“Favorable,” he replied.
“Do you hate me a little less after two months without seeing me?”
His mouth twitched, almost a smile. Matvet cleared his throat. “I’ll leave you two.” He stepped away without hesitation.
I turned back to Akim. “Well?”
He studied me for a moment. “Did you see your mother? You have something similar in your faces. So technically, I was still seeing you in her.”
“Ah. So you just admitted you hate me.”
He exhaled. “There is a difference between respect and hate, madam. You are my boss’s wife. I respect you.”
“Blah, blah, blah.” I waved a hand. “I wanted to thank you for keeping an eye on my mother.”
“It’s my job.”
“Can you just accept gratitude like a normal human being?”
“Madam,” he lowered his voice slightly. “With the way the boss is clenching his fist right now, I would prefer not to be punched for having this conversation.”
My brows knitted together, and I turned toward Dmitri. He was watching from his seat, his hand curled tightly into a fist on the table.
I looked back at Akim. “That man is seriously not well.”
“Love sickness is deadly,” Akim said, and I laughed, surprised that he had actually made a joke.
I left him and walked around the table, dropping into the seat beside Dmitri. “Can you be less obvious about being jealous?” I said, reaching for a glass of water.
“What did he say that made you laugh?” Dmitri asked.
I rolled my eyes and said nothing as Grandma’s voice drew our attention. She thanked everyone for coming, her eyes moving slowly across the table.
Dmitri’s hand settled on my knee under the table and began rubbing it gently.
Once Grandma finished speaking, the maids moved around the table with dishes. Conversation picked up again, spreading from one end to the other as everyone settled into their own discussions.
I looked around instead. Roman sat a seat away from Caitlin, which clearly wasn’t enough distance. She talked to him with animated hands, flipping her hair that she had dyed blue before we traveled here. Roman sipped his water, his gaze elsewhere, completely uninterested.
Across the table, Rodion leaned in close to Alessia as she pointed toward something by the pond. Rodion followed her gesture with exaggerated focus.
Farther down, Akim and Matvet were back to chatting. But I caught Akim’s eyes flicking toward Caitlin before he looked away again, too quickly to be casual. Caitlin didn’t notice. She was still talking to Roman. Before I looked away, Akim glanced at her once more, and I smiled. That man clearly missed her. But Caitlin was clueless.
My gaze moved to my mother. She sat with Grandma, leaning in as they talked. Cole was beside them, absorbed in his iPad. That was the closest Cole had gotten to our mother. My chest tightened watching him. He did not know that the woman beside Grandma was his mother. My father wanted us to tell him when we were all together, so he could explain it. It made sense.
I leaned closer to Dmitri. “Isn’t this amazing? Grandma looks happy.”
“Are you happy?” he asked.
“Yes, family is important to me.” I turned as the food was being served. The smell reached me, and something underneath it turned wrong. I kept my face neutral while my stomach registered its objection.
“I come first,” Dmitri said. “Remember that.”
“Oh, don’t worry, Mr. Konstantinov.” I picked up my glass andtook a sip. “You don’t even get a vote.”
“Mr. Konstantinov?” He raised an eyebrow.
The smell intensified as the maid set the dish down in front of me. The food looked delicious, but when she added garlic sauce on the side, my stomach turned.