Her father put down the front page of the Saturday Chronicle. "Who? Who can we have back?" Carly looked at Ryan, who was pretending to ignore her and read the sports section, which he didn't even care about. She cared about Maxie, though, so she repeated herself. "Maxie. Can we go get her now at Sam's? If you're going to make--if we're going to be here at Grandma's, why can't we have her? There's a big enough yard. She can stay outside. I'll take care of everything." Her father folded the paper and set it beside his own runny eggs. "Carly. I know you miss her, but there's too much going on here right now. I always told your mother that dog was dangerous around your sister, anyway, and we just got her all set up. Besides, I don't know if your grandmother could handle anything more." "What can't I handle?" Garnet said, clipping into the kitchen and looking around, nodding at Maritza, who was wiping down the range. Her dad seemed to flush, and Carly saw that he was almost scared of her, as if Grandma was going to spank him for being bad. Her grandmother scared her in the same way, and for a surprising instant, she wanted to protect her dad, make up some story to avoid this conversation. But he didn't deserve protection. He needed a spanking, a big one, with a leather belt like in the old days, and she sat back in her chair, waiting for his answer.
