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“So this is the last time you’re going to pull this crap, right?” I said in my best wannabe parent voice.

“It’s the last time. I swear. Won’t become a habit.”

“All right. We won’t tell your folks. But this offer only happens once, you got it?”

“I get it.”

“And we’d better not hear about you stepping one toe out of line,” Cami added. “We’ll be watching.”

“That was creepy,” Kellan mumbled. He opened the car door and climbed out while keeping an eye on the house where his parents awaited. He poked his head back into the car. “Thanks. I mean it.”

“Just behave yourself,” I said and my cousin gave us a smile before shutting the door and walking to his house.

Cami and I watched until we saw the front door of the house open and shut.

She sighed. “Did we just do the right thing?”

“I hope so. Kellan’s a good kid. And Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Chase are pretty strict so usually it’s tough for him to get away with much. Plus I want him to feel like he can come to us if he needs to. I know that if anything else happens we’ll have to tell on him for his own good. But I’m hoping with the whole family practically looking over his shoulder he’ll decide to stay on the right path.”

Cami chuckled. “Those kids sure are a handful. Can you imagine what it must take to keep up with a pack of rowdy teenage boys?”

“I guess parenting is not for the faint of heart,” I said.

“Turn around here,” Cami suggested. “Just in case someone’s looking out the window. Wouldn’t want them to see our car after we promised Kellan we wouldn’t rat him out tonight.”

I turned around on the residential street and drove back the way I came.

Before I rounded the corner I glanced once more at Kellan’s house in the rearview mirror. I was really glad he’d called me tonight instead of wandering around in the dark. He might have run into much worse trouble. I could now appreciate something that I hadn’t thought about much when I was younger. I’d hit the jackpot being born into my family. Navigating the world alone without a tribe to look out for you must feel awful lonely.

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