Willow twisted in her seat and waved. “You came.”
“Of course I came. You said you’d fallen and broken your ankle.”
“I called Marina because I knew she was home this morning,” Willow said to Kane, “Julie’s at work. Are you going to step aside so she can come in?”
“I haven’t decided.”
“You could push past him,” Willow told her sister.
Marina shook her head. “He looks burly.”
Willow opened her mouth to say that he wasn’t all that tough and that he was an amazing kisser, then she thought better of it. It was really the sort of information she needed to keep to herself.
“You look alike,” Kane said.
Willow sighed. Obviously he was going to be difficult. “All three of us do. It’s quite a gene pool. Are you going to let her in?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“If I leave now, I’ll only come back with reinforcements,” Marina told him.
“Right.”
He moved aside and Marina slipped past him. She rushed to the chair and hugged Willow.
“What on earth happened? What are you doing here? What did you do to your poor foot?” Marina sank onto the ottoman and leaned forward. “Start at the beginning and tell me everything.”
Kane took the single bag into the kitchen, then disappeared outside.
“So talk,” Marina said.
“I haven’t been able to forget about Todd,” Willow began. “I kept getting madder and madder. Or is it more mad? Anyway, when I woke up this morning, I just couldn’t stand it anymore.”
Marina looked at her. “Tell me you didn’t come over here to take him on.”
“That’s exactly what she did,” Kane said as he walked in with an armful of bags. “Are there more in the trunk?”
“No, just those in the backseat. Thanks.”
He grunted, then disappeared into the kitchen.
Willow watched him go, admiring the way his slacks tightened around his butt as he moved. She’d never been one of those women who admired men’s rears before, but then she’d never seen one this good.
“Willow,” Marina said impatiently.
“What? Oh, sorry. So I came over here to yell at Todd. He nearly broke up Julie and Ryan and I couldn’t stand thinking about that. I mean who does he think he is? Plus there’s the whole million dollar thing just hanging out there and he’s so self-centered and egotistical you just know he’s thinking we’re dying to meet him now that Julie’s engaged. I just want to beat him with a stick.”
“For someone who’s a vegetarian and so into being one with nature, you’re surprisingly violent,” Kane called from the kitchen.
“I’m not violent,” she yelled back. “I wasn’t the one flashing a gun around. Where is it, by the way?”
“Somewhere you can’t get it.”
Marina’s eyes widened. “He had a gun?”
“Yes, but don’t worry about it. So I came here and Kane answered the door and I guess he thought I was a serious threat because he tried to grab me.”
“What?”
“It’s his job. He’s in charge of security for all of Todd and Ryan’s companies. You have to be clear on that. He’s a little touchy about people thinking he’s only in charge of the house or something.”
“I’m not touchy.”
The words were a little garbled, as if he were speaking through clenched teeth.
She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “He really is. Who knew? Okay, so he tried to grab me, I ran and got through the house, but he caught up with me on the grounds. Then I tripped, and as I went down, I not only ripped off my ankle, I saw the cat there giving birth. So here we are.”
Marina covered her mouth, then dropped her hand to her lap. “I swear, I don’t know if I should laugh or shriek. Only you, Willow, only you.”
Kane walked out of the kitchen, holding a litter box in his hand. “Is this what I think it is?”
“Only if you think it’s a cat box,” Marina said, then turned back to her sister. “It’s completely disposable and biodegradable. Cool, huh?”
“Very. Thanks for that. Where do you think we should put it?”
Marina glanced around the living room. “Somewhere a little more private.”
Kane stared from the women to the litter box and back. What the hell had happened? When had he lost control of the situation, not to mention his life?
“I’ll go find a place,” Marina said. She stood and took the box from him, then smiled. “It’s kind of a lot to take in. You probably need a minute to recover.”
He watched her walk out of the living room and down the hallway. Great, Willow thought he needed rescuing and her sister was convinced he was an idiot.
“Is there a scooper?” Willow asked him. “You’ll want that by the box, along with some paper towels.
He started to ask for what, then stopped himself. Right—it was basically a cat’s bathroom. There would be deposits.
“She’ll know how to use it, right?” he asked as he jerked his head toward the cat.
“Oh, sure. We’ll just show her where it is.”
Marina returned without the litter box. “The bathroom off the second bedroom seems like a good bet. I put it there.” She walked to her sister, bent over and said in a low voice, “It doesn’t look like he has women here on a regular basis, so that’s something.”
He was equally outraged and admiring. “I’m standing right here.”
Willow smiled at him. “We know.”
“He seems okay,” Marina continued. “But given your history with guys…”
“It’s true,” Willow said sadly. “Maybe he’s different.”
“Still standing here,” he announced.
“You could feed the cat,” Willow said. “You’ll probably be more comfortable in the kitchen while we’re talking about you behind your back.”
In a scary, twisted way, her words made sense. He retreated to the kitchen, all the while wondering what had happened. This morning everything about his life had been normal and pleasantly solitary. Somewhere along the way, he’d been invaded. There were people here—he didn’t do people.
He went through the bags. There was canned cat food, a bag of dry and three bowls. He filled one with water and the other with dry food. The mother cat rushed into the kitchen and fell on the food. When he dished up some canned, she abandoned the dry to feast on that.
While she ate, he checked out the rest of the bags. Marina had brought over bread, honey, several packages of frozen soup, bags of cookies, apples, pears, some girly soap and the latest issue of a celebrity gossip magazine. Did she think her sister was moving in?
He felt something brush against his leg. When he glanced down he saw the mother cat rubbing her leg against him. She looked up, purring.
Feeling awkward and stupid and like he was being taken, he bent over and patted the top of her head. She turned and rubbed her jaw against his fingers. He could feel the vibration of her purring.
He’d