“Hmph,” he said. “So you carry the names and numbers of two criminal defense attorneys around wherever you go?”

“Always,” I said. “People I’m related to keep getting into trouble.”

“Some family I’ve found,” he said. But he didn’t sound too upset, and I noticed that he tucked the slip of paper carefully into one of his dozens of vest pockets as he strode through the lobby.

I went back to the table and found the Driscolls all atwitter with excitement at having met one of their idols.

“You never mentioned that Dr. Blake was your grandfather!” Ambrose Driscoll said.

“We watch all his specials,” his wife said.

The subject of Dr. Blake and his exploits got us through the dessert course, and I suspected the Driscolls went home feeling quite happy with their evening. Since it was only a little past eight, and barely dark, my evening would normally have just begun, but I was feeling a lot more tired than I usually would so early. It wasn’t all Timmy’s fault—some of it was Karen’s. But I found myself wondering if Michael had considered the effect parenthood would have on night owls like us.

“I think I overdid it on the wine,” Michael said, as we reached the parking lot. “I’ll ride with you, and pick up my car tomorrow.”

He almost changed his mind when he saw that I was driving Rob’s Porsche, but after a brief sigh of regret, he settled into the passenger seat and stared up at the stars as I eased the car down the Inn’s driveway.

“This is the life,” he said. “If I make tenure, let’s celebrate by trading in my old convertible for one of these.”

“Another convertible? Not a sturdy minivan for the planned family?”

He frowned.

“We can get one of those, too,” he said, after a moment. “Tenure’s worth celebrating in every possible way. I don’t suppose you want to park down by Caerphilly Creek, for old time’s sake? Put in a downpayment on the celebrating?”

I had to smile.

“I’m tempted,” I said. “But at the moment, I’m a little anxious about Timmy. You realize he’s about to spend his second night with us. That’s scary.”

“Inconvenient, perhaps, on a night like this, but hardly scary.”

“What’s scary is that either Karen isn’t the person I thought she was, to abandon him for so long, or she’s in some pretty serious trouble. And when you come right down to it, it’s pretty scary that she left him with me in the first place. When people have kids, they start doing responsible things like buying insurance and minivans, not handing off their kids to near strangers. Karen and I have hardly seen each other in the last two years, and she had no idea whether I had any experience with small children, and Timmy didn’t know me.”

“He seems to be holding up well,” Michael said. “He’s a pretty adaptable little kid. And maybe Karen has good instincts about who she can trust.”