CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MAYBE CARRIED A bunch of stuff up the back steps into Irena’s kitchen. The woman in question stood in the middle of the room and pointed, giving orders to people about what went where like an awesome little general.
“Love the new hair, Mrs. Orlova,” Maybe said as she began to unload the fruit and vegetables she’d brought in.
She touched it with a smile. “Thank you.”
The older woman had her hair done once every few weeks in what Maybe thought was a cool girls’ day out with her buddies who also got their hair done at the same time. Vic called them the babushkas, old ladies, but it wasn’t an insult. The older women seemed to have a pretty strong hand in the direction of the family and the community and they rarely got messed with.
Irena always seemed so hard but she loved certain self-care things. The closer Maybe got to her, the more she realized just how many layers Alexsei’s aunt had.
And then she’d felt even more special as Irena had made the room for Maybe in their family.
These people knew her worth. They judged her good enough to be there in the heart of their family life. That meant the world to her and also enabled her to remember she was more than her father made her out to be.
That acceptance from his family felt nearly as heady as being with Alexsei did.
Etta James’s version of “Stormy Weather” came from the other room. Speaking of layers. Pasha—what everyone called Alexsei’s uncle, Pavel—Orlov had them in spades. The man absolutely adored music from the ’40s through the ’70s.
Every time Maybe had been there for dinner or some sort of social event, music had played. Which, being a music lover herself, had ended up leaving her feeling more connected to them.
She liked them both a great deal and she really liked that they’d stepped in and had given Alexsei and his brother, Cristian, a family when they’d come to the United States in their teens.
“Rada’s here,” Rachel said in an undertone as she walked past Maybe.
Alexsei must have known she’d be there and he hadn’t even warned her? Ugh. They needed to talk about that sort of thing.
“It’s a good thing there’ll be drinking,” Maybe replied.
Rachel snickered and Vic looked up as if she’d said his name.
“Dude, come on. He’s so adorable. And he has such a crush on you,” Maybe told her sister quietly.
“He’s very adorable. I’m not unaware of that.”
“So what’s stopping you from giving him the look back so he knows he can make a move?”
“It’s not...” Rachel shook her head. “We’ll talk later.”
“You bet we will, sister.”
Alexsei strolled in, saw her and moved in her direction. “Evening to you, beautiful.” He brushed a kiss against her temple.
“Hey there.” He made her all warm and gooey inside.
He took her hand and tugged. “Come with me.”
“I’m helping your aunt.”
“You’re under my feet now. Go.” Irena waved them out of the room.
“She’s so dainty,” Maybe mumbled. Alexsei’s chuckle told her he’d overheard.
“Come have a drink and say hello. Pasha has been asking after you,” Alexsei told her.
“Oh. Well. Okay then.” It was on the tip of her tongue to comment on Rada but she swallowed it back. She was part of the family and Maybe knew the Orlovs took that very seriously.
Maybe didn’t have to like Rada. But she had to make some kind of peace with her presence if she was going to be with Alexsei for anything more than a few dates. And they were beyond that.
When Pasha saw her, he said her name in his big booming voice and ordered her to give him a hug. Maybe knew she blushed, but he was such a great flirt with absolutely nothing gross or weird about it.
He took her hands as Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” started. “Come dance with me!”
Pasha spun her out and then pulled her back to him again. “Your hair color is festive. I like it.”
Maybe laughed. “Thank you. I like it too.” It did feel festive and it certainly perked her up, so it didn’t occur to her to be anything but pleased with a compliment.
* * *
ALEXSEI TOOK THE beer from his brother as they both watched their uncle dance with Maybe. She seemed to spill out a bright light, a vibrance of spirit that fit in with his family so well.
Rada hung out at the edges of the gathering and for a time Alexsei felt bad. This, in a way, was her family too. She had one of her own. One bigger than Alexsei’s with five siblings, cousins, grandchildren, spouses, all that. But she’d been in and out of the Orlovs’ house since she and Evie had been little girls. This was her place too. She just needed to back up and let it be Maybe’s now as well. That seemed far more simple than it’d been. She didn’t want him back but she still fucked with Maybe and agitated things.
“So this is the real deal, eh?” his brother said, tipping his chin toward where his uncle laughed and danced with Maybe.
Alexsei paused and then nodded. “Yes.”
“And it’s not weird for you to think that with your ex standing a few feet away?”
“Are you shit stirring again, Cris?”
“You make it so easy, Alexsei, how can I resist?”
Little brothers were a pain in the ass. Alexsei elbowed Cris in the ribs, satisfied with the oof he got in response.
“Vic already owns that job in the family. We’ve got enough now. This has nothing to do with my ex. Maybe’s a strong woman. Aware of her appeal to me.”
“How is she handling Rada being around so much?”
“Rada makes it hard.” Alexsei snorted. Maybe had nothing to worry over, as he’d told her.
Rada hadn’t ever really challenged him. She’d let him have his way in most things as long as he went along with her social calendar. At one time he thought that was the way to go. Figured a relationship was about regular sex, companionship and going along with someone you could have kids with.
But now? Now he had a woman who challenged him daily. Infuriatingly independent. Flighty at times. Silly. Stubborn.
His equal.
A woman who told him to back off when he pushed too hard. It was so mind-numbingly sexy. The spine of his woman was truly magnificent and had spoiled him forever.
He craved one flavor and only she had it.
“I think Rada is worried Maybe will replace her,” Cris said.
“She and I have been broken up quite a while now and she’s still around. Even since Maybe and I started dating she’s been around.”
“Yes. More than usual,” Cris emphasized. “And every time Maybe is here, Rada picks a fight. She’s not normally mean, though she can be petty. Perhaps you should talk to Rada. Assure her you aren’t trying to replace her.” Cris shrugged.
Alexsei made a noncommittal sound, but he’d think on it.
“Eat!” Irishka bellowed from the kitchen to be heard over the music.
His uncle bowed to Maybe, linked her hand through the crook of his elbow and walked with her over to the massive table. All the leaves were in it so the long gleaming surface seemed totally covered in food for miles.
It was Seth’s birthday. Cristian’s partner had just hit thirty and had been feeling a bit down. Naturally, their aunt knew that could be made better by tons of food and alcohol.
Given the smile Seth wore as he caught sight of the ham and a huge bowl of meatballs, it worked.
“He called Mom a few days ago and now they’re best friends.” Cristian’s relief was clear on his face, despite his sarcasm.
“She was in a mood this week. She called me too. To lecture me about not telling her I was with Maybe.”
Both brothers looked over at their aunt, who clucked at everyone in between barked orders. Irena might have told their mother to lord it over her sister that she knew more about her kids than she did. But really, Alexsei felt it was to nudge her, remind her she was still their mother and they needed her.
“She’s coming over for the wedding. I said we’d make sure it was during a school break so the girls can come with her. She’s trying. I really think she is.”
Cristian’s eyes pleaded for Alexsei to believe the same of their mother. So he did if for no other reason than his brother needing it. Grudgingly, he admitted way back in his mind that he might have needed it a little too.
“She told me she and the girls would come this spring. Asked to meet Maybe on the phone in the meantime,” Alexsei told his brother.
He scanned places at the table and grabbed two open chairs, but by the time he managed to find Maybe in the crowd of nearly twenty people in the room, Rada managed to plop down next to him.
“That’s Maybe’s seat,” he told her.
“She’s busy with your uncle. Anyway, so what? It’s dinner. She can’t be five feet from you? Or is it me she’s worried about?”
The smile on Rada’s face made him very tired.
“Stop this,” he told her. “You and I both know she’s got nothing to worry about. Now shoo.” He made a motion with his hand.
She sniffed as she stood but when Maybe looked over, Rada made sure she bent to kiss the top of his head.
Maybe’s eyes narrowed for a moment as she took that in and he only barely managed to stop a sigh. That would be dangerous. Her ire wasn’t really comparable to Rada’s pretty little pouts. No, it was burning things to the ground and salting the earth after.
He held a hand out and indicated the empty chair.
She made her way over, ignoring Rada’s attempts to catch her eye, and when she sat, he pulled her close a moment.
“Why are you so grumpy, zajka?”
“You know why so don’t play,” she grumbled.
Alexsei watched as she made certain her sister was all right before turning her attention back to him.
Only it wasn’t to him because the food started around and once that happened she was focused on eating in that full tilt way she had.
He wasn’t sure if she was ignoring him extra hard as she did, but it felt that way and he realized how much he’d come to love—and expect—her attention.
“How was your day?” he asked.
“Since we were together most of it, you should know.”
Oh. She’d never given him the cold shoulder like this before. He didn’t much like it.
“You can’t be mad at me because Rada sat next to me for less than a minute,” he muttered into her ear.
“I can be mad at whatever I want to be mad at, just so you know,” she told him. “But if you think I’m mad for that reason, you’re a dumbass.”
He couldn’t help smiling. Christ, there he was actually getting a hard-on because she was mad and giving him grief in that prim voice.
Because she trusted him to give him grief. Trusted him to be vulnerable. A flash of heat seared through him, making him clamp down on his desire to bend and take a long sniff at the base of her neck where she’d be so warm and smell so damned spicy. And it was a spot that made her weak for him when he nuzzled it.
She and Rachel started talking about the plans they had for their backyard the coming summer with his uncle adding helpful tips. Cris and Seth shared the name of their landscape company. His aunt kept nudging people, adding things to their plates, topping off glasses.
Irena was totally in her element, satisfied her family was there under her roof. She’d told him once how happy it made her to have the life she did, with her loved ones close enough to see all the time.
She’d opened her arms a little wider to make room for Rachel and Maybe. Treated them like family. Ordered them around, called them out if they were too slow, made sure to bring over soup when they had a fever so it wasn’t all bad. It was simply part of being family.
Before very long they’d relaxed, still eating but at a much slower pace. His arm rested against the top of Maybe’s chair and she leaned against his side from time to time.
Trusted him too, not to run off when she showed him her teeth.
It told him a great deal about how far she’d let him in when he’d learned more about her over the last month than he had in the two years he’d known her. He’d known her coffee preference and what she liked on her pizza, but he hadn’t known the depth of the pain she carried around when it came to her parents.
Each new thing she let him see, every story she shared gave him a picture that filled him with helpless anger.
“Alyosha, butter me some bread. You know how I like it,” Rada called out, breaking into his thoughts.
He turned his head in Rada’s direction, annoyed by her little game.
Evie said something under her breath, clearly meant to rein her friend in.
“If she wants him, she has to fight for him. Otherwise she’s just a doormat. She won’t last five minutes,” Rada said back in Russian.
Maybe stiffened as everyone around them pretended not to be eavesdropping. Then she turned to Alexsei with one brow raised.
He held his hands up. “I didn’t.”
“This talking about the only people in the room who don’t speak Russian is really rude.” She said it loud enough to be heard by everyone at the table.
“I didn’t.”
“Yeah, you said that already.”
“Let’s go outside and finish this discussion,” he said quietly.
She leaned in. “How about no? I’m having a nice dinner. Just use some fucking manners. It’s not that difficult,” she hissed into his ear.
“Why be angry at me? It’s her. She’s just playing with you for sport,” he asked again.
Then her head did that thing women sometimes did to indicate they were about to strike.
God help him, but his cock got even harder.
“I wasn’t doing it. I wasn’t going to butter her bread. I wasn’t speaking Russian. She’s the one being rude.”
“I know it’s not cool. She knows it’s not cool. So the only person who refuses to see that is you. You, Alexsei. You’re my Lyosha, not her Alyosha. You get me?”
He totally did. Moreover, since it was said and done, he’d needed her to make that claim. And she’d made it openly, in front of his whole family.
Risking life and limb, Alexsei kissed the tip of her nose. He hugged her close. “Yes. I’m sorry.”
“Wow. You’re being very agreeable.”
He loved how suspicious she was, though he didn’t care to examine it very closely.
“You called me out, rightfully. If I’m wrong I’ll apologize. Usually.” And he didn’t want her uncomfortable around his family either.
The volume of conversation at the table rose once more but Alexsei didn’t miss the approving look his uncle sent. This would only make them love her more.