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“The compact. It’s in my desk. I’ll go get it.”

“After dinner.” This time he gave her hand a squeeze. “And it’s great, Cleo.”

“No, my meatloaf’s great,” Owen disagreed. “This is, and it hurts a little, superior. I’m having some more.”

As he took a second helping, of everything, he looked back at Sonya. “A guy wants to protect the ones who matter to him, especially if you’re Trey. Tough for you. You’re dealing with things most people wouldn’t just walk away from. They’d run like hell. That goes for both you and Lafayette here.”

“You’re not running,” Cleo pointed out.

“Jones and me? We like a good fight. Add that bitch killed some of my family. Back when doesn’t matter. It’s family.”

Trey looked over at his friend, raised his glass. “And there you have it.”

“Speaking of family,” Sonya began, “I’ve arranged to visit Gretta Poole tomorrow. I kept putting that off, and it feels like, after this morning especially, I should at least make that connection.”

“I can shift some things around and go with you.”

“You would, you would shift things around, and I appreciate it. But Cleo’s going with me. We’re both at a point in our work where we can take a few hours away from it.”

“Don’t expect much,” Trey warned her. “I went with my father to see her right after Collin died. She didn’t recognize him at all, probably because she thought I was Deuce. Went on about how she knew I’d talked Collin into going into the manor. I got a lecture on that.

“A couple minutes later, when Dad tried to explain to her that Collin wouldn’t be able to come see her, she talked about having an uncle named Collin who’d died in the war and left a young widow and baby behind.”

“Did she? I don’t remember reading that in the Poole family history.”

“No. Dad and I figured she mixed together Collin, the family history, and the fictional fiancé her mother made up for her. At the end, she got agitated, claimed her mother would be there any minute, and didn’t approve of her talking to strangers.”

“I went to see her once.”

Cleo lifted her eyebrows at Owen. “Once?”

“With her reaction to me, her doctors didn’t recommend a return trip. She thought I was Charlie, her brother. Your bio grandfather.”

Sonya studied him, thought of the wedding day dream. “There’s a definite family resemblance, but not really all that close.”

“Close enough for her. She was happy to see me at first, but that didn’t last. She got…”

He trailed off, shrugged. “We can use Trey’sagitated. Everything was my fault. I ruined her life, she’d never get away now, go to New York, and be an artist. Why did I come back? Suddenly this old lady’s calling me a cocksucker and screaming at me to go away and never come back.”

“Everyone’s told me Gretta was weak and subservient and mild,” Sonya said quietly. “I’d say there’s a lot of pent-up rage inside.”

“Well, she sure as hell let it out that time.”

“You left out the part,” Trey reminded him, “where she went at you, thinking you were Charlie, her brother, and scratched up your face.”

Owen shrugged again, ate more meatloaf. “It healed up.”

Clover went with Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love.”

“I know you were. And none of this,” Sonya said firmly, “is Charlie’s fault or yours. It’s Patricia’s, and if Gretta didn’t stand the fuck up to her, that’s on Gretta, not her brother. I’m going to get the compact.”

“Guess I shouldn’t’ve mentioned it.” Owen watched her storm out of the room.

“No,” Trey disagreed. “She, and you, Cleo, have to know what you’re going to be up against. She’s pissed because she takes responsibilityfor her own actions and decisions and doesn’t toss the blame for them around.”

“I’ll repeat.” Now Cleo raised her glass. “And there you have it. The three most important qualities a woman, a smart woman, wants in a partner? In no particular order. That they understand and respect the woman for who and what she is. That they’re sexually compatible. That they’re not an asshole. I can’t speak from personal experience about one of those qualities, but you nail the other two.”

“Thanks.”