“For you.”
“Yes.”
“For her too, probably.”
I let out a breath. “Yes.”
He rubs at his jaw and looks toward the door Ethan walked out through. “Your son wants to hurt you,” he says.
“He’s wanted that before.”
“This feels different.”
I look at him.
He nods toward the hallway. “That look he gave you. It wasn’t just a spoiled son being angry with his father. It was personal.”
I had the same thought. “I know.”
Maksim reaches for his coffee again, then thinks better of it. “What are you going to do?”
“Get through the wedding.”
“That sounds optimistic.”
“It isn’t optimism. It’s timing.”
He nods once. He understands.
Then, after a pause, he says, “And Sienna?”
I look at him and know he’s no longer asking about logistics.
So I tell him the rest too.
“I can’t stop thinking about her,” I say. “When she’s not in front of me, I’m wondering where she is. When she is in front of me, I want her badly enough to forget every other consideration in the room. And somehow that’s not even the part that worries me most anymore.”
Maksim says nothing.
“She matters to me,” I say. “More than she should. More than makes sense. More than is safe.”
He nods once. “Yes,” he says. “I gathered that.”
I look down at the untouched coffee on the table and say, “It isn’t just sex.”
“No,” he says. “It clearly isn’t.”
The room is quiet again after that.
Maksim’s phone rings before either of us says anything else. He glances at the screen and his face changes at once.
He lifts a hand, already answering. “Let me take it.”
I watch him listen for a few seconds, his expression growing more serious with each one. Then he turns slightly away, asks two clipped questions, says he’ll be there shortly, and ends the call. “Rain check?”
“What’s up?” I ask.
“Nothing.” He looks distracted before he leaves the room.