“Smart boy.”
A quick elevator ride to the top floor of the hotel and the five-star restaurant it held. When they walked in, the room erupted into applause and whoops. They were all there—his Pack, much of his Daddy’s who’d come with them on their trip, and Jessie Ann’s. And all of them applauded and yelled out congratulations.
“Took you long enough!” one of his Daddy’s cousins yelled from the back of the room.
For the first time since he’d met her again, Jessie looked like she’d give anything to have some bleachers to hide under.
“Momma,” Smitty said, taking Jessie’s hand with his own, “you didn’t have to do all this.”
“Of course I did. Your daddy’s family did it for us. It was downright humiliating. Now it’s y’all’s turn.” She slapped Smitty’s hand and he let Jessie loose. “Now, Jessie Ann, you go on down to that end of the table and sit with me and Bubba.”
Smitty reached for Jessie when he saw the panic in her eyes, but his daddy caught hold of her arm and pulled her away.
“And you’ll sit down here with some of Jessie’s people.” Jessie’s people? Sure enough, his momma led him over to sit beside Phil and Sabina, as well as Sissy Mae and, oddly enough, Mitch Shaw.
As they walked Smitty said under his breath, “What about Wilson?”
“Oh,” his momma waved her hand dismissively, “don’t y’all worry about him no more.”
Smitty didn’t understand. “He’s family.”
She stopped at the end of the table and looked up at her son. She ran her hand down his cheek, her smile warm. “Yes, and your Jessie Ann is the mother of my grandbabies. Who do you think really wins that pissing contest, darlin’?”
He kissed his mother’s hand, knowing exactly what she’d done for them. “And what if we decided not to have any kids?”
“Don’t even play, Robert Ray Smith. Lord knows, if I have to wait for this one”—she shoved Sissy Mae’s chair with her knee, knocking his baby sister’s chest into the table—“I’ll be in my grave before I see my grandbabies.”
“One can only hope,” Sissy muttered, getting herself a nice slap to the back of the head.
Fangs bared, his momma snarled, “Watch your mouth, little girl.” When she turned back to Smitty, her warm smile had returned. “Now you sit right on down and enjoy your meal. And I’ll go and get to know my baby’s mate.”
Smitty sat down and Sissy glared at him from between Sabina and Dez. “‘And I’ll get to know my baby’s mate,’” she mimicked with a sneer.
“Now, now, Sissy Mae. Don’t be jealous ’cause you’re barren and lonely.”
Mitch laughed until that basket of hot dinner rolls hit him right in the head.
“I guess my question is, why a pretty little thing like you would want anything to do with my big-headed boy?”
Jess snorted as Miss Janie glared across the table at her mate. “Look who’s throwing stones from that glass house.”
“My head ain’t that big.”
The older woman held her hands up at least two feet apart. “Huge,” she mouthed at her, making Jess laugh harder.
Smitty would probably never forgive her, but she found his parents thoroughly entertaining. At first, she’d admit, she thought she was being set up Mafia style. Lull her into a false sense of security with a wonderful dinner and champagne until someone took a baseball bat to the back of her head. But the more she talked to them, the more she realized Walt Wilson was out of the picture—permanently. She looked around the room filled with her people and Smitty’s. They all enjoyed their meal while talking and laughing. Even the cats were invited and, seemingly, accepted. Only one full-human made the cut, but they all seemed to love Dez.
“You haven’t answered my question,” Bubba reminded her.
“Oh. Um... I guess ’cause I love him.”
“Why?”
Slamming her fork down, Miss Janie snarled, “Bubba Ray Smith!”
“It’s a simple question. Don’t yell at me, woman.”
In order to head off what could be an interesting fight, Jess answered quickly, “Because Bobby Ray made me smile—when I had nothing to smile about.”
Miss Janie put her hand to her more-than-ample chest. “That is the most darlin’ thing I’ve ever heard.” She smiled. Not one of her scary sorta-smiles either, but a real one. Nice and warm and caring. “So... when can I expect some grandbabies?”
Of course, that didn’t mean the woman wouldn’t say something scary.
“What about Uncle Eggie?” Smitty asked his sister while debating whether to gag Phil since he wouldn’t shut the hell up.
“You know he don’t do shit until he checks in with Daddy. And then Daddy don’t make a move until he checks in with Momma. Who checked in with Miss Tala Lee—that’s Ronnie’s momma,” she quickly explained to Dez before turning back to him, “who grudgingly checked in with Annie Jo.”
“And a dosie-do,” Mitch muttered.
Sissy reached for another bread basket, but Dez snatched it up first. “Would you stop throwing food at him. I’m eating this stuff, ya know.”
“Does this mean I don’t get to kill the balding wolf?” Sabina pouted. “I was so planning to kill him.”
“It’s okay, baby,” Phil soothed. “I’m sure someone will piss you off enough one day to garner a reason for you to pull out your knives.”
“You always promise and then they sit around... unused.”
Smitty leaned forward and said to his sister, “I never thought I’d say this to you, but if anything happens to me and Jessie, you get the kids.”
“They were going at it on the floor like animals.”
Jess kept her head down and her hand over her mouth trying to stifle her hysterical laughter as waiters passed around dessert and everyone got up to mingle. Of course, hard to hide the laughter when Sabina wouldn’t stop telling this story.“There was growling and snarling and barking.”
May pointed her mousse-covered spoon at Sabina. “How long were you watching them exactly?”
“Long enough to know that old wolves still fuck.”
“Stop it. Please.” Jess couldn’t even eat she was laughing so hard.
“I’m just trying to warn you. What they say about Smith wolf males is true. They fuck well into old age. You have quite the years of horniness ahead of you, my friend.”
Jess sank lower in her seat, but she made the mistake of looking up at Danny and Phil—then they all lost it.
“Think Jessie knows?”
Sissy whispered back, “Knows what?”
“That every one of us is insane.”
“Oh, darlin’, yeah... she knows.”
They looked down the table and watched Jessie and her wild-dog friends.
“What do you think they’re laughing at?” Mitch asked.
“Something tells me I don’t wanna know.” Smitty picked up his fork and dug into his piece of cherry pie. “And I’m okay with that.”
Smitty had a bite of pie in his mouth when a slap to the back almost had him choking to death.
His sister slapped his back attempting to dislodge whatever got caught. “Spit it,” she ordered. “Spit it!”
He finally did, cherries flying onto his plate, and glared up at his father. “Must you do that?”
“Ain’t my fault you got a weak back.”
Smitty’s grip tightened around his fork, but Sissy’s hand on his arm kept him from using the damn thing to take out his daddy’s eye.
Bubba looked down at Mitch. “Cat in my chair.”
Mitch chuckled, then realized Bubba was serious. “Oh.” He moved over a seat.
Sitting down, Bubba said, “I’m taking the men out for a drink tonight. You’ll come.”
“I don’t think so, Daddy.”
“Don’t be weak, boy. You’ll come. One drink won’t kill ya. You can even bring your cat friends if you want. If you’ll feel safer,” he taunted.
Smitty took the kind of deep breath he took only around his daddy. “Fine.”
“You’ll regret it,” Sissy sang under her breath.
“One drink, Sissy. That’s all I’m having.”
She heard her full name yelled at the same time that big hand cracked right across her ass, snapping her out of a sound sleep.
“What? What’s wrong?” Jess sat up straight and saw Smitty standing at the end of the bed, sort of swaying. “Smitty? Christ, what time is it?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It’s three in the morning? Why are you waking me up at three in the morning?”
He muttered something that sounded like “The hypocrisy.” But Jess chose to ignore it.
“Bobby Ray Smith... are you drunk?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe? Maybe you’re drunk?”
“Don’t try and distract me, woman.”
“What happened to ‘I’m only having one drink. I’ll be back in an hour’? Isn’t that what you said to me five hours ago?”
“I’m drunk because my daddy is still in town. We started off in Uncle Bart’s room. Went to Momma’s. And then we left the building. At some point, I believe we left Daddy passed out somewhere in Battery Park—but I’m not really sure.”