“Ah....” Dylan turned to watch the rear door open behind him, and in jumped Buzz. Mr. Goldhirsh then made his way round to the passenger side. “Sure. Ready?” Dylan said, because... well hell, what else could he say?

“Ready.”

Only in a small town would he be driving down the road with a complete stranger and his dog.

“So, Dylan, you here long?”

“No, just seeing Dad.”

“Been a while since you’ve been home from what I gather.”

“Sixteen years. You know my family?”

“Of course. Your mother and I don’t see eye to eye, but your father and I jog together, and occasionally he comes to my book club poetry readings.”

“Huh,” Dylan said. He could honestly say he’d never thought about his dad and poetry at the same time. “Hard to get my head around that.”

Mr. Goldhirsh made a humming sound that Dylan had no idea how to interpret.

“It’s not until you don’t have family that you realize how important they are to you, Dylan. I don’t have any, but coming here from Germany, I made many friends, and they are now my family.”

“That’s good then.” Dylan had a feeling he was being lectured.

“It is, because only family and friends will have your back.”

This time it was Dylan who made a humming sound.

“How’s Ava?”

He released the breath he was holding.

“Not good then?”

“I’m pretty much public enemy number one there, Mr. Goldhirsh, and I know she wishes I hadn’t come back to Ryker.” He wasn’t sure why he was discussing this with a stranger.

“Give her time. A little girl needs her big brother, but you’ve been gone most of her life so it’ll take time to regrow that bond.”

“I won’t be here long enough, and maybe that’s for the best.”

“It’s not.”

He looked at the road as Mr. Goldhirsh fiddled with his stereo, and suddenly opera filled the car. Buzz started howling.

“He loves it.”

“How can you tell?”

“That’s his happy yowl. He’s Joe’s dog.”

“Trainer?”

“Yes. Now that is a family you can learn from, Dylan. They were torn apart, but found their way back to each other. Take the time to build those bonds with your sisters, boy. It’s important to you and them.”

As they were pulling into the hospital parking lot, he could only grunt something to the affirmative. It was a weird conversation to be having with a man he’d only met minutes before, especially considering Dylan’s aversion to anything personal, but then nothing since his return could be termed in any way normal.

“I think it would do you good to come for a run one Sunday with our club.”

“Oh but—”

Buzz gave a loud woof, and then he and Mr. Goldhirsh disappeared into the hospital.

“What the hell just happened?”

Hell if I know.