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“No,” Megan said patiently. “We tell Yasmin what we want to do. She makes it work. That’s her job.”
“What does she get out of this?”
“First, don’t you want to know what I get out of this?”
Cat waved her hands around. “I know what you get out of it. I’m not immune to that boy’s looks.”
“He’s the same age as me,” Megan pointed out. But what did that matter? Cat was fourteen years older than Megan; she could only ever see her as a child. “And you married an Italian. What do you have against Alessandro when you haven’t even met him?”
“Meg,” Cat said, as though talking to a very simple person. “He. Is. Super. Famous. You’re going to get caught up in his world, chewed up, and spit out. Those people aren’t normal. You’re being naïve thinking you’ll be able to make this work.”
Megan’s patience began to send biting sparks down her arms. She kept the smile on her face. “I’m working with the people who do know how to make this work so I won’t be spit out. Didn’t you go through some difficulties when you and Antonio met? And you overcame them. I’m just looking to spend time with someone who wants to spend time with me. You’re acting like I’m being unreasonable.”
“Ugh.” Cat stalked to the other end of the kitchen with the bowl of pigs in blankets, opened the back door, and put the bowl on the deck table someone had cleared off. “Food!” she shouted to the two teams huddled behind three-foot walls in the backyard. Megan, drifting out after her, saw an unwise boy raise his head too soon and get a snowball in the back of the head. She laughed but sobered when Cat scowled at her. “Stay on topic,” Cat said, slamming the door.
Megan’s patience ran down to her fingertips and stayed there, hovering. She let go of the ends of her hair. “You haven’t even met him,” she said. “Don’t you think you should before you tell me he’s not worth it?”
“I don’t get to meet him, remember?” Cat pointed out, jabbing a finger at Megan’s phone. “I’m not on the schedule.”
Megan’s patience ran all the way off her fingers and was lost. She opened her mouth, but someone said, “What schedule? Who aren’t we meeting?” and Thea and her husband, Liam, walked into the kitchen.
Megan hadn’t heard the front door open. Thankful for the few seconds she needed to slow down her heart rate, she hugged her sister and Liam. Cat allowed a hug from Thea and a kiss on the cheek from Liam, then went right back into her rant. “Do you know who Megan’s decided to date?”
“Alessandro Rosselli,” Thea said seriously. “Well, duh, Cat. Did you see that photo of them? Where did you meet him, Meg? And where’s the wine, Cat?”
“I didn’t get to it yet,” Cat snapped, as though that was Megan’s fault, too, at eleven o’clock in the morning.
“He used to be my barista in the city,” Megan said, glad to have a distraction from her oldest sister. Thea was the next oldest and always calmer than everyone else, except Megan. She’d had her own struggles in life, and Megan was thrilled to see her relaxed and happy with her stoic, protective husband. “He asked for my help with a fundraiser he’s doing, and… well, things escalated.”
Cat let out a “chah!” from the pantry.
“Nice job.” Thea smiled, tucking herself into Liam’s side while he rolled his eyes. “I can’t deny he’s easy on the eyes. So why’s Mother Cat up in arms today? She knew about this when the photo came out, no?”
“When that photo came out, you told me it was amistake,” Cat retorted, carrying two bottles of red wine out from the pantry. “You said nothing was going on. You told Ellen that, too. If you remember.”
Megan felt her jaw lock. She never got this wound up around her sisters. Why was Cat pushing her buttons today? “I changed my mind,” she said in the mildest voice she could muster.
“And now she’s going to put all of us back in the limelight, just like before, and she doesn’t remember what happened back then, so she thinks it’s all going to turn out just fine and—”
That word triggered Megan. “I don’t think it’s going to befine,” she interrupted, making Cat’s mouth drop open. Oops, Megan sounded mad. And she never sounded mad. “I think it’s going to be a start. Something I want to explore. I don’t know where it’s going to go. He’s surrounded by the most beautiful women in the universe. He has to go back to LA soon. He has a movie to shoot sometime. And a career to manage. So I’m aware that there are any number of things that could go wrong. But I will try to get to know him anyway. BecauseI want to.”
Cat did the big-eyed shock face again. Thea left Liam to hug Megan, who had just realized her face was hot. She didn’t want to talk about this in front of Liam, because while she loved him for loving her sister, she didn’t know him well, and she didn’t want the first thing he knew about her to be that she supposedly had the hots for some actor.
Well, she did, but that wasn’t the only reason she’d signed up with Yasmin.
“Okay,” Thea said, her voice soothing. “He seemed kind of grumpy to me, but if you like him, I trust you. Is Cat right that we don’t get to meet him?”
“I don’t know.” Megan sighed. “Maybe. I guess you can. This schedule is only for this week. After the fundraiser, we could get together if he doesn’t have to go back to the West Coast right away.”
“There,” Thea said. “See, Cat? We’ll meet him, and we can make up our own minds. But if Megan likes him, that’s good enough for us. Right?”
“You are all missing the point,” Cat said, pulling a drawer open so hard something got stuck inside it and shook the entire island. “Dammit!”
“Let me have a look,” Liam said quietly. Cat folded her arms and backed up. Liam disentangled the utensils inside and got out the corkscrew. He then calmly opened both bottles and found glasses for them, while Cat turned her back on them all and stirred the chili.
“What’s the point?” Thea asked after Liam had handed Cat her glass and she’d had a big gulp. Megan drank, too, and appreciated the light burn of the alcohol entering her system.
“The man could be a damn saint,” Cat said. “Thepointis that his world is one this family already dipped their toes into, and you remember how that turned out.”
