Gabe mixed the hodgepodge of pasta with spaghetti sauce, microwaved meatballs, and parmesan cheese and set the pan on the granite countertop of the breakfast bar with a clunk.

“Are you staying for supper, mama?” he asked, praying silently that she would see her way out the door.

“What in the world are you feeding our pretty little Melanie?” she asked, eyeing the pan of pasta speculatively.

“Smells wonderful.” Melanie tossed him a bone.

“Spaghetti-less spaghetti,” Gabe said and removed the toasted garlic bread from the oven. He tossed it on the counter with a clatter and turned back to the stove to collect the pan of mixed vegetables that had boiled dry and were slightly scorched.

“Um,” his mom said, sliding from the stool. “I should probably head home. Your father will be worried.”

At this time of night, his father would be obliviously asleep in his recliner, but Gabe wasn’t going to argue her out of leaving. He loved his mother dearly, but at times he had a hard time dealing with her unending scrutiny. He simply could not relax in her company.

His mom slipped from her bar stool, gave Melanie an enthusiastic hug, and crooked a finger at Gabe to beckon him to the door.

“Go ahead and start without me,” he said to Melanie. “I know you’re hungry.”

“She must be if she’s willing to eat your cooking,” his mom teased.

Melanie made a show of heaping her plate with spaghetti-less spaghetti and scorched vegetables. It warmed his heart to have her so firmly in his corner. His mother was not a person easily crossed.

At the door, his mother gave him a quick hug. “She’s wonderful,” she said approvingly. “Don’t let her get away.”

“If you didn’t manage to scare her off, I don’t think she’s going anywhere.”

Beau stood up from his place on the rug by the door and nudged his mom’s hand to receive his customary scratch behind the ears. She obliged enthusiastically. “Where’s Lady?”

“She’s at the animal clinic,” he said. “She got hit by a truck this afternoon.”

“Oh my God,” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me? Was she seriously hurt?”

He nodded. “Yeah, but the vet thinks she’ll pull through.”

Kathy patted his cheek. “You should have called, Boo. We could have helped you with her.”

His mother hadn’t called him Boo in over ten years. What was up with her tonight?

“Melanie helped me out.”

She smiled. “She’ll make a great mother for my grandchildren.”

Gabe’s stomach sank, and his balls tried to hide in his belly. Grandchildren? What the fuck? His mother had known Melanie for less than half an hour and already had her popping out Banner offspring? Wasn’t that a tad premature?

He opened the door. “Love you, mom.”

She beamed and shrugged her shoulders up to her ears in a very girlish gesture he had never witnessed out of her in his entire life. “Love you too, Boo.”

She practically skipped across the porch, and Gabe gaped at her, wondering when pod people had invaded the earth. Who was that woman? She looked like his mother, but she sure wasn’t acting like her.

When she was safely inside her Cadillac, he closed the door, made sure to lock it this time, and returned to the kitchen. Beau followed at Gabe’s heels, looking for a bite to eat, no doubt.

“I think my mom has a girl crush on you,” Gabe said to Melanie as he scooped food onto two plates—one for himself and another with extra, extra meatballs for his dog.

“She was certainly interested in getting to know me,” Melanie said. “But she seemed really nice.”

“That”—he pointed at Mel with his fork and shook his head—“is what worries me.”

The next morning, Gabe left Melanie and Beau to sleep and climbed in his truck to go visit Lady.

Lady was so happy to see him, the vet assistant threatened to make him leave the room so the dog didn’t pull out her stitches with her overenthusiastic tail wagging. Lady tried to get up to greet him, but didn’t make it to her feet. He didn’t know if it was weakness or the awkwardness of her cast, but he figured she shouldn’t be standing anyway. He entered her temporary kennel and sat on the concrete floor beside where she lay on a thick pallet. He petted her face, head, and shoulders, careful to avoid the large white bandage on her side and the cast on her foreleg. He bent to kiss her whiskery nose and said, “What am I going to do with you while I’m on the road for the next two weeks? Do you think you can stand it in here for that long?”

She whined piteously and swatted at him with her good leg.

“I know it’s not ideal, but I can’t imagine taking care of you on the tour bus. Your regular dog sitter can only come out once a day, but maybe I can hire someone else to stay with you fulltime.”

The vet assistant was working at a counter at the end of the cavernous room, but she apparently had good hearing.

“Why don’t you take her to your parents’ house?” she suggested. “They’re good people. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind taking care of Lady while you’re gone.”

One problem with living in a small community was that everyone knew who your parents were and everyone knew all your business.

“They’re busy,” Gabe said.

“Lady can stay here while you’re gone, but she’s sure to get really lonesome. Some dogs get so depressed when they’re injured and abandoned that they fail to thrive and…” She shrugged.

He didn’t want to think about what she meant by that shrug. Lady was the type of dog that craved constant attention. And his parents liked his dogs. Maybe they wouldn’t mind keeping her at their place for a couple weeks. Well, the entire summer if he was being truthful about the matter. But maybe in a few weeks Lady would be able to stay at her own home without constant care and supervision.

“If they’re too busy,” Gabe said, “would you be interested in keeping her for a couple weeks? I could pay you.”

She chuckled. “I don’t think my cats would appreciate that. And Lady is a high-strung dog. She’d be much calmer around people she knows. Besides, your mom is a people doctor, so I think she could handle the limited care for an injured dog. And doesn’t your dad have the summer off?”

How did the woman know so much about him? He couldn’t place where he knew her from, but he must know her fairly well. Of course, her back was to him, so he couldn’t see her face clearly.

“He works on his research over the summer,” Gabe said. But compared to his school-year schedule, summers were a lot less busy for his physics-professor father.

Gabe guessed he could try persuading his parents to help out and if that didn’t work, he’d see if any of his local friends would watch over Lady. If all else failed, he’d pack her up on the tour bus and try to keep her as calm as possible. He didn’t really see that as a reasonable option. Maybe Melanie would be willing to take her back to her apartment in Kansas. But how would they transport her there? He doubted Lady was in good enough condition to fly. And Melanie had work and other life responsibilities, so he couldn’t expect her to stay at his place to take care of his dog.

He sighed. Yep, parents, it was.

Even though it made the most sense to ask them for assistance, he hated to ask them for any help. It must remind them of what a disappointment he was to them.

“So how are your sisters?” the vet tech asked, as if to shred his pride a little more. Neither of them were disappointments to their parents. “I haven’t heard from Leslie in years.”

Gabe suddenly recalled that the tech and Leslie had been in the same graduating class in high school. She’d been one of popular-cheerleader-Leslie’s many, many friends.

“She’s in Boston finishing up her second residency,” Gabe said.

“I always knew she’d be a doctor. Smart as a whip.”

Following in her mother’s footsteps.