us—especially my brother—attacking the ribs like wild animals, and she eventually picks one up with both hands and takes a big bite.
“This is really good,” she tells my mom. “I can see where Raylan learned to cook.”
“He always picked it up the best.” My mom nods. “He makes apple pie better than I do. While poor Grady could burn water.”
“Bo is the worst cook,” Grady says. He’s just stating a fact, not deliberately trying to piss her off, but my sister shoots him a venomous look all the same.
“I don’t like cooking,” she says.
“Neither do I,” Riona says.
Bo looks slightly mollified to have someone agree with her for once.
“What do you like doing?” she asks Riona.
“Working,” Riona says promptly. Then she seems to realize that you’re supposed to have hobbies as well, so she adds, “Running and swimming, too. And traveling.”
I think she tacked that last one on just because it’s a good safe answer.
“I was on the swim team at school,” Bo says.
“I find it very calming,” Riona says. “The same with running.”
“You ever ride a horse?” Bo asks.
“I’ve never sat on a horse,” Riona admits. “Never even touched one.”
We all can’t help smiling at that, because around here, that would be like saying you’ve never ridden in a car in your life.
“Well,” Bo says, “it’s a lot like swimming in the way it clears your head and washes your stress away. So, you might like it.”
“That does sound nice,” Riona says, as if she’s actually considering it.
That would be brave of her. Most adults who have never ridden a horse aren’t keen to try it out all of a sudden.
Maybe she’s just being polite.
To test her, I say, “Let’s go for a ride in the morning.”
Riona fixes me with her stubborn stare. She knows I’m challenging her. And I know she hates to back down from a challenge.
“I would love that,” she says, without a flicker of anxiety.
It’s so hard not to grin. I fucking love provoking Riona, and I love making her do things just to spite me.
“Put her on Penny or Clover,” my mom says in a warning tone. She’s naming two of our sweetest and most gentle horses.
“Of course,” I say.
“So tell us about your job!” Shelby cheerfully says to Riona. “Raylan says you’re a lawyer?”
“Yes.” Riona nods.
“That must be so interesting! Making dramatic speeches and arguing in court . . . ”
I chuckle a little at the idea of Riona making a dramatic speech. Riona lifts her chin haughtily and says, without looking at me, “It’s very interesting.”
“What was your best case ever?” Shelby asks, in much the same way you’d ask about someone’s favorite movie or TV show.
“Well . . . ” Riona says, really considering the question. “This isn’t the sort of work I usually do. But my paralegal was having trouble with an ex-boyfriend. He was stalking her. It was difficult to get the police to do anything about it, because what he was doing wasn’t explicitly threatening. He was leaving flowers for her everywhere she went. A rose on her car, another on the bench at her yoga studio, roses outside the door of her apartment, even sometimes at her mom’s house. She’d be shopping at the grocery store and turn down the aisle and see a rose laying there. It scared her, obviously, because it showed he was following her everywhere she went. But when she called the cops, the responding officer told her she should be glad her boyfriend wanted to give her flowers.
“He’d do other things, too—calling her phone and our office dozens of times a day from different numbers. But he wasn’t leaving messages, so again, hard to prove.
“Eventually, we got security footage from the grocery store and yoga studio, to show that he was following her around. And Lucy knew his Reddit username, so we took screenshots of some very . . . graphic . . . posts he had made about her. The posts were violent and threatening. That was enough to get a restraining order.
“He violated it twice. Spent sixty days in jail. And finally he moved to Florida. So, Lucy’s been a lot more relaxed since then. And I’ve been happy about that.”
Riona’s cheeks flush pink. She’s pleased by the memory of the win, and the weight lifted off of Lucy.
I would have expected her favorite case to be one where she accomplished something important for her family or earned a promotion.
Riona surprises me often. Like when she was singing in the