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As I studied him, gnawing on his fat little fist and blinking up at me, he didn’t make any effort to escape, and I relaxed. Evelina regaled me with all his latest milestones. Kristina filled me in on the auditions she’d been to lately, but I was mesmerized by my nephew. He was so tiny and funny looking, yet perfect in every way. When he smiled up at me, my heart was lost.
Then his face turned beet red, and there was a massive rumble from his diaper area. We all howled with laughter as if he’d just told us a hilarious joke. Evelina swiftly took him, and the three of us acted like the rank smell was akin to solving the world's energy crisis. Once he was changed, I held out my hands, wanting to hold him again.
Was this baby some kind of sorcerer?
While I loved my cousins’ kids and had a lot of fun getting them to laugh when I was visiting, this was different somehow.
“I think I want one of these for myself,” I joked. Or maybe I was serious.
I was the last one in our family to still be single and childless.
Even though I told myself I was so isolated up here in New York because I was busy with the new territory, sometimes I didn’t want to go down to Miami because I felt a bit… left out. No one did it on purpose, but they were all so consumed with their children, taking turns with sleepovers and playdates, that a single guy just got in the way. Or, at least, I felt like I was in the way.
I made a silly face to get Maks to smile. Holding him was probably ramping up the feeling that something in my life was missing, but it wasn’t the first time I’d had it.
“I could set you up with some of my friends,” Kristina said, much too eagerly.
I didn’t want to be rude, but I was certain all her friends were also aspiring actresses. “No, thanks,” I said. “No time.”
“You should let her,” Evelina urged. “You moan about being lonely all the time. Although I don’t know how since you’re never alone.”
That’s what I got for confiding in my twin. Yes, I went out sometimes to clear my head of coding cobwebs, not to mention we own three nightclubs I need to keep tabs on. And yes, women expressed interest in me. Whatever I had with those women didn’t do anything to allay the bouts of loneliness I supposedly moaned to Evelina about. I scowled at her.
“I don’t have time for a real relationship,” I said, my mood souring. Even the baby could tell, squirming and crabbing in my arms. I bounced him gently to get him to settle. “Or an online one,” I admitted. “Even Natalia dumped me. She’s already engaged to someone else.”
“Natalia Obolensky? From back home? You guys were a thing?” Kristina leaned forward, eager for some hot gossip.
Evelina pulled a face. “If you can call booty calls and degenerate texting a thing,” she said, hovering a bright plastic ring over Maks. He grabbed it in his fat little hand, smiling as if he’d won a MacArthur Genius grant, and the three of us adults looked as proud as if he had. “Did you really think she was the one?” she asked.
I shrugged. “She might have been. In a few… ten years or so.”
“Well, women don’t like being put on the back burner,” Kristina said with a sniff as if she knew something about it. All she had to do was point me in the right direction, and I’d make whoever hurt her pay. She seemed to sense it and smiled at me gratefully.
“I just don’t have it in me to start something new, especially after I wasted so much time on the long-distance thing with Natalia. Or, rather, she thinks she wasted her time on me since she’s already engaged to someone else.”
“Natalia’s an idiot,” Evelina said loyally.
“And men mature more slowly than women, isn’t that some kind of scientific fact?” I said, getting worked up even though she defended me. It was true I’d never fallen in love with Natalia, but my pride was stung that she could so easily cut me off when I’d been willing to at least try. “It’ll be a while before I’m ready to settle down.” I gave Evelina a pointed look. “You, of all people, can’t argue with that since your husband is twenty years older.” She had nothing to say to that, and I smirked down at Maks, my voice rising. “I could be ready for a little bitty baby, though.” To let them and myself realize how serious I was becoming about it, I put my voice back to normal. “I really think I could make time to be a dad.”
The girls burst out laughing. “You’re just being impetuous because Maks is so amazing. You don’t even have a pet,” Evelina said.
Before I could answer, we heard the front door lock turning, and Evelina and Kristina stiffened, ready to flee or fight. Evelina reached for Maks with a wild look in her eyes, but I leaned out of her reach, not willing to give up the little bundle of serotonin.
“It’s just my housekeeper,” I said. “She comes every day, and sometimes I’m not here, so she has a key.”
They relaxed slowly, and I shook my head at Kristina. “Hard to get it out of your system, isn’t it?”
She grimaced as she sank back onto the floor. Even though she’d been out of the life since we all graduated college three years before, it was as deeply ingrained in her to expect trouble as it was for Evelina and me.
A moment later, my pretty housekeeper peeped her head around the doorway to say hello, her bright smile setting off a tiny earthquake inside me. Her glossy black hair was in the same long braid down her back as usual, and she wore the same simple jeans and t-shirt she always did. Still, her beauty always caught me off guard, especially when she flashed her trillion-watt smile.
“Hello, Sunshine,” I said, holding up Maks like he wasThe Lion Kingcub. “Look at my brilliant nephew.”
It shouldn’t have been possible, but she lit up even more at the sight of him. “Oh, he’s gorgeous, Mr. Morozov.” She nodded as a greeting to my sister and Kristina, then backed out of the doorway. “I’ll just get to work. Let me know if you need anything.”
I couldn’t get my face in order when I turned back to Evelina. She had an annoying look of triumph on her face. Of course, I couldn’t hide my attraction to my personal Sunshine from my twin, but I wouldn’t let her bully me into admitting it.
Even if it reached a fever pitch, there was nothing I could do about it since she worked for me and did an excellent job. I enjoyed our brief conversations together. She was funny and intelligent. I might have considered a brief fling when she started several months ago, but then I got to know her enough to realize she wasn’t the one-night-stand type. I relied on her to keep this huge mausoleum liveable and homey, and I actually liked her. I wouldn’t risk putting her in danger by dragging her into our life.
