Chapter 16 #2
"We should probably focus on the 'making a baby' part before the naming part." Sadie laughed.
"We should get right on that," Roman said, his voice dropping to a register that made several family members groan.
"Nope," Jase stepped in front of the door. "You do not get to leave dinner early. Because if anyone gets to leave, I'm leaving."
"He's not leaving," Heather added.
"Which means no one leaves." Jase pointed two fingers at his eyes and then back at Roman.
Zach leaned toward Piper. "The only official way to get out of a family gathering is to tie Jase to an appliance. But that has yet to happen."
As Heather whisked Nadia away for cleanup, Anna moved to give Piper a big hug. "I was worried you might decide not to come tonight."
"And miss the chance to see the inner workings of the Dvornakovs? Not a chance," Piper said smoothly.
Babushka burst from the kitchen like she was making an entrance on a Broadway stage, arms spread wide. "You brought Piper to dinner. Finally. Ve have been vaiting for you to find someone nice. Ve didn't think this day vould come."
Zach winced and pinched at the bridge of his nose. "Love you, too."
Babushka pulled Piper into a bone-crushing hug while she continued, "Sometimes he says, 'oh!
Babushka! I am seeing a new voman, and then she never comes to dinner.
Ve start to vonder if he even tells the truth or if he prefers to die alone vith no vife or children to love him.
Only undervear. But undervear do not keep you varm and give you love. "
"Fuck," Zach muttered, heat climbing his neck.
"Ve don't say that vord," Babushka tsked.
"She keeps saying that, but we keep saying it anyway." Jase shrugged.
Piper emerged from the hug looking slightly dazed. "Thank you for having me."
"Come," Babushka insisted, taking Piper by the arm. "Food is ready. Then ve talk vedding. And maybe other things." She winked at Zach with all the subtlety of a freight train. "Do you like children? They are a blessing, yes?"
Dinner was a blur of dishes being passed, conversations overlapping, and Piper somehow managing to field questions from all directions.
Jase was asking her about Montgomery Events. "You do funerals, too? That's depressing."
"Actually, memorial services can be incredibly meaningful," Piper replied. "It's about creating space for both grief and celebration. But, no, I don't plan the actual funerals, usually."
"She landed a huge account with the funeral directors' association," Zach added, pride slipping into his voice before he could stop it.
"Ve are very happy. Except she has to vork vith Morty, who deserves to regrow his bunions." Babushka said, haughtily.
"That man you gave money to?" Dad asked, frowning. "I do not like that man."
Well, this was not looking to end well.
"Pfft. He paid me back," Babushka said. "That is not vhy he deserves the gout."
Diana leaned forward, ignoring Babushka to focus only on Piper. "How's the wedding coming?"
"Really excellent," Piper said. "And once the engagement is announced in a few days and everything goes public? It'll all really start falling into place, I think."
Jase smirked. "Never mind the wedding. Mom wants to know how long you and Zach are going to keep pretending you're just colleagues?"
Zach choked on his water. "We weren't pretending—"
"We're colleagues," Piper said smoothly. "With mutual goals."
"'Mutual goals," Jase repeated, wiggling his eyebrows. "Is that what they're calling it these days?"
"Stop terrorizing them," Anna said, but she was grinning, too.
Zach looked desperately for a distraction. "Anna, you look substantially less pukey lately."
Thankfully, the conversation shifted to Anna's morning sickness, which meant babies and more Dvornakovs, which meant Zach got a moment to breathe. He snuck a glance at Piper, who was nodding along to whatever his father was saying about the stock market.
How was she doing this?
He'd expected her to be overwhelmed, maybe even want to check out. Instead, she was not just surviving but somehow charming everyone. Like right then. She'd distracted Dad from all things Babushka's ex-boyfriend. That was not an easy task, at all.
By the time they moved to dessert, Piper had the entire room engaged in a discussion about wedding traditions that had Babushka giddy with excitement.
Zach's phone buzzed in his pocket. He ignored it at first—too caught up in watching Piper somehow orchestrate his entire family like she was born to it. But when the screen lit up again, he finally slipped it out, half-expecting another nudge from Noah.
Tess: You got the green light. Let's talk fittings with Drake and the players. Details in your inbox now.
He stared at the screen.
He got the deal.
They got the deal.
That goal. The one he'd been chasing since he started the company. It was happening. His brand. The Stallions. A major marketing play.
Tess: NDA in place. Not a whisper to anyone outside Wild Sacks until I talk to agents and arrange schedules. Then we loop everyone in.
He glanced across the table at Piper as she talked with Babushka, using her hands to explain something, her face totally animated with excitement.
The win landed with a thud in his gut. He'd just been handed everything he wanted and the one person he wanted to tell was sitting three feet away, completely off-limits.
His phone buzzed again.
Noah: Updates from Tess? I'm dying here.
Zach: Just heard. It's yes. NDA till briefing.
Noah: THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY?
Zach: PARTY EMOJI LEVEL EXCITEMENT UP IN HERE.
Noah: Meet after your date.. THIS IS HUGE.
"Zach?" Piper asked. "Everything okay?"
He thumbed the screen dark, every instinct shouting to tell her.
"Yeah," he said, and the word felt like a pebble in his shoe. "Just Noah. A work thing."
"You know, Piper, if the underwear plan doesn't work out, Zach still has his job waiting for him with the family company," Dad assured, beaming. "He's got a good future."
Thing was, Dad meant that as a compliment. But whenever he brought up that Zach still had a job waiting for him as a back-up plan? He hated how small he felt.
Piper studied him from across the table, her expression level and unreadable in the low light.
He went for the joke, the half-truth. "Don't worry, Dad. We all know that men in underwear fix everything."
"You look like you either won the lottery or ate something questionable," Roman said, laughing.
"He always looks like that," Jase added.
Zach laughed, then ribbed, "Better than looking like you."
The rest of the family went back to the conversation, but Piper studied him for a second longer. Tilting her head in question.
Dammit, he didn't understand how he was feeling.
Why? Did he want to tell her because she was a convenient audience for monumental news?
No. It was more than that.
He wanted to see that light in her eyes. The one that shone with genuine excitement and a flicker of pride for him.
He wanted to hear her say, "Zach, that's incredible," in that earnest way she had of making a person believe every single word. The Stallions.
It was the biggest deal of his career, a win that should have him vibrating out of his skin.
But keeping it locked inside, keeping it from her… it was like uncorking flat champagne. It tasted fine and it got the job done, but it wasn't the same.