Mitch’s laughter sputtered off when he saw her face. “Wait.” He sobered immediately. “You are kidding, right?”

“No. It’s all done and legal. Had lawyers and papers to sign and everything.”

“You’re serious?”

“When am I not?”

Incredulous, Mitch stood, his six-four frame towering over her, his hand still gripping her arm. Only now a little more tightly. “You’re not even licensed in this state.”

“Yes, I am.”

“When did that happen?”

“A year ago.”

“A…a year ago. A year ago and you never told me?”

“Why did I have to? It’s none of your business where I’m licensed. Here, Philly, Jersey, what do you—”

“Jersey? And what do you mean it’s none of my business? Is that what you just said to me?”

“Yeah. You want me to say it again? Louder?”

He released her by flinging her arm away. “Does Ma know about this?”

“Ma?” Gwen took a breath. “Mitch, I’m twenty-six. Ma knows or doesn’t know about my life based on what I wanna tell her. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta get ready for work.”

“Hold up! Work? You think I’m letting my baby sister out there—alone?”

“You have no choice.”

“Like hell I don’t!”

Gwen threw up her hands and headed toward the bedroom. But Mitch caught hold of the back of her jersey.

“Wait, wait, wait.” When she spun on him, he quickly released her. “Wait. I just want to talk. Let’s start over and talk. Calmly. Okay?”

Deciding a little rational conversation with her brother couldn’t hurt, “Yeah. Okay.”

Lock reached for his cell phone and brought it to his ear. “Yeah?”

“Good morning, son.”

“Hi, Mom.”

“I need a favor.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Are you awake?”

“Of course I am.”

“Is there salmon?”

“Covered with honey,” he sighed.

“Lachlan MacRyrie! You wake up this instant!”

Lock’s eyes snapped open and he realized he was yet again not in his dream river eating salmon and taking cell phone calls from his mother while in bear form. “Dammit.”

His mother laughed. “You sleep like your father. It took me years to realize that he didn’t have some sort of brain disorder, but simply was never awake when I began speaking to him in the mornings.”

“Sorry, Mom.” Lock sat up, yawning and scratching his head with his free hand. “What’s up?”

“I need you to go over and check the house thisafternoon.”

Lock smirked. “Check the house or check Dad?”

“What do you think? New workmen mean new curiosity. And you know how your father is.”

“I’ve got some work to do here, but I can be there about lunchtime.”

“That’ll be fine. And make it sound like you’re simply visiting. I don’t want him to think we’re checking up on him.”

“But we are checking up on him.”

“Yes. But we don’t need to say that out loud, now do we?”

“No, ma’am. We don’t.”

“Good. And I appreciate this.”

“No problem. It’ll get me out of the house for a few hours.”

“Sounds like you’ve been working too hard again.”

“Eh.”

“If you went back to school and got your master’s, you could be doing something you actually enjoy doing.”

Lock frowned. “Which is…what exactly?”

“Teaching at university level.”

Lock’s eyes crossed. “Yeah. And I get along so well with kids, too.”

“You’d make a great professor. I don’t know why you insist on sticking with this ridiculous course.”

“Because it pays well.”

“First the Marines, now computers. All that intelligence going to waste.”

He must still be half-asleep, because he could usually steer his mother off this deadly topic long before she ever got there. Besides, he didn’t need any reminders of his parents’ disappointment with where his life was headed. And he didn’t look forward to the day they found out that creating software was only so he could earn money, retire, and finally do what he really wanted to do.

“Are you afraid to ask us for help? Is that it?”

“Mom.”

“I don’t know why you think we wouldn’t help you if you needed it.”

It was too early in the morning for this conversation. He hadn’t had his coffee or his honey bun yet.

“Mom, can we talk about this later? Or do you want me getting to the house closer to four?”

“No, no. Lunch would be better. Who knows what damage that man will do by four? We’ll talk more later.”

“Great.” They both disconnected without saying good-bye—not because they were angry, but because his mother considered it a waste of words—and Lock got ready to face the day…and his dad.

Sissy and Ronnie headed down the hallway back to the suite Sissy shared with Mitch and, apparently now, his sister. Thankfully, there were four bedrooms in the suite, and like the cat she was, Gwen stayed mostly to herself, so Sissy doubted it would be too bad.