His eyes flashed gratitude and a little shame before he gathered his book and stood up. He put the book under one arm. “When this is over, I’ll walk Hawkeye at night.” His chin lifted a little with the declaration, as if daring her to disagree.

“I’d appreciate it,” Dani said evenly. “He needs more walking than I have time to do. More grooming, too. He loves to be brushed. I’ll have to ask Merry or one of the others to bring a dog brush the next time they visit.”

“And bathed?” Michael asked. “I can bathe him, too.”

Dani had to force herself to smile, because Evelyn Keys was still missing. Not your fault. And she knew that was true. But it was still hard not to feel responsible. The woman might be dead simply because she lived in Dani’s neighborhood.

And Michael might have been dead had Kaiser been successful, simply because he’d been protecting Joshua and was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had witnessed Brewer’s murder.

She hoped Kaiser wasn’t hurting Evelyn and Jimmy. Part of her brain had been shouting all through the movie that she should be doing something, trying to find them. But she had been doing something. She’d been doing her job, taking care of two scared boys who’d just lost everything they’d ever known.

“Hawk doesn’t like baths that much, but he’s good in the tub,” she told Michael. “He just looks so sad when he’s all wet, like you stole his best bone.”

Michael laughed out loud, and Diesel made a disgruntled sound, abruptly sitting up straighter. “I think I fell asleep during the last part of the movie.”

“You snored,” Joshua informed him. “But it’s okay. Dani put the captions on.”

“You can read the captions?” Diesel asked him, covering a yawn with his hand.

Joshua nodded seriously. “Some of the words.”

Michael ruffled his hair. “He’s smart,” he said, making the little boy beam proudly. “He can read a lot of words.”

Diesel stood up, all broad chest and hard muscles, and Dani felt a shiver of anticipation. They’d put off gratification earlier that day, saving it for when the boys were asleep.

She hoped that the boys fell asleep quickly. “Time for bed, Joshua,” she said.

Joshua slid off her lap and turned to Diesel. “I picked a different story for tonight. It’s a chapter book about a little boy who’s really a mouse.”

“Stuart Little,” Diesel said knowingly. “I saw it next to your bed earlier. But just one chapter, okay?” He lifted Joshua into his arms, parking him on his hip, then threw a wink at Dani. “They’re really short chapters,” he mouthed.

Dani bit back a grin. “’Night, Joshua.” She turned to Michael, who was watching Diesel with an unreadable expression. She touched his arm. “Michael?”