the car. She should be here any minute.”

  I followed JayB as he and Walter and Alana and Rodney filed into a big building. Spartan was uninterested in going, and Odin seemed tired after his brief burst of energy and elected to sprawl in the shade under a tree in their pen. Dog parks are for off-leash running, but apparently not for these two.

  Rodney stopped just inside the door. Delicious food smells wafted to my nose. I wagged. “So, see this room here, it’s a closet or something right now,” he said. “We’re going to take all this junk out of here and make this into an office for me, and then that area across the hall will be where my assistants will sit.”

  “Sounds like a good plan,” Walter admired.

  “Yeah, thanks.”

  JayB frowned. “So that’s, what, you and two assistants on top of the restaurant staff?”

  Rodney nodded. “I know. It’s a lot of people, but that’s okay. We’re going to need an HR director, JayB. Know anybody good?” He grinned.

  “What was the fenced-off area we just saw?” Alana wanted to know.

  Rodney shrugged. “I don’t know. It looks to me like they had animals here. Minks, maybe. I don’t think they were raising them for food.” His eyes brightened. “But, you know, we could do that. We could put buffalo or something in there. Ostriches. Start a ranch, make a little extra money on the side.”

  JayB considered this. “Or, instead of on the side, you could make money upfront, even—like, by running a restaurant. This place seems ideally suited for that.”

  Everyone laughed, so I wagged.

  “So right now, this room is being used for food storage,” Alana noted. “Where are you going to put the food storage if you take it over as an office?”

  Rodney pondered this. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I guess maybe I could add on a room.”

  “Or build an office building,” Walter suggested sunnily.

  “Now that makes sense,” said JayB.

  Alana smiled at him.

  We followed Rodney down the hallway into a big empty room with many tables and chairs. Two men were sitting on high stools, watching a television and sipping liquids.

  “Hey, come over here, I want you to meet somebody,” Rodney called across the room. A large-boned woman with short gray hair and glasses approached us without smiling.

  “Oh goodie,” she greeted, “more executives?”

  “You’re not going to believe her name,” Rodney told us. He turned and grinned at her. “Tell them.”

  The gaze she gave him was wearily patient. “My name is DesMoines, like the city. That’s where I was born, so that’s what my mom named me.”

  “What’s your last name?” Rodney wanted to know. “Idaho?”

  Alana stepped forward and held out her hand. “I’m not an executive. I’m just a friend,” she informed the woman. “Nice to meet you, DesMoines.”

  All the people, except Rodney, reached out and held the woman’s hand briefly.

  The woman seemed tired. “You know,” she said, “though we aren’t serving food to anybody right now, this is technically a restaurant, which means our furry friend here shouldn’t be inside.” Her knees popping, she stooped and held out both hands. They smelled wonderfully of different meats. I sniffed them, wagging, and closed my eyes when she stroked underneath my chin with one finger.

  “That’s Clancy,” JayB informed her.

  I glanced up at my name.

  “Okay, we’ll take the dog outside,” Rodney agreed affably. “You can go back to, you know, whatever, DesMoines.”

  DesMoines nodded. “Thanks, boss,” she said wryly.

  JayB held up a hand. “Hey, DesMoines, do you mind if I ask you a question?”

  She shook her head.

  “How would you describe what you do here?”

  “Oh,” Rodney interrupted. “Mostly she just enters stuff in the computer and then, I don’t know, I see her in the kitchen a lot.”

  JayB looked blandly at Rodney. “Thank you, Rodney.” He turned back to DesMoines. “Does that helpful description cover everything, or is there something you’d like to add?”

  DesMoines nodded. “I’m not a bookkeeper, but I do keep track of everything in the system like I was trained. I schedule the staff, take care of paying the bills, order the food, make sure the place opens and closes on time, schedule vacations. I hire people and sometimes have to fire people.” She shrugged. “The usual.”

  “Okay,” JayB said. “Thanks. Oh, one more question.”

  DesMoines waited tolerantly.

  “So, I think I heard the restaurant isn’t making any money.”

  DesMoines shook her head. “We’re losing money,” she corrected firmly.

  “All right then, you’re losing money. Why is that?”

  DesMoines spread her hands. “No customers,” she explained simply.

  “Ah,” JayB said. He and Alana exchanged glances.

  “When the county decided to turn the south edge of the property back into wetlands,” DesMoines continued, “it made the road a dead end. People used to come down it all the time as a shortcut. With no traffic, we’ve sort of fallen off the map.”

  We went back outside. I joyously ran over to say hello to Odin and to ignore Spartan. Then I returned to JayB’s side. “So, Dad,” he was saying. “This is a business without customers. Is that the big secret you’ve been dying to tell us? That if you just had customers, you’d be making money? Because I have to believe the current owner already knows that.”

  Walter and Rodney chortled.

  “Not even close,” Rodney declared.

  Alana eyed Rodney. “A money-losing operation with no people coming to eat. What is it I’m missing?”

  “Look around you,” Rodney suggested, waving his arms expansively. “Do you see what I see?”

  “Way over there I can see the Walmart Garden Center,” JayB responded. “It’s very pretty.”

  “Hint, hint,” Rodney said slyly. “Look down.”

  The people all looked at the grass, so I did, too.

  “The land,” Walter advised impatiently. “The business owns the land. Two acres of it.”

  “I wanted them to guess, Walter,” Rodney grumbled.

  “It was taking too long.”

  “But what fun is a secret if you don’t make people guess for a few minutes?”

  “Wait,” Alana interrupted. “The business doesn’t lease the property. So what?”

  “That is the so what!” Rodney declared.

  Walter swept his hands through the air. “We’re going to put up housing, maybe some retail. From the upper floors, you’ll have a view of the river.”

  “So you’re going to turn this into a huge residential development,” JayB translated.

  “Well,” Walter disagreed, “not me so much. You know me, I don’t know a jackhammer from a … a…”

  “Plumb bob?” JayB suggested.

  “What? What the heck’s a plumb bob? My point is, Rodney’s got this handled.”

  JayB turned to Rodney. “Can you really do something like this?”

  Rodney grinned. “Of course. What do you think I’ve been doing all this time?”

  “Honestly,” JayB replied, “I think you’ve been doing nothing.”

  “I don’t know much about construction,” Alana interjected cautiously, “but I know it takes time to get permits and all that. Have you factored that into your calculations?”

  Walter waved a hand. “Yeah, in San Francisco it takes forever, I’m sure. But this is Kansas City. All you have to do to get a permit is stand in line for about ten minutes and get a form stamped. It’s nothing.” Walter snapped his fingers, and I looked at him curiously.

  Sometimes JayB snaps his fingers because he wants my attention, but this did not seem to be that kind of finger snap.

  A car pulled up and I recognized its sound and smells, especially when Maddy got out.

  I wagged.

  Maddy looked upset as she stalked over to us. Her eyes were on JayB. “How come I had to get a call from your father on this?” she demanded. “Are you going to forget our anniversaries too?”

  “Oh,” JayB replied mildly, “I would have called, but I thought you had to work today.”

  “I did! But something like this is more important than work. I came as soon as I heard. I left two tables waiting for me to take their order. That’s how serious I am.” She turned to Alana. “But he called you, I see.”

  “Oh, no, it wasn’t like that,” Alana objected.

  “Do you ever wear anything but shorts?” Maddy challenged. “You’ve got legs, we get it. Some of us don’t.”

  “I was just telling my son about our vision to build condos and shopping on this site,” Walter advised. “Jago isn’t particularly enthusiastic.”

  Maddy smiled. “I love it when you call him that.”

  “It’s a wonderful thing,” JayB agreed.

  Alana laughed.

  Walter made another wide gesture. “My wife’s going to be blown away. We’ll probably name a street after her. Celeste Boulevard.”

  “Your wife?” JayB repeated incredulously. “Dad, when was your last psych evaluation?”

  Walter laughed heartily.

  “I think it’s terrific,” Maddy enthused.

  “Okay, but, Dad,” JayB stated patiently, “you heard DesMoines. There are no customers. If you invest in this place, it’s a black hole.”

  Maddy shook her head angrily. “That’s what you do, JayB. You just keep stomping on the throat of dreams. That’s one of my eight simple rules. You’ve been doing it to me since we met. I never wanted to be a waitress. I want to be an actress, but you’ve never supported me in that.”

  JayB looked helpless. “I never knew you wanted to be an actress.”

  Maddy put her hands on her hips. “Can you see why that makes you a bad boyfriend?”

  Walter looked disappointed. “Well, I’m sorry to hear you’re departing the industry, Maddy. I was really hoping you’d come work for me.”

  Maddy brightened. “Manage the restaurant? I’d love that.”

  Rodney frowned. “Well, sure, but I’m still the boss, okay?”

  Maddy shrugged. “A lot of women let men think they’re the boss. We can do that here, if you want.”

  “You’re hired,” Walter told Maddy.

  She squealed and gave him a hug.

  “Well, Walt,” Rodney objected, “I hate to be the wet blanket, but shouldn’t a decision like that go through me?”

  Walter shrugged. “You’re right, I’m new at this CEO stuff. Okay, what do you think, Rodney?”

  “I think she’d be great.”

  Maddy squealed and hugged him, too. “Okay,” she said eagerly. “The first thing I want to teach the waitstaff is never to write anything down. That way, you get the order wrong, no one can prove it.”

  JayB gave Walter a suspicious look. “You’re talking as if you’ve already done this, Dad.”

  Walter gave JayB a tolerant smile but didn’t say anything.

  Dear Diary:

  JayB seems different around Alana now. It reminds me of the way he reacts to Dominique. There’s a slight straightening of his posture and a tension coming off his skin. He also seems to laugh and smile more. Does this mean my hopes of having Dominique and Phoebe live with us won’t be realized?

  I have another problem, as well: I can’t communicate much of anything to Phoebe. My plan to entice Dominique to rub my tummy will never work, as long as Phoebe goes berserk and leaps on me. When JayB and Dominique sit on the steps and talk, I behave as happily and attractively as I can, thinking that, surely, the two humans will get up and walk together back to our house, dropping off Spartan along the way.

  So far, that hasn’t happened.

  Love,

  Clancy

  Twelve

  “Dad?” JayB said insistently. “Please tell me you did not put your money into this place.”

  Walter shrugged. “Well, I mean, I wrote a check and signed some documents. I don’t know … I’ll leave that to the paper-pushers.”

  “Then you have to get out of the deal!” JayB urged. “This is insane!”

  “Like you would know insane if it threw up your breakfast,” Maddy mocked.

  Rodney beamed at Maddy and Alana. “You know what? The four of us should go out sometime. That would be a blast.” He reached out as if to put his arm around Alana, who stepped back smartly. “Hey, Alana, let me show you where the condos are going up.”

  Walter grinned and nodded. “Good. I need to speak to JayB privately.”

  Maddy crossed her arms. “Yeah, but I need to speak to JayB privately, too, and my stuff is life and sudden death, so bring him right back.”

  Walter nodded. “Sure, okay.”

  With a helpless look at JayB, Alana let Rodney steer her away. Walter led us over to the shade where Odin was stretched out. The way Odin lay on his side reminded me of how he crawled across the floor when he saw Helen and then flopped down on his side for a belly rub.

  JayB gazed intently at his father. “Dad. I mean it. Get a lawyer and get out.”

  Walter grinned. “You worry too much. I can afford it.”

  JayB sighed. “Why won’t you listen to me on this?”

  “Because I’ve got something more important going on. I sent your mom two dozen roses.”