The Dead Season by Donna Ball Read Free Book Online

of anyone more qualified. What exactly did you say you’ll be doing again?”
    “Well,” I admitted, “that part I’m not too clear on, but it pays two thousand dollars.”
    His eyebrows went up at that. “For sleeping on the ground and eating pork and beans? Maybe you’d better read the fine print.”
    “As long as I don’t have to be responsible for the juvenile delinquents, I don’t care what the fine print says. I’m a minimum wage earner, you know.”
    “Well, now I feel bad. Guess where I’m going this weekend?”
    “Umm… skiing in the Alps? Rafting down the Amazon?”
    “Portugal.”
    I frowned a little. “That’s in Spain, isn’t it?”
    “No, it’s in Portugal. But you’re right about one thing—it’s warm and sunny there. So while you’re eating frozen pork and beans, I’ll be working on my tan.”
    “What about Melanie?”
    I try not to get involved in other peoples’ personal lives, I really do. Even the personal lives of people I like. I have enough trouble managing my dogs. But Miles had been a full-time father for less than three weeks, and I wondered if it might be a little soon to fall back into his cavalier globe-trotting lifestyle. Melanie had spent the majority of her life in New York with her mother—or, to be more accurate, at boarding schools with weekends in New York with her mother—who had unceremoniously abandoned custody when she decided to marry a Brazilian tennis player and live out of the country. I’m not saying Melanie had been a particular sweetheart about it in the beginning, but the fact that she had adjusted as well as she had done said a lot about her resilience. I really, really, didn’t want Miles to blow it now. Because in my whole life, there have been maybe three kids that I actually have liked. Melanie is one of them.  Miles said, “Grandma’s coming.”
    And in the background, Melanie echoed, “Grandma’s coming!”
    Well, that was good. I hadn’t actually thought he’d just leave the country and forget about her, the way a person might forget to feed the goldfish when he went away for a long weekend. But it wasn’t just Melanie, now. He had a whole family to worry about, and, after all, Melanie was practically old enough to take care of herself, but Pepper was just a puppy. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Miles?” I lowered my voice a little, hoping not to be overheard by the young lady on the other end. “I mean, a puppy is a big responsibility. Does your mother even like dogs?”
    For a moment his eyes were blank, and then he realized I was not talking about his daughter. The amusement that twitched his lips was rueful. “My mother was the first adult human Pepper met after you, remember? And she allowed a puppy to pee all over her sisal rugs at the beach house over Christmas, so I think she’ll be fine here. Besides, Melanie has your number.”
    “But I’ll be in the wilderness.” I was starting to wonder if I should reconsider.
    “That phone will work from Mars. That’s why I gave it to you. Just make sure it’s charged before you leave. And, Raine.” He looked for a moment as though he was going to say something stupid and patronizing like Be careful or, worse, Don’t go hiking up a mountain in the middle of the winter for ten days with a bunch of jailbirds you don’t know . I could see it in his eyes, and I appreciated the sentiment, but no one who knew me would have said it out loud. So he only said, “Stay warm. I’ll call you from the airport.”
    “Have a good time. Tell Melanie I’ll check on her before I leave.”
    It was only after I hung up that I realized, with a silly kind of wistfulness, that I really kind of wished he had said something stupid.
 
     
    I had known Maude for most of my life. She had taught me everything I knew about dogs. It had been she who had given me my first golden retriever,and s he ’d been my partner in Dog Daze for fifteen years. Maude and I were accustomed to taking over