“That woman is your best friend and of course she decided to stay here. How hard can it be to move your entire family of thirteen to Manhattan at the very last minute?”

“When you have money? Not hard at all. But why?”

“Because of Johnny DeSerio.”

“Is he a mobster?”

Toni sighed. “Aunt Irene, we’ve had this discussion. Not everyone who is Italian is a mobster—”

“I know.”

“—or on a Jersey-based reality TV show.”

“That I’m still not sure about.”

“And he’s that young violinist she met at one of her master classes last summer.”

“Oh, yes. I remember. She’s been going on about him for months now. Did she finally snag him?”

“Before I decide whether to be morally superior,” Miki cut in, “what are we talking about your mother wanting to do with this person? Have sex with him or just—”

“No.” Nope. Miki was not like Irene at all. “She wants him as a student. Kind of like you and Irene. A mentor-mentee kind of thing.”

“Except Irene was my thesis adviser when I was going for my PhD. Are you talking about that?”

“No. But as an artist—”

“Please. No. No ‘as an artist’ discussions. I’ve had them for two days now with your family. I’m done.”

Toni had to laugh. Over the years, she’d learned to tune the “as an artist” discussions out. But those not used to it . . .

“How hard can it be to entice this boy into your mother’s tutelage?” Irene demanded. “She’s Jacqueline Jean-Louis, not some desperate wannabe who still dreams of having a music career.”

“I love how you manage to sound arrogant for other people. And I don’t think the problem is the kid. It’s his mother. She’s one of the Kuznetsov wild dog Pack and extremely protective of him. Word is she decked some teacher that tore into him after a competition. Her mate had to drag her off the guy. So Mom’s proceeding with caution.”

“Actually . . . that sounds like a solid plan.”

“Yeah. I thought so.”

Holding his goddaughter on his lap, Ricky asked, “Perhaps you can explain to me this obsession women have with talking things out? I mean, what is there to talk about?”

“You know how your sister is. She assumes you’re still broken up over being dumped by Laura Jane.”

“I was eighteen. She was nineteen. And kind of a,” he covered his goddaughter’s ears with his hands, “whore.”

“Now, now. That’s my cousin, Ricky Lee.” When Ricky just stared at him, Bobby shrugged. “Who is kind of a whore.”

Ricky dropped hishands. “She was seeing at least two other guys when she was going out with me. At the time, it broke my heart . . . but also at the time, when my momma didn’t make blueberry pancakes on Sunday mornings like she promised, that kind of broke my heart, too.”

“Not really a deep wolf, are ya, Ricky Lee?”

“Not if I can help it.”

“The worst part is that now I’ve got to call your friend tomorrow, Aunt Irene, and tell him I can’t take that job after all.”

Irene frowned. “My friend?”

“Mr. Weatherford. Who hired me to work in his office this summer.”

“Oh. Right.” Irene dismissed that with a wave of her hand. “I told him chances were extremely high you wouldn’t take the job and he should have a ready backup because he would probably find out last minute.”

Toni sat up straight. “Wait. You knew Mom was going to stay here for the summer?”

“No. Not at all.”

“But then why—”

“You always have to cancel your plans because of your family. Last summer it was because you went with Cooper and Cherise to Italy and then China for their concerts. The summer before that the entire family stayed in England because of Oriana’s scholarship with the Royal Ballet. And the summer before that—”

“Okay. Okay.”

“You always take these jobs and you can never actually do them—even though you so clearly want to—because of the loyalty you have to your family.” She shrugged casually. “When you think about it, you’ve given up your whole life for your family.”

“Isn’t that why that idiot you were dating last year ended it?” Miki asked. “Because of your commitment to your family?”

Toni gazed at the two women but didn’t respond. It wasn’t until Freddy put his hand on her knee and gazed up at her with those big brown eyes that Toni suddenly burst into tears.

“Well, you can stay the night if ya like,” Bobby Ray offered. “Doubt they’ll come looking for you here.”

“Why is that?”

“I tell Sissy that the Pack males hate staying here because the wild dogs get on their nerves.”

“But the wild dogs always have pie and brownies. And tons of action movies to watch. Why wouldn’t we stay here?”

“Because if the She-wolves think y’all hate it here, you might actually get some peace and quiet.”

“Then add in the fact the dogs never keep liquor around this place . . .”

Bobby Ray grinned. “Exactly.”

“She’s crying, Irene,” Toni heard Miki say, panic in her voice. “She’s crying!”