“She has all the love she could ask for in this house,” I reminded her. “That’s all the family she needs.”

Lexi wiped her wet cheeks. “I know, but tell that to a ten-year-old who just wants to know why. Why couldn’t she have met her brother once, and why couldn’t she have had a father who took her to the zoo. The first time she met him was when he dragged her through Austin’s house and then shot me in front of her. I healed, but that affected her in a way I’ll never understand. How do you explain stuff like that to a kid? Mom does a good job, but Maizy will never have those questions answered, and that’s a heavy load to carry in life.”

“What did Denver say to her?” April asked.

Lexi turned a playing card in a circle on the table. “I couldn’t hear everything through the window. He just kissed the top of her head and let her do all the talking. Maybe that’s my problem—I talk too much, and Maizy doesn’t want me to put a Band-Aid on everything. I’m just glad there’s someone she can go to when she needs to get stuff like that off her chest. I tell her stories about Wes all the time, and what our family was like when Wes was alive. But I don’t glam it up; I guess I don’t want to make it sound so great that she doesn’t appreciate how wonderful things are now, you know? We just went through life thinking she’d forget all that, but kids don’t forget. It just takes them a few years before all that trauma catches up and they start thinking about it on a different level, trying to figure out what kind of person they are because of it—or what’s wrong with them.”

“Princess?” a husky voice said.

April peered around me. “Yes?”

“Are you coming up?”

I glanced at Reno. He was an impressive man who resembled Austin in some ways, but tougher, if that was possible. Reno had the hard edges of a man who had experienced a lot of pain in his life.

He was also wearing a pair of silk pajama bottoms with no shirt.

April smiled approvingly as she stood up, and I had a feeling that ensemble was all her doing. “I think I’m in the mood to listen to some blues music in bed. Good night, everyone. I’ll see you tomorrow at the party, Naya?”

“You can count on it.”

Reno curved his arm around his mate and kissed the top of her head as they walked off. Somewhere down the hall, I heard her squeal followed by the sound of kissing and whispering.

Out of nowhere, a pang of jealousy struck me. Where on earth did that come from?

Being here at this intimate hour gave me a glimpse of what it must be like to live in this house. I adored the way they all treated one another. Sometimes in my quiet apartment, I would sit on the balcony and listen to the neighbors below. It was why I liked having parties. Panthers didn’t live in groups and rarely had more than one child, but I still longed for companionship. I missed Lexi; we used to play gin rummy and go shopping on a whim.