Getting Chris back on track had fallen to Lily, even though she’d escaped Petal years ago and hoped not to look back.

She had to look back now.

Speaking of Chris… She looked at her watch. “Let’s go!” She headed down the hall where she found him on his bed with a handheld video game system and his headphones on.

“You’re not my mother,” he said sullenly.

“No, I’m not. I’m your sister and I’m here because of the wreck you’re making of your life. I love you and I’m here to put a stop to it. So. You can get up on your own and walk out, or I swear to you, Chris, I will show up in every single one of your classes and sit next to you to be sure you’re there. Moreover, I will drag you by the back of the neck from one place to the next. I am not having it. Your little vacation from reality is over. Get. Your. Butt. In. The. Car. Now.”

Grumbling, he still got a move on at last and headed toward the door. She took his book bag and gave it a look. “Take this with you. I want you to know I will be checking your work so don’t forget to bring it home each night. We’ll be sure you have all the supplies you need and all that jazz.”

“Great.”

She laughed, pushing him with a guiding hand on his shoulder through the house and toward the driveway.

He raised a hand at their mother. “Bye, Mom!”

Her mother came into the room and kissed Chris’s cheek. He blushed and hugged her back. He was a good kid; she knew that. He’d lost his way and now she’d help him find it again.

“Love you both,” their mother called out.

She parked in the lot, noting that it looked pretty much the same as it had a decade before when she’d attended Petal High. The same mix of cars from shiny new to beater in the parking lot. The same kids hanging out and laughing before school started.

“Chris, I’m meeting with your principal right now, and she and I are going to talk about how we can work with you to get you passing this year, all right?”

He tried to look away, but she wouldn’t let him. She took his shoulder and turned him to face her. “You can’t do this anymore. Playtime is over. You’re going to fail if you don’t take care of your business. And that’s not acceptable. If it was all you were capable of that would be one thing, but you’re a smart kid. Don’t blow it.”

“If I have to hear all these lectures, I’d rather go to class.”

She laughed and whacked him upside the head. “Whatever it takes, monkey-boy, whatever it takes. I’ll see you after school. Right out here.” She pointed to the parent pick-up lane.

“Until my car gets back from the shop, Mom’s letting me use hers. No need to pick me up.”

This one she and her mother had only reached agreement on the day before when they’d gotten word Chris had cut fourth period again. One of the many reasons her mother had agreed to let Lily be in charge was her own seeming inability to give Chris hard consequences. Though Lily was beginning to think a big part of that had to do with the pills, but she hoped that would end soon too. In either case, there was a new sheriff in town and this was going to end one way or another. Starting with the removal of privileges like a car—a car Lily didn’t think he’d done anything to earn to start with.

“Boy, did you hit your head? Who drove you in? I did. How is it you’ll get Mom’s car? Pay attention. Anyway, only boys who go to school and pass get cars their mothers pay for. Until you get your grades back above failing, you’re not driving anything.”

His eyes widened and his mouth hardened. He looked an awful lot like his oldest sister right about then, and that scared her enough to stay hard and on task with him.

“That’s my car. You can’t do that.”

“Chris, you’re missing the point. I can. I will. You’ve pushed Mom around long enough. Go to class or I’ll escort you there myself.” She kept it quiet, but made sure to keep eye contact with him.

“Fine.”

She shrugged and stepped back. “See you at two fifty.” Before he said another word, she moved past him and toward the administration offices.

“Lily Travis for Principal Bunton, please.” She held on to her folder with all the letters, notifications, emails and other things the school had sent over the last semester.

Living with her mother and raising a nearly sixteen-year-old boy with a ferocious sense of entitlement. Just what she thought her life would be like at twenty-eight.

Nathan Murphy had been grading a test when the knock on his door startled him. A warning that he wasn’t seeing any students just then died on his lips when he looked up and saw…her standing there.

Long, shiny black hair, perfect bangs framed large brown eyes outlined with black liner. The deep-red lipstick on her lips should have looked overdone against her pale skin, but it was the entire package that worked. She was as sexy as she appeared wholesome. Speechless, he took her in from the tips of the ballet flats she wore, up legs as long as a summer day, up the nip at her waist where the red and white gingham blouse had been belted. Bangle bracelets at her wrists. She was an ad for the updated, way sexier 1950s. It was all American but in that pinup sort of way. Vintage sexy and he really wanted some more.

And he’d seen her naked more times than he could remember. Which was a lie. He remembered every single time he’d been with Lily Travis naked.

“Um.” He cleared his throat and loosened his tie. “Lily?” She’d not been this va-va-voom when they’d been in school. This was a woman who had a point of view. She’d grown up. This woman appeared to fully own the depth of her sexuality in a way she’d only begun to realize when they’d been together before. This personal style suited her very well.