Hearts in Motion (12 page)

Tonight he would ask Portia what was wrong. She would undoubtedly tell him, and everything would be fine.

Until then, he had one more call to make.

14

The phone’s ring jerked Minnie awake from her nap on Mom’s bed. She settled back down to sleep. Humans spent too much time talking to the phone. She wasn’t quite asleep when another noise came to her ears. A fast padding of cat feet. She opened her eyes in time to see a black streak leaping through the air toward her. Quigley.

She didn’t flinch. He wouldn’t dare land on her.

He landed in front of her.
Did you hear the phone? It was Ryan. He’s not coming tonight.

Good. He’s like the water. Mom is like the sun. She would go better with the earth than the water.

How can we find a man like the earth?

Holden is the earth.

I know that.
Quigley nipped at the base of his tail before whipping his head back to Minnie.
But he has another woman. I heard Mom tell Grace.
Quigley’s voice rose, excitement in it.
I know what we can do. We can scratch him and bite him and make him fall and hurt himself, and he’ll have to stay here with Mom.

If you bite him, he won’t fall. He’ll take Cara away and won’t bring her back. Humans don’t like being bitten.

Quigley jumped off the bed and ran out of the room. Minnie waited. In seconds, he flashed back into the bedroom, his fur ruffled.
Then you think of something better.

Minnie stretched. Her body was older than his, but she was still in her peak.
I know what we can do.

What?

The phone rang again. Her ears perked up, and she ran to the kitchen.

Because she didn’t like her idea. Thinking of it made her feel funny inside. It could hurt her. It could kill her. She would only do it for the love of Mom.

She would wait to see if the humans would fix everything so she wouldn’t have to do it.

***

One damn brother after another, Abby thought, picking up the phone in the kitchen. When Holden spoke, his voice was like dark chocolate. The kind that was a little nutty, a little rough-edged, which was strange, as he was so reined in. Strange because Ryan’s was smooth, and he wasn’t reined in at all. Every night, she’d had to warn Ryan to pull it back. She wasn’t jumping in bed with him.

Or the back of the car.

Or her couch.

Or any other surface.

She suspected the challenge to make her say yes had kept him coming back.

But after tonight’s abrupt phone cancellation, it appeared he’d tired of the challenge. He’d given up and was going after easier conquests.

Now, his brother...

If he really wanted someone, wanted her with all his heart, he’d be like a bull and keep charging until he conquered.

“Would you mind keeping Cara for a few hours tonight?” Holden asked.

“How few?” She gazed at the living room where Cara was making a monster puppet out of a kit that had belonged to Grace when she was a child. Last Tuesday, Abby and Grace had dug a box out of the attic, and every day, the three had played with it, she and Grace having as much fun as Cara.

“I should pick her up about nine.”

“You have a date with Portia?”

He didn’t answer at first. When he started to speak, she talked over him. “Don’t answer, it’s none of my business. I was just...” Feeling a little crazy? “Not thinking.”

“Yes, I’m seeing Portia,” he said.

“Tonight’s fine.”

There was silence for a moment. She watched Cara put a tutu on the puppet then balance a hardhat on its head.

“I hope it’s not ruining your plans,” he said. “Of course, I’ll pay extra.”

She wanted to tell him not to pay extra. That with tonight’s date off and Grace sleeping over at her friend’s house, she was glad Cara was staying with her.

And then there was the way she felt... Restless. As if the blood flowed too fast in her veins. As if a fire blazed through her body. She wanted to do strange things. To dance a flamenco. To tap her toes and heels. To swing her hips until every man on the planet looked at her with his loins stirring. And she’d look back, a flame in her eye.

She wanted to swirl. She wanted to feel heat. Not with Ryan. No, no, no. Just...with someone else. Someone who made her blood quicken.
 

She was feeling...odd. If Cara weren’t here, she might get more than a little wild and do something very stupid.

“No plans,” she said and heard her voice deepen. A voice like one of the mythical Sirens, calling to the sailors. “
Come to me. Come. I need you.”

“I have to go.” She hung up, putting down the phone, her hand shaking.

She raised her hands to her cheeks, pressing her fingers against her cheekbones, feeling the heat emanating from her skin. This was craziness. Madness. She needed to take a bath in ice cubes.

Or better yet...

“Cara, you get to stay with me for tonight. Your dad can’t come until—”

Cara’s squeal stopped her. She jumped up and clapped her hands. “I get a sleepover!”

“No, sweetie, he was planning on picking you up. He—”

Cara’s big smile and sparkling eyes fell into a downturned mouth and blinking eyes. Her shoulders slumped, her body drooped.

“But I’d love to have you sleep over,” Abby said so fast the words practically tripped over each other. “Grace is at her friend’s, so it will be just me and you.”

Cara stood straight again. Not smiling yet, but hope radiating from her. Then she did smile. “It will be like you’re my mom.”

For an instant, Abby couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak. So overcome with empathy and love for this small girl who didn’t get any from her absent mother.

“I wish I was your mother,” she said once again. Then she stepped toward Cara, and Cara ran toward her, and she fell to her knees, and they hugged. Her eyes closed tightly as the small girl’s chin rested on her shoulder, the sides of their heads together. Abby smelled Cara’s fresh scent, and love grew inside her, getting bigger and taller then expanding even more inside her. She wished she could wrap all the love around Cara in layers, thick and permanent, so she’d feel that love for the rest of her life. Wherever she was, whatever she was doing, she’d know she was loved.

How had this happened so fast?

Opening her eyes, Abby loosened her hold. The three cats and Lion sat around them, watching. For an instant, she wondered what they thought.

Probably that people were weird...and they wouldn’t be wrong.

She kissed the top of Cara’s head, much like she’d kiss Minnie, Quigley, or Lion. Pulling back, she put on a smile as if she were putting on a protective coating.

“I’ll call your dad and ask him if you can stay over.”
 

Of course he would say yes. He didn’t deserve a daughter like Cara. He was better now than the first day when he’d been so rigid, but sometimes better wasn’t good enough. Not when it came to children.

Abby pulled away from Cara, then she marched to the phone.
 

At least she wasn’t sighing over him anymore. Right now, her hormones and her mind weren’t singing the same song.
 

***

He’d lost her. Holden pulled into the parking lot of a bowling alley so he could turn back to the city.

Before tonight, he’d never imagined he’d wait outside Portia’s apartment to follow her like a suspicious lover.

But before tonight, he’d never imagined she’d be so nervous and jumpy, finally telling him that she wasn’t feeling well. And when he asked, she told him she had PMS.

Normally, he would have believed her, kissed her on her forehead, and driven home.

That was before Ryan’s cryptic warning.

So he’d parked his car across the street and just down the block from her condo building. After twenty minutes, he was thinking of leaving, when her silver BMW pulled out of the underground parking and turned the opposite direction that his car was facing.

He’d turned as soon as he could but ended up following the wrong car.

Stopping his car in the bowling alley parking lot, he called Ryan, who answered on the fourth ring.

“What do you know about Portia?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s not what you said.”

“You know what?” Resentment hardened Ryan’s voice. “She’s your fiancée. You figure it out.”

The phone went dead.

Holden sat in the parking lot for long moments before driving home, knowing what he had to do tomorrow.

But when he stopped the car, he wasn’t at his home. He was parked in front of Abby’s house, even though he’d given Abby his permission for Cara to sleep over. He’d driven here automatically, his mind working on the Portia problem. Keeping his hands on the wheel, the engine still running, he looked at the front of the house with the large front window. Through the filmy curtains, he could see outlines of a slight woman and a smaller girl.

They were dancing.

A sigh whispered through him. Tension rolled off of him. He turned off the ignition, pulled out the key, opened the door, and stepped toward the house.

15

“You’re here!” Abby said, seeing Holden on her front porch. As if they were waiting for him. As if he was supposed to be here all along.

Instantly she felt like an idiot. “How come?” she asked, acting cool, as if she hadn’t just made an ass of herself.

He didn’t reply right away, looking dazed. She opened the door. “Come in. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He followed her into the living room. “Fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

“Daddy?” Cara peered uncertainly at him. “Did you come to see me?”

He gazed down at her, and in slow seconds, the bewilderment faded from his face. Blinking, he shook his head. It almost felt to Abby as if he’d just walked out of a thick fog and wasn’t sure he’d ended up in the right place.

A purr caught her attention. Epic, the kitten who’d been so timid when she’d come to her home, was at his feet. As Abby watched, the kitten stood on its back legs and scratched his pants below his knees, getting his attention.

“Hey, here’s my two girls.” Speaking softly, he crouched and put one hand on Epic’s head and one on Cara’s shoulder. His expression still looked slightly dazed. “My dinner ended early, so I came here.” He paused. “To see you and Epic.”

Cara’s face lit up, and a warmth kindled inside Abby. Then his gaze swept higher, wordlessly including her in the mix, and her body hummed soundlessly.

Not a good thing. A really stupid thing.

She told herself he was engaged. She told herself she was just feeling this way because it was a childhood dream. This was how her childhood had been before the accident. Mom, dad, her little sister, herself, and a kitten.

Stepping back, she told herself she wasn’t a child, this was no dream, and he for sure wasn’t a dream lover. Her dream lover would be smiling, laughing, kissing her all over. Adoring her.

She couldn’t imagine this man who held himself so stiffly doing any of those things.

“Did you come to take Cara home after all?” she asked.

Cara gave a disappointed cry that sounded a lot like Epic when she objected to something. “We’re doing a sleepover!”

“I want you to stay.” Abby bent forward, her hands flat on the front of her thighs, her face level with Cara’s. “I just wondered if your dad came here to take you home now that his plans have changed. I thought he might want to be with you.”

“He can stay with us, too! He can sleep over.” Cara twirled to face him. “You can, Daddy, can’t you?”

His silvery gaze swept to Abby’s and didn’t leave. His eyes seemed to glitter, and she thought that when she met him five days ago, they hadn’t glittered. Their silvery-blue color had been flat. Having his daughter with him, even this short time, had changed him. It had poked holes in the shell that surrounded him and kept away all emotion, as if it guarded his heart.

“Only if it’s okay with Abby,” he said.

She felt their stares on her as if they had weight. She saw the hope in Cara’s face, as if she was wishing so hard, she couldn’t breathe. And in Holden’s, laughter and ruefulness.

And something else. Hope? Not as bright as in his daughter’s eyes, but looking at him, she saw a spark. As if, for a long time, he hadn’t had any and now he wasn’t too sure, but he was open for the possibility.

She wasn’t sure, either. All she knew for sure was that she had an oversized imagination.

And clearly it had been too long since she’d had sex.

“It’s okay,” she said.

Cara squeaked and jumped and clapped, her small face glowing, happiness streaming from her pores. “Abby’s going to make popcorn! You can have popcorn with us. Where will you sleep? There’s only two beds. Epic and I are sleeping on Grace’s bed. And Lion!” She gave another hop. “Lion sleeps with Grace. Abby says so.”