talking about?” Oriana asked and Shen had to agree with her. What the fuck were they talking about?
“You were always the goody-four-paws,” Kyle explained. “You were cold and bitchy but you never lashed out. Not like that.”
“Liberating, isn’t it?” Stevie asked, sounding giddy.
“You’ve done it too?”
“Nearly took a fellow scientist’s eye out with a pen. Didn’t like his tone.”
“When the great Leonardo di Mancini said my work was tepid at best, I bit him in the kneecap and punched his wife.” Kyle grinned down at Shen. “I was eight at the time.”
“Oh, when I was eight,” Stevie joyfully reminisced, “I threw a hot bowl of mac and cheese at the conductor of the royal symphony. That boxed mac and cheese you get at the grocery store. Hit him right in the neck. Left welts.”
“That’s it,” Shen announced, getting to his feet. “I’m going to go upstairs, take a quick shower, get dressed, and we’ll go.”
“You want to come with us?” Stevie asked Oriana.
“Where?”
“Sports Center. I need a . . . well . . . a sport. And hey!” she suddenly added, pointing at Oriana, “I need a friend too! We could”—she waved in Oriana’s general direction—“try that out. Interested?”
“Do you want to be a dancer?”
“I have no dancing skills. So no. Do you want to be a great scientist?”
“No. But I do like engineering. It’s like a hobby for me.”
“Great. I can always use an engineer.”
“This is the weirdest conversation I’ve ever been around,” Shen announced. “I’m leaving.”
“Forever?” Stevie asked and Shen could only stare at her. “No, I’m really asking,” she pushed.
“Shower. Gym. Remember our plan?”
“Oh.” She smiled. “Okay.”
Worried that this would get too weird, Shen went upstairs to get his day started.
* * *
“What about him?” Stevie asked Oriana.
“Who?”
“Shen. Are you interested? Because I’m really interested but I’m not big on women fighting over a dude.”
“The guy who just left?” Oriana frowned. “Doesn’t he work for us?”
Kyle rested his chin on his sister’s shoulder and smiled at Stevie. “Now do you see the family resemblance?”
Laughing, Stevie nodded. “Boy, do I ever.”
* * *
Charlie sat on the front stoop of Berg’s house, watching Stevie, Kyle, Shen, and Oriana get into Shen’s dark blue SUV to head into Manhattan.
“She should be mad at me,” Charlie said when Berg sat down behind her, his long, massive legs on either side of her, his hands resting on her shoulders. “I just panicked when I heard that noise.”
“It’s going to take time for you to let go. You’ve been doing this for . . . ever.”
“Not just me . . . we.”
Max ran out of the house, a small backpack slung over her shoulder. A few feet away from the SUV, she jumped at it, latching onto the passenger side. She pressed her face against the window and screamed.
Laughing, she dropped down and got into the backseat.
Charlie let out a sigh. “At least I never had to do this alone.”
Berg pressed a kiss to her brow and said against her flesh, “Please don’t worry.”
“I’m working on it.”
He chuckled. “Bacon?”
Charlie looked over at the platter on the stoop beside them. “An entire plate of bacon. Just a giant pile.”
“I thought you loved bacon?”
“I live for bacon. I could eat bacon until the end of time. But I also like my arteries not being clogged. Because, right now, that’s all I need. A heart attack or stroke on top of the bleeding ulcer everyone says I’m going to have because of my self-imposed stress.”
Berg kissed the side of her forehead again, but she was smart enough to know he only did that to stop from laughing at her
“Your phone is vibrating,” he pointed out.
“I know. I’m ignoring it.”
“You’ve been ignoring it for two days.”
“Because it’s my aunt. I’m guessing she’s calling about Great-Uncle Pete’s funeral. A man none of us knew. Not only that, I don’t feel like spying for those pricks.”
“Totally understandable.”
The phone stopped ringing . . . but started again almost immediately.
“But we both know she won’t stop,” Berg gently added.
“She will if I kill her. But then that would make any future family reunions awfully uncomfortable.”
“More uncomfortable than they already have been?”
Charlie thought for a moment. “You know . . . that’s a very good point.”
chapter NINE
Stevie was happy to be back at the Sports Center. She loved it. The energy. The people.
Of course, the last time they’d been here it had been a bit of a whirlwind. There’d been so much excitement. Drama. Violence. And none of it had had anything