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Best sound ever He started laughing as hen he turned and found Grace watching them with a smile "Hope you don’t mind," she said "It’s a backward dinner"

"We love backward dinners!" Toby said

They’d never had a backward dinner

Tank was sitting on the floor at Toby’s feet He let out a loud "arf!" followed by a pathetically sad whine

"He’s sad ’cause Grace said he can’t have chocolate," Toby said "Chocolate’s bad for dogs They go like this…" He -out eyes and the sound effects to go with it, before dra off the stool to the floor There he kicked once, twice, and then "died"

"Nice," Josh said

Toby smiled proudly and sat back up as Tank cli his face

"We don’t feel sorry for Tank," Grace told Josh "He got his dessert"

"He ate a bag of powdered sugar," Toby said

Josh looked at the tiny Tank "When you say bag of powdered sugar…"

"The entire bag, including the paper" Grace shook her head "He has an eating disorder"

They all looked at Tank, who snorted, then burped, eonna eat with us, Daddy?" Toby asked "We’re having rinned "No, it’s ht about the nutritional content of the unopened box of mac and cheese on the counter, which probably was about as healthy as eating the actual box, and grimaced "Where’s Nina?"

"On a date!" Toby said

Now that Toby had regained his e, apparently he felt the need to speak in exclamation points

"You should join us," Grace said, her voice sounding a little husky now, reht before, when he’d been buried deep Oh, please, Josh, she’d said in that same voice Pretty sure he had pleased, he cleared his throat and looked at the box again

"Afraid?" she asked

"Yes For my arteries"

She pointed to the counter and the half-eies"

"Toby doesn’t eat carrots"

"I do so!" Toby clai up a carrot Of course he dipped it in a bowl of what looked like salad dressing until there was no carrot to be seen before ja everywhere

Josh let out a breath

Grace was looking at hiurt"

Josh shuddered at that combination but had to admit he couldn’t object "Where’s Anna?"

Grace’s smile faded some "Out Not sure where Hoork?"

In the past, the answer to this question would have been "crazy" But that didn’t apply today "Manageable"

"You sound surprised Dr McGinley not doing a good job?"

"She’s doing a great job" So great that Josh still felt discoone on without him He looked at the box of mac and cheese and decided he just couldn’t do it He went to the freezer and pulled out a couple of steaks While he defrosted them in the microwave, he headed out the back door and started the barbeque The thing was brand spanking new and huge He’d bought it two years ago and had never used it, not once, but it started right up with a big, satisfactory whoo in the open door watching hi manly?"

He took in her pretty little sundress as she stepped outside It had spaghetti straps and tiny buttons down the front and ca"

She s toys that turns the’ We like everything big"

"Well you have no worries there"

He wasn’t touching that one with a ten-foot pole Or a nine-inch one… "Are we playing?"

She looked hiain It wasn’t the first time Josh had been undressed by a woiven him a hard-on And he knew she liked what she saw because the pulse at the base of her throat kicked into gear

Liking that, he took a step toward her, planning on showing her more of his "Neanderthal" side

"Arf, arf!" Tank cahtsaber, both heading right for Grace full speed ahead

Josh stepped in front of her to bear the brunt of the inevitable ihtsaber--

And accidentally collided with Josh’s head Josh staggered back and tripped over Tank The puppy yelped, and Josh shifted his weight, but the da hiain, and this ti i his head on the concrete Stars burst behind his eyeballs, and then…

Nothing

Chapter 21

Always have chocolate on the To Do list todone

Josh?"

He heard the voice coent, and old habit had hiency He blinked his eyes open, then ih his head,him want to toss his cookies

Or in this case, cupcakes

"Josh, oh ain Shit, that chocolate had been a very bad idea "Toby--"

Grace was on her knees at his side "He’s fine The dog’s fine I’m fine, thanks to you We’re all fine Now please open your eyes again and talk to me"

Hell, no If he did that, he’d definitely toss his cupcakes

"Arf! Arf, arf, arf!"

Oh, Jesus, the Antichrist’s barking was going to split open his head

"Quiet, Tank," Grace said "Toby, baby, grab hiood, you’re back Get a phone in case we need to call nine-one-one"

"Got it," Anna said, sounding so unusually shaken that Josh did open his eyes Look at that, Antichrist nue "No nine-one-one"