She shoots me a glare and rolls her eyes. “Great. It was great,” she huffs, carrying her drink out onto the patio to enjoy the cool evening air. “The girls will be down for dinner in a minute. They are just packing away their toys,” she tells me.
Sunset is turning the sky dark orange.
I hesitate, then decide to go and stand with her. Every choice I make needs to be calculated, working out the fine balance between earning her trust and annoying the hell out of her. This week I’ve done a lot more of the latter. And I’ve enjoyed it all.
As I take a step towards the patio, my phone rings, and I groan loudly.
She turns to look at me over her shoulder.
“It’s my brother,” I tell her. “I won’t be late for dinner. I’ll keep it short." She shrugs as though she doesn’t care either way.
“Isaak,” I answer the phone as I turn away from her.
It’s strange to feel so pulled towards someone. She has that effect on me. I want to be near her all the time in spite of her coldness and disinterest in me. In spite of the fact that she keeps her answers short when I try speaking to her about anything other than work. In spite of everything…I want to be near her.
I never wanted to break up with Kayla. It was the hardest fucking thing I ever had to do. To this day.
“Bro, what have you been up to?” Isaak says, dragging me into the present moment. He works pretty closely with me in different sectors of the business. He likes to be involved and does a great job. Our sister, Alara, knows very little about the Bratva world. She knows we’reinit, but I never let her get too involved. My primary goal is to keep both of them safe. Even Isaak. I choose his level of involvement carefully. There is no need to put either of them in harm’s way. Isaak doesn’t even need to work if he doesn’t want to, but he enjoys it. I think he enjoys working with me. I get the sense that he views me as a mentor, and it makes me proud to be that person for him.
“Work. We were helping all the new employees settle in after HR did batch hiring last week,” I inform him.
“And it’s going well?”
I look at Kayla, standing outside in the warm glow of sunset light. “It’s going perfectly. How’s your week been?”
“Yeah, good. Listen, Alara asked me to call you to remind you about tomorrow night’s dinner. She’s cooking for us, so I think she’s pretty excited.”
“Alara can cook?” I tease.
He drops his voice to a whisper. “Funny. But don’t joke, man. She’s suddenly got it in her head that she wants to learn. Last week, she made me a shepherd's pie, and I had to fake my way through enjoying it to not hurt her feelings. When she wasn’t looking, I scraped the leftovers out, and later, when she asked about it, I told her I ate the lot; it was so good. I couldn’t face having to pretend to eat another bite of it. I mean, you’d think it was impossible to mess up shepherd's pie, but she found a way,” he huffs.
Laughing as I picture this interaction, I shake my head and say, “I’ll get the chef to go over to her place to ‘assist’ her with the cooking. Roger is very tactful. And please let her know we have extra guests who will be joining us.”
“Guests? It’s ourfamilydinner. You aren’t supposed to include clients,” he scolds me.
“Not a client. It’s Kayla.”
He goes deathly quiet.
“You still there?” I ask after a moment.
“Yes, still here. Kayla-Kayla. As intheKayla?” Isaak knows a lot of the story about why I let Kayla go. He knows how much I struggled with it, and over the years, she has come up in conversation enough times for him to be aware that it’s still an issue for me.
“Yes, and my twin daughters,” I add, fueling his shock.
“Yourwhat?” he snaps in utter disbelief.
The chef is busy setting the dinner table, and Kelsey and Kira have come running downstairs, giggling.
“I’ll explain in person. I have to go now. But Isaak, the twins don’t know I’m their father yet, and we need to respect that for the time being.”
“Okay….” He draws the word out in a slow murmur.
“I’ve got to go. I’ll see you two tomorrow evening,” I say.
“Josiah, man, you can’t—”
But I hang up before he can ask any more questions about the bomb I’ve just dropped on him. Dinner is ready, and I don’t want to miss the chance to eat with them.
