“No, I don’t. There are all kinds of grandmothers. How do the two of you get along?”

Lucy got that familiar belligerent look. “We get along great! She’s the best grandmother in the world. She’s got tons of money, and she’s this real nice college professor, and she loves me and Button so much.”

If she loved them so much, why hadn’t she flown back the moment she learned her daughter had died? And why was Lucy working so hard at matchmaking if they got along so well? “She sounds almost too good to be true.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that Mat and I are going to meet her ourselves very soon, so you might as well be honest about it.”

“This isn’t any of your damn business!”

“Lucy.” Mat’s voice sounded a low warning note.

“I’m going.” She flounced to the rear of the Winnebago and banged the door.

“I’m getting a really bad feeling about Grandma,” Nealy said.

“She’s a college professor. How bad can she be?”

“What are you going to do if she doesn’t measure up?”

“She will. Don’t worry about it.”

She wondered who he was trying to convince.

Just then, a loud yip came from the back.

“That’s not an engine noise!” Mat swore under his breath, braked, and pulled off onto the shoulder. “Lucy! Get out here!”

The door at the rear slowly opened. Her head was down, shoulders slumped. She crept forward. “What’d I do now?”

Mat regarded her stonily. “You tell me.”

A mournful howl echoed through the Winnebago.

He vaulted up from the seat and charged to the back. “Son of a—”

“I guess he found Squid,” Lucy mumbled.

“Squid?” Nealy said weakly.

“That’s what the guy at the service station called him. I’d like to give him another name, but I don’t want to confuse him.”

Another curse from the back, then Mat stalked forward, followed by a dirty, malnourished dog that appeared to be part beagle and part everything else. It had a mottled brown coat, long droopy ears, and a mournful expression.

“I didn’t steal him!” Lucy pushed past Mat to kneel by the dog. “The guy at the service station said he was going to shoot him! Somebody dropped him off on the side of the road yesterday, and nobody wanted him.”

“I can’t imagine why.” Mat glared down at the pathetic animal. “Shooting him would be a gift to humanity.”

“I knew you’d say something crappy like that!” She hugged the dog to her thin chest. “He’s mine! Mine and Button’s.”

“That’s what you think.”