While Dmitri Dragomirov had been born here, after his parents emigrated, my dad was all Russian. He didn’t understand the idea of drinking tea from a cup.
“So?” He asked, eyes on the tea.
“His name is Christopher. Christopher Markham. We met through a matchmaker’s service.”
“You went to a matchmaker? That was a wise choice.”
“What?” I came around the island to stand next to him. “Who are you, and where is my dad?”
He laughed. “My parents were married through a matchmaker. My mother tried to send me to one, but I’d met your mother already, and there was no sense in throwing away the money. But if I hadn’t, I would have gone along with my mother’s wishes. Matchmakers are often wise women.”
“This one is.” I nodded. “She picked the perfect guy for me.”
“Why do you think so?”
“He’s kind. He is smart. He owns his own business,” I added, knowing that would score points with my dad. “He is thoughtful and careful.”
“But didn’t he upset you?”
Oh, boy. My parents had been paying more attention than I realized. “He did. He didn’t mean to, and he came back and gave me a fantastic apology.”
“Being able to apologize well is a skill. But it is more important that you mean it. Did he mean it?”
“He’s spent the whole week showing me that he meant it.”
“Good.” Dad nodded, handing me a glass of tea. “How did you meet?”
“The matchmaker had us write letters.”
“Oh, that was what your mother meant by the research,” he said.
“She told you about that?”
“We tell each other everything in time. That is how it is with your spouse. You may not run home to share, but you will share it all.”
The thought of my parents sitting together gossiping pleased me. I couldn’t bask in that, however. There were matters at hand that needed attention. “Dad, you need to put a muzzle on Nicolai, Konstantin, and especially Aleksandr. Christopher has a stutter that comes out when he’s stressed, and I know he wouldn’t want to make a bad impression on everyone.”
“What do you mean?” My dad hadn’t expected that with the plea to sit on my zoo-like brothers. They were like hyenas when I brought a guy around.
And then people asked why I wasn’t married yet. Most of those asking had never had dinner with my family. Some had, which made the question even more insane. They should know.
“You know, when people stutter? He’s stuttered since he was a kid. He’s gotten the whole thing under control but I know he’s nervous about meeting you. Them being jerks would only make it worse.”
“Why is he nervous?”
I laughed, remembering what he’d said. “I asked him the same thing, and he told me I could be all casual about it because I wasn’t the one meeting the only girl in a family full of protective men.”
“This gives me a higher estimation of his intelligence, Nat.”
“Well thank God,” I muttered.
“It will be fine. I will speak to your brothers. At first, I wanted to yell at you, but your mother told me to see you, to see if you are happy. I see that you are. And that makes this Christopher take another step up in my estimation.”
This wasn’t going how I thought it would at all. I was so pleased and surprised that I felt a lump in my throat. “He does make me happy.”
Dad said, “Then this is good. Go and rest. You get to help Mom with dinner.”
I was so thrilled I didn’t complain. I’d planned on helping her anyway. I fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow and didn’t wake until Mom shook me awake.
“Come on, sweetie. We need to get dinner started.”
“What are we having again?” I asked sleepily.
“Sorrel soup and kurnik for the main meal, and then syrniki for dessert.”
Kurnik was basically a two-story pirog, and my mom liked to stuff it with chicken, rice, and sour cream. Syrniki were Russian cheese pancakes that were usually a breakfast food, but we all loved them so much, my mom put them out for dessert with all kinds of toppings and fruit. “Going all old country, huh?”
“Your father likes these dishes. So do I. I’ve done most of the prep work, so get ready and come down and help me.”
I grabbed my phone. The meal would take another hour, an hour and thirty minutes. I texted Christopher. Be here at five.
Everything okay? I was starting to wonder since I didn’t hear from you.
Everything is great. Try not to worry. It’s going to be good tonight. I fell asleep. Someone wore me out.
He sent a winky face emoji. Happy to oblige. Can I bring anything?
Smart guy. A bottle of wine and flowers. You’ll be golden.
He sent a kissy face.
OK I have to go. Cooking.
What’s for dinner?
Hope you like Russian.
I like one of them a LOT.
I laughed and headed for the shower. Ninety minutes later, I was dressed and dinner was almost ready.
The doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it!” All three of my brothers jumped up as they shouted.
“Sit down,” Dad said. “I answer the door in my own house.”
I stuck my tongue out at all three brothers and went back into the kitchen. I could hear Christopher talking with my dad, and then he was there, standing in my house.
“Hi,” Christopher said, coming over to me and kissing me on the cheek. “It smells delicious in here. Mrs. Dragomirov, these are for you.” He handed the bouquet that he’d been cradling in his arm to Mom. Then he handed a bottle of wine to my father.
“I don’t know this one,” Dad said, looking at the label.
“Nat told me that we were having Russian for dinner, so I asked at the wine shop what would go with it. The guy there told me this is a blend of two grapes that come from near the Black and Caspian seas.”
My dad nodded as he read over the label. “Thank you, Christopher. It’s thoughtful of you. Let’s have a glass, and you can meet the rest of the family.” He patted Christopher on the shoulder and towed him toward the living room.
I couldn’t hide my worry. He was going into the lion’s den—or the dragons.
Christopher
The brothers were dying to have a go at me. The only reason they hadn’t taken any shots was because Nat’s dad kept throwing the evil eye. I thought the sisters-in-law kept kicking them under the table, too. Every so often one of them jumped, holding back a swear word, and glared at his significant other.
It made me want to laugh, but I didn’t want to die right there at the dinner table. In spite of my worry, and Nat’s depiction, I found her family marvelous. Dinner was noisy, with everyone talking, and people laughing and teasing. It was completely the opposite of what I had grown up with, and I loved it.
After dinner, Mr. Dragomirov broke out the vodka. Nat had told me he was born here, but he was still every inch a Russian.
I had one shot, claiming that I needed to drive. Which was true; I did. I got up to help clear the table, and Mrs. Dragomirov shooed me away, telling me to sit.
Cate, who was with Aleksandr, said, “Look, honey. You should try that, after your mom and Nat worked to make this for all of us.”
He leaned over and kissed her. “Don’t be bitter because you’re usually the one doing the dishes. I cook,” Aleksandr said to me in a conspiratorial tone. “Cate can’t boil water.”
Cate shrugged. “Why kill yourself when there’s perfectly good take out?”
Everyone laughed.
“Well, thank you, Marina,” Cate said to Nat’s mom. “And thank you for teaching your kids to cook. I’m eating better than I ever have in my life.”
Mrs. Dragomirov smiled, and I saw how happy she was for all of her kids. But I knew Cate was special to Nat because they’d been friends since they were kids. The Spar Island girls’ gang that she’d told me about.
After only b
eing here a week, I could see why Nat loves it. Bristol was in a great location, and I found that I enjoyed some of the older homes. Being near the water was amazing. I got up every morning and watched the sun. Nat had an entire community here, and what was even more amazing was that they were welcoming me.
I felt the stutter bubbling up a few times during dinner, and I concentrated on breathing and seeing the words. It allowed the feeling to pass. I think Nat noticed, because twice, she took my hand under the table.
I hadn’t felt this welcome, brothers notwithstanding, anywhere other than my own home. I was going to be sad to leave the next week. I pushed that thought aside. I didn’t want to think about it.
After dinner, and sitting out on the porch and talking, people started to leave. The women and Nat’s dad headed inside.
Which left me with Aleksandr, Nicolai, and Konstantin.
“We’ll make this quick,” Konstantin said. “Nat hasn’t brought anyone home in ages. And she really likes you. I think you like her too. So be good to her.”
“If you hurt her, we come after your lungs with a spoon,” Nicolai added with a smile.
“And then we’ll just beat you,” Aleksandr said. “And we like you. Don’t get me wrong. Right?” He looked at his brothers, who nodded. “You seem like a good guy, and you’re doing all the right things. We just believe in being honest and all that shit.”
I decided to say fuck it and take my life into my hands. “Well, you’re too late. I appreciate how much you care about her, but I’ve already hurt her. It was a mistake on my part. I groveled extensively, and Nat and I worked it out. She’s grown, and able to handle herself. Besides, I think she could kick all your asses, so you don’t have to worry.” I smiled and walked back in the house.
There was a moment of silence as the door closed behind me, and I heard them burst into laughter. I hadn’t expected that at all, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. My stutter was nowhere to be found, which made my exit even better. As I went to say goodbye to Nat, sadly aware that we wouldn’t be spending the night together that night, I saw Mr. Dragomirov watching me from the front room. He had a glass of vodka in his hand, and he raised it to me in a small salute.
I kissed Nat on the cheek, hugged Mrs. Dragomirov, and walked out of the house, having had the best night of my life.
Barring the past weekend, of course.
I smiled all the way back to my hotel.
Nat
“I like him,” Cate said from where she was leaning against the kitchen counter. She was still the only one who knew about the matchmaker, other than my dad. She nodded when I looked at her. “I really do.”
“I do too,” said Aleks, coming in to grab Cate around the waist. “He stands up for himself and you, Nat.”
“He did?” Heat warmed my cheeks at the thought of Christopher standing up for me. Then I glared at Aleks. “Why did he need to stand up for me?”
He held up his hands in defense. “Come on. I would be kicked out of the big brother club if we didn’t threaten him just a little. And when we did, he said he’d already made a mistake and hurt you, and that you took care of yourself just fine. Also that he thought you could kick all our asses,” he added as everyone laughed. “Is it true?”
“That I can kick your ass? Yes.”
“No, that he hurt you?” He was smiling, but his eyes were serious.
“Yes. But he didn’t mean to. It was a mistake, and he came here to apologize to me.”
“He’s a smart guy,” Dad said as he walked into the kitchen. “You could do worse, Natalenka.” He used his nickname for me.
It made me smile and feel warm all over. The only thing that would make this better was if Christopher was here.
* * *
The next week flew by. I spent every night with Christopher. I came home late, but I was home when Mom and Dad got up for breakfast, so they looked the other way.
And then the day I’d been dreading arrived. He would fly home tonight.
We were sitting out in the backyard in a swing my dad built for my mom years ago. “I’m going to miss you,” I said.
“I’m going to miss you, too.”
“What are we going to do?” I asked. We both had lives in our respective cities.
“I’ve been avoiding thinking about it,” he confessed. “You know, like if you avoid it, it will go away. We can do this long distance,” he added.
“Yes, but there are some things that just… don’t… work long distance,” I said, stroking his thigh with one finger.
I loved that his breath caught when I touched him. He made me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. He stuck up for me to my brothers. He saw me as Nat, as myself, not an extension of anyone else. He was perfect. And he lived a thousand miles away, or something like that.
We sat together until it was time to leave. Then I walked with him out to his car and held him like I never wanted to let him go.
Because I didn’t. There were tears in my eyes when I kissed him again and again, delaying the inevitable.
“I have to go, Nat. I don’t want to, but I have to.” His eyes pleaded with me for understanding.
“I know. Call me when you get home,” I said.
As he drove away, I let the tears fall. How were we going to make this work?
A week later, in which I had texted a novel’s worth of texts, and talked with Christopher on the phone for hours, he finally addressed the elephant in the room. “We can’t go on like this. This is too hard on both of us,” he said.
“I know, but we both have our lives, our businesses. I can’t ask you to leave that.”
“And I can’t ask you to leave.”
“So there we are,” I said. “Right back at the impasse we started at.”
He sighed. “We’ll figure something out.”
He’d been saying that, and it didn’t bring me much hope.
“I’m not going to be around much for a couple of days,” Christopher changed the subject.
“Why? What’s up?”
“I’m doing some work for a client that’s fairly sensitive. So I won’t be able to have my phone with me during the day. We can talk at night though.”
“When does the job start?” I asked listlessly.
“Tomorrow. So I’ll call you tomorrow night after I’m done.”
“Okay. Good luck,” I added as I hung up. It felt like my dog had just died. What was I going to do without him to talk to? It was bad enough not seeing him.
We talked each night over the next four days, but the connection was weird, and he sounded distracted. On the fifth morning, I got up, and was in the kitchen making breakfast when the doorbell rang.
“Door,” I yelled. I didn’t want to answer it in my pajamas. No one called out to me. I didn’t hear anyone moving. “Door!” I yelled louder. Nothing. “Damn it,” I muttered, heading for the door where the doorbell was ringing again.
I swung the door open, and Christopher was standing there, the biggest grin of all time on his face.
“Aren’t you supposed to be working?” I asked stupidly, trying to make sense of the fact that he was there.
“I just finished my job. Can I come in and tell you about it?”
I nodded, and as he stepped in, he swept me up and kissed me. I could feel the hunger on him. He smelled like fresh air and sunlight, something that had been lacking for me all week.
“So after we talked, I made a decision. I have a business, and a life and all those things in St. Louis, but what I don’t have is you. I can make my business and my life work around a lot of things, but it doesn’t work anymore without you, Natalia Dragomirov.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that two of your brothers drove out to St. Louis. They helped me pack up my stuff, and they just helped me move into my new place. Here, in Bristol.”
Here? He was here. He had come back to me. The impossible choice that had been tearing me apart disappeared, and I leaped int
o his arms, wrapping my legs around him, kissing him like I was afraid he’ll disappear.
“Wha—” he got out.
“Back. Walk back. My room, right now,” I said, in between kissing him.
He walked backward with my broken directions because I couldn’t seem to speak in complete sentences. When we made it to my room, he kicked the door shut.
I tore at his shirt, his pants. He slammed me against the wall and I lowered my legs to slide off my pajamas. “Drawer,” I hissed.
“What?”
“The drawer. Condom. Now.”
He leaned over to my bedside table, keeping me pushed against the wall. It was a good thing he was so tall. If he let go of me, I might have died right on the spot. He shoved down his jeans, and the condom was on and then he was driving into me, whispering in my ear. I didn’t even know what he was saying, and I didn’t care. He was here.
We came together so hard that the walls felt like they were shaking and his breath got shallow. “I’m going to—”
“Don’t you… dare… stop,” I whispered into his ear, biting the shell of it.
He groaned and thrust harder. It was just what I needed; what I wanted.
My orgasm washed over me like a long, slow wave.
Christopher groaned into my ear, and we listened to the beat of each other’s hearts. When I decided neither of us would die of a heart attack, I came back to the matter at hand. “What?” I whispered, the reality of what had said sinking in. “Here? You’re here now? But what about—”
He stopped me with a kiss. “What about what? Who cares where my business is located? I work online. My office can move to wherever I want to go.”
“Don’t you see clients?”
“Via video calls, yes. I’ll keep doing that. But I can’t do anything without you. I was miserable.”
“So was I.” I kissed him again, scarcely able to believe my luck. “You moved here.”
“You love it here. I liked where I used to live, but not the way you love it here. So it made sense that I’d come to you.”
“You came to me,” I whispered.
“I’ll always come to you,” he said, lifting me up and kissing me like we weren’t in my parents’ house.
Dear Shy Guy: The Matchmaker Series Page 6
