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But I felt hopeful, for the first time in a long time. Maybe good things weren’t meant for me, but I’d fight fate and God to have them anyway.
There was eventually a lull in our conversation, and in the ensuing silence, Stephan’s expression changed. He straightened up, cleared his throat, and said, “I suppose you may already know this, but I still wanted to bring it up. Your papa is back in town.”
I took another small sip of moonshine, focusing on the heat as it went down. My stomach coiled around it, threatening to reject it. “Yeah, I know. He’s been up to the house. How did you find out?”
“Word gets around,” he said. “Old Reagan has been down at Billy’s Bar recently, and a friend of mine said he overheard some conversations.” He looked between Vincent and I, the seriousness of his expression giving me a cold feeling. “He’s stirring up trouble, boys. He seemed to be saying anything and everything he can to try to get people up in arms about you all.”
“Up in arms?” I frowned, leaning forward on my seat. “What do you mean?”
“Let’s just say that he’s trying to make friends with some folks that don’t have very positive feelings about you all. I’ve been told that Reagan has been talking to a group of young men over there, trying to convince them to sabotage you all.”
“What kind of sabotage?” Vincent said.
“Not a clue, but I’ll keep an ear out for any word. I know you boys like to handle things on your own, but don’t go thinking you don’t have people at your back. If Reagan is going up to the house and giving you trouble...”
“We have it under control,” I said quickly. The last thing I wanted to do was drag the Volkovs into this drama. They’d done more than enough for us already.
“I figured you’d say as much.” Stephan glanced over at Vincent. “I know you’ll look out for each other, and I have no doubt Miss Martin can handle herself —”
“She’s safe. We’re keeping her safe.” I drained the last of the moonshine, welcoming the fire it shot straight into my veins. Vincent nodded his head in agreement.
“We’ll be safe, Pops,” he said. “We’re used to this shit anyway.”
“I’m sure it’ll be a relief for you to finally make the big move,” Stephan said. He rose from his seat, carefully stubbing out what was left of the joint. “I was looking around the old place while I was up there checking on things. You’ve done real well with that house; should turn a nice profit for you. Have you all decided on where you’re looking to move?”
“Not yet,” I said. The topic had been coming up more often now that we were closer to being able to sell. We’d all been trying to keep an open mind when it came to location.
But lately, there had been certain areas that were calling to me.Onearea in particular.
“It’s a big decision to make,” Stephan said. “But there must be someplace you all are drawn to.”
“New York.”
I looked at Vincent in surprise, right as he looked at me. We’d responded in perfect unison, and Stephan chuckled. “New York, eh? I have a cousin who lives in Buffalo. He’s always seemed to like the area...” Then he was off on a slow-moving tangent about why his cousin had moved there in the first place. I barely heard a word of it.
When we’d finished our drinks and were headed back inside, Vincent hung back with me, and in a lowered voice, said, “Are you okay? Do you need a minute?”
“No, I’m good,” I said, releasing a deep breath. As Stephan opened the front door, I got a glimpse of Jessica seated on the floor as the twins braided her hair, with Lucas beside her playing with Kristy. Jason was on the couch, laughing with Vera as they finished off the wine. “That fucker doesn’t get to steal one more minute from me.”
“Good, man.” Vincent clapped my shoulder, a small smile coming over his face. “So...New York, huh?”
“We’re all thinking about it, aren’t we?” I said. The laughter and conversation coming from the house helped put me at ease; it grounded me. And the reality was that if we didn’t make a decision soon, we might lose Jess again. She might slip away, because she had a life to live and so did we — but I wanted her to stay in ours. “We’ll need to have that conversation, Vince. We’re going to have to choose.”
“Fate gave us another chance,” Vincent said, casting his eyes skyward as if this had been divinely planned. “I’ll be damned if I let that chance slip away this time.”
***
Darkness had fallenby the time we left the Volkov family’s house. Lucas and I took the dogs in the Bronco, while Jason and Vincent drove Jess home in the WRX. Parting from her, after kissing her good night, was even harder than I had expected. I loathed the thought of not having her in my bed every night any more.
After Stephan’s warning, my feelings weren’t only rooted in longing. How was I supposed to know she was safe if one of us weren’t with her?
Lucas noticed that my mood had plummeted.
“Sucks sending her home, doesn’t it?” he said, and I nodded. “Why don’t we just have her stay the night? She could bring her laptop over. She could work here in the morning, there’s plenty of places in the house where she could get some privacy.”
I’d been asking myself the same question. “Her mom gets on her case enough as it is,” I said. “How is she supposed to explain where she’s staying all the time?” She already had to lie about who she spent the weekend with. As much as I wanted to keep her by my side, I didn’t want to cause her more trouble either.
“Well that’s fucking stupid,” Lucas muttered, folding his arms. “I’m going to have to have a talk with her mama before this shit gets out of hand.”
