“Oh, shut up!”
“Maybe Kyle’s right. You’d make a great business manager for him.”
“Is that a yes or a no?”
“It’s a ‘my agent will handle it.’ ”
“They’ll want dinner with you.”
Coop snorted, elbowed Ricky. “Great. Dinner with bears. I know that’s something I love to do.”
“You do it in Italy all the time.”
“Do you know how the Italian bears eat? Like gods, big sister. Like gods.”
Toni and her brother laughed. Ricky didn’t even think they noticed when Dee-Ann silently entered the room and stood behind the couch. But they did. Both immediately stopped in mid-laugh and slowly looked over their shoulder.
“Hi, Dee-Ann,” Toni said, trying to smile.
“Hey.”
“Is there a problem?”
“Nah. That badger around?”
Toni quickly looked at Ricky, her eyes wide.
“Why?” she asked Dee.
“Yeah,” Ricky chimed in, “why?”
“Ain’t your never mind, Ricky Lee.”
“I will not never mind if this is about Laura Jane.”
“Laura Jane’s on her way home. Your momma handled that right quick.”
“She did?”
“Yep.”
Ricky was surprised. His mother had arrived at the Jean-Louis Parker house less than an hour after Ricky and Toni. She hadn’t said another word about Laura Jane. But she had come with groceries, planning to make her famous fried chicken. Jackie had told her it wasn’t necessary, but his momma wouldn’t hear it. She’d been busy in that gourmet kitchen ever since.
“Besides,” Dee added, looking around the room, “some of those lacerations that badger gave her had gotten infected.”
Ricky cringed at that. He didn’t want Laura Jane to suffer or anything, he just wanted her to forget he’d ever existed since he was sure she didn’t really care about him.
“Anyway,” Dee went on, “y’all see her, tell her I need to talk to her. Ya hear?”
“Okay.”
With that, Dee-Ann ambled out of the room and Ricky’s momma walked in. She had a paper grocery bag in her hands and it smelled delicious.
“Here,” she said, handing the bag to Ricky.
“What’s this?”
“Your dinner and dessert. Y’all get now.”
“Get now?” Ricky looked at Toni and she shrugged. “What are you talking about?”
“It seems Miss Antonella has her own apartment. I think it’s high time she learns to enjoy it. And her momma and daddy agreed with me.”
“But I thought we were all having dinner together,” Toni said, getting to her feet.
“We’ll do that. For now, I think y’all need some time away from these kids.”
Toni blinked, her head tilting. “Why don’t I hear them?” she asked.
“I’ve been keeping them busy making cookies.”
“You kept my brothers and sisters busy making cookies? Really?”
“It wasn’t that hard. I just had Dennis and Kyle design the look of the cookies—told them to try and outdo each other—while Oriana analyzed the fat content and tried to come up with a less fattening cookie, and I got Troy to help her with that by dealing with the actual percentages. Cherise monitored them all and the twins watched and tried to sneak licks of the batter. See? Easy.”
But before Ricky could congratulate his momma on her skills managing the kids, Toni beat him to it, suddenly racing over to Tala and hugging her.
“Oh, Miss Tala! Thank you!”
Tala chuckled and patted the She-jackal’s back. “Good Lord, you’re just like your momma.”
Reece walked into the room. “Hey. When are we gettin’ to eat?” he began, but Toni turned on him like a snake.
“You be nice to your mother!” she roared at him, one finger pointing.
Reece stumbled back. “I was just asking a question, woman!”
“Ask it nicer!” She hugged Tala again. “This woman is a saint. A saint! And you boys don’t forget it or I’ll come down on you like the wrath of God!”
Reece shrugged and whined, “But I’m hungry!”
They walked into Toni’s apartment. Sitting on the side table by the door was a small stack of mail.
“I’m already getting mail here?” she asked him.
“Seems so. And someone to bring it in.”
She looked around, sniffed the air. “I smell Lysol. I think I have a maid.”
“I’m sure you do.”
Ricky headed into the dining room and set the food out. By the time he went into the kitchen and retrieved plates, glasses, and silverware, Toni was sitting at the table pulling things out of envelopes.
“What’s all that?” he asked as he put down place settings.
“The lease for this place. Ric wants me to sign it. It’s apparently a rent-to-own.”
Ricky flinched. “I’m afraid to ask how much that’ll cost ya.”
Toni didn’t answer, just stared.
“You’re kidding?” he asked. “That cheap?”
“I could put it on a credit card.” When Ricky’s mouth dropped open, Toni giggled and said, “I’m kidding. It’s not that bad. But . . . Ric is definitely charging a hell of a lot less than he probably should.”
“You’re family, darlin’. What did you expect him to do? Charge you a bazillion dollars?”
“Yes. I did.”
She took in a deep breath, eyes closing. “Man, that chicken smells amazing.”
“My momma’s award-winning fried chicken. And you’ll hear that award-winning part more than you want to.”
“It smells like she has a reason to be proud.”
“I hope she gave us enough to have cold chicken tomorrow. Nothing is better than her next-day fried chicken with a couple of cold beers.”
Grinning, Toni stepped closer to Ricky. “How about her couple-hours-later fried chicken?”
Ricky returned her grin and wrapped his arm around her waist, tugging her closer. “That might be the best way to eat it.”
He leaned in and Toni could already taste him on her lips, feel his hands on her body. Until ...
“Dinner ready?”
Snarling, Toni spun on her best friend. “Livy!”
“What? I’m hungry.”
“You’re not staying here.”
“You were serious about that?”
Toni started to head over to her friend, but Ricky kept his grip on her, pulled her back to his side.
“Dee-Ann’s looking for you,” he told Livy.
“Dee-Ann who?”
He scratched his head. “Smith.”
“Oh. Why?”
“No idea.”
“And did you attack Laura Jane Smith?” Toni asked.
Livy gazed at Toni. “Who?”
“The She-wolf you attacked a few days ago?”
“You’ll have to be more specific than that.”
“I think my brother was involved,” Ricky said.
Livy thought a moment. Nodded. “Oh. Yeah. Okay. I think I know who you mean.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
Toni growled a little, then asked, “Why did you attack her?”
Livy had to think on that for a second, as if she attacked so many people during the day, she couldn’t just recall them easily. “It was time for his appointment with me and she was in my way. Plus,” she added, “I didn’t like her face. So I slapped it around.”
Ricky studied the woman closely. “So, Livy . . . what are you?”
He expected her usual, “None of your business response,” but this time she was as direct with her answer as she was direct with her beat downs.
“Honey badger.”
“Ahhhh.” He nodded. “Explains everything.”
Then Ricky had to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Toni asked.
“Laura Jane pissed off a honey badger,” he said, unable to hide his smile. “It really doesn’t get any better than that.”