"Oh, no, you misunderstand," Tony corrected, very gently suddenly like he was whispering this sensitive adjustment so Lark wasn't embarrassed in front of a fickle audience. "I'll be the best dressed in the room, hands down, it's your talents I'm relying on. These kids start showing up in my home looking fancier than me, I'll have them escorted out, banned for life, you're hanging on by a thread." By the time he was done, he was watching Lark with another curious wrinkle of his brow, and didn't give her the time to accept this punishment for the imagined crime of knowing someone more impressive than Tony before he was asking, "How many kids do you have?" Not just genetically her own, obviously--these students had come up by name about as fast as Lark's daughter.