car. Before he shut the door, he leaned over the seat and began cooing to the little white dog, grateful for the elaborate tag on her collar that came complete with the address in case she should be lost.
“Glinda,” he called brightly. “Glinda, honey. C’mon. Someone here has to know you.”
“Glinda!”
The cry went up from all six throats, a sort of desperate relief in every voice.
“Glinda!”
The dog apparently heard someone there she recognized, because she bounded out of the car and trotted down the sidewalk, right into Alex Kennedy’s arms.
“Oh my God,” he said, walking toward Simon with the rest of the neighborhood at his heels. “Oh my God, whoever you are, I can’t thank you en—Simon?”
Simon gave his most winning smile. “Hi. Uh, Alex. And friends. I take it you know this dog?”
“Yeah,” Alex said, hugging her tight. “Yeah. She, uh, disappeared last night. Wait.” Alex looked helplessly at a very tall, very intense young man at his heels with blond hair and ice-blue eyes, who shrugged back. “Uh, Simon? Where did you find her? Just, uh, out of curiosity.”
“She was right outside my door around eight o’clock last night,” Simon said, frowning.
“But where do you live?” Alex asked helplessly as Glinda began to methodically lick his stubbled face.
“Jackson,” Simon said.
“But that’s about an hour away,” said another young man—this one closer to Alex’s height, with enormous gray eyes and a sort of innocent expression that made Simon want to hold an umbrella over his head, just in case.
“Forty-five minutes, early, without traffic,” Simon said promptly. “What were you all doing out in Jackson?”
“Nothing!” Alex burst out. “She disappeared from right here.”
“Well, not right here,” said the very tall young man. “You know, over there. By the recycle bin. Or where the recycle bin would be if it wasn’t at the curb waiting for the trash man.”
“Jordan, you sound unhinged,” said the woman, and if Simon hadn’t been crushing so badly on Alex, he would have said she was a dish. A curvy, buxom, sarcastic dish. Mm. “Does it matter that it was where the recycle bin is?”
“It matters that it was forty miles away,” Jordan said, sounding very much unhinged, and the dish patted his shoulder.
“Wait,” Simon said, trying to pull information from the chaos. “You’re saying this dog traveled forty miles in the span of a night?”
“What time did you say she was at your door?” asked the young man with the coffee.
“Eight o’clock,” Simon remembered. He’d just been settling down with a glass of wine and a book when he’d heard her little paws scratching and the pathetic little whimper. “Seriously, are you sure this is the same—”
“Glinda,” Alex said, scowling. “‘Number 3 Sebastian Circle, Folsom, California, Cully’s baby.’ This is her.”
“So which one of you is Cully?” Simon asked, trying for that winning smile again. “Wouldn’t he know when she—”
“Cully is… unavailable,” Alex said, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. “Simon, thank you for bringing his dog back. Is there anything we can do for you? Reward? Bartholomew here would pay you in baked goods, Kate does soaps and lotions, or Jordan does essential oils. I mean, we’re really grateful, but is there anything we can do—”
“A cup of coffee,” Simon said quickly, ignoring the steaming mug of coffee currently cooling in the commuter mug in his console. “And let me give you a ride to work. I can, uh, take you home tonight too.” Oh please oh please oh please….
But the look on Alex’s face was not promising. “Oh, Simon, I’m sorry. We’ve got a… uh, meeting tonight, and we still have to walk Glinda, and—”
“I’ll come,” Simon said, smile growing toothy and desperate. “I can come to your meeting, and—”
“Sure,” said Jordan, diving into the breach. Alex gave him a panicked look and smacked his arm, but Jordan kept rolling on. “Yes. You can come walk the dog. Not the meeting, though. That’s sort of, uh, neighborhood only. But yes. Give Alex a ride. Just get him here at sunset.”
“Sunset?” Simon asked, remembering Alex’s fixation with the time from their conversation the afternoon before. “What’s so big about sunse—”
“Just get him here!” all of the people said at the same time.
“Okay.” Simon knew his eyes were bigger than dinner plates. “Sunset.”
Jordan gave him one of those looks that said, “Fine, think we’re crazy, just do what we say,” which was, come to think about it, sort of a bank robber’s expression, wasn’t it? “Good. Come in, get coffee. The rest