“Simon.”
“Who?”
“The cat. The one I wanted you to adopt.”
“Oh, right.”
Layla laid her head against the seat’s headrest. “He’s such a sweet guy, but his time is running out.” She turned her gaze to Alanna. “When I finally convinced Cal to adopt a cat last month, I was planning to bring Simon home. But Cal didn’t want an older cat, and he said black cats are boring. He wanted kittens. Don’t get me wrong! I love Garbo and Garland, but they would have been adopted easily.”
Alanna’s hands tightened on the wheel. What was the opposite of a class act? That would be Cal. Butt-puckered weasel? Yes, that worked.
“I wish I could adopt Simon,” she said out loud, “but when I get back to Los Angeles, I’ll be working 80-hour weeks.”If Thomas gets me out of my non-compete clause,she added silently.Which he will because he has to. Otherwise, I’ll be so poor I might not be able to feed myself, much less a cat.
She sighed as she hit her blinker and took a left turn. “Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking when I adopted Petunia. Well, Theo’s malbec played a bit of a role, but…” Alanna stopped as she felt big, princess eyes searing into her face.
“What?” she asked her sister.
Layla blinked. “Nothing… it’s just that…” her voice softened. “I was hoping maybe you were thinking of staying here.”
Alanna shook her head, as she slowed for a stoplight. “Even if I wanted to stay, Yucca Hills isn’t big enough for me to run a public relations firm here. At least not at the level I want.” Translation: no way could she make the ridiculous amounts of money she needed to fund her lifestyle in Yucca Hills. That took contracts with large companies and startups oozing venture capital dollars. And all those companies were in Los Angeles.
“And then there’s Mom.” Layla’s voice wavered. She turned to look at Alanna. “What are we going to do about Mom?”
The light turned green, and Alanna hit the gas. “We’re going in to get her cortisone shots tomorrow. If they work, the doctor says she should be in a lot less pain.”
“That’s just a temporary solution,” Layla insisted. “What happens in six months when they wear off? What about next year? Mom’s hands are only going to get worse, and the doctor said she had arthritis in her knees, too. What if she can’t live by herself soon?”
Layla’s anxious fingers released the seatbelt and now clutched her thick braid like a golden lifeline. “I asked Cal about having her live with us. He, uh…” Layla’s eyes flicked down. “He wasn’t very receptive to the idea.”
Of course he wasn’t. Alanna’s grip tightened on the wheel. Caring for someone with severe arthritis and limited mobility would require patience and compassion, two words Cal wouldn’t understand even if he looked them up in the dictionary. How many times had she urged her sister to dump Cal over the years?
So many. Obviously not enough. But it felt too late now. Layla seemed pathologically unable to recognize her fiancé’s ass-hole-ishness. And every time Alanna tried to helpfully point it out, she earned copious Layla tears for her troubles and strident pleas toGive him a chance.It was a hopeless fight.
“What are we going to do about Mom?” Layla repeated, snapping Alanna back to the present. The soft, feathery sound of a sniffle fired up Alanna’s big sister instincts, but this wasn’t some jackass on the playground she could punch or an extra blanket she could scrounge from the homeless shelter attendants.
What could she possibly do to help? Her future was in Los Angeles. As soon as she got her new PR firm up and running, she’d be zig-zagging across the country for press tours and client events. There was no way her mother could possibly live with her.
And, of course, Sully couldn’t fit into that life either.
Why did her stomach suddenly start aching like she’d eaten a burrito full of rusted nails?
“We’re here,” Alanna announced, pulling Stella roughly up to the curb in front of Tess’s house. Without meaning to, she glanced at the next house over. The windows of Sully’s home glowed a warm yellow. He was home. Just a few yards away. Now, Alanna’s stomach tightened. Other parts of her were clenching, too.
You’re just horny. It’s nothing more than that,she told herself.
“Okay,” Layla murmured. She closed her eyes and chanted, “My positive thoughts guide me to new heights.”
As if responding to Alanna’s silentwtf,she explained. “That’s my mantra for today. I get one each day from an app on my phone.
Of course she did. Instead of commenting on this new, completely Layla-like revelation, Alanna said, “Come on, let’s go hang with some crazy cat ladies.”
They both stared out the windshield where curtains of rain blurred the world around them.
“One…” Layla began.
“Two…” Alanna joined in.
“THREE!” they shouted together. Squealing, they flung open the doors of the car and sprinted toward the house.
