Coop came through the kitchen door at that moment and said to Ricky, “And don’t forget the power I wield, Wolf Boy of the Lost People.”

Ricky frowned. “I don’t even know what that means.”

Coop opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of orange juice—that Blayne quickly yanked from his hand.

The jackal gazed at his now-empty hand before looking at the wolfdog and asking, “Uh . . . Blayne?”

Blayne snarled, forcing Coop to step back, and carried the bottle to the sink.

Coop leaned back against the refrigerator. “I have no idea what’s going on . . . but I’m fascinated.”

The back kitchen door opened and Novikov walked in with Freddy. Both were covered in what seemed to be an inordinate amount of dirt and carrying a battered, dirt-covered notebook.

Toni pulled out of Ricky’s arms and faced the pair. “What have you two been doing?”

“Getting the notebook like you told us to.”

“I said get the notebook. I didn’t say roll around in the dirt like two untrained Labradors.”

“How do you know that’s what happened?” Novikov asked.

“Yeah!” Freddy added with some forcefulness, but when his sister raised an eyebrow at him, he quickly stepped behind Novikov.

Toni shook her finger at Novikov. “Do not be a bad influence on my brother.”

“Who says I am?”

“Did you let him swing from your tusks like a monkey?”

“They’re not tusks,” Blayne snarled as she carried more bottles of orange juice to the sink. “They’re fangs. Like the mighty saber-toothed cat of yore.”

Coop looked at his sister. “Yore?”

“Shut it!” Blayne snapped.

“Are you throwing out all that orange juice?”

Blayne pointed a damning finger at Livy. “It’s her fault!”

Livy raised a finger and they all silently waited for her to shoot back a retort. But after nearly a full minute, she suddenly jumped up from the table and tore out the back door.

Smirking, Blayne nodded. “That, my friends, is karma.”

“That, Blayne,” Toni corrected, “is snake poison.”

With a shrug, Blayne went back to pouring the perfectly good juice into the sink. “You say tomato . . .” she muttered.

Toni found her mother sitting on the couch with Ricky’s mother. The rest of the kids were either on the couch with them or on the floor in front of them. They were all watching TV and eating popcorn. Thankfully, it seemed that Ricky’s sister had wandered off—much to Toni’s relief. She was more than happy to face that particular hurdle another time.

“Where’s Irene?” Toni asked her mother.

“Bathroom, I think.”

“Well, I have the notebook.”

“Good,” her mother said around a mouthful of popcorn. “Irene will get it back to Miki.”

“Where is little Freddy?” Miss Tala asked.

“He and Novikov are bonding.”

Jackie’s eyebrows went up. “Which entails . . . what? Exactly?”

Before Toni could answer, a shifted Novikov charged by the living room entrance in all of his fifteen feet of bear-lion glory with Freddy hanging onto his back, giggling hysterically. Her feet frozen to the spot she stood on, Toni reached her arm out, somehow believing she could pluck her insane baby brother from Novikov’s back.

As Novikov romped up the stairs, Blank came charging after him.

“I’ll get ’em!” she screamingly promised. “I’ll get ’em.”

As the three of them disappeared up the stairs, Ricky Lee ambled into the room, hands dug into the back pockets of his jeans.

Toni gestured to the stairs. “It didn’t occur to you to not let that happen?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

Disgusted, Toni sighed, and looked back at her mother, which was when Ricky felt the need to add, “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t let that happen with our kids.”

That’s when everyone in the room focused on them, the eyebrows of both mothers now raised.

“What?” Ricky asked. “Why y’all lookin’ at us like that?”

“Do you really think,” Kyle asked, “that a Jean-Louis Parker would ever lower him or herself to be permanently involved with a Reed?”

Miss Tala looked at Toni’s brother. “I don’t think I heard you correctly, Kyle Jean-Louis Parker. Especially if some young jackal I know ever wants to taste my award-winning chocolate chip cookies again.”

Kyle forced a smile at Ricky. “Please, take my sister and permanently enslave her to your backwoods way of life. I’m so excited for her.”

“Kyle!” Toni snapped.

“What?”

Toni held up the notebook. “Where is Aunt Irene so I can just give her this?”

“There’s an earthworm on that thing,” Troy pointed out.

And, in response, Toni squealed and tossed the notebook at her mother, but her aim was bad and she ended up hitting Cherise in the forehead.

Cringing, Toni quickly apologized. “Cherise, I am so sorry.”

“No, no. It’s all right. I do so love to randomly get hit in the face with nature.”

“You’re frightened of earthworms?” Ricky asked her, his voice low and right by her ear. She could tell he was grinning just from the sound of his voice.

“They’re gross.”