A ghost of a smile played on his saucy mouth. “Yeah, Katerina. My wife.”
He didn’t look old enough to have one.
“She’s not sleeping anyhow because our one-month-old is colicky. She’s got a set of lungs, that girl.” There was real pride filling his voice now. It helped the smile brighten.
“How did I not know that?” I muttered, going to the bedroom.
I changed quickly and then scooped up the sleeping bundle. “Hey, buddy, mama has to run somewhere quick. You’re going to stay with a nice lady named Katerina.”
“I like Miss Kat,” Brady murmured, eyes still glued shut with sleep. “Her cookies are almost as good as yours.”
Great. Even my son knew about her.
Once in the truck, I pinned Kiril with a look. “Why haven’t you brought Katerina over to introduce us?”
The Made Man frowned. “Um…honestly, didn’t think about it.”
Ivan obviously hadn’t. Or worse, maybe he had and thought it was better to keep me from having a friendship. Oooh, I wanted to strangle that man! I didn’t know which was worse. Was he a big dummy? Or was he keeping me in an isolated bubble? Which was no better than a cage.
If Ivan wanted me to stay, he could have introduced me to Kiril’s wife, and if I had a friend, I probably would have decided a lot sooner. Men were so dense sometimes.
Hush. That’s just your hormones and emotions.Ivan was wounded.
And I was avoiding thinking about it by fixating on something else.
“She didn’t bring it up?” I felt petty. There was a girl here who could have been my friend. It felt like they were keeping her from me.
The next words out of Kiril’s mouth immediately slapped the pity party right out of me.
“She wanted to, but then she had the baby and has been kinda busy, Poppy.” Kiril turned the next block over and pulled up in front of a two-story home. “Sorry.”
“Saints above, I’m an ass. No,Iam sorry, Kiril.” I patted his shoulder. “But I would have brought her meals. Or snacks. Or treats.”
“We’ll fix it,” he said kindly. “But after tonight’s nightmare is over.”
Tonight’s nightmare.
That was why I was acting out about the lost friendship. It was easier to fixate on that rather than the bigger picture right now.
“Right,” I agreed and hopped out.
Brady burrowed into me. “Mama, what nightmare? Did you have a scary dream?” he lisped.
Oh, my ever-loving word, I’m off my game tonight.“Yeah, baby, a real scary one.”
“Tatko can make it better,” Brady yawned. “Where is he?”
Suffering somewhere. “That’s where I’m going, buddy. He’s going to fix it.”
“You like him a lot, don’t you, mama.” He nuzzled me and drifted back to sleep.
“Yeah, bud. A whole heaping load.”
Brady smiled up at my whisper. “Knew it.”
Katerina was a curvy blonde with dark circles under her pretty brown eyes. She exchanged a few rapid words with Kiril, gavehim a fast kiss, and took Brady from me. From within the house, a baby began to wail.
“Go, go!” she insisted, giving me a smile. “I’ve got this.”
