Dear Lord, let him come down all by himself, she thought. I really need to get home to start dinner.

When Charlie came through the main entrance across the street, Megan sighed with relief.

One of these days his tricks were going to be just one too many. She was getting too old for this.

"Hurry up, Charlie, I have a stew in the slow cooker that's an hour over its cooking time."

"I thought you said meatloaf," he said.

"Would you have come down for stew? Cheesh." She shook her head. That was her Charlie. One of these days . . .