“I should go to bed before I fall asleep on the phone.” I smile faintly, eyes already heavy. “Thank you.”
“For what?” he murmurs.
I close my eyes. “For being here.”
“Sleep, Kasia.” He says my name in that soft way that makes my stomach drop and I just nod in the dark. I keep the phone against my ear until I drift, dreaming to the sound of him breathing.
The pounding wakes me before the sun does, like a hammer, loud and unrelenting. I drag myself out of bed, hair sticking in every direction, stumbling down the hall, t-shirt wrinkled, footing clumsy.
“Alright already!” I call out to whoever it is.
When I swing the door open, Piotr’s standing there with Kacper in one arm, red-faced, wailing like a siren.
“Siostra,” he says, voice exasperated but amused at my disheveled state. “I have a ruined man at my house. Heartbroken. Whatthe hellhappened last night?”
I cross my arms, groggy and unimpressed. “Ask him.”
“I did,” he says, walking straight in. “He’s mumbling bullshit, throwing himself under a car, pretending to help fix it. Zosia’s running around blowing bubbles, and he won’t say anything other than you finished with him. Aga said I had to bring Kacper with me to keep you honest, that you can’t look into these eyes and lie.”
He holds the baby up like a chubby little truth detector. I can’t help but smile. Kacper gurgles, drool on his chin, eyes wide and innocent.
I sigh. “Fine. He basically said if I go to Miami, we’re over. That he ‘can’t accept it as a man from his woman,’ or some dumb macho nonsense like that. That he'd have to 'consider it'. So I said don't bother and chose for him.”
Piotr sighs and sits down, rocking Kacper, who immediately lets out a scream that could shatter glass.
“Shh,little man. Stop. We have things to discuss.”
That somehow calms him, which makes both of us laugh.
“And?” Piotr prompts.
I feign ignorance. “And what?”
He just levels a look at me, big-brother mode, full power.
I groan. “He asked if I’mattractedto Rafe.”
Piotr frowns. “Who?”
“Obelus,” I correct quickly, throat tight. “Which, of course I saidyes. I have been since I was a teenager.”
“There it is,” he mutters, throwing up a hand. “That’s it. Kasia, come on. What man would let that slide? Imagine he said he was spending a weekend with Lena. You’d be fine with it?”
That makes me glare. I drop onto the couch beside him with a huff.
“No, because hefuckedher when she came back. Did he tell you that? Your saintly single dad of the year, using you as an excuse to come to our family dinner andbeg forgivenessfrom your sister?”
Piotr’s mouth falls open. “No! That fucking idiot.” He groans, tipping his head back, careful to keep Kacper balanced. The baby giggles, thinking it’s a game.
He looks down at Kacper before groaning toward the ceiling, muttering a string of Polish curses that would make a priest blush. “He really did?”
I nod.
“Always thinking with his hard dick instead of his soft brain,” he says, rocking the baby again.
That breaks us both. We’re laughing before we can stop ourselves. Kacper giggles too, like he’s in on the joke.
“I told him he had no right to be jealous when he couldn’t even control himself aroundoneex. I’m not going tosleepwith Obelus. I’m going because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A dream since I was a teenager. You know that better than anyone.”
