The phone rang again, and I grabbed it. You never knew when someone wanted to offer you a million dollars. If I didn't answer, how would I become a millionaire?

I smiled as I saw the name. Not a million dollars then, but almost as good.

"What's up, Vivi?" I asked my younger sister Vivienne. She'd been in Texas with her boyfriend for almost twenty-four hours now.

My feelings were still out about the situation. One of us had to be the responsible daughter. Since my mother wasn't speaking to me, that job had fallen on her shoulders the last few months. Now that she'd followed a boy halfway across the country, did it become me again? I didn't like the sound of that. Plus, I'd also followed a man to far away distant lands so....

Basically, we were a mess.

I blamed my parents. I mean, they raised us both, so it made sense.

She sniffled, and I froze, going on high alert. "College sucks, Vonnie. Why didn't you warn me?"

"What happened?" Did I have to go there and beat someone up? "Did Allen look at another woman?"

If that man-who I got off from murder charges-forced my sister to Texas and then cheated on her within a day, I'd put him in the ground. Well, I'd have Broadrick do it. He probably knew more ways to kill someone, but I'd oversee cleanup.

"What?" she asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "No, Allen's fine. He just keeps reminding me how busy he's going to be now. Like he never plans to be around. My roommate stole more than half the closet, and she already has a group of friends here. Where do popular people hang out in college?"

I rolled my eyes. My poor sweet summer sister. She'd always been our parents' favorite and maintained a popular status at school. This might actually be hard on her.

Putting on my big sister cap, I sat up in bed. "Vivi, your school has like a hundred thousand people there." It might have been a slight exaggeration, but it drew a chuckle out of her. "There aren't any cool people there. Just little pockets of people you can tolerate."

"Really? How do you make friends?" she asked. This is what happened when you lived in a small town your entire life and had the same friends since kindergarten.

I rolled over on the bed and disrupted NB. "Join a club. They probably have lists of them somewhere. Find something interesting and sign up."

"Well..." She paused for a moment, probably deep in thought about how smart I am. "There is a tent set up for some outside my dorm. It's part of welcome week."

"See. That's where you need to be, Vivi. Pick a few different ones and see which you like. My freshman year, I signed up to learn a new sport. It was like Karate with a big stick."

It looked so fun, and the sticks made noise when you hit them. I had so many visions of kicking bad guy ass in some dark alleyway.

"What happened?" she asked, pulling me from the memories.

I flinched. "Oh, umm. I don't really remember, but I fizzled out."

The group had a really mean girl, and she'd hit me with her stick like five times on our first day. That shit hurt. I ended up with a giant bruise on my shoulder and never returned. But I had to keep it positive for Vivi.

"I could hit people with sticks," she said, sounding lost in visions of taking on bad guys in dark alleys.

"Yeah, Actually I'm not sure about you and sticks. Look for something less intense." My gaze floated around the room, landing on my knitting bag. "Like knitting."

Except... oops. Knitting was actually pretty dangerous. At least around rich people.

"Better yet, see if they have any painting groups or something." My sister couldn't get into trouble painting.

Silence met my suggestion before she said. "You always complained that my paintings were too abstract."

"That's why you should join a group. You'll get more practice."

Vivi chuckled again. "I'm going to take that as a compliment."

"But for real, Vivi. College gets easier. I promise. Soon you'll be so deep in classes the time will fly past and you'll be home for summer break. Use this time to spread your wings."

The door to our room opened, and Broadrick snuck in. He had his mouth open but closed it when he found me on the phone. He toed off his heavy military type boots and nodded when I mouthed "Vivi" at him.

"Hi, Vivi," Broadrick yelled as he jumped on the bed, sending NB at least an inch in the air.

She laughed again, sounding almost like her normal happy self. "Tell him I said hi."

"Are you going to be okay, or do I need to steal a helicopter and rescue you?" I asked, only half kidding.

Vivi snorted, making it easy for me to visualize her smile. "I'll be okay. Thanks for the support."

"That's what sisters do. And for real, if Allen even looks at you weird, you let me know. Tell him I'm only a flight away. There are lots of rich people here, so I'll have my pick of transportation."

Broadrick stared at me with one eyebrow a full tick higher as I said good-bye to my sister and promised she'd be great as a college student.

"What?" I asked as I set the phone on the nightstand beside me, even though we both knew why he had that eyebrow raised.

Broadrick climbed up closer, so we were head-to-head. "How concerned should I be that you're light-heartedly joking about stealing a helicopter?"

I laughed and scooted closer to him, so our shoulders touched. "Only a little."

"I enjoy hearing that from you again," he said with a matching smile.

I raised my eyebrow to match his earlier one. "You like hearing that I'm only a little serious about stealing the helicopter?"

"No." Broadrick bumped me with his shoulder. "I like hearing you laugh again."

Whatever.

I rolled my eyes dramatically at him. It's not like I hadn't laughed at all the last few weeks. Things had just been a little tense since everything happened and we made the move to the island. But he had a point, too. I felt better, lighter, happier lately. Was it that I'd gotten back on the horse-the murder horse-and picked up Melissa's case? My brain loved putting together all the clues and solving the puzzle. Even if right then I had crap to go on.