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Dima is standing out front with Semyon as we pull up, anxiously plucking at his nails. I park and walk around to pick Adam up. He doesn’t so much as stir, apart from a little sigh now and again.
“Hiya, Taylor,” Dima says, walking forward to assist Taylor in stepping down from the car. “You look good.”
She ignores his outstretched hand. “Hi, Dima. Thanks. You look the same.”
I snort without turning around to intervene in their conversation.
“The house looks the same, too,” Taylor adds. “Weird. A few things stay the same. Everything else changes.”
“I’d say so.” Dima inclines his head toward the sleeping Adam. “That your boy?”
“Yeah,” Taylor says softly. She reaches over to stroke hair from his forehead. “This is my boy.”
Dima opens his mouth to say something else, but then Archie emerges from the car, so he stops mid-sentence and his face flushes. “Well, well. Look what the cat dragged in. You are one lucky son of a bitch, Archie. If it were me, you would’ve been cold in the dirt already.”
“He’s off-limits,” Taylor asserts, putting herself in Dima’s line of sight. “Ilarion promised me that himself.”
Dima raises his brows infinitesimally, but his gaze veers to me. “Well, then. I guess all is forgotten and forgiven.” His sarcasm is impossible to miss.
“Come on,” I growl. “It’s late and I want to get Adam into bed.” I glance toward Archie. “Semyon will take you to your room. It’s been prepared especially for you.”
I see Taylor freeze like a fawn in the headlights. She looks up at me and I stare impassively down at her. Then she sighs and her shoulders slump. “Goodnight, Dad. See you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight, Little Bird.” Archie turns toward me and gazes longingly at Adam. He settles for running his hand down the boy’s back. Then he gives us a parting nod and follows the housekeeper down the hall.
Dima fidgets where he stands. “Wait for me in the den,” I tell him.
“Got it,” Dima mutters. He looks over at Taylor. “It’s good to see you again, Tay. We were beginning to lose hope.”
“How’s Mila?” she asks, as though she can’t wait for the morning to find out.
“You know her. Stoic as ever. Pissed at you, though.” Then, without further explanation, Dima is gone, disappearing down the corridor.
Taylor doesn’t get it yet. She doesn’t know the full extent of what Mila has been through, of how precious a friend is to her. Taylor spit on that friendship. It’s not the kind of thing Mila is likely to forget.
“Come on,” I say, leading her upstairs to another of the guest wings. “Adam’s room will be ready soon. Until then, he’ll bunk with you.”
She doesn’t say anything. Not even after I’ve walked them into their room and set Adam down on the bed.
“The bathroom is fully stocked,” I say, turning to her. “But if you need anything, just…”
I trail off when I realize she’s not actually listening. She’s standing by the bay windows, gazing down at the moonlit lawn. “It’s weird,” she whispers so softly that I nearly miss the words. “It’s so weird to be back here.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“This is the house where my mother died. That doesn’t feel like the kind of thing you just ‘get used to.’”
“Taylor…” I reach out and gently touch her arm.
She flinches back as though I’ve burned her. “I…I’m sorry,” she says, her chest rising and falling hard. “I just didn’t expect this to be so overwhelming.”
This time, I don’t give her the chance to flinch away from me. I gather her into my arms and hold her tight. Tight enough that her breaths even out and her shoulders go limp against my chest.
“Ilarion, you need to let me go.” But she isn’t anywhere close to convincing, and she makes no attempt to push me away. Her body language is saying the opposite. It’s calling to me, begging me to hold her harder, telling me toneverlet go.
Her tears soak into my shirt, and still, I hold her. I breathe in her scent, reeling when I realize that it’s changed. Now, she smells like baby powder and honey.
“I hate this,” she whispers when she finally pushes her face off my chest. “That I still need you.” She blinks and a fat tear slips down her cheek. “Tell me I had no choice. Tell me you made me. Tell me I had to come back.”
