“It’s cold,” Ev says, holding his steaming cup of coffee between his hands like it’s his own personal heater.
“Yeah, aren’t you girls cold?” Dima asks.
Allie shrugs one of her bare shoulders. “Not really, no.” She gives him a little smirk before taking the creamer from me and filling her own mug.
He tries to not look at her breasts and fails. I cover my smile by taking a drink, and when I look over, I see Damien staring at me before he quickly looks away. With my brothers right next to me, this feels a lot like a pile of kindling that’s just waiting for a lit match.
It’s a fire I have no desire to start right now, so I set my mug down and reach for a handful of granola from the bag someone’s opened. I pop some in my mouth and look over at Misha.
“You wanna make me some breakfast while I get changed?”
When he hesitates, I nudge his arm. “Come on, big brother. You know you make the best omelets.”
“She’s not wrong,” Yuri says, uniting with me because we’re both hungry and hate to cook.
I can start bacon, Bran signs, already grabbing a skillet.You do the eggs.
“Perfect,” I tell them, pointing a finger at the group as I start to back my way out towards the stairs. “I get dibs on the first plate.”
“Not fair,” Tyoma hollers after me when I turn and start running to the room Allie and I slept in. “I get dibs on the next one,” I hear him say from behind me.
It doesn’t take me long to throw on jeans and a shirt and run a brush through my hair, and in less than fifteen minutes, I’m already leaving the room and on my way back down. I stop in the hall when I hear Lyra’s cute laugh. Peeking into her nursery, Isee Max in the process of trying to wrangle his daughter into the cute outfit he’s holding.
“Lyra, you’ve got to get dressed, baby,” he tells her.
She squeals and claps her hands, making him laugh instead of get frustrated. He sees me in the doorway and looks over his shoulder.
“She’s lively this morning,” he says. He goes back to trying to pull the top over her head while he asks, “Did my cousins survive surfing?”
I step in and grab one of Lyra’s toys, trying to distract her while Max slips her arm through the sleeve. As soon as her hand is free, she smiles and starts to bang on the keys of the small pink piano I’ve put in front of her.
Max takes a second to tell her, “That is beautiful, baby girl. Keep playing Daddy music while I get you dressed. We’ll surprise Mommy when she gets out of the shower with how pretty you look.”
Lyra gives him a huge smile and slams her chubby hand down on the keys again. Max laughs and kisses her head before quickly pulling her other arm through.
“They survived,” I tell him. “I think Ev hated every second of it, but he managed to catch a small wave.”
“And Damien?” he asks, darting a quick look to me before getting started on Lyra’s pants.
“He caught on quick. Although, I imagine he does that with most things. Is there anything he can’t do?”
Max gives a good-natured laugh and says to his daughter, “I think your Aunt Sitka and Uncle Damien are about to make things very complicated.”
“Do you think everyone will hate us for this?” I ask, knowing if anyone can give me some advice on this, it’ll be him.
“No one’s going to hate you,” he says. “I’m not saying they’re going to immediately embrace the idea, but they’ll come around.Your family won’t risk losing you, Sitka. We both know it would kill your dad if you chose Damien over him.”
When he sees how shitty the very idea of having to do that makes me feel, he says, “That’s why he won’t make you choose.” Looking back at his daughter, he pulls her pants up and then reaches for a pink pair of tiny socks. “Trust me, I get the whole dad-daughter thing now. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep Lyra in my life. I would never make her choose where her loyalty lies. It would kill me to lose her. It’s going to be bad enough when she does meet someone and wants to move out and get married, but to permanently lose her because I’m too stubborn to welcome her husband in?” He shakes his head at the very idea of it. “Never going to happen.”
Grinning at his daughter, he adds, “If he ever hurts her, I will gut him and use the pieces for bait the next time I go fishing. Isn’t that right, Lyra baby? Daddy will kill him and smile the whole time he’s doing it. ” The soft, baby-talking voice he’s using is at complete odds with the violent threat behind the words, but it makes Lyra squeal with happiness when she hears it.
Returning to his normal voice, he says, “Your dad will feel the same way and your brothers. They’ll learn to accept that Damien is a part of your life. Word of advice?”
When I nod, grateful for anything he wants to give me, he says, “Tell them before they can find out some other way. It’s only a matter of time before they pick up on it.”
“We’re going to tell them soon. We just want a little more time.”
“Well, for the record, I like the idea of you two together, and I’ve never seen my cousin as happy as he is when he’s with you.”
