Velma glanced around the overflowing dining room table at the Dvornakovs’s house. The family was extremely loud and daunting. Meeting Jase’s family was…she drew a deep breath and let it out…yeah. The interview/dinner was really more of a Russian family free-for-all with everyone talking over each other while the fancy-schmancy imported vodka flowed.
Brek still hadn’t shown up.
“You’re doing great,” Jase whispered in her ear.
“Do you think Brek’s okay?” Velma glanced to the slice of strawberry crumb cake on her dessert plate.
“Sometimes his job gets so crazy he can’t keep a schedule. It’s always been this way. What time was his meeting?” Jase raised his voice over his siblings who were arguing about something in Russian. Velma really hoped they weren’t fighting about hiring her.
“He was supposed to be done three hours ago.” The Dimefront guys agreed to play tonight in Denver at one of the clubs. Brek said it’d remind them why they do the gigs, keep themselves clean. It was a huge breakthrough for Brek.
Before the set, they were getting together for drinks and then he swore on his…manhood…that he’d meet Velma at the Dvornakovs’ as soon as he got them settled. She’d been a nervous wreck preparing for the evening.
Velma lined up her dessert fork with the plate. “I’m starting to worry.”
“Tellin’ ya, relax. He’s fine. Have some vodka.” He topped off the glass she had barely touched. “Takes all the worries away.”
She pushed the drink toward him. “Can’t. I’m driving.”
“Velma, relax. We don’t bite,” Anna hollered over the mayhem. Of the four Dvornakov children, Anna was the eldest—in charge of the Colorado Springs shops and extremely enthusiastic to have Velma managing their finances.
Of course, relax, relax, relax.Velma drew in a deep breath and let it out.
“She lies. Anna bites. I have the scars to prove it,” Zak, the youngest brother, chimed in. He leaned his arms across the width of the table, tapping at a small scar.
Jase grabbed the forearm and studied the puckered mark. “Pretty sure he got that at a brothel in Belgium.”
Velma shifted in her seat. Brek would know what to say to something like that. Her? Well, nothing came to mind. She glanced at the clock on the wall and back to the empty chair next to her—an exclamation point to the evening, since they were already at the dessert course.
She dismissed her disappointment and shoved up the long sleeves of her striped dress, pointing to a small crescent-shaped scar on her elbow. “My twin sister bit me when I was ten. Three stitches.”
“Sisters are the worst,” Zak agreed, tossing a smirk to Anna.
“Badass. I hope you bit her back.” Jase raised his hand to give Velma a high five.
She lightly tapped her palm to his.
Her fingers itched to check her phone again, but that would be rude. She had looked at it ten minutes ago when she’d slipped off to the bathroom—for the third time in an hour. Brek hadn’t reached out, and he wasn’t answering her calls and texts.
“Can I just point out how much I love that Jase got a financial planner who shows her scars at dinner?” Anna raised her glass in a toast. “To Velma. I think it’s fair to say we’re all on board for working with you.”
“Velma, ven is the vedding?” Babushka rasped in her thick accent. She sat across the table as she spooned strawberry sauce onto her plate.
“Sorry?” Velma asked, scooting in so she could hear the old woman better.
“You and our Jason, you vill be married soon, yes?” Babushka raised a bushy eyebrow.
Velma frowned. She must have misheard.
“And then the grandchildren vill come.” Babushka clapped her hands and stood, raising her glass. She tapped a spoon against the side. The rowdy table went silent.
“A toast, to my future granddaughter. May she and Jason be happy forever and have many babies.” She smiled a toothy grin and beamed at Velma.
Jase choked on a bit of cake and grabbed Velma’s vodka, downing it in three gulps and banging on his chest. Velma glanced around the table at the shocked faces.
“You’re a couple?” Jase’s father asked, confusion marking his expression.
“Velma’s not my girlfriend,” Jase said on a wheeze.
