“No! What’s wrong? I— Is that your shower?”
“I turned it on so Edie couldn’t hear us talk. She’ll get upset if she thinks I’m sneaking around behind her back. You know how she needs me.” Definitely chips in her polish. Drat. That was what she got for buying a cheap color. “I’m sorry, Levi.” She gave another sniff, just loud enough for him to hear.
“What happened on their date?” Levi sounded upset. “Magnus knows he’s supposed to romance her! I’ll talk to him—”
“No,” Bianca said quickly. “Maybe Edie just doesn’t like your brother. Maybe he’s being mean to her.”
“Mean? Magnus slept with half the cheerleading team in college. He can charm the socks off of any woman he wants to. It sounds like he’s just not trying.”
“Well, if you think that’s the case,” Bianca said slowly. Blaming Magnus would make it easier for her than if the problem was Edie. “Either way, we can’t get together this weekend. Edie’s volunteering at the local festival and she won’t go out with Magnus. I won’t be able to drive there to see you.” Her tone became babyish, because she knew he liked that. “And I miss you.”
“God, I miss you too,” Levi said fervently. “If you can’t come to us, then maybe we can come to you.”
“Oh, do you think so?” She put a note of false hope in her little-girl voice and picked at a fleck of fingernail polish. If they came to her and Edie, she wouldn’t have to make that ridiculously long car drive again for a bit, which was good. But she said, “I don’t want to put you out, Levi . . .”
“Don’t you worry about a thing, sweet Bianca. You leave everything to me.”
“O-okay.” She made her voice wobble and flicked the pink fingernail polish chips away.
“We’ll be together soon.”
“Good,” she told him. “I have to go. I’m thinking of you, of course, my sweet Levi.”
“I’m always thinking of you, Bianca.”
“Bye,” she said, and hung up before it could turn into a long, drawn-out session of good-byes. Then, humming, she pulled out a bottle of nail polish so she could fix her nails.
If only everyone were as easy to manipulate as Levi.
***
Edie cuddled the blind Persian cat in her arms. “He’s very sweet,” she told the lady nearby. “Wouldn’t harm a soul. All he wants is to be loved and have a safe environment.” She stroked the soft white fur of the cat. “Why don’t you pet him?”
“Oh, I couldn’t,” the woman said, and began to retreat from the table. “I have two children at home and I’m not sure a blind cat is for us. Do you have any kittens?”
“There are always kittens at the shelter,” Edie said brightly, trying not to judge the woman. She understood, she really did. Kittens always found a home. It was the elderly cats, the ones with issues, the ones that weren’t as cute and charming, that never seemed to find their forever home. Pressing a kiss to the blind cat’s head, she continued to pet it as the woman went to examine the cages full of kittens. The cat had relaxed in her arms and was responding to Edie’s attentions, a far cry from the terrified, trembling thing it had been this morning.
And even though she really couldn’t fit another cat into her house, she was not going to let this baby go back to the shelter. She pressed another kiss to its fluffy, fluffy head.
The Harvest Festival was full of people, with parents holding foam cups of apple cider, children eating candy apples, and people hauling red wagons filled with pumpkins and other crafts. Balloons dotted the air, tied to the wrists of costumed children. It was a cute festival, but Edie wasn’t sure it was the right place for setting up a cat-adoption booth. They’d gotten a few dollars in donations but most people weren’t interested in taking a cat home with them that day.
“This is kind of a bust,” Edie told Peggy, who sat next to her in the booth.
“Told you we should have dressed the cats in costumes,” Peggy said with a sniff.
Edie bared her teeth and snarled at Peggy. You didn’t dress cats in costumes. Not when they were already terrified. She ignored the other woman’s idiocy and continued petting the Persian.
Bianca got up from her folding chair gracefully, tucking her phone away. “Well, things are slow. I’m going to go do some shopping.”
“Fine,” Edie said.
“I’ll be back by . . .” Bianca glanced at her phone screen again. “Five.”
“Go.” Edie’s mood was getting worse by the moment.
As she snuggled the cat in her arms, people passed by. No one stopped at their booth. Fine. Whatever. She’d make sure the cats felt loved today, and then she’d figure something out. Even as she thought of ways she could possibly squeeze a few more lonely cats into her tiny house, a shadow fell over the table. Edie looked up . . . and groaned. “You’re kidding me, right?”
Magnus grabbed the chair Bianca had abandoned a short time ago, flipped it around, and straddled it, sitting next to her. “Nice to see you, too.”
“Is this a setup?” The cat in her arms tensed, reacting to Edie’s body language, and she forced herself to relax, petting the long hair.
“Of course not.” He grinned over at her and her heart gave a pathetic little flip in her breast. “You said you were busy, I happened to be not busy, and here I am.”
She made an unhappy noise in her throat. “You have a hard time with rejection, don’t you?”