Chapter 28
I felt warm hands slipping around my waist while I worked at the stove making breakfast.
“Did I wake you?” I asked, smiling. “I was hoping you would sleep in a little later.”
His hands were caressing my waist as he kissed softly along my neck. I closed my eyes and tilted my head, giving him better access, before I eventually turned down the fire on one of the burners and twisted in his arms.
“No, the bed was suddenly freezing cold,” he said with a lazy grin. “I needed someone to warm me up.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and stood on my tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips. It started off sweetly, but the reunion over the last day seemed to be too much. Our hands started to move as the kiss deepened until I found myself pinned against the kitchen counter with his erection pressing into me. There was a hissing sound from the stove next to me, bringing me back to reality as I pulled away, laughing.
“You’re going to make me set the house on fire.” I grabbed the pan off the burner and tried to unstick the contents.
He chuckled but still stood behind me, stroking his hands along my sides. “What are you making, anyway?” he asked with his chin tucked into my neck.
“French toast.”
“Smells amazing.” He inhaled deeply. “My mom used to make the best French toast. It’s called grenki in Russia.”
“Is it different than American French toast?”
“Not really. The only difference is we use baguettes instead of sliced bread. But my mom used to make it every Sunday along with all the other mountains of food we could never finish.”
“You miss her.” Not a question.
“Yes,” he answered with a gentle smile. “And the rest of my family too. I haven’t seen them in almost three years.”
“You’re going back to see them over the Christmas break though, right?” I remembered he had told me not long after we met that he would be visiting his family over Christmas.
“Yes, for about a week.” He paused like he was contemplating something.
I turned to look at him. “What is it?”
“Come with me,” he said, tucking my hair behind my ear.
I chewed on my lip. That was so tempting, but I just couldn’t leave my mom for that long.Our own Christmas plans to go back to New York had gotten cancelled since my mom was in no state to travel.
“My mom—” I started. He nodded like he already knew the answer but had to ask anyway.
He kissed my forehead and said, “I know. I just don’t know how I’m going to leave you for that long.”
The thought of it was painful, especially after the week apart we’d just had, but I tried not to let that show on my face as I made our plates.
Instead of sitting across from me at the dining room table, Lex sat down in the chair next to me, pulling my legs into his lap, and we ate breakfast that way.
“Do you have any plans this weekend?” he asked.
“Oh, yes. Big plans, actually. There’s an I Love Lucy marathon playing Saturday night and all day Sunday,” I said excitedly.
“You’re a big I Love Lucy fan I take it?”
“That’s all I was allowed to watch growing up. My parents loved classic movies and TV, so on Saturday mornings, we weren’t watching cartoons.We were watching The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, MASH, and best of all—I Love Lucy!” I said cheerfully. “That’s really the only one that stuck.”
“My mom was the same way,” he said. “No TV with the exception of old westerns, for some reason.”
“Really?”
“Yes, a lot of foreigners really love American Westerns and cowboy culture. It’s how I learned most of my English when we first moved here. I found out the hard way though that no one in Chicago said the words ‘howdy’ or ‘tarnation.’”
I laughed and started singing, “Where is my John Wayne? Where is my prairie sun? Where is my happy ending? Where have all the cowboys gone?”
He smiled before pulling me completely into his lap and pressing his lips to my ear. “Is this marathon something you do solo or is company allowed?”
“Of course. Any marathon is much better with company. You know, they throw the word ‘genius’ around about you a lot, Lex.” I tapped my finger to the tip of his nose. “But now you’ll get to see a real genius at work—a comedic genius.”
He chuckled. “I can’t wait.”
We cleaned up the kitchen together before Lex went upstairs to take a shower. He was going in to work today, which meant I’d finally have a chance to tend to my garden that I’d been neglecting. Maybe Professor Dunbar would help me whip it back into shape.
Just as I was about to head upstairs, there was a knock at my door. I answered it to find Stuart standing there without his usual look of mischief.
“Hey, you’re back,” he said. He must have noticed my car was back in the parking lot after being gone for almost a whole week.
“Yeah, I was at my mom’s,” I told him.
He nodded. “Listen, I know it’s none of my business, but I’m worried about Lex. I know something happened between you guys, but he won’t talk to me about it. He’s in bad shape, Hadley. He didn’t even come home last night.”
“Stuart, he—” I started to say, but he interrupted.
“Look, whatever it is, I know you guys can work it out,” he said determinedly. “And I know I give him a lot of shit, but he’s the best person I know. And he’s crazy about you. I’ve never seen him like this. Just give him another chance.”
I didn’t get the chance to explain myself, because Lex walked down the stairs at that exact moment in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.
The look of shock on Stuart’s face was almost comical before his face split into a wide grin, and he shook his head.
“Hey. What are you doing here?” Lex asked.
“Hey, buddy. I was just telling Hadley that you didn’t come home last night, but I guess I didn’t need to worry after all.”
“Yeah, there was a misunderstanding,” Lex said darkly. Stuart’s eyebrows raised when he heard Lex’s tone.
“Why don’t you come in, Stuart?” I offered. “I still have some French toast left over if you want some.
Stuart pretended to twist his French mustache. “Merci, mademoiselle.”
I went to the kitchen to make Stuart’s breakfast when I heard Lex say to him, “You were right about Nicky.”
“What do you mean?” Stuart asked.
Lex proceeded to tell him the whole story, and Stuart seemed truly appalled.
“What did I tell you?” Stuart said, but his tone wasn’t gloating. It was sympathetic.
“I know,” Lex answered.
Stuart sighed loudly. “I always knew she was a waste of space.” He paused before adding, “I’m sorry, man.”
I came back in and gave Stuart his breakfast. He thanked me as I sat down next to Lex, whose hand automatically found my legs.
Stuart dug in. “Work should be really fun today.”
A knot twisted in my stomach. I hated the thought of what this falling out with Nicky would mean for all of them at work. Lex started stroking my knee with his thumb when he noticed me shifting around uncomfortably.
“So, did you ask her about tomorrow?” Stuart said, perking up.
“What’s tomorrow?” I asked.
“Nothing important,” Lex said. “Our team got invited to Lookout Mountain this weekend. The guys from the astronomy department are hosting an event to observe some cosmologic occurrence.”
Stuart rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah, just some silly star show,” he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Are you insane?” He shot Lex a look of annoyance. “Hadley, this is a once-in-a-thousand-year meteorological event that Lex has decided he won’t attend unless you’re there.”
I turned to Lex. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We were busy,” he said with a roguish grin. “Besides, you already had plans.”
“Whatever they are, cancel them,” Stuart cut in. “Alpha Monocerotids is going to be visible to us here in California for the first time in over a thousand years.It’s a cosmological phenomenon, Hadley.You’ll get to see streams of cosmic debris entering Earth's atmosphere on parallel trajectories at speeds of up to sixty kilometers per second!”
That did actually sound pretty cool. “Do you want to go, Lex?”
“Not without you,” he said, still lazily stroking my knee.
Stuart groaned impatiently.
“Would I be the only one there who isn’t part of the astronomy department or Lex’s team?” I asked Stuart.
“No, we were told we could bring guests. I just happen to have no one to ask, thanks to you,” he said, and I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Jace told me yesterday he was asking Sarah to go,” Stuart added. He said it like he was dangling a carrot in front of my face, but it was working. If she was going, I’d definitely feel more comfortable.
“You want to go?” Lex asked.
“If you do,” I answered.
“What about Lucy?” he asked, smiling.
“We’ll save that for another time. They play the reruns more than once in a thousand years.”
“So you’ll come then?” Stuart asked impatiently.
“He hasn’t told you everything,” Lex said. “The show doesn’t start until well after midnight.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“And there’s camping involved. We’d have to share a tent.”
“Could we share a sleeping bag too?” I said, wiggling my eyebrows.
His answering smile had my heart picking up speed as he leaned over, pressing his lips to mine.
“Okayyyyy,” Stuart said uncomfortably. “It’s settled then. You’re both coming?”
“Yes,” Lex said, his mouth still pressed to mine. “Now get out, Stuart.”
“See you at work, buddy,” Stuart said, making his exit as Lex carried me back up to the bedroom.
◆◆◆
“I’m sexy and I grow it”was the tune I was humming to myself as I spent the morning working in my garden with a few tips from Professor Dunbar. Per his instruction, I started the day by digging out fistfuls of clay from the cold ground, trying to make room for my new larkspur plants. The tall, spiked petals were a deep shade of indigo that mixed beautifully with the pink and white rhododendrons Professor Dunbar had already planted.
The morning was cool, but California was living up to its name as the sun was shining brightly above without a cloud in the sky. I spread the loamy soil around each plant with my bare hands, loving the feel of the damp earth beneath my fingertips. The crisp smell of fresh mulch filled my nostrils as I grabbed handfuls of it from the bag to start covering the roots.
The me of six months ago would have laughed in your face if you’d told her she’d one day be planting a garden in her spare time when she wasn’t in the classroom teaching. How quickly things could change. That was the wildness of life though, holding the beauty with the chaos.
As I scattered handfuls of the warm mulch around my new shrubbery, my mind drifted to Lex, wondering how his day was going having to work with Nicky for the first time since this all happened. He hadn’t wanted to talk much more about it last night besides telling me he didn’t know how he was going to keep working with her. I told him he did the right thing. She owed him so much more than an apology, but she had been with their team for so long. It didn’t seem fair that she lose everything over this.
Lionel and Sarah had called to check on me, and I let them know everything that had happened yesterday. They both said they were sharpening their icicles. I ended up telling my mom what happened too, and she had a similar reaction.Despite what Nicky had done, my feelings were still mixed. Maybe it made me a complete idiot, but I think there would always be some small part of me that felt sorry for her.
I stood over my newly planted garden, dusting my hands off on my pants as I took it all in… It was perfect. Granted, it would never find its way onto the cover of Better Homes and Gardens , but I was still proud of the work I’d done. As I watched the tall stalks and delicate, airy petals of the larkspur fluttering and dancing in the breeze, an idea suddenly came to me.
I pulled out my phone and did some research for a few minutes before I went next door and asked Professor Dunbar if he had the number for the only other Russian professor I knew besides Lex—Professor Anna Sokolov. Luckily, he had access to the directory, and I was able to get in touch with her.
Lex got home earlier than I thought he would, but thankfully, I’d finished just in time. I answered the door to see him holding a very large box as he walked inside.
“What do you have there?” I asked.
“It’s an air mattress,” he explained. “I stopped on my way home to pick it up so you don’t have to sleep on the ground tomorrow.”
I shook my head. “You’re too good to me,” I said, closing the door behind him.
He smiled and kissed me lightly on the lips before putting the box down.
“What’s that?” he asked, noticing the smell coming from the kitchen.
“I made something for you,” I said excitedly. “Sit here. It’s a surprise.” I pointed to the chair at the dining room table. He smiled curiously and sat down like I’d asked.
I went into the kitchen and made us both a bowl before coming back to the dining room and placing it in front of him.
He looked down, and his eyes went wide with surprise.
“You made borscht?” His tone was incredulous.
“Yes,” I answered, praying it turned out okay. I didn’t have a chance to try it. “I mean, I had help. Professor Sokolov gave me some pointers.” I was so nervous he wouldn’t like it, so I continued to ramble. “I know it’s probably nowhere near as good as your mom’s, but I know how much you’ve been missing her and home and well… I hope it’s okay.”
Most of the reviews of borscht recipes I’d found online said they weren’t authentic, which is why I called Professor Sokolov. I wanted to get it as close to a traditional Russian borscht as possible.
“Hadley, I…” His expression was unreadable.
Anxiety filled me. “What is it? Does it not look right? I did exactly what she said.”
He stood, taking my face in his hands, and started kissing me until I felt like putty in his arms. I fought to think rationally.
“Wait!” I said, finally coming to my senses. I backed out of his arms. “I worked on this for three hours. You have to at least try it before it gets cold or turns to crap.”
“I don’t want to wait,” he said, reaching for me. “And I don’t care if it tastes like shit either. It would still be one of the nicest things anyone’s ever done for me, and all I can think about is being inside you right now.”
He stalked toward me, his eyes bright with humor. I yelped and ran around the kitchen table, trying to give myself space to think, because his words sent heat waves straight through me.
“There will be time for that after.” I giggled as he continued stalking me around the table. I put a chair in his path to stop him. “And it won’t taste like shit. Sit down and try it.”
“Fine, fine.” He put his hands up in mock surrender.
“And no funny business, mister,” I chastised. “I’m easily distracted when it comes to you and those hands, so keep them to yourself until we’re done.”
He laughed, but finally complied and sat down. I watched his perfect lips close around that first bite as I stared at him like a dog in a window watching cars go by.
His eyes closed for a brief moment before he looked up. “Tastes exactly like home,” he hummed. “It’s amazing, Hadley. Truly.”
I tried it for myself and decided he wasn’t lying. It really was good. I mentally patted myself on the back for pulling it off.
“This is the most thoughtful thing anyone’s ever done for me,” he said, voice raw, eyes shining with sincerity. “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve your kindness, but I’m grateful, nonetheless.”
I smiled. “A little education and a great amount of kindness is what is required if we are to secure harmony in this life and the lives of those who will come after us…”
His eyes widened. “You remembered my speech.” He appeared touched.
“I thought it was incredible. I thought you were incredible. I could have listened to you speak all night.”
His eyes flared. “I have something better we can do all night.”