“Nadzieja already agreed to go with me.” Harry’s eyes danced. “For part of the night. I’m sharing her with the man who owns Pistol Polly’s. I get second shift.”
“Pistol Polly’s?” Anna asked.
Heather swallowed hard.
“Second shift?” Zach asked, eyes wide.
“Oh shit,” Jase said under his breath.
“It vas Heather’s idea for me to move in with Harry.” Babushka picked at one of the appetizer trays.
“It was your idea for Nadzieja to move in with Harry?” Jase’s mother asked Heather in total seriousness. There was definitely an edge to the words that hadn’t been there before.
Heather choked on a sip of wine. “No…that’s not—”
“Was this before or after they decided to take shifts with my mother?” Jase’s dad asked, his expression a blank canvas.
The wine had gone sideways in her chest. She thumped at it with her fist.
Jase started to talk. “I think I can explain this—”
“Because she and Jase need their privacy at her apartment. She says I need my own space,” Babushka continued. “That I should move in with Harry.”
Okay, so that was not at all how the conversation had gone.
“This is what you say to my mother?” his father asked.
Shit. No. “Jase…” Heather said.
“This is getting twisted.” Jase pulled her against his side. “Dad, Babushka wanted to move in with her boyfriend—the other one—so Heather was coming up with alternatives. This was a much better idea.”
“And home is not an alternative?” His father glanced between Heather and Jase. “This is not an alternative you presented to my mother?”
So maybe she wasn’t off the hook after all.
“Morty is vonderful, but he always vorks,” Babushka babbled on. “Heather saw this when she took me to his restaurant.”
“To Pistol Polly’s? They have a restaurant?” His mother’s eyebrows fell together. “I’m confused.”
Heather tried to explain. “It was a total misunderstanding. I didn’t realize where she wanted to go eat—”
“C’mon, Dad, it’s not like Heather hasn’t been helpful to Babushka,” Anna tried to reason. “When you lost your temper, she let her stay with her.”
“I lost my temper because she’s handing out money to men we don’t know.”
“What the hell has been going on here?” Rome stood, apparently ready to join in the fray.
“Heather, let’s go on the patio and sit by the pool.” Jase snagged her hand and started toward the exit.
“When did you take my mother to the strip club?” Jase’s dad asked.
Heather’s heart stalled. “It wasn’t like that. I mean, yes, that’s where we ended up. And, sure, I was driving. But it was her idea and I didn’t realize until we got there—”
“Hey. Where did Babushka go?” Zach asked.
Harry was missing, too. Heather glanced to Jase. “You don’t think they’d…?”
“They’d what?” Anna asked.
