Two minutes later he ran up, tossed his books onto the backseat, and slid onto the front.

"Sorry Mom. Have you been here long?"

HNo. I was a little late myself." She knew enough not to lean over for a kiss.

Fourteen-year-old boys didn't kiss their mothers while their schoolmates were looking on. Instead she started the car. "Did you have a good day?"

Sure."

"Where were you coming from just now?" It hadn't been the library, where she had expected him to be.

The dining hall. I had dinner with the kids.

You don't mind, do you?" "I do," she said with a stab of disappointment. I'm making dinner at home."

I know, but I was starved. Soccer practice stunk We had to run around the field ten times, and then do it again when one of the guys said something the coach didn't like. I was beat. I needed something to get me going again."

"Oh, Dougie." She sighed. She viewed dinner as an important daily family event. "So what did you eat?" "Something with chicken. It was pretty good."

Angie could imagine a sauce with the occasional piece of diced chicken, mashed potatoes, bread and butter and cake Not quite the kid I "I was starved. I don't know if I can make it to seven for dinner every night. That's late, Mom." q if, "Only forty-five minutes later than usual," she informed him, and turned onto the main road. "It's just a question of getting used to it. Besides, I sent you with fruit." She shot him a glance. "What happened to that?"

He scowled out the window. "I'm not eating fruit in front of the guys.

Maybe Coke, or candy, but not fruit." He turned to her and said with surprising force, "What's so awful about my having dinner with the kids once in a while? If the food here is okay for them, it's okay for me, and besides, it's fun eating here."

"It may well be, but you're not a boarder in part because I like being able to talk with you over dinner. You're one of the fun parts of my day." She knew that time was limited, that Dougie would be increasingly independent, that too soon he would be going off to college, and that that was the natural order of things, but for now she wasn't giving him up. "Dinner at home isn't the same without you.

Besides, I thought we agreed that you'd spend the extra time at the end of the day at the library. That way you could get a head start on your homework, so I wouldn't be annoyed when the phone started to ring at night." She had thought it a fine compromise.

"I was hungry," he said. "It seemed like the right thing to do at the time."

She smiled. "No great harm done. Besides, I'm running a little late.

By the time the steaks are grilled, you'll be hungry again. So, anyway, tell me what's new. How did the Spanish quiz go?"

Travel time was quality time. Angie prized it, those few minutes when she had her son all to herself in the car, when he might share the small details of his life. The details this day, once he passed off the Spanish quiz as a snap, had to do with the new Head's special project. "He's building a house."

"A house."

"For alums, so that they have a place to stay when they come to visit.

The kids who don't do a sport have to work on the house."

Ulnteresting."

"It sucks. The kids are furious. Always before they could skip a term for sports, now they can't anymore. They're saying it's child labor."

"Sounds more like a community project to me."

"That's what he called it. He got an architect alum to donate the plans, and he got approval from the Board of Trustees for the cost of the wood and stuff and he has a carpenter from town who'll supervise the whole thing in exchange for his son coming to the school for free."

"That's a nice deal."

"The kid's a jerk. A real townie. He'll never fit in."

Seems to me you were a townie two years ago."

"You know what I mean, Mom. His dad's a carpenter."

"So most of the kids' dads can buy and sell him ten times over."

"Most of those kids' dads can buy and sell us ten times over."

"There's a difference."

"Because your dad doesn't work with his hands? No, Dougie, there's no difference. This boy may be just as bright as any other child at Mount Court. He has a right to the same opportunity, and if his dad is clever enough to find a way to do it, I admire him Who is it, by the way?"

"Jason Druart."

Angie grinned. "I like Jason. Good for him.

And good for the other kids at Mount Court.

Building a house will be educational. It'll give them an idea of what it takes to make something that they take for granted. You too.

Will you help?" "No way. I'm staying as far from the Head as I can He's trouble."

"Funny, he looked nice enough to me." Angie had met him at a reception shortly after he was hired the spring before. He had struck her as being a leader, which was what the school needed.

She pulled up at the house. Dougie hauled his book bag from the back and was out the door in an instant. She followed and found Ben in the kitchen with a damp paper toweling wadded around his finger.

"Uh-oh." She set aside her purse and took a look.

"It was getting late," he said in the grumpy way men had of doing when they botched things up, "so I thought I'd fix the salad. I was slicing carrots and missed. Does it need stitching?"

"Nah. The bleeding has pretty much stopped. A Band-Aid will do the trick. Dougie? Dougie?"

When he didn't answer, she stuck the paper toweling back on the cut, told Ben to press tight, and headed for the bathroom medicine chest. A minute later she had the cut neatly covered and the bloody paper toweling disposed of, and was finishing the salad Ben had begun.

"You didn't have to do this," she said with a fond glance at Ben. He was leaning against the counter, wearing his usual jeans and T-shirt, looking endearing, albeit distressed, in his quiet way. "I told you I'd be home." ill was hungry " "Poor baby. You and Dougie both. But we're not eating that much later than usual."

"It sure seems it. The extra time is like an eternity when you're tired and hungry."

"Did you have a good day?" she asked, setting aside the salad and going to the fridge for the steaks.

"I faxed off a couple things." He held the door open, closed it when she set the steaks on the counter. "I hate it when you're this late.

When are you guys hiring another doctor?"