After another, more urgent knock, I hustled to the door and momentarily tensed. I hadn’t been training at all and my guard was down. I needed to remember myself. Preparing to be ready for the worst, I got on my tiptoes and looked through the peephole.
Gasping, I flung the door open. “Niko, Klara!” I rushedto wrap my arms around them both. “Oh my God! What are you doing here?” I asked as fresh tears flooded my eyes.
“I’d not heard from you so I wanted to check in. I figured you’d be pleased to see Klara,” Niko said as he patted my back before pulling away. “Oh, don’t cry, dear sister,” he said, wiping a tear away.
Klara pulled away and studied my face. “Shall we go inside?”
“Oh, yes. Please, come in.” I waved them then shut the door. “You’ll have to excuse the mess. I’ve been working to get unpacked.”
Niko looked around and smiled as he picked up the album I’d just been looking at. “I haven’t seen this in ages.”
“That’s because it was in the cabinet. Nobody had pulled them out in so long, I thought it would be alright to bring them.”
He nodded. “Of course. Oh my.” He grinned down, running his hand over the picture. “Mama was so lovely.” He looked up at me. “You favor her so much, Katya.”
“My manners! Come, I’ll show you the house.”
I gave them the tour, showing them the basement, the rooms, then the back porch. “I love having coffee out here,” I told them.
Klara grabbed my hand. “Katya, can you show me to the bathroom again? My brain is mush. We had to be up early for the airport but I closed the restaurant last night.”
The house was not large, and the bathroom was just down the hall, so I knew there was another reason for herrequest.
“I need to make a call,” Niko said. “I’ll just be here.”
Heading inside, we went down the hall and stopped by the bathroom.
She put her hand on my shoulder. “Katya, you’ve been crying longer than when we arrived. I’d know that puffy redness anywhere. What’s wrong?”
My throat bobbed as I tried to stifle more tears, but having her there and Niko just outside hit me like a ton of bricks. “I miss you. I miss everything. And Hawk can be such an asshole sometimes.”
She wrapped her arms around me, and pulled me close. Squeezing her back, I mumbled into her shoulder as I inhaled her soft cotton scent. “I mean, he’s not all the time,” I sniffled, “but that’s why it’s so bad when he is. And I didn’t realize how badly I missed home until I was going through my things.”
“Oh Katya, I’m so sorry. I miss you terribly. But the restaurant is doing well.”
Pulling away, I wiped my face. “God, this is silly. I’m just so emotional from all the change. But hewasan asshole today.”
Klara looked down the hall, so my eyes followed. Niko was still on the porch on a call. She asked, “I thought things had gotten better, no? Isn’t that why you’ve been no contact?”
I gripped both of her hands in mine and blew out a sigh, ruffling the hair around my face. “They did. They are. He was just weird this morning.”
She pushed a few stray hairs off my sticky cheeks andsmiled softly. “Katya, you grew up with the head of the Petrov family. I’m not saying you don’t have the right to be upset, but look at the source. Is he acting out of character for such a man?”
Glancing toward the back door where my brother was, I grimaced. “I suppose not.”
“He does not deserve your tears. You’re strong and beautiful and can probably kick his ass from one end of the house to the other.”
A watery laugh escaped me. “Probably. Though he is very strong. And virile.” Wiping my face again, I moaned. “This is silly. You’re right, of course. But I also would like to go on record that some of these tears are truly because I’m missing home.”
“Well, you have me for a few days. Why don’t you freshen up, I’m going to do the same and we will make Niko take us somewhere fabulous for lunch. Where do you suggest?”
Shrugging, I said, “I’m not sure. We’ve eaten here every day.”
Her eyes widened. “He’s not taken you out? Showed you the town?”
I shook my head.
“Well, go change. Maybe Niko knows of a place. He’s been here lots of times, yes?” Klara asked.
