“You already know Gavril and Lilia,” I said. “And you’ve met Nat.” She had not only filled my new house with artwork, but she had also loaned us the paintings to decorate Khoroshiy’s private dining room to impress the Koboyashis. “Her husband is Kolya.”
Before I could quickly fill her in on the other two couples, my brother Dan had risen from his seat to envelop Clem in a bear hug, actually lifting her off her feet. I had hurriedly told him what he needed to know and warned him to make her feel welcome.
“This is more than a business deal,” he said, as if reading my unspoken thoughts over the phone line.
“Go ahead and treat it that way,” I replied.
He knew me better than anyone else, and despite being as different as night and day, he always had my back. The sudden onset of marital bliss made him believe his last remaining single brother had to join the club, so he was delighted about this arrangement.
“Okay, let her breathe,” I said.
His wife, Paisley, a sweet woman who’d fallen into our life by a happy accident, was next in line, hugging Clem as best she could with her huge baby bump in the way. “I might have to leave early, the way this one is acting,” she said, rubbing the top of her belly. “But I couldn’t miss meeting you. I’m so, so happy for you both.”
Max was also there, the proud owner of the place, with his wife, Brooke, who quickly apologized for being on the phone with the babysitter before warmly greeting Clem. Gavril gave her a wry smile before waving from his spot at the table, and my shy cousin Lilia urged her over to sit next to her. She was the otherbook lover in our family, and I was certain she’d put Clem at ease.
My new wife had a dazed look in her eyes and gripped my hand like a rope that would keep her from being washed out to sea. My family could come in like a tidal wave, and this was only a fraction of them.
I had warned Dan to keep things normal, but we all grew up with a very different meaning to that word than most. At least we were at Max’s diner, and not one of the bars where we held different kinds of meetings. The chances of a shootout were never zero in my family, but they were much lower in this legit setting.
These were the people I could most trust to keep from spilling the beans about what we really did for a living. There was no way it could stay a secret forever, but Clem had already had enough thrown at her for now.
Paisley and Dan, and Gavril and Lilia were still newlyweds, and as such, couldn’t keep from stolen kisses and insider teasing. Their long looks and lingering touches made me itch to join their ranks, but I was determined to let Clem move at her own pace. She had been on the verge of a breakdown when I found her in her car just earlier that day, and since then, her life had completely changed.
I saw it as for the better, but did she?
To my shock, she leaned across me to reach for the bread basket, her lips brushing my cheek. Then she linked her arm around mine and leaned against my shoulder as the dinner plates were being taken away.
“Doing okay?” I barely had to dip my chin to murmur the words, and she looked up at me with a soft smile.
“They’re all really nice,” she said.
“Of course they are. You’re family now. They’d jump in front of a bullet for you.” Her gray eyes widened, and I quickly added, “Metaphorically speaking, of course.”
My family had been doing their best to stick to only talking about their legit businesses, their kids, and their pets, and here I was bringing up bullets.
“It must be nice having so many people watching out for you,” she said, her eyes wistful now.
How could I make her see she had that too, that she was as much a part of my family as my brothers? As I searched for the right words, she tipped her head back an inch, her lips barely parting. As she rose in her seat, I ducked my head lower until our mouths met. The clamor of the restaurant faded as her soft sigh met my tongue. The kiss was too short, but she kept her arm firmly linked with mine and scooted her chair closer as the desserts arrived.
“You’re being awfully affectionate,” I teased, hoping a barrier might have come down.
She leaned closer, a wicked grin on her face. “Well, I have to keep up, don’t I?” she said, nodding toward my cousins across from us, heads close together as if they were the only ones in the room. “They’re all so freakishly in love with each other.”
Disappointment hit hard, followed by a wave of irritation. The kiss felt so real. The rise of color in her cheeks was real; the sigh couldn’t have been fake. Hadn’t the world faded away for her as well? Apparently not. Yet.
“Then we’d better lay it on just as thick,” I said.
I held up a spoonful of the gooey chocolate lava cake in front of me and raised it to her lips. She took the bite, her eyesclosing as the heavenly flavor met her tongue. A dab of chocolate stained her lips, and I leaned in to lick it away. With a soft moan, she turned to me, her hands sliding up my chest to lock around my neck.
Very faintly, I heard my brother’s laughter somewhere far away. Not in the same world as Clem and me, as her fingers slid up into my hair, her body twisting more to press against mine. Heat soaked through her dress as I dragged her closer, halfway out of her chair, my hands burning as I gripped her waist.
This wasn’t just acting.
A dinging sound broke through the frenzy of our mouths and hands as we tried to devour each other. She pulled away, blinking rapidly, and fell back into her own seat. Face red, eyes wide, she laughed self-consciously at Max, who was tapping on a glass with his spoon to get our attention.
“Okay, we get it. A toast to the newest newlyweds,” he said. “And a welcome to our newest family member.”
What had Dan told him? He certainly didn’t seem like he was pretending as he raised his glass. With trembling fingers, Clem tapped her glass to mine and drained the last of her sweet dessert wine, never taking her eyes from mine.