5. Evgeny #2
When she pulls back, she looks up at me, doing her mom thing and looking me over so she can convince herself I’m taking care of myself and not losing weight or looking too tired.
I don’t pass the inspection. Her blue-green eyes are the same color as mine, and right now they’re looking worried when she says, “You’re not taking good enough care of yourself, Ev. ”
“I’m fine, Mom,” I try to tell her, but she just shakes her head. “You need more sleep and better food. Well, at least we can fix the food part for you today, but I want you to promise me that you’ll get more sleep.”
“I promise,” I tell her. “I’ll try to get more sleep.”
I can tell the answer doesn’t satisfy her, but my dad interrupts by giving me a hug and patting me on the back.
My dad was in a fire when he was younger.
His parents and little sister were killed, and if it weren’t for my Uncle Vitaly, my dad would’ve died too.
The scars on his body and the deep, raspy voice he was left with never bothered me as a kid.
I never even noticed it, and even now when I look at him, it’s the last thing I notice.
“Hey, Dad,” I tell him, returning the big smile he’s giving me.
As soon as he lets me go, he wraps an arm around my mom.
They’ve set the bar high as far as love goes.
Everyone in my family is happily married and faithful, but there’s something about my parents’ story that makes it impossible for me to see them like everyone else.
There’s so much pain in their past, but once they found each other again, they fought against it, determined to embrace the happiness instead of living in the shadows.
I know it wasn’t easy, and I know it comes back to haunt them both at times, but they still choose love, and whether they know it or not, they’ve made it impossible for me to just go out and have a fling, even if I could hide my tattoos.
It’s impossible to settle for a quick hook-up once you’ve been given a glimpse of what’s possible.
My Uncle Lev walks over, carrying Sofia, Nat and Dom’s youngest. She’s six, but it’s obvious she still likes being carried around by her grandpa.
“Good to see you, Ev,” he says, giving my shoulder a squeeze.
“You too, Uncle Lev. Hey, Sofia,” I say, laughing when she turns bashful and ducks her head. “I see you’re still in your shy phase.”
“Just like Nat used to be,” Lev says with a grin. “She’ll outgrow it. No one can be shy in this family for long.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” my Uncle Roman says, joining us.
We spend the next few minutes talking while my aunts try to round up the kids and get the food all set out.
I hear my Uncle Danil laugh when Jake and Seryozha, Sveta and Vitya’s twin boys, come running from the kitchen, each of them carrying a cookie they’d snagged from the counter.
When Jake drops one off for his grandpa before racing to one of the back rooms, my Uncle Vitaly yells a thank you before taking a big bite.
“I see you taught him well,” I say. “Not even I would be able to convince a jury that wasn’t planned.”
My Uncle Vitaly laughs and walks over. “We’ve been working on that move since he was four. He’s gotten really good at it.”
“Of course you taught your grandson how to steal cookies for you,” my dad mutters, shaking his head in mock disappointment.
“Hey, that’s the least of the crimes that kid’s going to commit,” Uncle Vitaly says with a laugh before finishing off the last bite of his stolen goods. He grins and holds his empty hands up to me. “See? No evidence. It’s hard to convict without evidence, right?”
“It is,” I agree. “I mean, it did happen in front of a roomful of witnesses, but other than that, it was the perfect crime.”
My uncle shrugs. “They’ll get better at it.”
“Do I even want to know what you’re talking about?
” Luka asks, walking over with Max. Max married into the Medvedev Bratva, so he works for them for half the year.
They’re halfway through their time here.
They’ll be heading back to Oregon in the fall.
Damien also married into their family, but he only works for us.
They do visit there a couple of times a month though, and Sitka’s parents are regular visitors here, too.
My cousins look at our Uncle Vitaly and Max says, “I’m guessing you’re at the center of this.”
Uncle Vitaly laughs. “I didn’t do shit. I just ate the evidence because I’m helpful like that.”
“Man,” Luka says with a laugh. “You’re going to have those boys knocking off candy stores instead of actually doing Bratva work.”
“I would never,” Uncle Vitaly says in his own defense. “They don’t need to,” he reminds him. “Don’t forget I made Get the Scoop into a chain. We can all get free desserts no matter what part of the state we’re in. I don’t need my grandkids to steal me sugar, asshole.”
Max laughs before giving me a hug and telling me he’s glad to see me. Luka’s right behind him. I ask about their kids, and they spend a few minutes updating me on how much they’ve all grown.
“Is Lyra still wowing everyone with her piano skills?” I ask.
Max can’t hide the proud grin that spreads across his face.
“She is, yeah. Talia and I have to force her to stop playing. We want her to be a kid and have fun, but she swears she loves every second of practice. Melody is growing way too fast and so far doesn’t seem interested in anything but the border collie pup we got her, and Felix has developed a real interest in banging a wooden spatula to anything he can find. ”
My cousin shakes his head and says, “Talia and I are thrilled he’s found something he loves, but we’re getting him a drum kit and a soundproofed room as soon as possible.”
“None of my kids seem musically inclined, which is probably a good thing since Lara and I both only know how to sing off key,” Luka says. “Roma’s still into Legos, Mira’s obsessed with My Little Pony and our cat, and Leo would play video games all day long if we let him.”
I smile at the images they’re putting in my head, wishing I could see my nieces and nephews more. When Yel says supper is ready, we all start to make our way into the kitchen. There’s way too many people to sit around one table, so we always just fix plates and find any spot we can to sit and eat.
Skylar, Niki and Sav’s five-year-old, runs past me, and I laugh when I see she’s carrying the toy laptop that I got her for Christmas when she was three. Averie, their oldest, is right behind her.
Niki notices and says, “Skylar takes that thing everywhere.”
“Just like her daddy,” I say. “She’ll be hacking into things before she even hits high school.”
Instead of looking appalled, Niki just gives a proud grin and nods his head in agreement. “Van and I can’t wait to see what she can do.”
I laugh and grab the plate my mom hands me. She raises a brow at me. “I want to see that plate filled up, and you need to eat all of it.”
It doesn’t matter that I’m twenty-eight.
My mom is never going to stop trying to take care of me.
I’d hate it if there was anything other than genuine concern behind it, but I know it’s just because she loves me, so I promise her I will and then while she’s still watching, I stab a big piece of grilled chicken and put it on my plate.
She smiles and pats my cheek. I catch a quick glimpse of the Phoenix tattoo that encircles her wrist, the one that covers the scar from when she’d nearly killed herself.
When I was an adult, she told me what really happened, that she’d been forced to get a tattoo when she’d been taken, proof that she was his property, and after my dad and uncles rescued her, she couldn’t tolerate the sight of it, so she’d tried to cut it off.
The Phoenix tattoo was her way of reminding herself that our darkest moments don’t have to define us. We can always rise again.
I fill my plate to overflowing and find a corner seat next to Val and Yel.
We all talk and eat, most of us getting up to get seconds before Uncle Vitaly brings out the ice cream cakes he’d had Get the Scoop make.
The kids get excited and jump up when they see it while the adults groan and pat their already full stomachs.
“I’ll make some coffee,” Yel says. “I need a break in between supper and dessert.”
“Me too,” I tell her. “I don’t know how Uncle Vitaly does it.”
When he walks out with a plate full of cake, I ask, “How?”
He just grins and pats his still-firm-despite-all-the-odds stomach.
“I’m just blessed, Ev. Plus, I’ve been training my whole life for this.
I started when I was a kid in Moscow with never enough food, and when we came to America, I think that’s when I truly perfected it.
It hasn’t been easy,” he says in a serious tone that does not even remotely fit the topic.
“But I persevered. A lesser man would’ve quit, but I just kept going. ”
“You’re an inspiration to us all,” Uncle Lev says, making everyone laugh.
“Don’t be jealous because the doctor said you need to watch your cholesterol, Lev. Just be happy for me,” Uncle Vitaly says, giving my uncle a smug grin before filling his mouth with a huge bite of cake.
“Ignore him,” Aunt Katya says. She looks at her husband and laughs. “I’ve been making him eat a salad with every meal, and I’ve banned cake in the house during the week.”
“I still think that’s the meanest thing you’ve ever done,” Uncle Vitaly tells her.
She looks over and winks at him. “Would you rather I ban other things?”
He gives her a pained look, but then his trademark smirk comes back and he laughs. “I’d love to see you try, ptichka.”
She laughs and kisses him when he leans closer.
“Get a room,” my dad yells with a laugh.
Being the oldest, Nico just groans at the thought of his aunt and uncle still having an active sex life and shakes his head, but I can see the smile he’s trying to hide.