Roadside Crosses (Kathryn Dance 2)

"No, no, I'm exhausted, Katie. Come on, Stu. I want to go home."

Dance received a distracted embrace from her mother, and her comfort from earlier diminished. "Call me later." Disappointed at their quick retreat, she watched the taillights disappear up the road. Then she told the children to say good night to Boling. The professor smiled and shook their hands, and Dance sent them off to wash up.

Wes appeared a few minutes later with a DVD. Ghost in the Shell, a Japanese anime science fiction tale involving computers.

"Here, Mr. Boling. This is pretty sweet. You can borrow it if you want."

Dance was astonished that her son was behaving so well with a man. Probably he recognized Boling as a business associate of his mother's, not a love interest; still, he'd been known to grow defensive even around her coworkers.

"Well, thanks, Wes. I've written about anime. But I've never seen this one."

"Really?"

"Nope. I'll bring it back in good shape."

"Whenever. 'Night."

The boy hurried back to his room, leaving the two of them together.

But only for a moment. A second later Maggie appeared with a gift of her own. "This is my recital." She handed him a CD in a jewel box.

"The one you were talking about at dinner?" Boling asked. "Where Mr. Stone burped during the Mozart?"

"Yeah!"

"Can I borrow it?"

"You can have it. I have about a million of them. Mom made them."

"Well, thanks, Maggie. I'll burn it on my iPod."

The girl actually blushed. Unusual for her. She charged off.

"You don't have to," Dance whispered.

"Oh, no. I will. She's a great girl."

He slipped the disk into his computer bag and looked over the anime that Wes had lent him.

Dance lowered her voice again, "How many times have you seen it?"

He chuckled. "Ghost in the Shell? Twenty, thirty times . . . along with the two sequels. Damn, you can even spot the white lies."

"Appreciate your doing that. It means a lot to him."

"I could tell he was excited."

"I'm surprised you don't have children. You seem to understand them."

"No, that never worked out. But if you want children, it definitely helps to have a woman in your life. I'm one of those men you have to be careful of. Don't you say that, all you girls?"

"Careful of? Why's that?"

"Never date a man over forty who's never been married."

"I think nowadays whatever works, works."

"I just never met anybody I wanted to settle down with."