Savas's Wildcat

by Anne McAllister

  Gran admired the dress. But then she said, “It’s next weekend?” as if she didn’t like the idea.

  “Saturday,” Cat said.

  “You’ll be gone?” A light went out of Gran’s eyes. “What if I need you?”

  Cat’s eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in suspicion. But Gran just looked back guilelessly, brows arched as if in hope.

  “I won’t be gone forever,” Cat assured her. “And you can come up as soon as you’re released.” She still wasn’t sure whether to suggest Gran stay with Adam for those few weeks. So she said, “Adam can help me find a place for you.” If he suggested it, she’d know which to do.

  But Gran said promptly, “Oh, no. That’s not necessary. I’m staying with Yiannis.”

  “What?” Cat stared.

  “We talked about it yesterday. He said he’d mentioned it to you.” She gave Cat an accusing look.

  Rattled, Cat said, “Mentioned it—in passing—when you were having surgery. We hadn’t talked about it since. I didn’t know if he still thought it was a possibility.”

  “Well, he does. He said so.”

  “I don’t know,” Cat began.

  But Gran was looking stubborn, and Adam said, “That’s very nice of him. And much less stressful for your grandmother than coming up to the city. I can’t think that would be easy on her at all.”

  With both Adam and Gran lined up against her—and Yiannis on their side in absentia—Cat knew better than to argue.

  “We’ll see,” she mumbled.

  “He’s a dear boy,” Gran said, satisfied.

  Yiannis? A dear boy? Cat didn’t think so. And why hadn’t he told her he’d talked to Gran?

  “He came to see me last night,” Gran said. “Brought me flowers,” she told Adam proudly, nodding at the bouquet of daisies on the table by the window.

  Cat had seen the bouquet by the window. Now she looked more closely. “Those are your flowers!”

  They were in a jam jar. And she recognized them very well. They grew in the patio garden next to the house.

  “Yiannis’s flowers now,” Gran corrected. “It’s his house. Besides, even though I planted them, he thought to bring them. It’s the thought that counts.”

  Cat wasn’t going to get the last word and she knew it. So she came over to the bed and kissed Gran’s cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she promised.

  Gran touched her cheek and looked into her eyes a long moment. And if she frowned as her gaze flicked for a brief instant to where Adam was studiously staring out the window, Cat didn’t want to know. She straightened back up and gave her grandmother a bright smile, waggled her fingers in a tiny wave, then grabbed Adam’s hand firmly.

  “Let’s go get Harry.”

  Adam Landry—that was his name—didn’t look like a banker.

  He looked like the Greek gods Yiannis had had to draw in high school art class. He was tall and broad-shouldered and had a tennis player’s tan and a hundred dollar haircut. He shook hands firmly and smiled with perfect teeth.

  Yiannis disliked him on sight.

  “Any relation to Tom?” Yiannis asked the man whose other hand Cat was clutching like it was a life line.

  “Tom?” Adam looked baffled.

  “Guess not.” Yiannis wasn’t surprised Cat’s fiancé was no relation to one of the best football coaches in America ever.

  “He’s an Atherton Landry,” Cat said, as if that explained everything. In fact, he guessed it did—if you knew that Atherton was a beautiful, exclusive small Northern California town—and one of the wealthiest communities in the whole country.

  He was surprised that mattered to Cat. She had never been one to adulate wealth. Though maybe if it came wrapped in such a handsome package, she did.

  He felt like gritting his teeth. Instead he gave them a lazy, knowing smile. “I should have guessed.”

  While he deliberately kept his tone even, Cat was no fool. Her smile disappeared. She shot him a hard glare. “I’ve taken him to see Gran,” she said briskly, “and now we’ve come for Harry.”

  “Harry’s sleeping.”

  Yiannis didn’t know if Harry was sleeping or not. Milos had been keeping an eye on him since they got back from the beach. Ostensibly he’d been going to do some work. In fact he had spent the last hour and a half returning phone calls and writing up orders, all the while trying not to think about anything else.

  Now what he’d been trying not to think about was standing right in front of him, and he wasn’t just going to let her waltz in and take Harry off with Adam Landry “of the Atherton Landrys” without learning a little more about him.

  “Come on in and have a beer,” he invited.

  “We can’t—” Cat began.

  But Adam’s smile turned to a grateful grin. “Great. I could use one. And I’m glad to meet you,” he said. “I’ve heard about you.”

  “Have you?” Yiannis’s brows lifted.

  “Not from me!” Cat protested.

  “No,” Adam said. “From your grandmother. Last time I was here,” he explained to Cat who was looking furious. “She likes your flowers,” he told Yiannis.

  Yiannis grinned.

  “Her flowers,” Cat growled.

  His grin widened and he shrugged. “Come on in,” he said, opening the door wider. Then he turned and led the way into the kitchen where he opened the refrigerator and snagged out some beers. He handed one to Adam, then opened another and pressed it into her hands. “Relax.”

  She didn’t, which he thought was interesting. The whole time she was there, Cat seemed to be walking on eggs. Or hot coals. She was jumpy at everything he said, and spent a lot of time explaining things to Adam, who didn’t say much, just leaned against the cabinet, drank his beer and observed.

  In fact the only people who seemed easy were Milos and Harry, who came in a few minutes later. Harry actually had been sleeping and was still rubbing his eyes sleepily when Milos carried him into the room.

  “This is Harry,” Cat said, taking him from Milos and turning to Adam, beaming. “Isn’t he gorgeous?”

  A little warily, Adam nodded.

  Yiannis didn’t blame him. Harry didn’t look particularly happy. And instead of giving Adam one of his sunny smiles, he stuck out his lip and buried his face in Cat’s neck.

  Milos asked Adam about San Francisco, mentioned one of his sisters who lived there, and then they talked baseball for a bit.

  “Give him here,” Yiannis said, and took him out of Cat’s arms, going to the cupboard and getting a cracker for Harry to chew.

  Cat shot him a glare.

  Yiannis shrugged. “Just trying to help.”

  “You’re just Mr Helpful these days, aren’t you?”

  His eyes widened at her tone. “Am I?”

  “Inviting Gran to stay with you?”

  “That’s a problem?”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it again, and turned away. “Did you go surfing this afternoon, Milos?”

  She could give an Inuit carver lessons in ice sculpture. Yiannis might as well not have been in the room for all the attention she paid him.

  It was all right with Yiannis—for the moment, anyway. It gave him time to watch the way she dealt with Adam Landry—and the way the Atherton Landry dealt with her.

  This Cat was not the one Yiannis knew. The Cat he knew had always been easy and up front with everyone. With Cat, what you saw was what you got. God knew she habitually snapped and hissed at him when he displeased her.

  But she was deferential, polite and self-contained where Adam was concerned. Even about things that Yiannis knew she could not agree—like when the Atherton Landry made a couple of disparaging remarks about Southern California—she merely demurred, didn’t put up a fight at all.

  Yiannis didn’t like it. Where the hell was her backbone?

  But because his mother had raised him with manners, even if Cat sometimes didn’t think so, Yiannis didn’t ask. He just stared at her steely-eyed, wonderin
g why she was bothering.

  The most animation he saw from her was when she remembered that she had something for Harry.

  “I bought it in the hospital gift shop,” she said. “But I left it in the car. I’ll be right back.”

  While she was gone, Yiannis turned to Landry. “You don’t think Maggie ought to be in San Francisco with you and Cat?”

  Landry shook his head. “Definitely not. She would hate it.”

  Yiannis had to give him points for seeing that. But then Landry went on. “And it’s not good for Cat, either. She obsesses far too much about her grandmother.”

  “She’s Cat’s only living relative,” Yiannis pointed out.

  “Yes. And I appreciate that Cat owes her a great deal. But she’d be fretting all the time if her grandmother was there. She needs space.”

  What she really needed, Yiannis thought, was someone to share the responsibility with. But Cat was coming back, so he tipped his beer to his lips and kept his peace.

  “Here.” Cat, triumphant, returned with a brightly wrapped yellow box.

  Yiannis put Harry down on the kitchen floor so she could put the package in his lap. Then, together they opened the box to reveal a soft plush bunny. Instantly he grabbed it and chomped down on its nose.

  “Harry’s highest compliment,” Yiannis said.

  Cat took the bunny and tickled Harry’s bare belly with it. “Bunny loves Harry,” she told him. “Can you give him a kiss?”

  He giggled and wrapped his arms around the bunny and gave it a kiss.

  The glow of happiness on Cat’s face was wondrous to behold. She looked almost teary-eyed. Yiannis could well imagine how she’d be with her own children.

  “I know he has toys,” she said, directing her words to Yiannis, as if he were about to point that out to her, “but he’s leaving and I wanted him to have something from here … from me.”

  He didn’t reply. He understood. It was Cat being maternal. It showed how far she’d come. She’d been a bit nervous of Harry at first, but she’d adapted quickly. She was a natural mother.

  She’d be great with her own kids someday, he thought as he watched her ease one of the rabbit’s ears out of Harry’s mouth.

  “I’m so glad you got to meet Harry,” she said to Landry as she pressed a kiss to the top of Harry’s head. There was a delight in her gaze when she looked down at Harry, then up at her fiancé.

  Don’t you want one? Yiannis could almost hear the unspoken words. And he thought of her with Adam’s kids and something twisted inside his gut.

  “Very nice,” Adam said. But he didn’t move to hunker down on the floor with Cat and play with Harry. He simply sat back and observed.

  “I’m cooking,” Milos announced. “Shrimp on the grill. Fresh pineapple. A little island pilaf. You’re invited,” he told Adam and Cat.

  Yiannis stared at his cousin in surprise. First he’d heard that Milos could cook. Certainly the first time he’d offered. He shot Milos a narrow look.

  But Milos didn’t even glance his way. He was turning his brand of the Savas charm on Cat and her fiancé. “How about it? Then I’ll babysit while you go out.”

  Now Yiannis really did stare.

  “Sounds great,” Adam said cheerfully.

  “Er,” Cat mumbled, looking dazed.

  Milos took that for a yes. “Clear out then,” he told them. “I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.”

  Cat and Adam took Harry for a walk.

  Yiannis stayed behind, demanding, “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Cooking.” Milos flashed him a grin. “Or trying to. Hey, I’m leaving tomorrow. Just my way of saying thank you for the hospitality. Though maybe I should be thanking your mother, not you.” The grin widened, then he nudged Yiannis’s elbow to get past and into the refrigerator. “You’re in the way.”

  “Do you know how?”

  Milos shrugged. “We’ll find out.”

  It didn’t sound promising. But Milos said, “You think she’d say yes if you offered?”

  Yiannis stared at him, confused.

  “Do you think he’s right for her?”

  “How the hell would I know? I don’t know him!”

  “Exactly,” Milos said. “And if you spend a little time with them, you might figure it out.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m not marrying him.”

  “What about her?”

  Yiannis stared. “What?”

  Milos shrugged. “Just asking. Here.” He turned from the refrigerator and thrust a package into Yiannis’s hands. “De-vein the shrimp.”

  The meal wasn’t bad. Milos was a better cook than he’d given any indication of being. And what Milos said was true, he got to see a lot more of Cat interacting with the Atherton Landry.

  And the more she smiled at him and simpered and said, “Yes, Adam. I agree, Adam. You’re right, Adam,” the more Yiannis wanted to spit.

  He didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. Adam talked enough for both of them. And Cat agreed with everything he said. Milos continued to do his impersonation of Mr Charm. And Harry threw food with abandon.

  Yiannis just shoveled in his food and glared at all of them.

  It was a relief when his phone rang halfway through the meal and it was his mother. Ordinarily in the middle of a dinner party he would let it go to the answering machine. Tonight he stood up saying, “I’ve got to take this.”

  As soon as he had, he wished he hadn’t.

  His mother was ranting about his father. Again. “He says he doesn’t know if he can be here for the family reunion,” she told Yiannis, outraged. “He’s got some business meeting in Greece!”

  “Mmm,” Yiannis murmured. He’d gone out into the living room to take the call, but he could still see what was going on at the table. Adam was talking, Milos was laughing, and Cat was, at last, sitting quietly no longer looking adoringly at Adam, but watching while Harry jammed a cracker into his mouth.

  Then her gaze shifted and she was looking at him.

  Their eyes met. Locked. One second. Two. Five. More. He couldn’t look away.

  Neither did she. Then suddenly she recollected herself, yanked her gaze away, focused again on Adam Landry.

  But the heat wasn’t there. It was earnest, not intense. And Yiannis knew in his gut that while Landry was obviously a bright man, an educated man, clearly a handsome, wealthy, serious, intent man—probably, Yiannis forced himself to admit, a very good man—he wasn’t the right man for Cat.

  “Yiannis? Are you there? Yiannis!” His mother was speaking in his ear.

  He gave his head a shake. “Right here.”

  “I’m going crazy. I don’t know what I’m going to do about him!”

  “It’ll be okay,” Yiannis said soothingly. “You’ll manage. You’ll think of something. You always do.”

  He hoped Cat would do some thinking, too.

  If you were going to get married, you needed to be careful. You needed to be sure you were getting the right person.

  He didn’t want to see her marrying the wrong guy.

  She wouldn’t, he told himself as he jammed his hands into his pockets and glowered at her.

  She was bright, intelligent, savvy. She would come to her senses before it was too late.

  Wouldn’t she?

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  IT WAS not a weekend to remember.

  Not in a good way, at least.

  Cat drove Adam off early on Sunday afternoon. She kissed him good-bye just outside the security gate, promising she’d be back in San Francisco at least by Friday, a day in advance of Saturday’s charity ball. But it felt awkward.

  The whole weekend had been awkward.

  Instead of feeling closer after their time together, she felt even more distant. Estranged, almost.

  She was worried about Gran, of course. She wasn’t comfortable with Adam’s easy acceptance of Yiannis taking her into his home when she was released from the hospital. It wasn’t his place to do that. Cat d
idn’t want to be beholden.

  But she didn’t know how to say that. Especially since Gran was delighted with the idea.

  She didn’t like the way Adam had been with Harry, either. He’d been polite. But you weren’t simply “polite” to a baby. You doted on them. You smiled at them, made faces and talked to them. Adam had said about three words.

  Of course Harry wasn’t his child. She was sure he’d be devoted to his child. But a little warmth would have been nice. She couldn’t help comparing his distance and stiffness with Yiannis’s easy manner with the little boy.

  And that hadn’t made her any happier.

  Having Adam here was supposed to make her forget Yiannis, not show him in a better light.

  “—not listening to me,” Adam said.

  Cat gave a shake of her head and refocused on him as he smiled at her. “I’m sorry. I was … was not listening,” she admitted, embarrassed. She shrugged helplessly. “I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

  “I can see that. I’ve been seeing it all weekend. Your grandmother. Harry. His mother.” He paused and looked at her more closely. “Was I supposed to make it go away, Cat?”

  She opened her mouth to deny it, but then had to tell the truth. “I’d hoped,” she admitted.

  His smile turned rueful and he shook his head. “Sorry. I tried. I told you what I think you should do with your grandmother. But I can’t make you do it.”

  “No. It’s her decision.” She accepted that.

  “You’ll figure it out,” he said with quiet confidence. “Next weekend you’ll be back home. Things will look different.”

  “I hope,” Cat said fervently.

  “They will.” He leaned in and kissed her again. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the touch of their lips, tried to go from there to a future together, to happily ever after.

  Adam broke the kiss before she did and glanced at his watch. “Call me,” he said. And he went striding through the doors of the airport terminal. They closed behind him.

  He was gone. And Cat was left with a pain in her stomach.

  It only got worse.

  Two hours later Misty and Devin appeared in the doorway of Gran’s apartment.