“Is he alive?” Sadie asked, staring at the image.
No. Actually, he’d died decades ago. But Roman had been hushed sufficiently. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, taking in the show.
Did that make him a bad guy? He thought not, given that he hadn’t shushed anyone.
“Of course not,” Babushka huffed.
Sadie looked at Roman. He shrugged.
“You didn’t think to mention this to me?” Now? Now, she was talking to him, all ready to hold a conversation.
“You told me to be quiet.” He leaned forward, forearms on the table. “Is this an official invitation to converse?”
Sadie pursed her lips and didn’t reply. She turned back to his grandmother. “You can’t divorce someone who isn’t alive.” Her voice had turned tender. “Once they die, the marriage is dissolved. Legally.”
“So you are saying you cannot represent me?” Babushka asked in utter seriousness and completely staged surprise.
Babushka was setting the stage for whatever she was planning next.
He’d asked for this, so he shouldn’t have been worried. Yet, there he was. Worried.
“I’m saying that you’re technically not married,” Sadie said. “You can marry whoever you want. There’s nothing to stop you.”
“No, I need papers to tell me I am…what do you call it?” She jutted a gnarled fingertip at Sadie. “Free agent.”
“I can type you a letter, if you’d like? Legally, though, you don’t need to do anything with the court or the state.”
“Letter vill be good. Address to me. Bring to dinner tonight. I vill cookdranikiand priozhki. Roman vill be there. You two can catch up.”
Ahh. There it was. Roman knew his grandmother wouldn’t let him down. This is what it all led up to.
“What isdraniki?” Sadie asked, clearly not learning her lesson about asking too many questions when it came to his grandmother.
“Potatoes.” Babushka shoved the image of Dedushka back in her purse.
With the amount of vodka she put in the mashed potatoes used to make the potato pancakes, this Babushka event might just be fantastic.
Babushka clicked her purse shut. “I vill die soon. Ve should prepare the paperwork.”
Sadie paled but otherwise kept her composure. “Are you ill?”
“She’s fine,” Roman assured.
Not that he would be truly unaffected if his grandmother actually met her demise. He just knew that her threats of death were hollow.
Sadie didn’t look so sure.
“And she has a will,” Roman added. He’d heard over and over again how he would be cut out of her will if he didn’t behave.
“What kind of an agreement are you looking to have drawn up?” Sadie asked.
Yeah, that was Roman’s question, too. He crossed his arms, willing himself not to snatch his cell and call in the family for reinforcements.
“I vish to update my vill. My money goes to my family ven I die.Unlessthey are big jerks. Then they get nothing. I vish to update papers for this.”
Sadie shifted in her seat. “So you want a will that says your money goes to your family, unless they are ‘big jerks.’”
“Yes.”
