Mina
Lidiya’s birthday came the following week, and Lev wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to do anything for it. I, however, disagreed. While I understood her mother had recently died, Lidiya was a child. She didn’t understand that. I explained to Lev that by having a party for her, we were giving her our love and showing our support.
She deserved a party.
With Nas, Anika, and Cora on my side, Sasha and Vik were won over soon after, and finally Lev came around to the idea of doing something to make his daughter happy.
Honestly, I think being a father came naturally to Lev, but being a daddy was a whole new thing for him. He wasn’t used to needing to provide something more than monetary support for Lidiya, and now that the role had freed up, he was falling into it like a dream, enjoying it immensely.
When Lidiya got a boo-boo, she ran to Lev. When Lidi needed kisses, she puckered her lips up at Lev. And when she needed to go potty, although Mirella was around, she wanted Lev to stand by the door so she could sing to him.
Smart man that Lev was, he quickly got used to putting Lidiya to bed at night, singing her songs and reading her stories, and I wondered if Mirella was even needed as a full-time caregiver. Part of me was sure she was kept around as a grandmother figure. She was family, after all. And she said it herself—where Lidi went, so did she.
I happened to stumble across Lev singing Lidi to sleep the other night. And when I say stumble, I mean I creeped like a goddamn stalker to get a glimpse of how he handled her. His version of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” went something like this:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
Burning gas is what you are,
Up above the world so high,
You’ll burn gas until you die,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
Burning gas is what you are.
With my head titled in thought, I was impressed. And kind of turned on.
Who knew nursery rhymes could be so informative? And sexy?
I sent invitations out for Lidiya’s third birthday. I was almost cruel enough to make it a dress-up party, but decided to be kind to our guests and scrap the idea. Although, seeing Lev dressed up as a cowboy, in chaps and wearing a Stetson, was almost enough to change my mind.
When the day came, our home was overrun with people. We rarely got one guest a day usually, and that was normally family, but seeing the house full of smiling faces, pink balloons, and purple streamers was heartwarming.
Lidi, dressed as a princess in a bright pink dress with a silver tiara arranged around her curls, was overwhelmed with glee. Every time a person would arrive, she would smile, take their hand, and lead them inside, muttering, “Dank you a coming.”
Her ‘thank you for coming’ was a little off, but she was so adorable that even Alessio was won over by her. She reached her arms up to him and, hesitantly, he lifted her onto his hip. She prodded his scarred cheek with gentle fingers and looked up into his face with her doe eyes. “Owie?”
He turned to me, desperate for a translation. I smiled into his ‘help me’ expression. “She wants to know if it hurts.”
Alessio shook his head. “No owie,” he uttered, taking her little chubby hand and putting it against the puckered flesh there. “It doesn’t hurt, angel. Not anymore.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Cora standing against the wall, holding a glass, and she looked at Alessio like he was the sexiest man alive. Her lust-filled eyes were giving her away, and when she caught me looking, I smirked.
Cora bunched her nose and discreetly flipped me the bird.
It was going to happen—mark my words. I would do what I had to for them to hook up. She wanted him. He wanted her. Why was that so hard to understand?
God, people were dumb.
Nas looked at Vik from across the room, and when he felt her eyes on him and lifted his head, she lowered her glance. It wasn’t the first time in the past two weeks that I saw them do this. It also didn’t escape Lev’s notice that Viktor had stopped coming around. They hadn’t spoke in that time.
Something had happened between them, and Nas was not opening up, probably because it was still too painful to talk about.
All I knew was that Nas was miserable and Vik had developed the temper of a T-Rex with itchy balls.
Relationships were collapsing around us, but Lev and I were going stronger than ever.
I smiled to myself and gazed down at my sparkling white gold engagement ring. It was chic with only three small diamonds, but I loved it more than anything I’d ever owned in my entire life. And what was more…Lev had chosen it.
The hardest thing I ever had to do was tell Lev that I decided on a long engagement. I shouldn’t have been worried. He simply responded with an, “Okay,” then added, “But we’re still going to marry, right?”
I emphatically assured him we would, but I just wasn’t ready for that right now. There was so much going on, first with the club, then with my newfound inheritance, and finally with the photography course I was doing. When I was ready to get married, I wanted to be selfish and have it be all about us as a couple, and I didn’t want to rush that, because we deserved more than a pressurized wedding full of stress.
But it would happen. Eventually.
I glanced around the room just in time to witness Anika raising her hand, rearing back, and slapping Sasha across the face so hard that it echoed through the room. The tall redhead stood there a moment, chest heaving, eyes shining bright before she looked around the room at enquiring eyes, blushed furiously, and whispered a hoarse, “Excuse me.”
She left the room, and Sasha, looking unaffected with a blazing red mark on his cheek, turned to the people watching and glowered, “What? You never seen a woman slap a guy before?” He looked to me and muttered, “I think it’s time for cake.”
I looked over at the time. “No, it’s not.” At Sasha’s fierce scowl, my brows rose and I called out, “Um, I mean, it’s cake time everyone!”
Lidiya, who was now being held by Uncle Laredo, was brought to the table where Ada had placed the pink-sprinkled double layer cake with white chocolate butterflies around it. A chorus of “Happy Birthday” started, and Lidi sat on Lev’s lap, smiling, clapping, and singing, even though she didn’t know the words.
When it was time to blow out the candles, she leaned forward and blew with all her might, her tiny fists clenching from exertion. The candles were extinguished and a cheer went out around us.
I was smiling so hard it hurt.
More cheers were heard after Lidi had conned Lev into lighting the candles again and again, just so she could blow them out.
Nas called for pictures to be taken, and lifting Lidiya off Lev, I sat in his lap and placed her down on mine. I hugged Lidi tightly, and Lev wrapped his arms around my waist. Lidi pointed to the camera just before the photo was taken and a laugh escaped me. The photo was taken that way, Lev looking at me lovingly as I closed my eyes and laughed, and Lidi smiling wide, pointing at the camera.
This picture would be the first of many. It was enlarged and framed, and Lev hung it in the living room for all to see. Anyone with a pair of eyes could make out what we were.
We were a family.