In just a few days, the people who had saved Zary’s life and welcomed her into their makeshift family would be celebrating Thanksgiving. She’d heard of the American holiday but had certainly never been invited to its traditional dinner.

“Good morning, beautiful,” said Gunner. He bent over and kissed her forehead.

“Good morning,” she murmured.

“Talk to me, Rocket Girl,” he said, sitting on the bed next to her. While she’d left behind the code name, Raketa, given to her by United Russia, she still loved it when Gunner called her by its English translation.

“Did you work out?” It was a stupid question. He was sweaty and in workout clothes.

“You know I did. Tell me what’s on your mind.”

She shook her head.

Gunner pushed her over and lay down next to her. “Are you worried about Thanksgiving?”

She smiled. “A little.”

“Tell me what worries you the most.”

The list was endless. She was meeting Gunner’s mother and sister for the first time. And how would it be to spend time with her twin half-sisters? What about her mother and their mother? Would that be awkward? Not to mention that, like her, her mother had never celebrated Thanksgiving before. At least, Zary doubted she had.

“I have some news on the subject.”

More? Now what? When Zary rubbed her temples, Gunner took her hands in his.

“It’s not a big deal. Razor’s mother and sister are coming. And his two nieces. They’ll stay over at Razor’s place.”

Zary did mental math. There were two houses within the compound that sat right on the beach in the seaside village of Cambria. Gunner called the houses a duplex, but no matter how many times he’d tried to explain what that meant, she didn’t understand. He even showed her where the garages connected, but to her, they were still two houses.

Whether they were separate houses or a duplex didn’t matter as much as the number of bedrooms each one had. Gunner’s had three bedrooms, and so far, two of them were occupied. She and Gunner slept in one, and her mother slept in another. When his mother and sister arrived, would they share the unoccupied room?

Razor’s house had the same number of bedrooms, and they were quickly filling up too. Ava’s twin, Aine, and their mother would soon arrive. If Razor’s mother, sister, and nieces came, how would there be room for everyone? Why was she thinking about this? Was it any of her business?

Zary knew what was really rattling her. She hadn’t spent this much time with so many people since her orphanage days, and those weren’t memories she wanted to dredge to the surface.

Every day when she woke up, Zary double-checked her surroundings. If Gunner was still asleep, she’d sneak down the hallway and ease the bedroom door open where her mother slept, just to make sure she was still there.

Seeing her peacefully sleeping was so much like the dreams she’d had for years—that her parents were still alive, and their reported deaths had been a terrible mistake. Zary’s father was no longer alive, but she didn’t regret his dying. She didn’t consider him her father anyway. To her, he was the devil.

When she looked at Gunner, he was studying her. “If you don’t talk to me, I can’t help solve all those problems rolling around in your head.”

She didn’t feel well. That was her main problem. Yesterday, the queasiness she’d felt in the morning had gone away by mid-afternoon. She’d been relieved that it didn’t last longer, but now it was back.

When she was sick, Zary wanted to be left alone, but neither Gunner nor her mother had cooperated yesterday. They’d both hovered so much that when she started to feel better, she went for a run on the beach—alone.

“Your mother and I are going shopping in San Luis Obispo this morning. Would you like to join us?”

Zary smiled. Two days ago, she’d found them in the kitchen, each speaking into his phone and then looking at the screen. “Translation app,” he’d explained.

Gunner turned to his side and ran his finger down her cheek. It was something he did often, and it always soothed her.

“Sure, I’ll go.”

“Come on, get up,” he said, pulling her hand.

Zary’s stomach rolled like it had the day before. “Wait,” she said, taking her hand from his. “I’m not feeling well again.”

“I made you breakfast.”

The idea of food sent her stomach on another roller- coaster ride. “I can’t eat.”

“I’ll bring it in. Maybe if you try a little…”

Gunner left the room, but was back almost immediately.

“Here we go.” He set a tray in front of her with cereal, a banana, and an apple. It wasn’t the typical breakfast he usually insisted she ate.

He’d made it his mission to put more “meat on her bones” by way of making her things to eat like eggs with bacon or sausage for breakfast, and more steak than she’d eaten in her life for dinner.

She had to admit, now that it was in front of her, the simple breakfast looked good.

Gunner sat by her side and peeled a banana he’d brought in for himself.

“You’re very happy, considering I’m sick,” she said between bites of the cereal she couldn’t eat fast enough.

Gunner’s face was set in a scowl more often than not, but when he was with her, he smiled a lot. So did she.

“Want some more?” he asked, still smiling.

“Sure, but I can get it.”

“Stay where you are. I’ll be right back.” He took her bowl, and when he returned, he had another banana with him.

“Is that for me?”

Gunner nodded, peeling it and handing it to her.

Ten minutes ago the idea of eating two bananas would’ve sent her to the lavatory. She took it from his hand.

“Your mother hasn’t heard back, yet, from Topor,” he told her.

Zary nodded. Topor, her mother’s half-brother, would bring a whole other list of worries with him if he decided to join them for the holiday. He hadn’t yet responded one way or another.

He’d been tentative with them since the night Petrov died, as though he was relinquishing control of her mother’s life to Zary. So used to having him a constant presence, her mother missed him desperately. His distance frustrated Gunner just as much.

“She told me eating bananas used to make her feel better.”

“What do you mean?”

Gunner leaned closer and kissed her forehead. “When she was pregnant with you.”

Zary finished her banana and then took another spoonful of cereal.

“No reaction?”

“To what?” she asked.

“Bananas making her feel better when she was pregnant.”

“I don’t understand.” What kind of reaction was he looking for?

Gunner set a small box on the tray next to her bowl.

“What is that?” she asked. When she read what the box said, her eyes opened wide.

“You figured it out,” he said, still smiling from ear-to-ear.

“No, Gunner. I’m not pregnant.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“I can’t have children.” It was something she knew they’d have to talk about sooner or later, but with as hectic as things had been for them in the last couple of months, it hadn’t seemed urgent.

“Why do you think you can’t have children?” he asked. His scowl still hadn’t returned, as much as she’d expected it to.

“The Russian doctor…”

“They’ve been known to lie.” Gunner scrubbed his face with his hand. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you, though.”

“Go ahead.”

“The first time…did I…did we…use a condom?”

She nodded. “Condoms. Plural.”

“I’m sorry I had to ask, Zary.”

“It’s okay.”

“So…take the test,” he said, opening the box and handing her a plastic stick.

She studied it. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Pee on it.”

“No!” she gasped, grabbing the box from Gunner to read the directions for herself. “I can’t believe it,” she said, setting the box down.

“It wasn’t just your mother who said bananas and cereal made her feel better. Ava said so too.”

She looked at the small box a second time. “I didn’t think…”

“Go do it, Zary,” he murmured.

She was slowly getting used to Gunner calling her by the name only her mother had called her both when she was little, and now too.

“What if…”

Gunner waited for her to finish her sentence, but she didn’t know whether to say what if she was pregnant, or what if she wasn’t.

“Let’s find out and deal with the ‘what ifs’ later.”

He moved and picked up the tray so she could get out of bed.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said, walking out of the bedroom.

Zary studied the plastic stick again. She and the rest of the girls whom the KGB had taken from the orphanage when she was seventeen had been told they couldn’t have children. Sterilized was the word they’d used at the time.

There was only one of the original eight who had been recruited with her whose name Zary even remembered. Orina “Losha” Kuznetsov had been her protector and mentor in those early days, but now was in hiding even though the bounty United Russia had on her head had been lifted.

Even if she weren’t, Zary doubted Losha would welcome her reaching out simply to ask whether she knew if the KGB had really sterilized them.

Zary went into the lavatory, followed the instructions, and waited.

“How is she feeling?” Ava asked Gunner.

“Better with food in her stomach.”

Ava had something else on her mind, but Gunner didn’t want to ask what it was. If he did, she’d tell him, and what he really wanted to do was get back to Zary and see what the stick showed.

“Hey, man,” said his best friend, Razor, Ava’s husband, who came up and hugged his wife from behind. “What’s shakin’?”

For a guy with the level of intelligence Gunner knew Razor possessed, his friend’s flippant behavior grated on his nerves sometimes.

“Nothing,” he grumbled, walking back into the bedroom. He didn’t see Zary right away, so he peeked into the bathroom. She was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, staring at the pregnancy test.

“Well?” he asked, walking over to her.

Instead of answering, she handed him the stick that she’d wrapped in tissue.

“What does this mean?”

She moved the box closer to him.

“Zary?”

She turned and looked at him for the first time since he came into the room.

“They lied.”

He couldn’t tell whether the positive result made her happy or sad. If it was the latter, Gunner didn’t want to make it worse by telling her that, at that moment, he was the happiest man who’d ever lived.

She stood, walked past him, and sat on the edge of the bed. He watched as she pulled the t-shirt she wore to bed over her head and then stood to take off her panties before reaching her hand out to his.

“I’m sweaty,” he told her, pulling his shirt over his head like she had.

“I don’t care.”

Gunner slid off his shorts and got in bed next to her. “I wish you’d tell me what you’re thinking,” he whispered before nuzzling her neck with kisses.

“I don’t want to talk, Gunner.”

He was all for what she wanted to do instead, but something felt off. Gunner sat up and pulled her into his arms so her head rested on his chest.

“All these years that you didn’t think you could have children, and now you’re pregnant. It’s a lot to take in.”

Her arm tightened around his waist, but she didn’t respond.

“Zary, do you want to have a baby?”

“I don’t know.”