Dean answered Sylvia's call while Theodore was supposed to be having a quiet afternoon.
The distinction mattered because Theo had spent the previous twenty minutes moving wooden animals across the rug in front of the terrace doors while explaining, in considerable detail, which ones would be allowed to visit his black dragon when he was older.
Apparently bears were acceptable.
Ducky was not.
"No," Theo told the small black dog when it tried to nose one of the wooden wolves aside. "You don't listen."
Ducky sneezed.
Dean looked away, but Theo took his smile as support.
His phone vibrated on the arm of the sofa.
Sylvia.
Dean accepted the call and leaned back against the cushions while Theo continued organizing his future expedition several meters away.
"You're alive."
Sylvia's face appeared on the screen.
