Javi’s hand rests at my lower back as he steps beside me. He smiles down at me, and I feel my shoulders lower. They were practically brushing my earlobes.
“Enjoy your visit with your sister. I’ll hang out here. Just let me know whenever you’re ready to go.”
“You can’t just loiter in my entryway.” Maks practically huffs, but Laura shoots him a look that makes him shake his head.
Javi smiles at my sister. “Laura, it’s fine. I don’t want to impose, but we all know I won’t go anywhere, so I’ll remain unobtrusive over here until Maddy’s ready to leave.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You might be sitting alone, but you can at least go into the living room.”
Javi offers her a gracious thank you before Maks and Misha glare at him one last time, then disappear into the office Maks and Laura share. She and I head into the sunroom where the twins are playing.
“Auntie Madeline!”
Mila greets me and slams into my right leg while Konstantin wraps himself around my left. I squat down to hug them both. They were certainly a surprise to everyone so soon after my sister and brother-in-law married, but I can’t imagine Laura and Maks without their twins. The four of them are a package deal.
Laura speaks to them in Russian, and I’m certain she tells them to go to the playroom upstairs. I get a hug and a kiss from each of them before they run off together. Laura and I sit on the sofa, turned so we can look at each other. I’m waiting for her to unleash the tirade of questions I’m certain she came up with yesterday. It’ll feel like a cross examination since she’s still the best lawyer I know.
I’m utterly unprepared for her to burst into tears.
“Laura!”
I reach out and wrap my arms around her again while she shakes her head and swats at her tears.
“I don’t know where the hell that just came from. I should be comforting you, not the other way around. Maks wouldn’t tell me much yesterday. ‘It’s a developing situation.’” She uses air quotes around that last comment. “There have been threats to the family before, and you know we’re all very close. The women who’ve married into this family consider each other sisters, even when many of us are cousins-in-law. I’ve fearedfor them over the years, but there’s something vastly different—exponentially worse—when it’s your actual sister in danger, and there’s nothing you can do.”
I cock an eyebrow.
“Yes, I know.” She closes her eyes and shakes her head. “But you didn’t know what was happening in real time.”
“True, but finding out everything after the fact was its own kind of horrible.”
“I wish you’d told me about Drew, but I understand why you didn’t.”
“I look back at it now, and I know there were times when I could’ve spoken up in person, and reasonably, I understand how much stronger Maks’s family is than the O’Sheehans. But when you’re in the thick of it, it doesn’t feel that way.”
“Mads, you don’t have to justify anything to me. I understand. I won’t question your decision about being with him. I’ll do whatever you need from me, but I won’t shame you for it or doubt your decisions.”
“Thank you.”
She stares at me for a long moment. “You expected me to do that, didn’t you?”
I shrug. “You’re my big sister.”
“I am, but you’re also an adult. I know you weren’t thrilled about my getting together with Maks, but you supported me.”
“Because I’d never seen you happier than you were with Maks, and now with the twins as well. Though it’s not the same since I was miserable with Drew for so much of it.”
“But you hid it.”
“I did, and I will regret that for the rest of time.”
“It is what it is. It was what it was, Mads. It’s all right. The main thing is, you’re moving past it. With Javier.” Her smile is lukewarm at best, but she doesn’t disagree with me.
“Laura, you knew how I felt about him. You never spoke up. You allowed me to have that secret. My feelings for him never went away completely. It wasn’t exactly that they dwindled, either. They were just put on pause. Being with him feels as natural as breathing. That’s how you described Maks.”
“It’s obvious just watching both of you. When’s the wedding?” She grins at me the same way she did before she got me in trouble alongside her.
“We haven’t set a date. He hasn’t proposed or anything, but we’ve agreed our future is together.”
