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James was cross-legged beside her, his own juice box in front of him, working his controller with the focused intensity of a small person who took gaming extremely seriously.

On the screen, two cartoon characters were racing go-karts through what appeared to be a rainbow-colored nightmare of floating bananas and turtle shells.

"You turned too early. I told you not to do that." James didn’t bother to look at her. "You always turn too early."

"I hate this track."

"You said that about the last track."

"Because that track was also terrible." Angelica let out a noise of pure anguish as a blue shell materialized out of nowhere and hit what I assumed was her player in an explosive fashion. "That is NOT FAIR. What even IS that?"

"It's a blue shell," James explained patiently. "I told you and told you." He threw down his controller and grabbed for Angelica’s. “I’ll show you again.” His thumbs took control and soon her player started zooming down the track.

Angelica turned to me and winked. I grinned.

Where else would an Oscar-nominated actress—pardon me, actor—be, then sitting on my floor being schooled by a four-year-old?

I walked fully into the living room. Despite everything, James must have heard me.

“Miss Zoe! You’re back. Are you better at this than Miss Angel? Because she keeps losing.”

“I don’t know. I always lose to Lawson.”

“Oh,” James said as he turned around. The lure of Mario Kart had sucked him back in.

Angelica grabbed her juice box off her knee and got up off the floor in one graceful move, not needing to brace herself on the floor or anything. If I didn’t love her so much, I’d hate her.

“So, where’s Adam?”

“The hottie? He’s out on the deck with your brother."

“Not Drake,” I pleaded.

“One and the same. Drake said something about schooling him on the proper way to grill meat. Drake's words, not mine. Apparently, your brother has opinions."

"When doesn’t he have opinions?"

"It obviously runs in the family." She shot me a grin as she pulled me into a hug. “Girl, you look beautiful for someone who just gave birth. You should have milked the hospital stay longer. In this one soap opera I was in, Lola was in the hospital for ten days after giving birth.”

“Lola didn’t have a store to run.”

“No, she was trying to stay away from her billionaire husband who was having an affair with her sister. She was planning on outing them at the Christmas gala.”

I shook my head and looked down at James. “Are you still hungry?”

“I’m starving. Dad and the man are going to get me the biggest cheeseburger ever. The man says it’ll be as big as my whole face. He promised. But they’re being loud and taking a long time.”

“Loud, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“What kind of loud? A good loud, or a bad loud?”

“Huh?” The kid was lost in the game again.

Angelica smirked. “Guess you’re going to have to go find out for yourself. Now get going. And remember, I’m going to be staying really late tonight, because I want to hear all about Adam the rescuer.”

I had purposely not described Adam to Angelica when I’d talked to her over the phone yesterday. I hadn’t described him to any of my sisters, either. I knew the level of shit I would get, and now it was starting. Hell, Angelica was probably going to be calling Maddie as soon as I stepped out on the deck, then she’d tell my other four sisters.