Also, there was mental illness in Andrei’s family.
It was the perfect storm.
But I didn’t care.
I loved him. No matter what.
Last night over dinner, Nikolai warned me it would be a lifetime thing and earned a giant slap from his wife, Maya. Something that silenced the entire family, because just like Dad, people didn’t simply hit Nikolai and live to tell about it.
“He’s a person!” she yelled. “How dare you play into that stigma! Let his mind heal itself, and if it doesn’t, so what? Will you love him less?” She’d leaned into his face. “Would you love our child less?”
Tears had streamed down her face.
Andrei stood and pulled his sister, Maya, into his arms for a hug. I think he needed to hear what I already knew, that it didn’t matter.
That was his blood.
His son.
So what? He needed to go to a different place.
Who didn’t?
I went for a run and stopped at the rock Maksim so often sat next to by the pond. We were at his house until the rebuild was finished on mine. It was big enough, even though Andrei and my dad butted heads like they were the most stubborn guys in the world, which technically it felt like they were.
I jogged around the corner and stopped.
Maksim was standing next to it, looking so sexy I wanted to cry. He had low-slung ripped jeans on and a tight black sweater. His wavy blond hair was tied back into a man bun.
I approached. “What are you holding?”
He didn’t look up but opened his big hands and smiled. “A grasshopper.”
My heart fluttered against my ribs. “Aww, I love insects.”
“I know,” he whispered. “It’s your thing.”
“Yeah, yeah, and science is yours. Technically, though, math is my thing,” I pointed out.
He smiled and set the grasshopper back on the rock, then met my gaze. “I miss you.”
I frowned. “Maksim, I’m right here.”
“You’ve been giving me space.” He made little air quotes with his fingers, which just made me smile more. “I’ll probably forget…” He shrugged. “But Nikolai told me, that the blackouts… that I go into a different… state, and I remember fragments, and I read my journals… and it scares the shit out of me, and I don’t want to put pressure on you but—”
I launched myself at him, pressing my mouth against his before pulling back and whispering, “We’ll take the good times and the bad, Maks. Until our hearts stop beating.”
His eyes met mine again. “I don’t deserve you.”
“A wise man once said he’d earn me the rest of his life,” I teased.
“Damn it, now I have to compete against myself too?” He picked me up and twirled me around, once, twice. I’d needed those two twirls after nearly losing him. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” He set me on my feet, and I cradled his chin. “It’s going to be okay… we have each other.”
“You’ll need to be patient,” He was so beautiful, so much mine I wanted to cry. “With me…”
“Wow, that’s a hard ask… you know, after everything,” I teased.
He flicked me on the arm and then kissed me again. He always tasted so good. His lips were warm. Everything about him, even if he sometimes slipped away for a bit, was perfection. “Did you tell Ash?”
I frowned. “No. I thought you were going to.”
“I was waiting for him out here,” he said. “Then you surprised me instead.”
“Good.” I reached for him again when a throat cleared. “Ash?”
Maksim pulled away.
Standing behind us was Ash holding hands with Annie, Tank and Kartini, Serena with Junior, and King, all staring at us.
“Best to just rip the band-aid off.” I elbowed him.
We all moved to the rock and sat on the grass surrounding it. And Maksim told his story of what my dad had him do in order to protect them, to protect us. He left no details out, and then he explained what he had done.
Two hours later, I was exhausted for him.
And the rest of them just accepted it and hugged him. Ash however, needed a minute. After all, Claire had been his fiancé at one time; he’d even thought she’d been pregnant.
I didn’t know what Maksim said to Ash, but they hugged, and I knew that maybe that was a story for another time when King joined them and another hour went by.
“Life,” Serena said as she lay down on the grass, “is so strange.”
“Stranger,” I agreed, lying down, “than fiction.”
We bumped fists when we heard someone whistle and sat up.
Valerian was striding toward our group with two bottles of wine while Violet, my sister, followed with several plastic glasses in a bag.
“Knew he was my favorite.” Serena jumped to her feet.
I’d missed them.
Everyone hugged. I stayed back as Maksim came to stand by me.
“I want his sweater,” he said.
I frowned. “Huh?”
“I definitely need to spar with him then go on a hunting—” He frowned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”