“Right.” Toni studied her mom. “You didn’t mention Delilah.”
“She said she’d take care of it herself. She’s eighteen now. I can’t order her to go to classes.”
“And we can’t just have her wandering around on her own, Mom.”
Her mother waved away Toni’s concern. “She’ll be fine.”
“Mom.”
“She’ll be fine. And would you mind taking Freddy over to the hotel to see Irene before she goes back home?”
“Yes, of course.” If her mother didn’t want to discuss Delilah—and when did she ever want to discuss Delilah?—then Toni would ask her another important question. “And what about my job, Mom?”
Her mother blinked at Toni, her expression completely blank. “What job?”
“The one I was starting on Monday. Remember?”
“That little office job?”
“Yes, Mom. That little office job. The one I was doing part-time and had incredibly flexible hours so I could help with the kids? That little office job.”
“I’m sure you can find something here to keep you busy.”
“I’m not talking about something to keep me busy. I’m thinking long term.”
“Long term . . . to what? Being an office drone? You?”
“What do you want me to do? Sit around all day?”
“Find something you’re good at! Look for a real career. You have a college degree.”
“In liberal arts. Not exactly beneficial in this economy.”
“Oh, my God, baby. You worry about the most ridiculous things.”
“And you, Mom?”
“What about me?”
“Why are you here?”
“Do you know how much I can get done being in Manhattan for a few months? This will work out great for me.”
Toni walked over to the window and jabbed her thumb at the building across the street. “And those wild dogs have nothing to do with you moving here?”
“Can you think of a better neighborhood than one with fellow canines?”
“Not just canines, Mom. African wild dogs.”
“We’re all dogs in God’s eye—”
“Mom!”
“Oh, all right!” Letting out a sigh, her mother crossed the room and leaned against the wall by the window. She glanced down. “The Kuznetsov Pack lives there.”
“Mom . . . seriously? At this point it might be considered stalking.”
“I’m not stalking. Just making myself available.”
Toni glowered at her mother. “I can’t believe how sneaky you are.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You were planning this from the beginning. This was never just a little family getaway to Manhattan.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You just wanted to make sure the Kuznetsovs were still in town.” Toni glanced around the beautiful room. “This is their property, isn’t it? You rented from them.”
“Who else would I trust but another canine? And how dare you call me that, Antonella Jean-Louis Parker!”
“What are you talking about? I haven’t called you anything.”
“No. But you’re thinking it.”
Toni shrugged. “Maybe.”
Ricky looked away from the TV baseball game he was watching and up at the She-wolf standing next to the couch.
“Hey, Dee-Ann.”
Dee-Ann Smith. Ricky had grown up with her in Smithtown. She was closer to Rory’s age and to this day they were still best friends. Ricky, however, thought of Dee-Ann as more of a sister. She’d sewn up his head when Rory had rammed it into their daddy’s truck door. Sewn up his face when Reece had chucked a crowbar at him. And held his hand when, at sixteen, he was waiting to find out if his onetime girlfriend was pregnant. His girlfriend hadn’t been, and Dee-Ann had been the first to hug him, then punch him in the stomach, drive him to the local pharmacy, and buy him several boxes of condoms. Something that would have started all sorts of rumors in a little wolf-run town like Smithtown if it had been any other She-wolf but Dee-Ann. She was not a female anyone wanted to start spreading rumors about. She was not a female you wanted to ever notice you.
With eyes just like her father’s—cold yellow like many full-blooded wolves—she gazed down at Ricky. “Shame’s not a big thing in your family, is it?”
“Don’t know what you mean.”
She motioned to the dog kennel in the middle of his hotel room. The Pack had taken rooms at the Kingston Arms hotel, a shifter-run establishment, when they’d first moved to Manhattan with Bobby Ray Smith. A few of the Packmates had gotten their own apartments but most stayed at the five-star hotel. Why? Because Ricky Lee’s sister was mated to the lion male who owned the place. So even though their rooms usually went for several hundred to several thousand dollars a night for the general public, the Pack got their rooms for much, much cheaper.
“You put your own brother in a dog kennel,” she said.
“He wouldn’t calm down. Kept trying to rip the front door open. Look at this . . .” He lifted the arm that currently held a can of Coke and showed it to her. “Tried to take my dang arm off at the shoulder. I only got two, Dee-Ann.”
“You’re whining about that scratch?”
“I wouldn’t call it whining . . .”
Dee-Ann stepped onto his couch, resting her butt on the seatback, her hands clasped in front of her. “Did you hear from Sissy Mae?” Sissy Mae Smith, the Alpha Female of their Pack, Bobby Ray Smith’s baby sister, and Ronnie Lee’s best friend.
“Nope. Why?”
“Cousin Laura Jane is coming to town. To visit.”
“And?”
“Everyone knows how she broke your heart.”
Startled, Ricky looked at Dee-Ann. “Yeah . . . when I was eighteen. I’m pretty sure I’ve recovered since then.”
“I don’t know. Your sister and Sissy sure are worried.”
“Great. Just what I need. The pity of the idiots.”
Dee-Ann chuckled. “They do seem to be making a big deal out of it.”
“Because that’s what they do. Make a big deal out of absolutely nothing.”
“Yep.”
Ricky offered his can of Coke to Dee-Ann. She took it, took a sip, and handed it back. That’s when Ricky asked, “Is Laura Jane coming here tonight? Is that why you’re here? To give me a heads-up?”
“No. She’s not coming tonight.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Dee-Ann paused a moment, then added, “But your sister and Sissy Mae are coming here to talk—”
Ricky leaped off the couch and faced the She-wolf. “What do you mean they’re coming here? I thought they were still out of town.”
“Got in earlier today. Figured they didn’t call you because they wanted to make sure you’d stick around so they could sit down and have a real heart-to-heart about Laura Jane and how you really feel about—where are you going?”
“I don’t do heart-to-hearts, Dee-Ann,” Ricky told her as he grabbed his backpack from the floor and headed toward the door.
“What about your brother?”
“Babysit him until they get here. Ronnie Lee can handle him. He’s almost through the worst of it.”
Studying his brother, Dee-Ann’s head tipped to the side. “He’s trying to chew through the gate . . . with his human teeth.”
“Just deal with it!”
Ricky slammed the door behind him and started toward the elevators. But the doors were opening and he could scent his sister and Sissy Mae. Panicking, Ricky charged the other way and into the nearest emergency stairwell. The heavy metal door was nearly closed when he heard his sister yell from his room, “Reece Lee Reed! What the holy hell are you doing in a damn dog kennel?”
As Ricky headed down the stairs, he knew he was running away. Not from an ex-girlfriend that to this day his brothers still called, “Good Lady Self-Obsessed,” but from his sister and her best friend. He loved Ronnie Lee. Loved Sissy, too. But that didn’t mean he wanted to sit around with them all night talking about feelings. It would be worse now, too, because the word was out that Ronnie Lee was pregnant. That meant no more liquor for his baby sister, and, knowing Ronnie, she wasn’t about to let anyone drink around her when she couldn’t. She hated that.