And it felt like a date.
Nothing around Zolt could ever be simple because, against my better judgment, he looked like that, he cared like he loved me, and he respected every rule I’d given him.
Well, I assumed he hadn’t broken rule two last night alone in his bedroom.
He lifted a branch above my head for me to walk under and picked a tired Bodri up under one arm. “He’s getting old,” he told me. “In dog years, he’s in his 80s.”
“So, really, I’m his granddaughter, not his mother?”
He laughed and lifted Bodri in front of his face. Bodri licked his cheeks. “What do you think, Bodz?”
Bodri didn’t answer, just continued to kisshis dad.
Like I wanted. I looked at my trainers, trying not to trip on any twisted roots.
“Dogs are forever toddlers,” he said. “So, sorry, you have parental duties for life.The youngest of our pack is six monthsold.”
My phone chimed, and I jumped, worried it would be Everly, ready to question me on spending the week with Imre. God, I hated lying to people.
But it was Livie.
“Hello?”
“Hey, girly!” Livie said. “You’re with Imre, aren’t you?”
I looked around for an answer. “Er, not right this second, I’m not.”
“Well, I was wondering if you’d seen Zolt while with him? His brother said he couldn’t get through to him.”
It would be one thing if it were in a brotherly way, but if Livie was calling, Benedek’s communication wasn’t brotherly, but managerly.
“Is Zolt there?”
He was standing right in front of me, patting a little old dog, looking like a Hungarian god in the forest.
“I’ve seen him,” I told her.
“Okay, good, because this also involves you. Don’t know if you’ve seen the socials, but they’ve gone crazy with conspiracies over Zoltán’s crash. And Nix’s bloody commentary didn’t help. You’re translating his medical report, right?”
My fingers felt numb, the phone a dead weight in my palm. I nodded as if she could see me.
“Fia?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m hard at work on it this week. I plan to have it done before Dad’s party.”
She breathed in deeply. “Okay, well… I was thinking of outsourcing someone? Maybe they could help, or… if you’re with your father, you probably don’t want to spend your week doing—”
“What?”
She started to speak again, but I couldn’t hear her. The blood was draining from my face, and I rested against a tree as Zolt put down Bodri and came to my side, concern etched across every inch of his face.
Livie didn’t think I was up to it.
Just three days ago, she’d said I was capable. Today, she was trying to give my work to someone else before I even missed the deadline.
“It’s a lot for you to have to do,” Livie was saying. “And you’ve got a lot going on and… and we’re after Zolt’s permission to publish parts of his medical records to stop the bloody media onslaught.”
The tree was taking all of my weight. All I could feel was it digging into my back and the cool, empty air on my skin.
