“No more than he hurt us,” Misha says, “and not nearly as much as we wanted to.”
“Yourfiancéis fine,” Yuri says, barely managing to spit the word out. “Thanks, by the way, for letting us know about it.”
“You kept us all out of it,” my dad says.
When I look over and meet his eyes, I can’t hold the stare. Guilt has me looking down at my feet. “I’m sorry, Dad. I was going to tell you tomorrow morning, and don’t be mad at mom. I put her in a terrible spot and she was just trying to help me.”
“I could never be mad at your mom,” he says while putting my mom back on the ground. He keeps his arm firmly locked around her, though, while he looks at me. “This could’ve gone very differently tonight. You realize that, right?”
“Yeah, I know.” I look at my brothers. “They could’ve gone completely insane and done something really stupid. Oh wait…”
“Don’t be mad at them. They’re doing exactly what I expect of them. Their job is to keep you safe. They had no way of knowing how Damien truly felt about you,” our dad says.
I manage to meet his eyes when I say, “Well, I did tell them. Repeatedly.”
My dad sighs and then pats my mom’s butt when she steps around him to grab the hot chocolate so she can pour us each a mug. She’s determined to get us to calm down, and chocolate’s not the worst plan I’ve ever heard for peace.
“Sitka,” our dad says, “you’re eighteen. It’s not beyond the realm of possibilities that some guy would come here and tell you everything you’ve ever wanted to hear while also only being after one thing. It happens. A lot. And I don’t blame them for not immediately believing him. I was just as skeptical.”
“And now?” I ask him.
He takes the mug my mom hands him, the corner of his mouth twitching when she grabs a bottle of vodka and gives him a very generous splash of it. He takes a drink and looks back at me. “I believe him,” he says, making me let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “He wants to marry you, and even though the little fucker didn’t ask me for my blessing,” he says, sounding a tad bitter about that, “I’ve decided to give it anyway.”
I smile and run over to give him a hug. I hear Yuri mutter from behind me, “He gets a hug. We get a pissed-off look and shitty attitude.”
“I love you, Sitka,” he says, wrapping me in a tight hug. “Don’t ever lie to me again, though. You broke my fucking heart, honey.”
“I’m sorry, Dad.” I don’t even bother to hide my tears while my dad kisses my head and lets me cry all over his shirt.
“Like your mom,” he says, “it’s impossible for me to be mad at you. I wish you would’ve told us, but I understand why you didn’t. As much as I hate to admit it, Damien seems like a goodkid. He faced your brothers without shitting his pants, and that has to count for something, right? Not too many people manage it.”
I laugh and take a step back so I can wipe my cheeks clean before I turn to my brothers. They both eye me warily, probably unsure if I’m going to try and hug them or claw their eyes out. I stay where I’m at, looking between the two of them. “I’m not an idiot,” is the first thing I say. “You should’ve trusted me.”
Misha runs a hand through his hair and leans back against the counter. “We know you’re not an idiot, but the last thing Yuri and I were expecting was to see Damien carrying you out of the woods, both of you looking filthy and ridiculously happy about it.”
I ignore the surprised laugh my mom gives from behind me and the deeper one that follows it. Tuning my parents out, I tell my brothers, “I still think you should’ve listened to me instead of going full psycho on us.”
Yuri snorts out a laugh. “Trust me, Sitka, that was not full psycho mode. You have no idea how well we behaved for you.”
Instead of the apology I knew was never going to happen, Misha says, “You’re our little sister. It’s our job to protect you, and that’s what we did tonight, whether you see it that way or not.”
“God, you’re so stubborn,” I tell him before wrapping my arms around him in a big hug.
He hugs me back right before I hear Yuri say, “Well, now I just feel left out.”
Before he joins in, he takes a second to pat my head and mess my hair up.
“I was going to hug you next,” I tell him.
“It still hurts my feelings you didn’t reach for me first, especially when I resisted using my knife tonight,” Yuri says. “If that’s not love, then I don’t know what is.”
“Thanks for not trying to kill the man I love,” I tell them.
“Trying?” Misha asks. “That’s insulting on a deep level, and I’m going to forget you said it so we can still be friends.”
I grin and pull back so I can look at them. “At least he got some good hits in.”
They both give me a look that makes it clear they don’t think I’m funny at all.
