From the other side of the door came the sound of muffled voices and something being dragged along the floor. Angie was just starting to realize that she wasn’t hearing Rob Grant’s voice when a key turned in the lock and the door swung open.

“… hell if I know,” Tony was saying.

His head was turned away so he didn’t see Angie and John standing there, but Harriet Rose Darling did. Her eyes went very large and very round, and the color drained out of her face.

“What?” said Tony, and turned. He blinked.

“Hey, Ang,” he said. “John. Great minds, and all that.” He managed a half grin.

Harriet said, “John Grant, what are you doing here with Angie?”

“The same thing you were going to do here with Tony,” Angie said. “If I’m busted, so are you.”

Harriet flushed, her mouth in a perfect circle, but Tony put himself in front of her before she could say anything more. “We’ll have to go to plan B. See y’all later.” He pulled the door shut and opened it again immediately, ducking his head apologetically. “Uh, there’s something here I need to—”

Angie grabbed the remaining condoms off the coffee table and handed them over without a word. Tony wiggled his eyebrows at John, and closed the door again.

Angie said, “Well, that explains a few things.”

“And confuses others.” John snorted, and then they were laughing so hard, they had to hold on to each other. They were still laughing when a hesitant knock at the door interrupted them. John opened it. Rob and Kai were standing in the hall, looking at a high-backed wooden chair. The one, Angie assumed, that Patty-Cake had wedged under the doorknob.

Rob said, “How hard did you try to get out, anyway?”

“I am not an attorney, but I advise you anyway, don’t answer.” Kai held up a large white paper box. “We brought breakfast from the bakery.”

“I trust y’all have coffee,” said Lucy, swooping in. “Don’t make a face, John, and don’t blame your brother. I wasn’t about to be left out. A boy needs his mama at a time like this, I don’t care how old he is.”

John looked remarkably sanguine at the unexpected sight of his mother. “I’m thirty-six, Mama, which means you must be—”

“Now, don’t be fresh,” Lucy said, frowning at him. She came over to Angie and hugged her. “Sit down and eat something, sugar. John, you look like a bum.”

“Why, thank you, Mama,” John said dryly. He lifted the lid of the bakery box and peered inside. “Speaking of bums, where is Sam?”

“Stop,” Lucy said. “I’m not going to let you rile me, not this morning. I sent Sam home. This kind of family melodrama gives him hives.”

“And he was getting on your nerves,” Kai volunteered.