Chapter 5
Damien
“I’m so sorry if she kept you guys up last night.”
I look over at Talia’s worried face and lie my ass off. “Not at all. I was so tired, I fell right to sleep and didn’t wake up until this morning.”
“Same here,” Ev says and then shoots me a look that makes it obvious he was woken up as many times as I was. Lyra may be a smiling cutie right now, but that girl’s got some lungs and she’s not afraid to use them.
In complete contrast to the demon she becomes when the sun sets, she gives a big angelic smile when Max walks into the kitchen. He laughs and kisses Talia before picking Lyra up. He cups her head and laughs when she lets out a long string of baby talk with a da-da thrown in.
“You happy now?” he asks her with a big smile. “I bet you’ll take a nice long nap while the rest of us are walking around exhausted.” He looks over at us and shrugs. “Teething pains. Sorry, guys, not much we can do about it. I’d recommend headphones with white noise.”
When I nod in agreement, Talia points the spatula she’s using at me. “Hey, you both said you didn’t hear anything.”
Ev tries to hide his laugh while I become very focused on buttering the waffles on my plate. “These are really good,” I tell her. When she still looks worried about our lack of sleep, I add, “Honestly, Talia, it’s not a big deal. Ev and I slept just fine. We’re both used to being around babies.”
“Veya has a set of lungs on her, too,” Ev says with a grin.
I can’t resist bragging about my niece, so I say, “Mira’s quiet as a mouse. Sleeps all through the night.”
They laugh while Max says, “Well maybe the next time we’re there she can teach our daughter how to do that.”
“That’d be nice,” Talia says. She scoops out the last of the pancakes and gives Lyra a smile. “I think she just really likes to be held. I think all that crying is just an excuse to have one of us rock her all night long.”
“I guess we could try letting her cry it out,” Max says, but it’s obvious he hates the very idea of it.
When he looks at her and she gives a big belly laugh while throwing in another da-da, he quickly says, “On the other hand, she’ll be all grown up before we know it.
Soon she’ll be too big to carry around and she’ll be begging for time alone. ”
The mood quickly changes, and I swear I can feel my cousin calculating how quickly they can reasonably have another baby so there’s always one small enough to hold. When he turns his eyes to Talia, she laughs and shakes her head.
“I know that look. At least let me finish nursing one baby before we start on another.”
He grins and gives her a wink. “Sounds good to me, svetik moy.”
With that dilemma solved, we finish eating and right as Ev and I start gathering up the dirty dishes, insisting that we clean since she cooked, we hear the unmistakable sound of a couple of motorcycles drawing closer.
We’re still loading up the dishwasher when Max opens the front door and waits for Talia’s brothers to step inside.
“Hey,” Dmitri says when he sees Ev and me.
“Hey, Dima,” Ev says.
I see Bran step in behind him, so I sign it instead.
Bran grins at us and walks over, giving Talia a hug on the way.
They both stop to give Lyra the attention she’s so clearly used to.
She doesn’t seem to care or notice that only one uncle talks to her.
She’ll eventually catch onto Bran being deaf, but I know she won’t care when she does.
He’ll just be the uncle she communicates with differently.
Max and Talia plan on teaching her sign from the get-go.
They’re already making a point of doing simple signs for basic things, even though she’s far too young to be able to mimic them yet.
Ev and I finish cleaning up, and when Bran motions for me to follow him, I nod and let him lead the way. Once we’re out front, he points to the two bikes.
For you and Ev to borrow while you’re here, he signs.
I eye the black bikes, and he must see the relief on my face at having something I can use because he nudges my shoulder. You’re not a prisoner.
I know, I sign back. We can leave the property if a Medvedev is with us.
His smile grows at that. Dad’s rules?
One of many, yes.
Even though I’ve gotten pretty good with sign, I still have to focus really hard with long sentences, and it’s not unusual for me to have to stop him every now and then and ask him what something means.
One of the hardest habits to break is staring at the hands.
I want to watch to see what’s being signed, but ASL relies heavily on eye contact.
While he signs to tell me that after supper Ev and I can grab a couple of dirt bikes, my focus turns to his hands.
When he snaps his fingers and points to his eyes, I grimace and sign, Sorry.
The corner of his mouth lifts to let me know he’s not irritated.
We’ve done this dance before, and I know it won’t be the last time he has to redirect me.
Bran is the only person who knows about my dyslexia because I’d had no choice but to tell him.
When he first started teaching me, his go-to was to write everything down that he was trying to say.
It’s the quickest way to clear up confusion.
Unless of course you have trouble reading. Then it’s a fucking nightmare.
I had to send him a voice text that was then transcribed so he could read it. I’ll never forget the way he’d just shrugged and sent me a text that I then had to listen to.
It had been a simple, “Then we’ll just do it like this. No big deal, Damien.”
I knew I liked the guy before that moment, but that response solidified our friendship. I asked him not to say anything, and I know he hasn’t. Bran understands what it’s like to feel different, and he’s the kind of guy who never goes back on his word.
At first glance with his light brown hair and hazel eyes, Bran looks like a regular guy, the kind of person you instantly want to trust, but that’s only if you give him a quick look.
If you watch him long enough, you quickly see that there’s an intensity to him that most people don’t possess.
Beneath his pretty boy looks, the guy’s a devil, just like the rest of his family.
He’s never once let being deaf hold him back, and instead of using it as a very legitimate excuse to take a backseat in the family business, he decided he’d rather hone his skills as a sharpshooter and be the Bratva’s sniper instead.
Despite his natural instinct to kill, he’s loyal to his core and incredibly protective of his family.
Both traits that I can respect and understand.
I like the guy, have since the first time I met him, and when he slowly repeats the long sentence he’d just been telling me, I make sure to keep my eyes on his, and this time I notice the slight raise of his brows to let me know it’s a question.
Bran is subtle by nature, preferring to stay on the outside instead of needing to be the center of attention, and his signing is no different.
His movements are controlled and deliberate, his expressions restrained but exact, nothing wasted.
When I sign that we’d love to get the dirt bikes later, he grabs my hand and fixes the positions of my fingers so it’s correct.
Satisfied, he nods and lets go. When I repeat the sign to make sure I’ve got it, he signs, Better and then looks over my shoulder when movement catches his eye, right before I hear the door open behind me.
Ev joins us, and I hurry up and fill him in on what Bran’s just told me. Ev signs a quick thanks and then scrubs a hand over his face, clearly still trying to wake up.
Bran grins and makes an L-shape with his right hand as he taps his cheek, the name sign he always uses for Lyra before signing, She scream all night?
Yes, Ev signs. I’m so tired.
Bran huffs out a soft laugh and mimics putting on headphones. Ev nods in agreement before making the sign for coffee and heading back inside to refill his mug. When he opens the door, Wallace comes running out with all the energy and exuberance that my cousin and I are lacking this morning.
His mismatched eyes dart between Bran and me before he settles on the guy who he knows always throws the ball for him.
Sitting at Bran’s feet, he looks up at him while his tail goes a mile a minute behind him.
Talia’s border collie is the smartest dog I’ve ever met, and when Bran makes the sign for ball, Wallace gives a happy bark and runs off to grab his favorite one.
In less than a minute, he’s racing back with an orange tennis ball in his mouth.
Before Bran walks off with a very excited Wallace at his feet, he signs that he’ll see me later. I wave a quick bye before heading back inside because Ev isn’t the only one who needs more caffeine.
The others are talking about the supper tonight while I listen and slowly work my way through another mug of hazelnut coffee.
I keep waiting for someone to drop Sitka’s name, but she isn’t mentioned so I’m left just as curious as ever.
I’ve been forced to learn about her in pieces, little snippets of info that her family has said and the small bit of knowledge I’ve been able to gather when I’m lucky enough to be around her.
It doesn’t add up to much, and I’m curious. Way more curious than I should be.
Dima’s voice pulls me from my thoughts. “Bran and I have some shit to do, but we’ll see you both later, right?”
“Yeah,” I tell him. “Ev and I will be there.”
Dima grins. “Good. We need to make plans to go surfing one morning.”
His smile only grows bigger when he hears Ev’s pained groan.
“You’ll be wearing a wetsuit,” Dima says to make him feel better.
“Something tells me that’s not going to make a damn bit of difference,” Ev says.
The wicked laugh Dima gives as he walks away is confirmation that it will in fact not make a damn bit of difference.
Once he’s gone, Ev looks over at me. “What the hell happened to solidarity?”