She sobered. “It’s hard, sometimes, knowing that Dad loved you more than the rest of us.”
Kane’s jaw dropped. “No, he—”
“Yes, he did. Don’t deny it,” Cat said impatiently. “Even Megan knew it. You were always the one prepped to take over the company. He never asked me if I might be interested in it.”
Kane’s eyes bore into her. Cat glared right back at him. “Were you?” he said.
“Yes. Don’t you remember? I would ask him about it, and he’d just brush me off, like nothing I said ever counted.”
Kane sat back and reached up to scrub his hand through his hair, which pulled on his IV. “The recycling. It was your idea.”
“I was interested in it, anyway. I might have gone to California. We could have talked about converting the other plants. Then he died, and you didn’t ask anyone for help, either. And I’d done the research. But you didn’t ask, so I got pissed and wouldn’t tell you. Then Mom got sick and that took all my time anyway.” She gave a one-sided grin that was just like Kane’s. “I could have saved you some work, you stubborn ass.”
“I didn’t know,” he said. “I’m sorry, Cat. I never realized.”
She shrugged. “Well, we both know I’m a stubborn ass, too. We get it from Dad, I guess.”
He nodded. How many people had told Robert to modernize?
“You’re wrong, though,” said Kane. “He didn’t love me more than any of you. Don’t you see? I was just the workhorse. You were who it was all for.”
It was a long speech for his vocal chords, and the last words were barely audible, but Cat was crying again. “I told you not to talk,” she said in a choked voice.
“Okay,” he said, and accepted another drink. “I love you, you bossy pain in the ass.”
She stood up. “Love you too, you constant thorn in my side. I’ll go tell the others you’re awake.”
“Who’s here?”
“Oh, it’s a regular Fielding invasion. Plus, Carl and—”
“Carl?”
“Well, duh. You think he’d hang out at your place with you all over the news? He and that little friend of Ellen’s went to get you some clothes and things. And if anyone asks, he’s your brother. Adopted.”
He laughed, but it came out as a wheeze.
“Oh, and Ellen’s your fiancée.”
His heart leaped into his throat so fast it made him cough. He sat up and groaned when his back complained. “What?”
“She wouldn’t leave,” Cat said. “Even when I was mean to her for knowing where you were before we did.”
Kane opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. Finally, he got out, “Where is she?”
“She and Antonio took the boys to the cafeteria.” Cat stood up and stretched. She didn’t seem to notice that Kane had stopped breathing.
After a few steps toward the door, she turned back. “We’ll get the boiler and the painting done. I only said I wouldn’t to piss you off. I love that house as much as you do. More.”
“I only started smoking to piss you off,” he said, grinning.
She shook her head, but she was smiling. At the door she turned around again. “Oh, and Ellen caught Tennant.”
“What? Ow.” He put his hand to his throat.
“Yep. Sat on him until the cops came, or something. Maybe I should be nicer to her, huh? Seems like a bit of a badass.”
“Shit.” He went to scrape his hand through his hair again, but the IV pulled too much. “Any more revelations?”
