“Tell me this is a bad dream, and you’re not planning on bringing that major embarrassment with us.”

“I’ve invited Molly along to watch her. We can take my car. I hope you don’t mind.”

He smiled at Molly. “Not at all.”

Relieved, she stepped outside.

Molly’s mulish expression made it obvious she wasn’t happy, but Dan acted as if he didn’t notice. “It’s a good thing you could come with us, Miz Molly. You’ll be able to keep that Chinese hors d’oeuvre away from me.”

Molly forgot to look sullen. “Don’t you like Pooh?”

“Can’t stand her.” He began leading both of them to the Cadillac Phoebe’d left at the curb.

Molly was so shocked that she quickened her steps to pull abreast of him. “Why? Don’t you like dogs?”

“’Course I do. Shepherds, labs, collies. Real dogs.”

“Pooh is a real dog.”

“She’s a sissy dog, is what she is. A man spends too much time with a dog like that, next thing you know he’s eating quiche and singing soprano.”

Molly regarded him uncertainly. “That’s a joke, isn’t it?”

Dan’s eyes twinkled. “Of course it’s not a joke. You think I’d joke about something so serious.” He turned to Phoebe and held out his hand. “Pass over the keys, honey lamb. There are certain things a man still does better than a woman, and driving a car is one of them.”

Phoebe rolled her eyes as she gave him the keys to the Cadillac. “Today’s going to be a living history lesson for you, Mol, on life in the fifties. You’ll get to spend time with a man who’s managed to miss an entire social movement.”

Dan grinned as he unlocked the driver’s door and reached inside to flip the automatic locks. “Climb in, ladies. I’d open the doors for you, but I don’t want to be accused of holding back anybody’s liberation.”

Phoebe smiled as she passed Pooh to Molly, then slid beneath the wheel to the passenger side of the front seat. As they pulled away from the curb, she turned toward the back. “If he takes us out to eat, Molly, order the most expensive thing on the menu. In the fifties, the men always paid.”

“Dang,” Dan grumbled. “Now you’re playin’ hardball.”