My mother—always taking care of all creatures in her realm.
“Great. I’ll be right back. Maybe keep him occupied?”
She rolled her eyes.
So much sass. I love it. She’d been through a lot in her short life, but was handling today’s change of plans with aplomb. That earned my respect.
I dashed out to the SUV, grabbed the coffee mugs, rearmed the alarm, then hustled back inside. I removed my boots, shucked off my coat, then headed to the kitchen.
Melodie and Trevor sat on barstools at the kitchen island while Mama stirred some of her amazing tomato soup.
I dumped the undrunk coffee down the drain, rinsed the mugs, then put them into the dishwasher.
Mama glared, Then caught herself and smiled.
“How can I help?” At that moment, I spotted Lucky who’d planted himself at the far end of the island—clearly just ready to eat anything that might accidentally fall.
“Nainai says Lucky can have a cracker if you say it’s okay.” Melodie nudged the package toward me.
“Does he do tricks?” I pulled a cracker from the pack. Nothing fancy—just peppercorn. I considered. “Can he eat this?”
Trevor and Melodie exchanged a look.
I grabbed the package of saltines from the cupboard. “As much as I love your dog, he’s not getting my fancy crackers.” I didn’t give a shit, but better to go for something super plain. I had to trust if the dog had digestive issues, then Melodie would speak up.
“He can sit, lie down, beg, roll over, and play dead.” Melodie stared at him. “When he feels like it.”
Mama snickered. “For food? I suspect Quinton will be able to coax him. Lunch in three minutes.”
I split a cracker in half. “Sit.”
Lucky plopped onto his butt.
I fed him the half cracker. “Lie down.”
No hesitation. Another half cracker.
I grabbed the next one and split it. “Roll over.”
Lucky held my gaze with his super-intense dark-brown eyes.
“Roll over?”
Melodie laughed. “Try sayingplease. That works.”
“Sometimes.” Trevor said the word with absolute seriousness.
“Uh, please roll over?”
After the longest pause in the history of pauses, Lucky managed to roll over.
I gave him both halves of the cracker and decided to take the win. “Bowls?” I snuck a peek over Mama’s shoulder to the congee.
“Yes. And glasses of milk. Good for bones.”
We didn’t generally drink liquid with our meals. Unless we were having tea. Clearly Mama was taking her lead from the kids. Which I appreciated.
“I like milk.” Trevor fingered the cloth napkin Mama must’ve put before him.
