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“Gross, dude. Ham, cheese, peanut butter, and jelly in one bite?” I shuddered, and he lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

“So,” Athena said, “I heard you threw a brick through the window at Red Wild.”

Devo choked on the sip of water she’d just taken. “Um”—she coughed to clear her throat—“I did. It wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

“And I heard Aunt Abey arrested you, so isn’t this, like, a conflict of interest, you goin’ on a date with her?”

“How do you even know what that means?”

Athena rolled her eyes at me quite dramatically. “Aunt Abey, I’m almost thirteen.”

“Oh, right.”

“I hadn’t thought about it like that,” Devo said. She looked at me. “Is it?”

“Maybe? If I couldn’t be counted on to haul your ass to jail if the judge ordered it, but I think we both know I’d do it. And Carey or Frank would if I didn’t.”

“Great,” Devo said.

“At least they take the job seriously,” Mama said. “And watch your language around Athena.”

Athena rolled her eyes, but then her eyebrows drew together when she looked at Devo and cocked her head. “Why’d you do it?”

Devo’s gaze rounded our little circle as she tried to decide what she wanted to say or how she should say it. “I shouldn’t have done it, Athena. It was wrong. I was just really, really angry at Mr. Graves. More than that, though, I was so frustrated. I’d tried time and time again to talk to him. We had an argument. It wasn’t our first, and I guess I got fed up with the way he treats me and the people I work with.”

“What do you mean?”

Devo hesitated. I knew she probably felt uncomfortable bringing up the LGBTQ issue, especially in front of Mama, who she could probably guess didn’t have the most favorable opinion about it.

I stepped in. “Some people in this life don’t know how to be kind. Or maybe they know how, but they choose not to be. Sometimes Red Graves is one of those people.”

“He was mean to you?” Athena asked Devo.

“Yeah.”

My brother spoke, raising an eyebrow at his daughter when she looked at him. “Kinda like when you tripped Jenny Culver, Athena, and then you laughed at her when she fell. That wasn’t very kind.”

She scoffed. “I wasn’t talkin’ about me. Besides, she tripped me first, and she said we were poor and that I smell like sheep poop.”

“That sucks,” Bax said, and I could see the turmoil behind his eyes. What that asshole kid had said wasn’t untrue, and he hated it. If I knew my brother, he was pissed at himself and he blamed himself. “She shouldn’t have said that, but it’s the same thing. Devo got arrested when she did what she did. Is that what you want?” He threw a little wince Devo’s way, but she shrugged and smiled. It wasn’t like she could say it hadn’t happened.

“No, but Aunt Abey would never arrest me.”

“Yes, I would, if you did somethin’ that was against the law. If you hurt someone.”

“Seriously?” Athena squeaked. “That’s messed up.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

DEVO

“You’d arrest your own niece?” Athena huffed.

Jeez. How did we land in the middle of this conversation? Not only had I dragged us down the gay rabbit hole, but now I had to figure out how to make this kid understand right from wrong. Abey’s mom’s discomfort about the subject was easy to read from the pinched look on her face.

She might’ve been coming around to the idea of Abey dating me—maybe—but she clearly did not like what she’d heard about me. My illegal exploits were probably the hot topic around Wisper these days. It seemed like Abey’s mom knew about my misdeeds, so she’d clearly heard the rumors.

“She would do it, Athena,” I said, “because Abey believes in right and wrong, and ’cause she believes in the power of the American justice system. If you do somethin’ against the law, she’s the person who will uphold that law. Right?” I asked Abey, and she nodded once. “It’s a quality to respect about her, don’tcha think?”