“And there’s Toby too. Buttercup can watch herself, but Toby can be a bit of work since he tends to drool.” At the perplexed look on his face, his sister explained, “Buttercup is the cat. Toby’s the dog.”
“I knew that.” Except, he didn’t. When did his sister get a dog? He vaguely remembered talk of it last night at dinner, but he’d been so preoccupied with h
ow he was going to break the news of Victoria’s engagement, he hadn’t paid much attention.
“You’ll watch them both?” Mimi asked hopefully. “I mean, you’re really not used to kids and dogs.”
“No worries, baby sister. I got this.”
“Okay! Cameron will be thrilled when I tell him.” Her face suddenly got a look that made the warning bells in Luke’s brain go off. “So…what did you think of Jenna?”
“She seems nice,” he said carefully.
“She’s very nice. And smart and pretty, too. Don’t you think?”
“Not my type,” he said.
She frowned. “You’ve only just met her—how can you know she’s not your type? What? Do you have something against redheads?”
“I love redheads.”
“Then what is it? She’s fabulous! She graduated from the University of Miami and has a master’s from Cornell. She speaks three languages fluently and she’s a total workaholic, just like you. The two of you can have boss babies together.”
“I’m not having babies with anyone.”
Her face fell. “Really?”
“Think of it this way. Your kids will be the only grandkids in the family. You’ll be Mom’s favorite.”
“Ha! You could be in prison and still be Mom’s favorite.”
He remembered what Sarah had said to him last night. About being the apple of his mother’s eye. “Do you really think Mom has a preference?”
Mimi shook her head and laughed. “Are you serious?” Then she sobered. “You really are clueless, Luke.”
Why did everyone keep saying that?
“No worries, big brother. I know Mom adores me. I’m her daughter, but you have to remember, I’ve given her a lot of heartburn over the years, whereas you’ve pretty much been on the superstar track. My relationship with her is a lot more complicated than yours.”
“I know that,” he said quietly. “Not about the superstar thing, but the other.”
When Mimi got pregnant her senior year in high school, his parents had wanted her to give the baby up for adoption so she could go to Duke as planned. But Zeke Grant had stepped in and convinced Mimi to marry him. Married at barely eighteen with a baby on the way and nothing but a high school diploma and a husband who worked as a mechanic wasn’t Ann Powers’s vision for her only daughter’s life. There had been plenty of tears and family arguments that summer. But Mimi had been adamant. She loved Zeke and she loved her baby, and that was that.
“It must be hard being the perfect one,” Mimi continued, “But someone has to do it.”
The perfect one? Is that how his sister saw him?
Mimi glanced down at her planner. “Sorry, bro, I’d love to keep talking family history but I have an appointment with Pilar in a few minutes. Wait till I tell Cameron that he’s going to spend the weekend with you instead of Mom and Dad.” She stood to leave, then leveled him with a look worthy of their mother. “You aren’t going to change your mind, are you? Remember, it’s not just Cameron, it’s the dog, too.”
Now, this was downright insulting. How hard could it be to take care of a thirteen-year-old boy and a dog? The whole thing sounded kind of fun, actually. And it was a good opportunity to bond with his nephew. They could go fishing. Do the man thing.
“Nope, I haven’t changed my mind. As a matter of fact, I’m looking forward to it.”
Chapter Eleven
Sarah had never lived with a man before. Not that she was living with Luke because the term “living with” implied some kind of romance or sexual situation. No, the two of them were strictly roommates. Two ships that passed in the night and sometimes docked in the same port. She had to admit, though, it had been interesting.
After a week of living together, this is what she knew so far about Luke Powers: