Stirring Up Trouble(24)
“I missed Zeus. I figured he’d be hanging out on the couches.” Portia glanced at the carpet where the obese silver cat licked his paws. “There he is.” She knelt beside him and kissed him on the head. “I’m so sorry we had to send you to live here. You know I didn’t want to do it, right?” She spoke to the cat as if she expected him to answer.
“Does he look like he’s suffering?” Braden pointed at the animal. “As long as he’s got his chow and a couch to shed on, he doesn’t care where he lives.” He leaned down to speak in the cat’s ear. “I mean that in the nicest of ways.”
Portia shook her head. “Zeus is special. Don’t underestimate this cat. He’s sneaky and crafty.”
Ryan sneezed. “I’ll tell you what,” he said when he’d finished. “Why don’t Braden and I carry out the last few boxes from my room and give you two a chance to visit with each other. And the cat.”
Braden nodded. “Sure. I can help you. I wasn’t kidding at the engagement party. I’m glad my boy grew up and finally left the nest. And now,” he said glancing at Lola, “I get to live with someone much prettier.”
Portia’s jaw dropped. “You two moved in together? Willingly, or because of Alexander?”
“A little of both,” Braden said, not giving Lola a chance to speak. “She wanted a place to crash while your mom was in town and didn’t want to cramp your style by moving in with you. Since she and I have to spend all our time working on the conditions of the Will, I offered to have her move in with me.”
Portia gave her a grin. “Really?”
“He’s got a music studio,” Lola added, as if that explained everything.
Ryan laughed. “Well, we’ll leave you two lovely ladies to your gossip while we go schlep heavy boxes.”
Braden and he departed, leaving awkward silence behind.
Lola knelt beside her sister and shot her a look of warning. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Fine. But if you need to talk, you know where to find me.”
She took her sister’s hand. “I know and I appreciate it.”
Lola missed her sister, missed their closeness. When Portia had left her behind to become a professional dancer in New York, she’d resented her. Not for following her dreams, but for not taking Lola with her.
“So, what did mom say about you moving in with Braden?” Portia asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I left a note.”
Her sister sighed. “I was kind of counting on you to figure out what’s going on with her.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m worried about her. She’s acting different.”
The only way their mother could act different would be to act normal, and she hadn’t seen that happen yet nor did she expect it to ever happen. “Not to me. Last night, she gave me an hour-long lecture on my responsibility as a Muse. Thanks for that, by the way. Now that you bought into her delusions, she’s more determined to convince me.”
“Just keep your eye out for her when you do see her. She doesn’t take care of herself.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Her sister scrutinized her the same way her mother did. “So, had any strange dreams yet?”
Was it tattooed on her forehead? She tried to act casual. “Why would you ask that?”
Portia scratched the cat’s belly. “Because if you remember, that’s what happened to me. I started dreaming about loving Ryan in a different life before I actually loved him in this one.”
Heat pinged around in her chest like a bouncing ball. Love? Not in the cards for her. “I told you I didn’t want to talk about Braden,” she declared a bit too loudly to be casual.
Her sister smiled. “Braden, huh? I had a feeling about you two the first night I met him. I asked Ryan all sorts of questions about him . . . made Ryan jealous as heck.”
She shook her head. Her will was stronger than that little thing called fate. “I’m sure I’m having the dreams because we’re forced to spend so much time together.”
“If you say so,” Portia said with a laugh.
She didn’t want her sister to get the wrong idea. Despite how things worked out for Portia and Ryan, Lola didn’t believe in happy-ever-after. “No matter what happens between us, we won’t end up together. At the end of the thirty days, I’m leaving Michigan.”
It was the only way Lola knew how to live.