He laughed, his dark eyes alight with happiness just as they always were when I couldn’t contain my emotions. “You and Mom are. We’ll stop on the way and drop me off since I have to work.”

Some of my excitement evaporated. I still wanted to go, because no one in their right mind would ever turn down the chance to go to Paris, whether they were shopping or not. But it wouldn’t be nearly as fun without Ryan there to enjoy it with me. And then there was the whole thing about Ryan working. He was only fifteen, but he’d been shadowing his dad for the last year, learning the ropes of their businesses so he could take over for him one day.

I wasn’t stupid. I knew that some of the Vitucci businesses weren’t exactly tax-paying enterprises. Just as I knew that my own family wasn’t exactly law-abiding, even if my cousin Lexa had married the sheriff. But I’d noticed that it was changing Ryan a little more every time I saw him. It wasn’t something I would say was a bad thing. He still treated me like I was the most precious thing in the world. It was everyone else in the world who needed to worry about getting on my best friend’s bad side.

“I was thinking we could turn this into a yearly shopping adventure,” Anya said with a grin. “Get you prepared for all those events Ciana is constantly insisting on attending as a family. I told her my plan to take you shopping, and she was adamant I get you heels so she could teach you to walk in them this summer.”

I couldn’t help snickering at that, easily picturing my beloved cousin insisting on teaching me everything she knew about walking and even running in heels.

“She’s only ten,” Dad grumbled. “Those deathtrap shoes can wait a little longer.”

“Hush, Jet,” Mom told him, patting him on the leg. “Let her have some fun. Besides, it isn’t the height of the shoes you should be worried about, but the length of the dresses she picks out.”

“Christ,” he muttered, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Just take it back to New York with you, Anya. Maybe if I don’t see the clothes she buys, I won’t need blood pressure medication.”

Two hours later, we were in the air. From the time I was five, I’d been making this same trip to New York City in one of the Vituccis’ private jets. As soon as school let out for the summer until a few days before school started again for the fall term, I stayed with Ryan and his family. It was hard for me to come home again at the end of vacation, but at least I had school to distract me from the time I had to spend away from my favorite person.

Maybe I should have felt guilty because I barely missed my parents when I was in New York, but when I was home, I missed Ryan so badly, it was as if I left a physical part of myself behind with him.