Mr. McKinley.
It took a moment for the words to
sink in. One by one,
they final y did, even as disbelief
washed over him. “Is he al
right?
“Yes.
“There must be
some mistake. Luke has never—
“No mistake, Mr.
McKinley.
The detective gave him the address
of the station and
told him where to find Luke. Ian
hung up, feeling as if
someone had just punched him in the
gut. He found Rachel
and told her everything he knew.
When she offered to go
with him, he asked her to stay and
explain to the others that
he'd had an emergency.
He caught a cab outside the
building, imagining, during
the drive, a hundred different
scenarios involving Luke and
jail.
When the driver pul ed over at the
police station, Ian
handed him a fifty and sprinted for
the door, his stomach
churning. Inside, he took the
elevator to the third floor. Even
at this hour, the place vibrated
with purpose. Stil dressed in
his tuxedo, he got his fair share of
stares as he wound his way
15
INGLATH COOPER
through a maze of desks littered
with coffee cups and
mounds of paper.
From the far corner of the room, a
thin man with graying
hair and skin that could use a
little sunshine waved at him and
cal ed out, “You
Mr. McKinley?
“Yes.
“Your son is in
the room across the hal . Go on in. I'l be
right with you.
“Thank you, Ian
said, while the detective went back to
his cal .
At the door, Ian stopped and drew in
a deep breath
before quickly turning the knob.
Relief flooded him at the
sight of Luke standing by the window
with his hands jammed
in his pockets.
His hair, long in front and short at
the sides, halfway
covered his eyes. His stance
screamed defensive, his mouth
set in a straight line. “Guess
I messed up your party, huh? he
asked, his tone bel igerent.
If Luke felt any fear, he wasn't
showing it.
“Is that what you
meant to do? Ian asked quietly, not at
all sure where to go with this.
“I didn't mean to
do anything. Luke shrugged, clearly a
rebel with a cause, the origins of
which Ian couldn't begin to
guess.
“They said you
were arrested for drug possession.
Another shrug. “Big
deal.
“Big deal? Ian
repeated. “Do you have any idea how
serious this is?
“It must be if
you left your party to come down here.
16
GOOD GUYS LOVE DOGS
The verbal slap achieved its
intended sting. “I know
things have been busy lately, but. .
. .
“Lately? Luke
interrupted with a short laugh. “You've
been saying ‘lately'
since I was six years old. Probably before
then, I just can't remember so far
back. You only have time
for work. And Rachel, of course, now
that she's going to be
your wife.
Bitterness layered the declaration.
The vehemence
behind it shocked Ian. Luke wasn't a
big talker. For the past
few years, getting information out
of him took the finesse of
a secret service agent. Ian chalked
it up to teenage rebel ion.
The boy had been even less
communicative since he'd told
him about his engagement to Rachel.
He looked at his son
now and felt as though he were
seeing him for the first time
in a very long while. “I
think we need to talk.
“So pencil me in
before your nine-thirty, and I'l tel you
all about how I know you wish I'd
never been born.
The anger in the boy's voice hit Ian
like a brick in the
face. “Why would
you say a thing like that, Luke?
“Because it's the
truth.
“No. It's not.
Son—
“If it hadn't
been for me, she wouldn't have died, Luke
yelled. “Don't
you think I know that?
Ian grappled for composure.
“Nobody could have
prevented what happened to your
mother. She had a stroke.
How could you possibly think I
would—
“I don't know, he
interrupted. “Maybe because you
work all the time just so you don't
have to be around me.
17
INGLATH COOPER
“Luke! Ian
stopped, at a complete loss for a response.
Somehow, when he hadn't been
looking, something had gone
terribly wrong between the two of
them. Staring across at his
son, part boy, part man, Ian
wondered how Luke had felt this
way without his knowing. How long
had Luke been trying to
get his attention? “Does
this have something to do with my
marrying Rachel?
“I don't care who
you marry. I'm sure you'l make al the
time in the world for her.
Ian felt as if someone had just held
a mirror in front of
him. He didn't like what he saw. He
thought about the party
given in his honor tonight and
realized the price. He'd spent
the past seventeen years trying to
make sure Luke had the
things he himself never had as a
kid. He'd sent the boy off to
a camp in Wyoming every summer and
to Austria in the
winter with his ski team. In fact,
he'd given him everything
possible except one thing.
Time.
Maybe if he had, none of this would
be happening.
Maybe if he had, he wouldn't have
needed this kind of
wake-up cal to see what a mess he'd
made of things.
Ian sank down on the chair behind
him. He raked a hand
through his hair and wondered how
he'd gone from such
heights to such depths in the span
of one night. Luke was in
trouble. Ian could blame no one but
himself.
18
1
onday morning started like every
other Monday
M morning of this past month. Heaven
help her,
Colby Williams did not understand
the adolescent mind-
set.
She shot a glance at her watch.
“Baby, why can't you
just wear the first outfit you put
on? We're late. I've got to
get to the clinic.
“Don't call me
that, Mom. Lena frowned. “I'm not a
baby. And the first outfit looked
like dogsh—
“Lena! Surprised,
Colby stared at her daughter. Lena
didn't talk that way. At least not
until recently.
Lena rol ed her eyes and stomped up
the steps to change
for the third time. “Dog
poop, she called out. “The first
outfit looked like dog poop.
Critter, Lena's one-eared cat,
pounced up the stairs
behind her. From the Oriental rug on
the living room
floor, Petey and Lulu, reigning
house dogs, eyed Lena's
ascent as if they knew it wouldn't
be her last.
19
INGLATH COOPER
“You're probably
right, Colby said to the pedigree-
free duo, then dropped onto the
oversize sage green chair
next to the fireplace. She surveyed
the smal but cozy room
with some measure of satisfaction.
At least order prevailed
in this part of her life. Bookcases
lined the wal to the right
of the couch, shelves fil ed with
hardbacks col ected since
her childhood, everything from
Beezus and Ramona,
which
she'd read in the fourth grade, to
Gone With The Wind,
which she still pulled out on rainy
days.
The home she and Lena furnished and
decorated
together with casual, country
touches could be cal ed more
than comfortable, but someday, Colby
hoped to buy them
a house big enough to have a room
for her books and a
bigger bedroom for Lena. She'd hoped
that house would be
Oak Hill, an old farm outside of
town. But it had sold
recently, and that hope was no
longer a realistic one.
From the radio on the kitchen
counter, a singer
twanged an appropriate tune about
not dwelling on stuff
you couldn't change. Following her
advice, Colby got up
and began putting things away, her
thoughts turning to Lena.
She didn't know whether to laugh or
cry these days where
her daughter was concerned. She was
a thirty-four-year-old
woman. A mother. A veterinarian with
a thriving practice.
And she was losing control of her
fifteen-year-old.
The worst part? She had no idea why.
In the past several weeks, Lena's
grades dropped from
almost straight
A'
s to
nearly al
C'
s. Lena was smart. Colby
knew that wasn't the problem. Lena
had always been a good
child. Maybe too good. Colby had
been spoiled by that. Her
20
GOOD GUYS LOVE DOGS
relationship with her daughter had
been the most fulfil ing
aspect of her life for so long that
she couldn't imagine it
any other way.
The difference in Lena seemingly
happened overnight, as
if aliens had swooped down and
stolen her beautiful, fun-
loving daughter, replacing her with
a surlier version of
herself. The kid who lived with her
looked just like Lena,
sounded like Lena. But she wasn't
Lena.
More than once, Colby started to
drive over to her
parents' house and plead for their
advice on how to deal with
this new side to her. She'd stopped
herself each time. Samuel
and Emma Williams had always been
there for Lena and
her. They'd helped put Colby through
college and then vet
school, lending a hand when Lena was
a baby and Colby
had been determined to stay in
school. They'd been the best
of parents, and she'd cal ed on them
far too often. She'd find
a way to work this out on her own.
The phone rang. Tucking her
shoulder-length hair
behind one ear, she picked it up
with a distracted, “Hello.
“I know you're
headed out the door, but I've got a
proposition for you.
“Does it involve
convincing whoever stole my daughter
to bring her back?
Phoebe Walker laughed. “Hormones
raging, huh?
“I don't know
what it is. Isn't there some kind of pil I
can give her until it goes away?
Colby stretched the cord
across the kitchen and picked up
Lena's plate of uneaten
French toast.
21
INGLATH COOPER
“You're the
doctor, Phoebe said. “You ought to
know.
Colby dumped the toast in the
disposal and stuck the
plate under the faucet, watching the
syrup slide down the
sink. “My
expertise is in cows. They don't turn on their
mothers.
Phoebe chuckled. “If
it's any consolation, I think this is
normal.
“It's not, Colby
muttered, swiping at a water spot on
her blue cotton shirt, and then
wanting to change the
subject, “So
what's the proposition?
“An invitation,
actual y. To dinner.
Colby tucked the phone under her
chin and grabbed a
paper towel to dab at her shirt.
“What kind of dinner?
“The kind where
you put on a dress, a spritz or two of
perfume and leave your calf-birthing
clothes at home in the
closet.
“You want me to
do all that just for you and Frank?
she asked, deliberately
misunderstanding.
“Wel —
“That's what I
thought. Thanks, but no thanks.
“
Colby
—
“Don't
Colby
me. She slipped the plate into the
dishwasher. “Have
you forgotten what I told you the last
time you tried to fix me up?
“Are you going to
hold that against me forever?
Phoebe asked, a whine in her voice.
“I should. You
certainly deserve it.
“He wasn't that
bad.
22
GOOD GUYS LOVE DOGS
“Yeah, if your
idea of a hot date is an octopus pickled
in Brut.
“Oh, for Pete's
sake, Colby, you're too picky!
“And you've got
too much time on your hands. As
Colby's best friend, Phoebe refused
to stay out of her love
life, saying she'd known her since
the beginning of the
world and therefore had a vested
interest in her happiness.
Personally, Colby thought she should
join the garden club
or take up knitting, anything to
relieve Phoebe's self-
appointed burden of finding Colby a
husband.
No matter how often they went over
it, Phoebe just
didn't get it. She refused to
believe a woman could be happy
living her life without a
man—maybe because she happened
to be married to one of the last
good men on earth. But
Colby qualified as walking proof she
was wrong. She'd tried
the dating scene off and on over the
years, thinking Lena
needed a father figure. Once in a
while, she'd even dated
out of a true desire for
companionship. But at some point,
it stopped seeming worth the
trouble. The only men she ever
met were either newly divorced and
neurotic or looking for a
housekeeper instead of a wife.
She'd long ago decided love rarely
turned out to be the
way Hollywood depicted it. But then,
she'd learned that
when she'd been eighteen and too
green to know better than
to fal for a great-looking guy with
a great-looking car who