Rome, who looked amazing as always. Rome, who made her feel like she was a minnow in the shark tank of life.
Roman crouched down, knuckles out to the pup so he could get a good sniff. “Hey, Lothario. Your babushka asked me to check in on you.”
Lothario huffed and gave a finalruff, clearly not buying or liking that explanation.
“That’s why you’re here?” Sadie asked, doing her best to smooth her hair. She hadn’t pulled out any of the pins when she’d arrived at the house. She just curled up on the sofa with an encyclopedia of fish and, as one does when reading about fish, she crashed.
Lothario sniffed around Roman’s dress shoes.
“Do not hump his feet,” Sadie said, firm.
She could’ve sworn the dog glowered at her.
Roman’s eyebrows shot straight up. “Is that a concern?”
Despite Lothario’s initial attempts at defiling her feet, Sadie had laid out some pretty firm expectations of what she demanded from her canine nephew, but what could she say? Lothario had a history that wasn’t in favor of Roman’s wingtips.
Roman glanced at Lothario like he didn’t believe the dog would really do it. Sadie knew, from first-hand experience, that Lothario would totally do it.
“Oh, he’ll do it,” Sadie said. “I told Eli I’d stop in and check on the dog.”
Roman held up a key. “Babushka gave me the key. Said she had plans that came up. Askedmeto come by.”
His emphasis on the word “me” implied that Sadie was the one out of place. Which was ridiculous given that she was at her brother and her best friend’s house and, therefore, her reasons to be present trumped Roman’s.
Sadie lowered her legs over the side of the sofa so her feet pressed into the plush living room carpet. “He’s fine. I’m here.”
“I guess, now, I’m here, too.” He didn’t sound particularly sad about that. “Thanks to Babushka,” Roman continued with a sigh that triggered Sadie’s bullshit meter.
Either her read on Roman was totally off or there was something he wasn’t telling her.
He pulled off his suit coat, draping it across the arm of the sofa. Definitely making himself comfortable.
Apparently, he was going to stick around.
Except, he couldn’t just walk in there and make himself comfortable. Couldn’t just walk into her life and make himself comfortable. That made heruncomfortable.
“Mind if I hang here for a while?” he asked, a bit belatedly given that he was already making himself at home.
“Why?” she asked, part of her hoping he might say that he’d missed her and wanted to see her.
“Why?” he asked her back.
“Yes, why?” The answer she got was really, actually, very important.
“Dvornakovs from all over the world have descended on Denver. I’m not saying that I’m hiding out. I’m just not opposed to being somewhere the majority of them can’t find me.”
Oh. Okay, so this was not,I missed you and I want to see how you’ve been.
Also, yes, shedidmind. She minded because she’d spent years attempting to forget about him. And now here he was back in Denver like it wasn’t a big deal.
But this wasn’t her house and they were both apparently on babysitting-the-dog duty. The internal hostess her mother had drilled into her perked to attention.
“You can stay.” Sadie shrugged. “Can I get you a cup of tea or something?”
She started to stand.
“I’m fine. Thanks though.” He unhooked his cuff links and slipped them into his pocket, then rolled up his sleeves.
