“Jasper Layne is hot, no doubt about that, but he’s also a dawg.”

That came from Kate, and the instant it did, Cal stopped grinning knowingly at Benny’s foot, which he’d tangled with mine in an intimate way that felt nice but I knew I should not allow (though I did, bent on earning my first-class ticket straight to hell), and his attention cut to Kate.

“He is not,” Keira snapped.

“Total player,” Kate declared.

“He is not!” Keira’s voice was rising.

“Keirry, he’s had three girlfriends already and we’ve been in school, like, a month,” Kate told her.

I quit surreptitiously watching and started openly watching, and also openly grinning (huge), as a dark, protective, dad look moved over Cal’s face.

He loved Violet. I knew that when he pulled out all the stops and made a miracle happen when he found us in the middle of nowhere in a forest and took a man’s life to save hers.

He also loved her girls.

And I loved that.

“So, he’s lookin’ for the right one,” Keira shot back.

“He’s lookin’ for somethin’,” Kate muttered.

“No Jasper Layne,” Cal decreed, and I watched Keira jerk her gaze to Cal.

“Joe!” she cried.

“No Jasper Layne,” he repeated.

I felt Benny give me a squeeze and I looked at him to see him smiling big at his cousin.

My attention went back to the scene when Keira exclaimed, “He’s cute!”

“He’s off-limits,” Cal proclaimed.

“Joe!” she repeated loudly.

Cal scowled at her. Then I stopped grinning at him and started staring at him when I saw it begin.

I couldn’t believe it might happen.

Then it happened.

He caved.

“How old is he?” Cal asked.

“He’s a sophomore,” Keira answered—Keira, incidentally, being a freshman.

“You wait until you’re older, he’s older, then we’ll see.”

I watched Keira study her “Joe.” Then I watched her face get soft and her eyes light. It was then I knew she knew she had the big, rough man who was Joe Callahan wrapped around her finger.

That had to be why she said much calmer and definitely sweeter, “Okay, Joe.”

“You do know this is hilarious,” Benny put in at that point.

“Shut it,” Cal growled.

Ben chuckled, I giggled, and Vinnie Senior laughed outright.

Cal’s face took on another dark look, this one annoyed, so I quit giggling and looked at Keira. “Sometimes, those are the best ones,” I shared my womanly wisdom.

“What are the best ones?” she asked me.

“The wild ones. You let them get it out of their system and you get them when they’re tame. That can be the best,” I told her, and Benny’s arm got tight, but this time it didn’t loosen.

“Tame doesn’t sound fun,” Keira noted. Cal sighed audibly and I smiled, but only so I wouldn’t laugh.

Cal had his hands full with this one and I thought that was hilarious.

“It’s not tame tame, it’s the good kind of tame,” I explained. She looked confused, so I went on. “I’m just sayin’, listen to Cal. You might not get it ’cause you’re young, but you’ll learn. And he’s tryin’ to make sure when you learn, it isn’t the hard way.”

“Right,” Keira whispered, eyeing me, eyeing Cal, and sucking my womanly wisdom in like a sponge.

“So,” Kate said, and I looked to her. “It’s like Joe bein’ the Lone Wolf, and Mawdy and us gettin’ in there, and he’s still hot and cool, but he’s got us.”

“Something like that,” I replied, smiling back at her.

“The Lone Wolf?” Benny asked.

“Shut it,” Cal growled.

I giggled again.

“What are we talking about?” Theresa asked, and I looked over the back of the couch to see her and Violet joining us.

“Something we’re not talkin’ about anymore,” Cal answered.

I gave Vi a big smile as Kate exited the couch to go sit on the floor with her sister so Theresa could sit in the corner. Violet scrunched next to me.

The minute she did, she grabbed my hand and held on.

I rested our hands on my thigh and held on tighter.

“I made cannoli and Benny bought enough donuts for an army. Anyone in the mood for something sweet?” Theresa asked.

“Me!” Keira cried.

“Totally!” Kate exclaimed, already getting back to her feet.

Theresa, barely just sitting down, got back up. “Let’s go make coffee and get something sweet.”

“I could use some coffee and somethin’ sweet,” Vinnie Senior muttered, hefting himself out of the recliner and following them.

“Ben, a word,” Cal said.

I felt Benny tense against me. I looked at him to see he was giving a hard look to his cousin. Then he looked to me and that look softened.

“Be back, cara,” he said quietly.

“Right,” I replied.

He carefully shifted from beside me and got to his feet.

The men left and I looked to Vi.

“Do you know what that’s about?” I asked.

Violet was looking over the couch, watching the men depart, but at my question, her eyes came to me. “Joe obviously has something on his mind. Unfortunately, he hasn’t shared with me what it is.”

I looked over the couch and saw that whatever it was took them out to the front stoop. In other words, where no one could listen in.

I turned my gaze back to Violet. “Is everything cool?”

She nodded. “Police found the carnage Hart left in his lake house. He shot you. Both Joe and Benny’s guns were registered. The cops were in the know we’d been kidnapped, and they knew all about Hart and his obsession with me. So, to end, they didn’t press charges against Joe for blowin’ a hole in his head. And, obviously you know, the same with Benny for shooting him in the stomach.”

I knew all that. Sal had explained it to me in the hospital.

So I clarified, “No, what I mean is, you, the girls, the drama.” I leaned closer. “They’re beautiful, Vi,” I said softly. “So sweet. Amazing. But they seem—”

She gave my hand a squeeze. “They lost their dad, their uncle, and almost me and Joe to Daniel Hart. They latch on to family, having lost all that. Joe and I are keepin’ an eye on it, but I reckon it’s better they latch on to love rather than acting out.”