Chapter 21
I need to let it go? I’ll actually take it to the grave, thanks.
— Shasha’s secret thoughts
SHASHA
Meeting the family was not what I expected.
I fully expected the brothers—Ryler, Bronc, Holden, and Tibbs—to immediately dismiss me on general principle.
I was dangerous, and they knew it.
Why else would a man need a fully armored house?
I walked up the front steps of the old, worn-down farmhouse and into chaos.
The moment Brecken walked inside, we were assaulted by two huge sheepdogs.
They went absolutely nuts upon Brecken entering and assaulted her with kisses the moment she bent down to offer them her attention.
I watched as she soaked it all in and didn’t realize we had an audience until a throat cleared, causing me to look up.
I blinked when I saw all four brothers standing there, arms crossed, staring at me from only five feet away.
Had I really been that unobservant?
That was the kind of shit that got you dead.
“What are you doing here?” the eldest, Ryler, asked.
“He’s here with me, doofus.” Brecken rolled her eyes. “Which you know. Don’t be rude.”
“We told you to stay away from him,” Holden pointed out.
“And since when have I ever listened to anything that you say?” She snorted. “Come on, Shasha. I want you to meet the two more rational people in my family.”
I grinned then and followed her into the kitchen, surprised to see so much food all over the counters.
It was like Thanksgiving in the middle of January.
Jesus, there was so much food there was no way that they’d ever get through it all.
“If you’re wondering about the food,” McCoy, Brecken’s sister, said. “It’s because we skip Thanksgiving and Christmas meals and cook the second to last weekend in January because everything is on sale. It’s something we’ve done since before all of us were born, because everything is cheaper after the holidays.”
I nodded. “That makes sense.”
She held out her hand to me, and I took it, shaking it lightly before letting it go.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said simply.
“You, too.” She smiled, her eyes that she shared with her sister pivoting to take in Brecken. “He’s cute.”
“I know,” she sighed dreamily.
I, for fucking real, had a blush hit my cheeks.
Jesus, what the hell was that?
“Y’all disgust me,” Tibbs said as he came into the room. Then, almost as if the words had been dragged out of the pit of his soul, he asked, “Do you need help or anything?”
“No.” McCoy grinned, taking pity on him. “JJ and I are already done. All you need to do is find yourself a drink and sit down. We’ll be finished with everything in a few minutes.”
I looked over at Brecken. “Why did you allow me to eat breakfast knowing we were coming to this?”
She shrugged. “I guess maybe I didn’t give it much thought. But I have faith in you.”
That made one of us.
I wasn’t nearly as hungry as I probably should be for a feast of this magnitude.
I kept looking around at the food, and a wave of grief assaulted me.
This.
I’d missed this.
My sister, Maven, had this.
But the rest of us? We’d really never had this, and what small amount we’d had had been from a grieving mother that could barely be in the room with all of us as she thought about her lost child missing out on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
After Maven had been taken, everything had just been…subpar. It was like Mom and Dad put on a show but never really went all the way with it.
“You okay?”
She would notice.
“We’ve never really had anything like this,” I admitted. “My brother and sisters would’ve adored this.”
“Invite them. Right now,” she urged.
I was already shaking my head. “No, I can’t…”
She pulled my phone out of my pocket, used my face to unlock it, then started typing in a message.
I read over her shoulder as she went to the group chat thread that had all of my siblings in it, including Maven’s husband, Auden.
“If you invite them all, y’all are going to have six extra mouths to feed, at minimum,” I pointed out.
She continued to text.
“And my niece, Lola, eats like a linebacker,” I continued.
“You have a niece?” she asked, eyes wide.
“Yeah, and a nephew,” I confirmed. “But Brando is still breastfeeding and doesn’t like anything but boobs.”
She snickered and went back to texting, then hit Send.
She flipped out of the messages and went to settings, then to the Face ID section.
She held my face in front of the screen for a photo ID, then added herself to my Face ID.
“There are things,” I said softly. “That’ll be on my phone…”
“I’ll stay out of it, mostly. And I promise not to get into anything I’m not supposed to be in,” she promised.
“I don’t care if you’re in it or not, just know that sometimes you may not always like what’s on there,” I admitted.
My phone started going crazy then with text messages from my family.
She turned away and read every single one before responding.
Shortly after that she handed me back my phone and said, “I just added myself to the family group chat. I don’t need it anymore.”
I pocketed my phone and watched as she went into woman-with-a-mission mode.
“Hey, McCoy, Shasha’s family is coming because they haven’t ever had a Thanksgiving before. We need the leaf added to the table and more chairs brought in from the storage room!” she cried.
I pulled out my phone when more texts poured through and was unsurprised to find that every single one of my siblings were coming.
Even Maven.
I smiled and tucked my phone back into my pocket.
It took them all of ten minutes to arrive.
Dima and Milena were first, followed by Nastya, and finally Auden and Maven with their two children, Lola and Brando.
Brando was a little over three months old and had the same eyes as his mother.
It made my heart hurt to see, because the baby looked exactly like Maven did when she was a baby.
She smiled at JJ, who’d let them in, and then found me in the crowd of people.
She walked directly to me and wrapped me up in her arms. “Thank you for thinking of me. Thanksgiving food is my favorite.”
I didn’t squeeze her like I wanted to, seeing as we had a squirming, not-too-happy-about-his-position baby in between us.
When she pulled back, I reached down for Brando and pulled him up to my face.
He smiled his gummy little smile at me and reached a wet hand that’d previously been in his mouth toward my face.
Slobber skirted down my cheek where he touched me, but I didn’t move to wipe it off.
“Hey, buddy.” I smiled.
He drooled and smiled some more.
He was one happy baby.
I pulled him in close to my chest, then dropped down onto my haunches so I could see the little girl hiding behind her father’s legs.
Lola, my sweet niece, didn’t like crowds.
Just like her mother.
“Are you going to come give your favorite uncle a hug, Pchelka ?” I asked.
My little bee.
She’d always struck me as a little ray of sunshine, just like her mama, and I’d given her the nickname of little bee, and hadn’t changed it since she was born.
She took a quick look around, realized that she was surrounded by three people that would protect her with their lives, and made a dash toward me.
Once she was in my arms, I buried my face into her neck and pretended to eat it.
She squealed and threw her arms around my head, squeezing me for all she had.
I laughed and stood up with her in my arms. “PJs, Pchelka ?”
“Mama said by the time we get back, it’ll be bedtime.” She frowned. “Can I stay with you?”
I looked at her parents, who were both laughing and staring at each other, and then back to her. “I guess that would be up to your parents. But I don’t have your car seat in my car.”
“We can take Mama’s,” she declared as if she had that right as such a little person.
“You know your mama hates taking those things out of her car,” I pointed out.
“Daddy is here, though. He’d do anything for her,” Lola pointed out.
My Lola.
She was right, though.
I’d witnessed Auden protect my sister with his life.
Of course he’d do this small task.
“How about we talk about it after dinner,” I said. “Would you like to meet my Kisa ?”
“Kitten?” Lola asked.
Lola knew some Russian.
I’d been speaking it with her since she was born.
She’d been working on her Russian with her Aunt Bindi as well, who was a language expert.
Bindi was the wife of one of Auden’s brothers.
Honestly, for almost four years old, Lola had great recall and was almost as fluent in Russian as Dima was.
We’d all been taught Russian from a young age. But after Maven had disappeared, Mom had refused to speak it with us, and Dad had gone along with it because he’d do anything for my mom. What Russian we’d been able to retain had been minimal the younger the siblings got.
Dima was barely fluent in it.
Milena wasn’t much better.
“Her name is actually Brecken,” I said as I felt something slimy start to leak down my arm.
I was afraid to look.
“Please tell me I don’t have fresh breastmilk all over me again,” I pleaded, turning to my sister who was snickering.
“Listen, Shasha,” she said. “The kid can’t handle his drink.”
I grimaced and walked into the kitchen, away from the amused parents.
“Is she pretty?” Lola asked.
“The prettiest besides you,” I agreed.
“Oh, that’s pretty then.” She nodded.
That was my girl, not vain in the least. She knew her worth.
“That’s her…by the sink,” I whispered. “What do you think?”
“I love her hair,” Lola whispered back. “Will she let me braid it?”
“I’ll bet she would,” I confessed. “Do you want to ask her?”
“Maybe after dinner,” she said, squeezing my neck tighter. “Will she like me, Uncle Shasha?”
“She’ll adore you,” I promised.
More wetness, and then the sound of it hitting the floor.
I sighed and looked down at the little man in my arms who had his face turned outwards and resting on my shoulder.
The entire sleeve of my shirt was covered in it.
Gross.
The sound of wet hitting the floor had both JJ and McCoy, who were closer, turning toward us.
“Oh, babies!” JJ said.
That caught Brecken’s attention, and she turned off the water and turned.
Her eyes widened when she saw the kids.
“I feel like you might have a leak, Shasha.” She smiled wide, displaying her beautiful white teeth. “And who is that gorgeous girl that looks a lot like you?”
“This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” I bounced Lola on my hip. “Lola, this is Brecken. Brecken, this is my Pchelka.”
“And what does Pchelka mean?” Brecken asked.
“Little Bee.” Lola blushed furiously.
Brecken’s eyes softened as she caught a rag next to the sink and came toward me.
She cleaned off Brando’s face, and then my arm, before dropping to her knees and cleaning up the floor.
“These are Brecken’s sisters, JJ and McCoy,” I said to Lola.
“Hi.” Lola blushed harder.
Brecken stood up, tossed the rag into a room off the side of the kitchen, and then looked at Lola. “Would you like to help me finish the mashed potatoes?”
Lola’s eyes widened. “Yes!”