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“Your brother’s smart, Sadie. He just needs a little direction sometimes.”
“Don’t we all,” I agreed, putting some more pasta on Cooper’s plate. “So what kinds of things do you think need to be done for me?”
“A better work-life balance, for one,” he said immediately.
“That’s rich coming from a guy who worked for four years straight without coming up for air or reaching out to the people who loved him,” I remarked. “You should take your own advice.”
“More help with things,” Mikhail continued, as if I hadn’t interrupted him. “More time to yourself. Adult time, I mean.”
“Maybe in some other universe,” I said. “I have no idea what you’re planning on doing to achieve any of that.”
“I’ve already helped with the work-life balance,” he said. “You were here at six, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” I said, dragging the syllable out and hating to admit it. He was insufferable when he was busy proving himself right.
“And did Tides burn down? Certainly not.” He grinned at me. “Tell me I’m right.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re right. But you’re crazy about the rest of the stuff. Alone time just isn’t in the cards for me. Not for at least, oh, fifteen more years or so.”
“I think you’ll find your time freeing up more and more the older they get,” Mikhail observed. “Besides, you have me now. I love hanging out with munchkins.”
“What’s a munchkin, Mush?” Fern asked, her mouth full of slider.
“Chew and swallow, please,” I reminded her. The last thing I needed was to be giving the Heimlich for children. It would really put a damper on dinner.
“I see that we’re reaching the entertainment portion of the evening,” Mikhail said, locating the only bag that hadn’t been searched through.
“My mom did mention something about that,” I said, genuinely curious about what he was going to come up with.
“Aha!” Mikhail exclaimed, producing a DVD. “Movie night with The Wizard of Oz.”
“Wizards!” Tristan shouted. “Cool!”
“They haven’t seen this one?” Mikhail asked me, his eyebrows raised. “Sadie, it’s a classic. These children are deprived.”
“These children might be a little young for that movie,” I said, thinking about how horrified I’d been at the flying monkeys.
“I’m not too young,” Fern protested. “I want to see the wizard!”
We positioned the three of them in front of the television in the living room. While Mikhail got the movie rolling, I darted back to put away the uneaten food and clean up from dinner.
“Where’s the color in this movie?” I heard Tristan demand. “This is boring!”
“You’ll have to wait for it,” Mikhail said encouragingly. “It’s a surprise — you’ll like it.”
“Everybody in this movie talks funny too,” Fern said. “But not funny like you, Mush. A different funny. Why?”
“Because this movie was made a long time ago,” Mikhail replied patiently, not bothering to correct Fern on the name she had apparently decided to crown him with. “People talked differently back then.”
“Where’s the wizard?” Cooper asked, just as excited as his siblings.
“You’ll have to wait and find out — just like Dorothy,” Mikhail said.
The moment the strains of “Over the Rainbow” began, the questions stopped. I sneaked back into the living room to see the kids completely absorbed in the song, draped haphazardly over Mikhail. He was the only one who noticed my entrance, and he winked at me.
I doubted there had ever been a moment in my life when I’d felt more conflicted.
Seeing Mikhail being awesome with my kids was … well, it was a hell of a turn-on. I couldn’t imagine that his travels put him around children very often, but he was great with the triplets.
