Read Once Bitten (A Melanie Travis Mystery) for Free Online Page B

next few weeks. I’ll find out the scoop if you want.”
    Aunt Peg and Davey were back at the crates, waiting for us when we returned. The hamburgers they’d brought for us were flat and cold in their soggy, grease soaked buns. Fortunately, the half-dozen brownies Peg had also piled into the cardboard carry box had survived the wait better.
    Munching, Bertie, Peg, and I readied Bertie’s last three class entries: a Keeshond and two Chinese Cresteds. Then, satisfied that she had everything under control, I got Faith out of her crate and began to pack up. The Poodle’s long black topknot, done up now in wraps and bands to keep it out of her way, flipped and bobbed as she danced on the tabletop.
    Damn, I wished she had finished today. I was really looking forward to the day when I could cut off her hair and let her live like a normal dog, one who knew what it felt like to have her owner scratch the top of her head, or to run full tilt through the woods.
    “It’s getting to be about time,” I whispered to Faith.
    Pressing my nose against hers, I cupped my palms under the sides of her jaw and rubbed back and forth over her lips and teeth with my thumbs as I stroked her cheeks with my fingers. Faith leaned forward into me, wiggling her body with delight and enjoying her favorite non-hair-invasive caress.
    “Tomorrow,” Aunt Peg said firmly. She’d been eavesdropping on our private conversation.
    “What about tomorrow?”
    “Get up, get in the car, come back here, and do it all over again.”
    Showing dogs, in a nutshell.
    Some days it was just like having a job.

5

    T here are times when it seems like nothing goes the way you planned.
    Late Saturday afternoon, when Davey and I got home from the dog show, there was a car parked in our driveway. A screaming red Trans Am with Texas plates. It took me a few seconds to make the connection. It took Davey even less time than that.
    “Daddy!” he shrieked. I braked hastily as my son threw open his door and scrambled out. “Where did you come from?”
    Good question, I thought, parking the Volvo as Bob climbed out of his car and stood in the driveway. I hate surprises; have I mentioned that? My ex-husband knows it, or he would if he ever stopped to think about such things. Unfortunately, taking my wishes into consideration has never been a strong suit of his.
    Bob swooped his son up off the ground and swung him around in an exuberant circle. “I came from Texas, where do you think? I’m here to visit my two favorite people in the whole world.”
    Watching Davey’s legs fly by above her head, Faith jumped up and tried to join in the fun. Her barking was loud enough to alert the entire neighborhood that the Travis family was home. And in case anyone missed the point, Davey’s high-pitched screams of glee provided the final punctuation.
    It was only a matter of time before someone called 911. Either that or a psychiatric facility.
    “Let’s move this sideshow indoors.” I started up the steps, hoping everyone would follow.
    “Good idea,” Bob agreed, rallying the rest of the troops.
    Though a year and a half had passed since I’d seen him last, it didn’t look as though much had changed. His sandy brown hair was cut a little shorter and looked as though it might be thinning on top. The creases around his eyes had deepened, probably from squinting into the Texas sun. But he still handled himself with that appealing self-confidence and easy grace that had made my heart pound a decade earlier.
    At the door, Bob stopped and carefully wiped his cowboy boots on the mat before coming inside. That was new.
    “Your two favorite people?” I said as Davey and Faith ran on ahead to the kitchen.
    “Sure, why not?” Bob leaned forward and brushed a kiss across my cheek.
    I stepped back before he could add a hug. “What about Jennifer? Your new wife?”
    The one who’d finally reached voting age in the spring, I could have added but didn’t. I was taking my new, mature