“Of course not. You’re welcome to keep him as long as you like. Just…be careful, okay? And send him back to me if anything gets to be too much.”

“You make it sound like he’s an escaped convict or something,” Lawson joked.

Spencer met his gaze. Lawson and his husband were very nice, very stable human beings, and it would do Caleb a world of good to be around them, but it didn’t seem fair for them to take him on without being aware of the extenuating circumstances. Matching his tone to Lawson’s, he said, “Would you still take him if he was?”

Lawson shrugged. “Of course. We all need a helping hand sometimes.”

He followed this revelation with a hand plunged deep into his pocket. Extracting a folded envelope, he added, “To be honest, Caleb’s not the one we’re worried about. You, however…”

The smallest of Lawson’s dogs, a scrapper named Gizmo who could never resist a piece of dangling bait, leaped up and grabbed the envelope before Spencer could make a move for it.

“Dammit, Gizmo!” Lawson cried. “We’ve talked about this. Spencer, you’re going to want to read what’s on that. You’d better get it from him.”

Caleb reentered the house in time to hear this decree. Since he was closest to the animal, he made a mad dive to get his hands on the envelope. He failed and crashed into the umbrella stand instead. This set up a round of barking protests from the pile of dogs in the corner and only made Gizmo move faster, which upended one of Caleb’s black bags of clothes and sent dirty socks flying.

Spencer took one look at the scene of mayhem and announced in his deepest voice: “Stop.”

It worked exactly the way he expected it to. The Chihuahua, startled into obedience, dropped the envelope. The other three dogs came to attention at the same time. Even Lawson and Caleb seemed to straighten at the sound.

“Don’t say it,” Spencer warned as he swooped down to grab the crushed envelope. “I already know. All it takes is the sound of my voice to bring everything into order. Dogs listen. Children cry. Cities fall.”

But then he grinned. The sound of his voice also made Ruby laugh, and that was worth all the rest.

“Why, Spencer Wilson. Are you smiling at me?” Lawson asked.

“Don’t bother,” Caleb said. “He won’t spill any of the sordid details. The only thing I know is that he spent last weekend with Ruby. All of last weekend with Ruby.”

One of Lawson’s eyebrows lifted into an impeccable arch, but he followed it up with a shake of his head. “Then return that envelope. I changed my mind.”

Spencer glanced down at the crumpled paper in his hand. “Why? What’s in it?”

“A recipe for my great-aunt Ada’s pecan pie. I need it back.”