"Would it do any good to remind you that Spank the monkey is not a relative?" Ari ran a hand through the long, black hair she'd grown back after trying a bob a few months back. Now the twins looked even more alike again, something Zoe loved, since she felt it helped strengthen their bond.

"Look, Ari, the family may no longer perform their Atlantic City Boardwalk Addams Family Act, but Dad is still as bald as Uncle Fester, Mom still wiggles her hips like Morticia, and Aunt Dee swears that Great-Aunt Deliria was engaged to a chimp, which means Spank could very well be a long-lost relative."

Ari sighed. "Spank's a capuchin not a chimp."

"And your last name once was Costas. Nothing is as it seems," Zoe said, laughing.

"She's got a point," their mother, Elena, said, joining her daughters just as Spank's first act ended.

"Hi, Mom," Ari said.

"Hi," Zoe echoed.

"My beautiful girls." Elena enveloped them in a hug, made more suffocating by the long, flowing sleeves of the kimonos she favored now that she'd packed away her Morticia Addams black dresses.

Zoe supposed the outfits had something to do with owning a spa and working as a licensed masseuse. But she wasn't certain what that connection was any more than she knew why her mother had decided to wear her geisha-girl outfit to Sam's birthday party. And darned if she'd ask. Nobody could stop Elena's wacky ways and, in truth, nobody tried. In their small hometown of Ocean Isle, New Jersey, everyone expected the Costas family to act, well, odd. Zoe had long since stopped trying to figure out their eccentric mother. She'd rather just love her instead.

"I've come up with the perfect name for your new business," Elena said to Zoe.

After years of working for the Secret Service, protecting government officials visiting New Jersey, she'd begun to chafe under the tight rules and regulations. No surprise there since she was a Costas and liked to do things her own way. Her new business would give her the opportunity to do just that. She and her partners would be protecting visiting stars and dignitaries on their trips to Atlantic City's casinos.