She looks down at it. “I did text you.”

“I know. But so did someone else.” I pull my phone out of my pocket and show her. “See? Look.”

She frowns as she reads through the texts. “I don’t get it.”

“I thought that person was you. I thought you had a temporary phone, and that was your temporary number. So when I thought you asked me to come to Frankie’s, I went. I thought you were there with the kids, losing your mind or something.”

I wait for that to sink in as she continues reading.

“Oh. Wow.”

“Yeah.”

She looks up at me. “So what happened? You went to Frankie’s and I wasn’t there, obviously. And by the way, I can’t believe you would actually think I would go to Frankie’s with the kids. That place is a dive.”

“I wanna go to Fwankies!” Sammy yells. He’s too busy pulling the head off a Barbie to look at us, but that doesn’t mean his ears aren’t completely tuned in.

“Oh, Jesus.” My sister closes her eyes and inhales deeply, letting the breath out really slowly as she relaxes her body. She’s doing the calming meditation thing that keeps her from blowing her stack. She used to do it about once a day. Now she does it at least once an hour.

“We didn’t say ‘Frankie’s’; we said ‘McDonald’s,’” I say loudly, winking at Jenny.

She rolls her eyes when Sammy jumps up and starts running around the studio.

“McDonawd’s, McDonawd’s, hoo-way, hoo-way, fo’ McDonawd’s!”

“Great.” She throws up her free hand. “Let’s go pump the kid full of trans fats and sodium. Excellent plan, May.” She closes her eyes and shakes her drooping head.

I pat her leg. “Never mind. He can wait. Besides, I can’t go anywhere until I get Felix.”

Jenny looks around on the floor. “Why am I just realizing he’s not here?” Her head jerks up. “Where is he?”

“He’s where I was last night.”

The gleam comes back to Jenny’s eyes. “And where might that be?”

I point to the texts on my phone. “I went to that place mentioned there that’s not McDonald’s, and while I was looking for you in the back room, something happened—a gunshot went off or whatever, and this guy, this big hairy biker guy shoved me out the back door and into an alley.”

“Whaaaat?!!” Jenny grabs me by the arms and shakes me. “Are you okay??!!” Her face is two inches from mine, her eyes full of sisterly concern.

I wiggle out of her grasp. “I’m fine, as you can see.” I try to smooth some wrinkles out of my shirt as I finish my story. “Anyway, I tried to go home, but then, when I realized someone was following me from the bar, I took a detour and lost him. And then the guy I was texting gave me directions to this security company’s address, and I spent the night there.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “And why do I get the impression that I’m only getting a very small part of this story?”

I grin. “Because you are?”

She whacks me on the arm. “Tell me! You know how boring my life is.” She glances at her son, who is now struggling to get into a dress. He already has some pink heels on. My studio is awesome for playing dress-up.

“I guess I stumbled into some sort of police sting or some undercover thing, and whoever was there shooting stuff, I guess thought I was worth following.”

“Oh my god, that’s awful!” Her eyes tear up.

“No, it’s fine.” I don’t know why I think she’s going to believe me. I don’t even really believe me. It’s not like this shooter is going to disappear. I guess I’m lucky he doesn’t know my home address, at least.

“Of course it’s not fine.” She looks me over more carefully. “Were you hurt?”

“No, not a scratch.”

She points at my face. “I see scratches.”

“Okay, so some minor scratches. That was from some wood chips.”

She waits for more, but I say nothing.

“Wood chips,” she deadpans.

“Yes, wood chips. They flew up and hit my face. It’s no big deal.”

“I don’t get how you were in a bar and ended up with that on your face.”

She’s getting mad now. I either have to tell her everything or get mad in response as a getaway tactic.

“Just tell me.” She sighs heavily. “You know I have no life. You know if anything happens to you, it’ll be me picking up the pieces.”

“Those are two very compelling reasons not to say anything, actually.”

“Fine. You want to play hardball? I can play hardball. How about this . . . if you don’t tell me, I’ll go away for a week to the cabin and leave you with my children.”

Fear throws a lance into my heart. “Okay, fine. I’ll tell you. But not because I don’t love my nieces and nephew.”

She smiles knowingly. “Agreed.”

“All right, so I went to the bar, ran out into the alley after a gunshot splintered a table I was standing near . . .”

“A gunshot?!” My sister grabs my arm, her nails digging into me.

I hold up my free hand to stop her from freaking out. “Wait, just save your questions ’til the end.”

“May, oh my god, you were shot at? How can you expect me to not react to that?”

I carefully peel her hand off my arm. “Just . . . give me a chance to tell you the whole story, and you can react all you want.”

“Fine. But I reserve the right to completely freak out when you’re finished.”

When I’m done regaling her with the details, Jenny just stares at me. I remain quiet, giving her time to process. Then her gaze shifts to rest somewhere over my shoulder.

“Holy macaroni,” she finally says, her voice a little breathless. She’s staring out of the plate-glass windows at the front of my studio.

“Ho-whee macawoni,” Sammy repeats. “Ho-whee macawoni on a thtick.”

The bell on my studio door dings as it’s pushed inward. I stand, suddenly nervous when I realize who’s there. I pull on the bottom of my blouse, trying to stretch the wrinkles out of the cotton.

“Hey there,” Ozzie says, his eyes scanning the space as his body fills the entire entrance.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Jenny stands in a hurry next to me. “Hey there,” she says before I can respond. She pulls her shirt down over her love handles and then nervously brushes her hands off on her butt. “And who might you be? The dog sitter?”

He frowns briefly at my sister before turning his attention to me. “Brought your dog back.”

“What’s his name?” I ask, teasing him to get past the awkward moment.

“Mutt.” Ozzie keeps a straight face, but I could swear I see a hint of a twinkle in his eye. He puts Felix on the ground and stands. Felix takes off running toward Sammy.

“Fee-Fee!” Sammy yells, bending down to hug the dog. He knows he’s not supposed to pick him up, but that rule does not forbid strangling hugs. Felix does his duty and accepts the affection without biting.

“His name is not Mutt; it’s Felix.” I gesture to Jenny. “And this is my sister, Jennifer, and her son, Sammy. Jenny, this is Ozzie.”

We all look over in time to see Sammy stuffing Felix into a sparkly purse and hiking it over his arm. Felix’s butt and back legs are hanging out over the edge, his head nowhere to be seen.

I run over to intervene as my sister takes control of the conversation.

“So let me guess . . . you’re the guy who rescued my little sister last night, is that right?”

“I gave her a place to stay.”

She folds her arms over her chest and nods her head slowly. “Aaaand you babysat her dog for her.”

“Actually, I walked her dog for her, and she took off before I got back.”

I come back to the grown-ups. “I’m really sorry about that. I had a shoot scheduled, and I couldn’t miss it. I didn’t know where you went.”

“Oh my god!” Jenny yells, her face a mask of horror, as she steps back a few paces while staring at the windows again.