on the table, upsetting various pots of paint and dye. He barked happily as children screamed and bolted.
The dog apparently thought this was a wonderful game. So he hopped down from the table, upsetting it in the process and splashing dye and eggs in all directions. He raced after one cute little girl with her hair all in cornrows who led him right to the frog jump tent where her daddy was coaching her older brother.
Champ, it turned out, was going to grow up into a champion frog catcher. He made a beeline to the five-gallon buckets where the community frogs were staying cool. His tail wagged with joy as he nosed into each of the buckets. He barked happily and then upset three of them.
The suddenly freed frogs set about making a quick escape. They were real good jumpers.
The humans ran after them. They were not such good jumpers, and it has to be said that some of the adults in the crowd started cursing and swearing in a way that had the old ladies tittering like hens.
And Champion was having a heck of a time until Todd screamed at him and told him he was a big screwup. Suddenly aware that he’d misbehaved, Champ took off down Palmetto Avenue with his tail between his legs.
It looked like the excitement had exited along with the dog until one of the frog jockeys—a kid bigger than Todd—turned toward Savannah’s darling son and asked in a bellicose tone, “Was that your no-account dog?”
“Yeah. You wanna make something of it?”
The big kid apparently did because he hauled off and socked Todd square in the face. But Savannah’s boy didn’t go down. Much to Savannah’s surprise, Todd absorbed the blow, then tackled the larger kid and drove him right to the ground. Todd landed a pretty good punch to the kid’s face, and his assailant cried uncle.
Todd didn’t hang around after that. He stood up and took off down Palmetto Avenue in the same general direction as his dog. The bigger boy didn’t give chase; he was too busy nursing a bloody nose and crying.
That left Dash to do the job. And despite his knee injury, the man could still run pretty good.
“Savannah, I think this episode confirms that your son needs discipline,” Bill said.
Savannah’s hands formed into fists, and she might have coldcocked the minister if it hadn’t been for the sudden appearance of Claire White, dressed, as always, in a designer suit and a pair of pointy-toed pumps. She was accompanied by Mom, who wasn’t dressed nearly so well, but that hardly mattered, given the look on Katie Lynne Brooks’s face. Savannah’s mother and ex-mother-in-law had apparently joined forces.
“The reverend is correct,” Claire said in that imperious tone of hers. “Your son is out of control. And who’s to blame for that?” Claire didn’t stamp her foot. She didn’t have to. The little temper tantrum in her voice was sufficient.
Mom would have done well to keep her mouth closed. But she didn’t, as usual. “Good Lord, Savannah, didn’t I tell you it was a mistake to let Todd spend time with that man?”
“What are you two doing here?” Savannah said.
“We’ve come to take you back to Baltimore,” Claire said. “It’s clear we’ve arrived just in the nick of time.”
“I can’t let you do that,” Bill said, moving to Savannah’s side as if he were her knight in shining armor, ready to do battle with out-of-line grandmothers at a moment’s notice.
“I beg to differ,” Claire said.
“She’s going to be my wife, and I say she’s not moving to Baltimore.”
The church ladies erupted into applause with a few soulful “amens” supplied by the AME church matrons. Lillian said, “Atta boy, Bill. You tell her the way it’s going to be.”
Mom straightened her shoulders, her gaze shifting from Bill to Savannah and back again. “Is this true?”
There was no good answer to this question that wouldn’t leave Savannah torn and bloody. So she did the only sensible thing she could think of.
She took off at a run, heading down Palmetto Avenue in the same direction as Champion, Todd, and Dash. She hoped like hell that Todd’s grannies couldn’t run very far in their high heels. Bill, she figured, she could handle.
Maybe.
CHAPTER 13
Todd had tears running down his cheeks, blood oozing out of his nose, and the beginnings of a shiner. By the time Dash caught up with him, the kid had made it to the corner of Palmetto and Baruch, and Dash’s knee was