A Last Goodbye Read Online Free

the dog had disappeared and then quickly brought her up to date on as much as they knew about the animal.
    â€œWhat do you call her?” Mrs. Hastings asked.
    â€œWe don’t call her anything, because we don’t know her name,” Ali said. “We’re still trying to find her owner.”
    â€œThat’s probably wise,” Mrs. Hastings replied. “Once you name them, they’re as good as yours.”
    Ali didn’t want to think about that. “Sorry,” she said. “We’ve got to run.”
    Their dinner reservation was in the steakhouse. The table had originally been set for twelve, but the number was reduced to eleven when Stuart Ramey called down to say he wasn’t feeling up to joining them in the dining room.
    â€œWhat if he bails on the ceremony tomorrow?” Ali asked B. under her breath. “We’ll end up stuck with a ceremony and no music.”
    â€œStu will be there,” B. assured her. “Don’t worry.”
    For a wedding rehearsal dinner, this was a very subdued affair. The required speeches by both the best man and matron of honor were brief and to the point. B. proposed a toast to his parents, both deceased, saying that he wished they had lived long enough to have a chance to meet Ali. Bob Larson spoke about welcoming a new son to the family, and Colin stood up with his Shirley Temple in hand and said he was really happy to have a new grandpa.
    The rest of the time, however, the main topic of conversation was the dog. If Athena had been upset about her son’s having dashed into traffic to save the dog, she seemed to have recovered.
    â€œMy grandmother has a little dachshund like that,” she said. “Her name is Princess. She’s probably about the same color, reddish-brown, and she’s spoiled rotten.”
    â€œMaybe they’re sisters?” Colin suggested.
    â€œI doubt that,” his mother told him.
    â€œWhat if B. can’t find her real owner, not that awful man who threw her out?” Colleen asked. She was still worried that the dog would end up in the pound. “Can we keep her?”
    â€œNo,” Athena said, shaking her head. “That’s not gonna happen. We’d need a fenced yard.”
    â€œWe could build one,” Colin suggested.
    Athena looked at him and shook her head again. “That won’t happen, either.”
    Colleen then turned her plaintive gaze on her great-grandparents. Bob Larson was the one who answered. “No can do, pumpkin,” he said. “Grandma and I take too many cruises.”
    Colleen wasn’t about to give up. She turned to Ali next. “You have a fenced yard,” she said triumphantly, as though the fence alone meant the matter was settled.
    â€œThe problem with that is Grandma doesn’t want a dog,” Ali replied. “And I most especially don’t want a dog on my honeymoon.”
    â€œWhat’s a honeymoon?” Colin asked.
    Thinking that discussing the dog might have been a better bet, Ali let B. take a stab at answering. “It’s something that happens after weddings,” B. explained. “It’s when the bride and groom go off and spend some time by themselves without anyone else along.”
    â€œBut the dog could go, too,” Colleen insisted. “She wouldn’t be any bother, would she? Uncle Leland could watch her.”
    Knowing they had at least two pressing errands to run after dinner, Ali and B. went light on the champagne toasts and passed on having wine. Because Colin and Colleen would be in attendance and maybe running out of steam, Ali had booked the earliest possible dinner reservation.
    It was only a little past eight thirty when B. and Ali went back upstairs to their room and discovered that a plastic sign with the words PET IN ROOM had been hung on the door handle along with one that said DO NOT DISTURB . Inside they found Mrs. Hastings seated on the couch with the dog in