Page 25 of Oakheart

Aleks swayed back toward me. The water rippling over his arms was transfixing. “I haven’t heard his voice since we found him.”

I blinked at him.

“Oh, I—” Was that why Aleks was upset? That made more sense than it having anything to do with me.

I couldn’t imagine how I’d feel, having a brother who wouldn’t talk to me but would speak to someone else. I didn’t understand that bond at all, really, the one that kept Pa and Uncle Tommy together even when they disagreed.

“He probably just got sick of listening to me ramble on,” I said.

Aleks arched a brow at me. We both knew I wasn’t a big talker either.

Truth was, those early days with Viktor had been quiet. I’d ask him for something or direct him when I needed to, but if Leo was busy elsewhere, the only sounds were the breeze in the trees, the birds overhead, and any tools we were using.

Eventually, I started talking to him, just about little things—a book Evie had snatched from the library on the way into town that she was telling me about, or how I needed to get Pa to give me a haircut. It was nothing more than a way to fill the silence.

But then he’d started talking back. Mostly, he told me the same sort of stuff, like what Evelyn had made for dinner at the big house and how Katya’s would have been better, or that he thought jeans didn’t have enough pockets to be useful. Once, he’d asked me about a joke Leo had told. The meaning had been lost on him.

(I thought it was pretty funny, as far as puns went. He’d asked Edgar’s son Jeffrey, “What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?” It’s nacho cheese. But having to explain it out step by step kind of drained the humor out of it.)

Looking back, I realized he had clammed up around Leo. It was easy to miss, because Leo talked all the time. At first, that constant need to fill the silence had put me on edge, but quickly enough, I realized Leo just wanted everyone to be comfortable. Now, listening to him go on was soothing.

I didn’t know why Viktor would talk to me and not to his brothers, but if I had to guess, there were things he wasn’t ready to explain or talk about, and they’d have questions I would never even think to ask.

After a few moments of staring at me incredulously, Aleks shook his head. “You make him comfortable. It is good. I’m glad.”

Still, he looked sad. Miserable, even.

Silence stretched out again. I didn’t know what to say, but I hated seeing him like this. He looked smaller than he used to, not like he’d lost weight but like he’d packed some of himself away.

At least, he was keeping himself away from me.

I knew I’d... noticed him, before, but I really hoped I hadn’t made him uncomfortable. Maybe that was why he was being so strange with me now.

It wasn’t like I meant to, and I hadn’t said anything. Iwouldn’tsay anything. I knew better than anyone that Aleks wasn’t for me.

But I still noticed the way the sunlight glinted off the golden freckles on the tops of his shoulders, and it made me understand why the great artists had put so much time and effort into their crafts, creating masterpieces that celebrated precisely this kind of beauty.

I forced myself to look away, but the sunlight glistening on the water’s surface wasn’t half so magnificent.

“I... wish you could come back and work on the house with us,” I admitted, unsure what else to say when the silence had gone on too long again. I just wanted him to know I missed him, or maybe that I’d noticed he wasn’t around. He didn’t need to fix it, but it mattered.

The water splashed gently as he turned toward me again. “You do?”

I met his eye and nodded. “Don’t get me wrong, Leo’s enthusiastic and Viktor’s so helpful, but I thought you and I... worked... well together.”

Aleks’s tongue flashed between his lips. “We did.”

The simplicity of that statement hit me like a bolt. It was so final. Of course it was. There was no reason for us to?—

He had more important things to think about than?—

I shook myself, blinking a little too fast, a lump lodged in my throat. “I should, ah, save Viktor from Evie before she tries to paint his fingernails again. Or, god”—I laughed, but it sounded hoarse and strange—“ropes him into a game of Monopoly.”

I wasn’t even sure our ancient set had all the pieces anymore.

I spun toward the shore, but Aleks’s voice brought me up short.

“Cash?”