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“It’s kind of romantic,” she said, scrawling her name on a stack of sticky notes.
“You need to get out more,” I joked.
“Then take me out,” she countered immediately.
Things threatened to get tense when I didn’t know how to answer. Would I have liked to take her out to a nice dinner? Of course. Could I? Maybe with her father or brother in tow, but the way she wanted? Probably not. Definitely not. I changed the subject to less volatile things, and as she worked, we kept up a light banter, and I helped out wherever I could.
Even though they were important parts of our lives, we carefully dodged any mention of either her father or my daughter. We’d landed on a delicate truce that couldn’t possibly last, but I wanted to try living in the moment. And it was a very nice moment indeed.
Until my phone rang. “It’s your father,” I said, not wanting to answer it.
“Don’t answer it,” she said, alarmed.
I laughed ruefully, accepting the call. I was aware of Evelina hanging on my every word and straining to hear what Oleg had to say on his end. I assured him everything was fine, and he apologized profusely for not getting on the plane to Miami yet.
“I had a flight planned, and someone must have gotten word I’d be out of town for a few days and tried to intercept a convoy of mine.”
“Vodka?” I asked.
“Of course, vodka,” he replied. “If they hadn’t screwed up the day I was supposed to leave, I’d be out close to a hundred grand right now.”
“Crack some heads?” I asked, wishing I hadn’t. My head would be next if he ever found out what I’d been up to while I was supposed to keep his daughter safe. It looked like Evelina could read my thoughts because she began shaking her head menacingly at me.
“Doesn’t matter now,” Oleg said, brushing off a violent incident. No one screwed Oleg Morozov over without severe repercussions. We were similar in that way, which was why I understood exactly what he’d do to me and why I deserved it. “I’ve got another flight planned for tomorrow. Sound good?”
I hesitated to answer right away. I was going to be sorry to see her go, and she was also distracting me by waving her hands wildly to be able to tell me something. I asked Oleg to hold on and muted the call, looking at her expectantly.
“Tell him not to come,” she said, her eyes wide as she pointed at her screens. She wanted to keep working. It had nothing to do with continuing to spend time with me. “Please, Mikhail,” she pleaded. She hurried around the desk and put her arms around me. “I don’t want to go home yet.”
I pulled back and studied her face. She shook her head, her own eyes steady on mine. She wasn’t manipulating me. I leaned down until our foreheads touched. What was I doing? Her father was holding on the phone for me!
“Damn it, Evelina,” I said, gently shoving her back to her chair.
She stood by it and stared at me as I picked up my phone again and unmuted Oleg. “It sounds like you’ve got a lot on your plate,” I said, scowling at her as she let out a relieved sigh. “Evelina’s perfectly fine here, so why not hold off for now.”
“That’d be great,” he said. “I know your place out there has better security than anything I’ve got. It’s a big weight off to know she’s so safe with you.”
“Yep,” I said.
“You’re a great friend, Mikhail. Let me talk to my baby girl, eh?”
I handed the phone to Evelina, who walked out into the hall to speak to him. She said she was mostly sunning by the pool and not causing any trouble. I could only shake my head at her when she returned. Before I could say a word or even decide what to say, she wrapped her arms around me and kissed me.
“Thank you,” she said, shoving away and dancing across the room to get back to work.
I sat with my head in my hands, wondering what I had just done. What the aftermath of all this would be when I stopped living in the moment with Evelina. Because I absolutely had to end things with her. If I was smart, I’d do it before I got in too deep. Which was going to be soon because I almost didn’t care what happened to me every time, I saw her smile. That was dangerous and foolish.
The best case scenario was that Oleg never found out, and I lived with the lie between us until I died a natural death many years from now. Worst case? He found out and beat me to a pulp. If I did survive his wrath, Kristina would never speak to me again, which would be worse than dying painfully. I took my head out of my hands and stared at her wistfully. She was already wholly engrossed in her work again.
Well, she didn’t have to worry about her father killing her.
She seemed to sense I was staring at her and looked up. Still tapping away, she smiled absently. “You can go; I’m just downloading more data. It’ll take a while.”
I shook my head, not about to go anywhere, but not for the reason she assumed, based on her sour look.
“I’m not going to cause any trouble by sending anything to anyone. And you know I’m not going to try to escape because I all but begged you to tell Papa not to come for me.”
“You did beg,” I reminded her, breaking out in a grin as she blushed. “You like begging me, don’t you?”
