“Let's go get your things together, Lane. Your dad's got work to do, and I'm sure there are enough things going on around town that can keep us busy for a couple of hours.” Calla handed the rabbit back to Jack, and I waited while he put him back in the hutch.
After they’d gone back inside, I checked to make sure he'd properly latched the cage before I followed them into the house. It wasn't like him to take to a new person so easily. Calla had broken the ice with the dinosaur toys, so it figured she'd make some headway. I waited while she helped him find his shoes, and he didn't put up a fight when she held out a pair of green and orange striped socks. She tossed a few snacks into her tote bag and filled up his water bottle like she’d been doing it for years.
“Does he need a booster?”
Damn, I’d been so distracted while I watched her move around my kitchen that I’d almost forgot. “Yeah. It’s in the back seat of the truck. I can get it for you.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll grab it on the way out if it’s unlocked.”
The thought of someone in Hard Timber locking anything almost made me laugh. “Yeah, it’s open.”
The two of them headed out, and I watched through the window as she pulled the booster out of the truck and Lane climbed into the back seat of her car. Watching him so willingly go off with a stranger made me wonder how easily he might do without me.
I was just tired. No need to get emotional about the new nanny. After they’d driven off, I turned around and headed back to the bedroom, wishing I could use this time to take a nap instead of getting caught up on old reports.
CHAPTER 4
CALLA
As Lane and I headed into town, I wondered when how long it might take to see the first signs of trouble. So far this morning, he'd been more than willing to follow my directions. It had only been a little over an hour, but I hadn't seen any indications of him not wanting to follow the plan. And honestly, it probably would help him to have some sort of a plan in the first place. It seemed like Lane would do best with predictable routines, not just having to follow his dad around. Holt's schedule had to be rough on him.
“Do you like going to the library?” I glanced in the rear-view mirror and met his gaze. He had the same gorgeous brown eyes as his dad.
Lane shrugged. "Sometimes. My dad doesn't take me there too much, but we used to go during camp sometimes."
Nellie had mentioned that Lane had been in summer camp and it didn't work out. If I could recreate some of the things he loved from the time he spent there, he might be more invested in helping me make this work. "Were there any things you really liked about summer camp?"
“We were supposed to go on a dinosaur dig but I didn't get to do it because they said I couldn't come to camp anymore.” He stared out the window, his forehead furrowed. His expression made my heart squeeze just a little bit tighter.
"What kind of dinosaur dig?"
He shrugged. “Probably they were just gonna bury some fake bones in the sandbox. I wanted to go to the Westmore dig. Did you know they've been working on that for almost twenty years?”
I didn't. Lane seemed to know all kinds of things about dinosaurs. Keeping up with him was going to be its own challenge. “Is it open to the public? Is that somewhere we could visit together this summer?”
His eyes lit up. “I don't know.”
“Let me do some digging.” I winced at the unintended pun. “I bet there's somewhere in town where we can find visitor information, and if there's not, I bet Nellie knows.”
“Nellie knows everything. She likes dinosaurs too.” Lane’s excitement had him bouncing on the back seat.
“Well it's a good thing you're surrounded by so many people who like dinosaurs.” I pulled into a spot at the parking lot. It was fuller than I'd ever seen it before.
We walked in to see a sign in the lobby saying it was toddler story time hour. That explained all the cars in the parking lot.
Lane crossed his arms over his chest. "You didn't bring me here for toddler story time, did you?" His expression was accusing, a real resting grump face.
"No, I didn't bring you here for story time," I assured him. “Do you know how to look up dinosaur books to find out where they are on the shelves?"
When he didn't reply right away, I assumed he didn't know, or someone had shown him and he'd forgotten. So I led him over to one of the computer stations, where a screensaver bounced around on the screen.
“All you need to do is type in the subject.” I moved the mouse over the space where I needed to enter the search criteria. Using the touchpad, I typed in dinosaurs.
Search results filled the screen.
“Do you see anything you like?” I asked.
Lane scanned the options and pointed to the fourth one. It was a book titled What Caused the Dinosaurs to Go Extinct.
