Chapter 22
Katarina
This man. He’s more hot and cold than a woman the week before her period. Which is exactly what I texted Klara. I knew he’d probably see it, and I didn’t care. I hoped he did.
I had nothing to hide so I wasn’t concerned that my phone was monitored.
Although it did make me wonder if Papa had ever done that.
The thought of him seeing some of the things I sent friends, especially things he should never know about, made me ill.
But nothing was ever brought up, so hopefully that never crossed his mind.
Klara’s reply didn’t come until later in the day, but she apologized for the delay and told me she hoped my day turned around soon. I’d been a poor friend. So wrapped up in my new husband and attempting to get unpacked.
He’d spent a lot of time with me the last couple of weeks and I understood he still had responsibilities.
But I didn’t hold a gun to his head. It had been wonderful, no doubt, and kept me from being too homesick.
All he had to do was tell me he had work to do.
But this morning he was short, cold. He wasn’t even that much of a prick when we first met. Or was he?
Looking at the boxes of things I still hadn’t sorted, I realized I’d let myself be dickmatized by him. I’d pulled out mostly clothes and personal care items but still had oodles and oodles of more clothes, pictures, and tchotchkes from my childhood home. Well, my whole life home.
Instead of sorting through my things and my emotions, I just fucked my husband for two weeks, and occasionally baked. But I had to go to the clubhouse just to do that because the kitchen was practically empty.
Remembering I packed up some of my baking tools from home, I went to the spare room and found the box, then carried it to the pristine kitchen.
The counters were bare and very little was in any of the cabinets. Hawk was a minimalist and very anal about appearances. Which was odd, since nobody ever came into the house but us.
Although there was no need for anyone to. They had the clubhouse for meals and their meetings. And he was in charge. Order was necessary.
Rolling my eyes at myself, I started pulling the smaller items from the box first and finding them new homes.
How silly that even when I was mad at him, I found myself defending him and his weird controlling quirks. Order was necessary, but he even had to have his hair balm in the exact same place after use. And looking around, the whole house was devoid of emotion or sentiment.
That changes now. If I had to live here, I deserved to share the space.
A few hours later, I was sitting on the floor, choked up over pictures in an old album from one of the boxes.
Some pictures that were framed had been placed around the living room, and one on the nightstand in the bedroom, but I pulled out some albums trying to figure out which needed to be stored and which could be displayed on the coffee table.
As tears streamed my face while I flipped through the book with pictures of my mother, a knock on the door startled me.
Nobody ever came here and Hawk wouldn’t knock. I sat stunned for a moment when another knock came.
Shutting the album and leaving it on the coffee table, I stood and ran my hands over my cheeks, hoping my mascara hadn’t run down my face. Looking down, I grimaced. I’d thrown on leggings and a t-shirt earlier to run to the clubhouse for breakfast.
After another, more urgent knock, I hustled to the door and momentarily tensed. I hadn’t been training at all and my guard was down. I needed to remember myself. Preparing to be ready for the worst, I got on my tiptoes and looked through the peephole.
Gasping, I flung the door open. “Niko, Klara!” I rushed to wrap my arms around them both. “Oh my God! What are you doing here?” I asked as fresh tears flooded my eyes.
“I’d not heard from you so I wanted to check in. I figured you’d be pleased to see Klara,” Niko said as he patted my back before pulling away. “Oh, don’t cry, dear sister,” he said, wiping a tear away.
Klara pulled away and studied my face. “Shall we go inside?”
“Oh, yes. Please, come in.” I waved them then shut the door. “You’ll have to excuse the mess. I’ve been working to get unpacked.”
Niko looked around and smiled as he picked up the album I’d just been looking at. “I haven’t seen this in ages.”
“That’s because it was in the cabinet. Nobody had pulled them out in so long, I thought it would be alright to bring them.”
He nodded. “Of course. Oh my.” He grinned down, running his hand over the picture. “Mama was so lovely.” He looked up at me. “You favor her so much, Katya.”
“My manners! Come, I’ll show you the house.”
I gave them the tour, showing them the basement, the rooms, then the back porch. “I love having coffee out here,” I told them.
Klara grabbed my hand. “Katya, can you show me to the bathroom again? My brain is mush. We had to be up early for the airport but I closed the restaurant last night.”
The house was not large, and the bathroom was just down the hall, so I knew there was another reason for her request.
“I need to make a call,” Niko said. “I’ll just be here.”
Heading inside, we went down the hall and stopped by the bathroom.
She put her hand on my shoulder. “Katya, you’ve been crying longer than when we arrived. I’d know that puffy redness anywhere. What’s wrong?”
My throat bobbed as I tried to stifle more tears, but having her there and Niko just outside hit me like a ton of bricks. “I miss you. I miss everything. And Hawk can be such an asshole sometimes.”
She wrapped her arms around me, and pulled me close.
Squeezing her back, I mumbled into her shoulder as I inhaled her soft cotton scent.
“I mean, he’s not all the time,” I sniffled, “but that’s why it’s so bad when he is.
And I didn’t realize how badly I missed home until I was going through my things. ”
“Oh Katya, I’m so sorry. I miss you terribly. But the restaurant is doing well.”
Pulling away, I wiped my face. “God, this is silly. I’m just so emotional from all the change. But he was an asshole today.”
Klara looked down the hall, so my eyes followed. Niko was still on the porch on a call. She asked, “I thought things had gotten better, no? Isn’t that why you’ve been no contact?”
I gripped both of her hands in mine and blew out a sigh, ruffling the hair around my face. “They did. They are. He was just weird this morning.”
She pushed a few stray hairs off my sticky cheeks and smiled softly. “Katya, you grew up with the head of the Petrov family. I’m not saying you don’t have the right to be upset, but look at the source. Is he acting out of character for such a man?”
Glancing toward the back door where my brother was, I grimaced. “I suppose not.”
“He does not deserve your tears. You’re strong and beautiful and can probably kick his ass from one end of the house to the other.”
A watery laugh escaped me. “Probably. Though he is very strong. And virile.” Wiping my face again, I moaned. “This is silly. You’re right, of course. But I also would like to go on record that some of these tears are truly because I’m missing home.”
“Well, you have me for a few days. Why don’t you freshen up, I’m going to do the same and we will make Niko take us somewhere fabulous for lunch. Where do you suggest?”
Shrugging, I said, “I’m not sure. We’ve eaten here every day.”
Her eyes widened. “He’s not taken you out? Showed you the town?”
I shook my head.
“Well, go change. Maybe Niko knows of a place. He’s been here lots of times, yes?” Klara asked.
“Yes. He’s much more familiar with this place than I am,” I said with an eyeroll. “I’ll just be a few minutes. I could use a change of scenery and some pretentious portions.”
After I changed into a pair of black dress pants with a long-sleeved sage blouse and finished the look with a nice set of black heels, I pulled my hair back into a slick ponytail, touched up my mascara, and added a touch of lipgloss.
The temps were feeling very fall outside with a slight breeze, so the shirt was the perfect amount of cover without getting too warm. I hadn’t worn any of my nicer clothes since I arrived and it was nice to dress up a bit and go out.
Niko had a driver with him from home of course, but they’d flown in. On the ride, Klara told me all about the trip and how amazing it was. Papa had a plane, and she’d never flown on anything but a commercial jet.
Niko took us all the way to the city, which was a good hour’s drive. The scenery on the way was lush and still mostly green, but touches of red, orange, and yellow mixed into the trees.
As we neared Atlanta, more and more highrises came into view, and once we were in the heart of the city, it was much like home. At least until we got off the highway. Then it was clear it was nothing like home.
There were odd three-way and even five-way intersections. Some streets that were one-way didn’t continue past intersections as one-ways, and some roads that had two-way traffic quickly became one-way streets, so there were lots of turns.
There were also lots of potholes, so at least that was familiar.
The driver pulled up to a building and a valet opened the door. I stepped out onto the sidewalk and looked around as I waited for them. Niko tipped the valet as his own driver pulled away and he opened the door to the restaurant.
Rich smells hit my nose and I turned to smile at my brother. “Italian. Yummy.”
“They have an extensive wine menu as well. Ladies,” he said as he waved us ahead.
The restaurant was gorgeous and upscale, but it wasn’t necessarily fine dining. However, they did boast an impressive wine list just as Niko said and the antipasta was delicious.
I sipped on merlot and asked Niko and Klara tons of questions about home and the restaurant.
“The Antonovs are so sad that you’re gone. They simply couldn’t believe you up and left so quickly,” Klara said, her eyes briefly shooting at Niko.