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“She was forced into it, you mean,” Sam put in. “If Mom and Dad hadn’t died, who knows what Cat might have done?”
“We’re all a product of that time,” Thea said. “We’ve all made decisions that might not have been healthy for us because of them.” She grimaced, probably thinking about her first husband. “And before you sit there too smug, Sam,” she went on, “you know full well you made some questionable choices as well in your time.”
Sam had the grace to blush, but she lifted her chin. “I’ve paid my dues,” she said stoutly. “And Cat’s paid hers. I think her going to work for Kane is a fantastic idea. They can fight in the privacy of their own offices and not all over us every Sunday.”
“You’re never here every Sunday!” Cat complained.
“Maybe I would be if you guys would shut up for half a second!”
“All right, all right!” Megan put up her hands. But she had to laugh. Cat and Sam would also always fight. But the heat had been taken out of it. Since getting married, Sam had come to understand Cat a lot better. Maybe she would come to visit more often.
“If Cat’s coming to work with me,” Kane said, making Megan look at him, “what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to resign. I’m going back to LA.”
As she’d known they would, all four of them erupted. “What?” “You just got here!” “I thought you guys broke up!” “You’re fucking kidding me.”
“Yeah, I know,” she replied, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. There. She’d told them something they didn’t want to hear. And the world hadn’t collapsed around her. “But this has nothing to do with Alessandro.”
Oof, there. She’d said his name. And the spike in her heart twisted. But it didn’t change her decision. “There’s a place for me there.”
“With all those cameras pointing—” Cat began, but Thea shushed her.
“Yes, with all those cameras. Turns out, I can help kids with their self-esteem when I post on social media. I can build websites for charities and improve their fundraisers. I can use my contacts in the fashion business to find good clothes for women reentering the workforce.” She smiled at Kane. “And I can look really good while I do it.”
“Youlikethe attention?” Cat said, scandalized.
Megan shrugged. “I kind of do. Think of it as how you feel when the boys’ basketball moms rave over your chili. It’s what I’m good at. It’s what I can do.”
“Those things sound great,” Kane said. His voice sounded a little rougher than usual. “You know we only want you to be happy, Megs. But—”
She knew there’d be abut.
“Can you be happy over there without him?”
Their faces swung over to her in such perfect sync that she had to smile, even though the thought of a life without Alessandro felt like a rainbow without its color. “I had a whole plane flight to think about it,” she told them. “Being in LA without Alessandro is still a better place for me than being in Boston without him.”
There was a silence. Then Cat said, “I can’t believe I’m losing two sisters.”
“We’re not lost,” Sam said before Megan could. “You have my address.”
“Things were never going to stay exactly the same,” Megan said more gently, scooting over to take Cat’s hand. “That’s not how life works.”
Cat shrugged and a tear fell off the end of her nose. “But that’s all I wanted.”
“Dammit, Cat,” Kane said, launching himself out of his seat to crowd them all on the couch so he could hug her. “If you cry, I will, too, and no one wants to see that.”
Cat laughed and sobbed and laughed again.
“We’ll figure it out,” Kane said, reaching behind him for the box of tissues that was always on the end table. “Maybe Megan’ll get you a meeting with Hugh Jackman or whoever it is you like these days.”
“Oh, shut up,” Cat said, swatting at him and grabbing a tissue. “And it’s Josh Brolin, for your information.”
“I did meet him, actually,” Megan said.
“You arefreakingkidding me!” Cat said, forgetting her tears.
Thea stood. “Lemme finish up the dinner Cat started out there, and Megan can tell us everything that happened. As much as she wants to, anyway.”
