Chow Down (A Melanie Travis Mystery) by Laurien Berenson Read Free Book Online

as I love your breasts.”
    “I appreciate the thought,” I said. “But your timing stinks.”
    His hand was still moving. Now the other one had joined it. One by one, the Poodles came trotting back. This time, Tar had the ball. He dropped it at Sam’s feet. Sam kicked it hard and they raced away again.
    “Nah, this is just a little warm-up for later.”
    “Kind of like a pregame show?”
    “Careful now,” Sam murmured, his lips close to my ear. “Men get turned on by sports metaphors.”
    I insinuated my hips into his. “I thought you were already—”
    “Hey, Sam-Dad, look!”
    We jumped apart like a pair of guilty teenagers. Sam’s hands fell away. He cleared his throat, yanked on his waistband. We both looked up.
    Then abruptly I realized what Davey had said. “Sam-Dad?”
    “Yeah.” Davey grinned. He was lying on the boards, looking down at us over the rim of the tree house floor. “Sam said I could call him that.”
    “He did, huh?”
    I glanced sideways, my eyes suddenly moist. Sam was looking away—perhaps purposely—his eyes following the trajectory of the ball he’d just lobbed again. A minute earlier I’d felt desired, but now my heart swelled with emotion. I couldn’t imagine ever loving a man more than I loved Sam right that moment.
    When I didn’t speak right away, he looked back. “Maybe I should have asked you first . . . That’s okay, isn’t it?”
    “It’s better than okay,” I said with a sniffle. “It’s perfect.”
    Now he looked embarrassed. “It’s no big deal.”
    “It’s a huge deal.”
    “It’s a name,” Davey said practically, still watching from above us. “I couldn’t call him Dad because . . . you know . . .”
    Davey’s real father lived only a couple of miles away. After being mostly absent for the first five years of his son’s life, Bob was now making a concerted effort to play a role in Davey’s upbringing. In fact, the house we were now living in—a spacious colonial on two acres of land—had belonged to my ex-husband before we’d traded homes in the spring.
    “So I thought of this instead,” Davey said.
    “It’s a great name,” I agreed, trying not to sound too watery.
    “So when you guys finally get around to having a baby—”
    “Davey!”
    “What?” He slid back from the edge of the floor, disappearing briefly before popping, legs first, out onto the branch. He shinnied back to the ladder and was on the ground before I’d even managed to formulate an answer. “Sam said that someday I’m going to have a little brother or sister, but in the meantime I just have to be patient.”
    “Really?” My conversational skills seemed to be deteriorating rapidly.
    “Really,” Davey confirmed. “I told Sam-Dad I wanted a brother and he said he was trying as hard as he knew how.”
    “Good to know,” I said.
    “So . . .” Davey fixed me with a level stare. “I hope you’re trying, too.”
    “Trust me,” I said, “it’s a joint effort.”
    “Well, hurry up.”
    I’d heard much the same thing from Aunt Peg, Bertie, and just about everyone else I knew. Sam and I had been married only three months, for Pete’s sake. On several occasions, I’d been sorely tempted to mention that upping the pressure didn’t increase fertility. But not to my eight-year-old son.
    Instead I looked at him and smiled. “I’ll do my best,” I said.

    When I finally got around to opening my email I found out that the reception Ben had told me about was scheduled to be held at the Champions Company headquarters in Norwalk on Monday morning. Though the event was billed as a social occasion, a chance for everyone involved to meet one another, it seemed pretty clear that this would be the first step in the judging process.
    With that in mind, I spent Sunday evening clipping, bathing, and scissoring Faith, devoting as much time to her coiffure as I would have had we been heading to a show. The effort left me feeling like the poster child for ambivalence. I