Maybe for some. Not for Sadie. Weakness meant loss. And Sadie wasn’t about to go there. “Not in my line of work.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing you’re off the clock.”
She swatted his arm, which wasn’t the best idea given that it meant she was touching him. Touching him was not a good idea when she was firming up her commitment to not diving back into all things Roman.
Instead of pulling her hand away, she doubled down.
“Fine. I’m nervous, but not about tonight.” She linked her arm with his in what she hoped was a totally platonic gesture as they continued walking. “I’m trying to figure out how to negotiate custody of a fish tank for my newest client. That makes me nervous.”
“Maybe you should be nervous about more than that,” he muttered.
“Why?”
He subtly moved his arm, but in doing so, her hand fell and was suddenly in his grip.
This was not so platonic.
Perhaps platonic was overrated because palm-to-palm everything felt so right. The cold wasn’t so cold anymore.
Was she supposed to hold his hand? Maybe it made a good impression to walk through the door with a firm ally. But then again, it could backfire by giving Babushka the wrong idea and encouraging her to start planning a wedding. That seemed like the worst possible thing that could happen this evening.
He squeezed her hand and then dropped it.
Oh, maybe he thought the same thing.
He smiled a wry smile, but it seemed a little sad and that was not at all what she wanted.
The cold returned.
This was ridiculous. Head high, she kept pace beside him. She did not need Roman Dvornakov to make her feel alive. She had a new practice and a new office, and wasn’t life just going swimmingly?
He glanced at her as she trotted along. He grinned a one-sided grin.
The warmth returned, hotter this time, and flooded through her.
Taking command of her body and its stupid reactions, she marched forward to the door.
Anna met them there. Sadie had hung out with Anna several times through Marlee and Heather.
“Hi,” Sadie said.
“Hi.” Anna opened the door farther. “I figured a friendly face might be helpful when you’re diving into the deep end of all things Dvornakov.”
“I’m still in the shallow end. I’m only here so Babushka will stop answering my phone.”
“Oh hell…” Heather stepped into the fray and rolled her eyes like a woman who was fully versed in Babushka and had had loads of practice. “Did she hire herself at your office?”
“She thinks she’s my receptionist. She’s answering the phone all wrong. She’s talking to prospective clients all wrong. She said she won’t stop unless I come tonight, so here I am.”
Anna worried her top lip. “I didn’t realize it was this bad.”
“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.” Roman’s rich voice moved across Sadie’s skin like satin.
Heather looked as unconvinced as Sadie felt. “Babushka involved in your office doesn’t seem like the shallow end. Besides, maybe we can skip all of that since you’re Roman’s girlfriend.”
Sadie’s expression turned cold. “I’m not his…” She let out a long breath.
Anna’s expression turned to one of total concern. “That’s what Babushka said.”
“Ha.” Sadie laughed a little dramatically. “No.”
“Oh.” Heather looked surprised. “Jase confirmed it.”
“Heather.” Roman’s tone was pure warning.
“Oh?” Sadie asked in response. “Why would he think that?”
“Babushka just said Roman was bringing his girlfriend to meet the family.” Anna shifted. “It’s been the topic of conversation for the past twenty minutes. You’ll be happy to know that everyone’s really excited about Roman dating an attorney. It’s going over so much better than when Jase brought Heather home. It’s totally unfair if you ask me.”
What had happened then? Sadie nearly asked. But nope. Didn’t matter. Wasn’t any of Sadie’s business.
Roman stood still behind Sadie. He didn’t touch her. Still, she knew he was there from the way the hairs on her arms stood on end and the way Heather kept looking at him with questioning eyes.
“What else did Babushka say?” Roman asked.
“That you are adorable together.” Anna glanced away.
“That she helped you pick out an engagement ring,” Heather added.
Sadie sucked in extra oxygen to help the neurons in her brain. She was certain they were misfiring and not interpreting data correctly.
Roman’s hand settled on her shoulder and Sadie got the message loud and clear. Babushka was making up reality and he was going to handle it.
“What else?” he asked Anna.
Yes, that.
“She just said that she thinks Sadie will make an excellent addition to the family and she likes her hips,” Anna said.
Roman blew a breath from his cheeks and nudged Sadie with his elbow. “You do have nice hips.”
Sadie whacked him on the solid muscle of his arm.
“It’s true,” he said.
“You know what? This doesn’t matter,” Sadie reassured herself. “I’m only here to ensure Babushka stops trying to answer my phone. I don’t care if there are rings or necklaces or baby giraffes. I want her to stop.”
“For what it’s worth.” Heather started. Then stopped. Then glanced at Roman. Then started again. “I’m grateful for her. I ended up with Jase because of her.”
Sadie’s thoughts turned fuzzy and her lips parted. “Seriously?”
“C’mon, would that be the worst thing that could happen?” Roman nudged Sadie’s arm.
“Marrying Jase?” Sadie asked.
Roman puffed out his chest. “Marrying me. I’m a total catch.”
“Is that what you’ve convinced yourself of?” Sadie asked.
He gave her a wink that was more than just a simple eye twitch. That wink was a promise that he was going to fix this whole mess. A promise she was going to hold him to.
“No one wants to marry a divorce attorney,” Sadie said.
“C’mon, Sadie.” Roman reached for her arm. She let him trail his fingertips there.
He plastered a grin on his face like none of this was a big deal.
But Sadie needed to get in and get out. She had things to do.
First thing was to get Babushka to stop answering her phone and greeting clients.
Roman’s hands were on her shoulders with the lightest of pressure. She drank him in—the small crinkles around his eyelids, the way his nostrils flared just a little, the minute creases in his forehead, and the way his eyes were so soft and yet his jaw was so hard.
Everything was contradictory. Everything made her resolve weaken and her pulse pound.
With his hands on her? She questioned everything.
“Are you okay?” Roman asked.
Was she?
She didn’t really know anymore.
Chapter Fifteen
When Roman imagined bringing the woman of his dreams home to meet his parents, he didn’t expect her to look so shell-shocked. Yet, here they were.
He did his best to look upbeat to counter Sadie’s stunned pause.
He caught her arm and gave a little pull.
“Seriously, are you all right?” he asked.
“Huh?” She shook off whatever had tripped her up.
“Hey, I’m sorry,” he said.
That seemed to catch her off guard.
“For what?” she asked.
“For dragging you here,” he said, meaning it.
First, for not taking her up on her offer to wait for him. Second, for not fighting for them. Third, for asking his grandmother for her brand of assistance.
“I mean it,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
Her eyes softened, and then, something miraculous happened… Sadie Howard tangled her fingers with his like they were a “t
hem” and he was not just a “him.”
Not in the oh hey, how are you? kind of way. But the intimate I’m here with you kind of way.
Honest as all fuck, Roman did not know what to do with that, but he liked it. So he rolled with it. Threading his fingers with Sadie’s, he hoped like hell his family didn’t screw everything up.
“Sadie!” Babushka called as they entered the kitchen, as though they were the best of friends.
They were off to the races…
Sadie, to her credit, kept her composure intact.
Babushka linked her arm through Sadie’s, pulling her away from Roman. “This is the daughter I never had.”
“I thought I was the daughter you never had?” Heather asked, clearly feigning distress.
Babushka linked her other arm with Heather’s. “You both are.”
“And I’m…?” Roman’s mom asked.
Babushka brushed her off like the last generation’s news.
Mom didn’t seem to care. She simply rolled her eyes at Babushka and went back to fixing a cocktail that appeared to have champagne, vodka, and lemon zest involved. Finishing the drink with a quick squeeze of lemon, she offered the beverage to Sadie.
“You must be Sadie,” she said.
Like the pro she was, Sadie took the champagne flute with a side glance toward Roman. “I am.”
“Well, good luck then,” his mother said. “Might I suggest an abundance of the mashed potatoes this evening?” Her eyes sparkled like she’d just let Sadie in on an inside joke.
“Loads of the potatoes. Or, you know, just skip the extra starch and go for the bottle.” Heather jerked her head toward the bottle of premium Russian vodka on the countertop.
Roman’s mom and Heather laughed like they were in on the biggest of all secrets.
“Hey, Rome?” Zach called.
Roman turned toward him, eyebrows raised.
“Yoo-hoo,” Zach replied in a high-pitched voice. He gave a two-fingered wave followed by giggles.
Sonofabitch. Roman’s entire face heated. This shit, right here, was why he’d stayed away for so long. War zones had nothing on his family.
They wasted no time embarrassing the shit out of him. “You’re going there?” he asked. “Serious?”
“Going where?” Zach asked, Babushka’s patented mock sincerity shining through. Clearly, it was genetic.
“Get it all out now,” Roman invited, gesturing to himself.
“What’s going on?” Sadie whispered out of the corner of her mouth.
“Roman got a Polaroid camera when he was five,” Dad explained, his booming baritone drawing all eyes to him. “He took photos of anything that stood still. Before he clicked the shutter, he’d get people’s attention by shouting, ‘yoo-hoo.’ It sounded an awful lot like Lou Who.”
“So we named the camera Lou,” Mom added in for good measure. As though “yoo-hoo” wasn’t embarrassing enough.
“Louise?” Sadie asked.
Roman shook his head. “Her predecessor, Lou.”
Lou was immortalized in a glass frame that hung on the wall in the den.
“That’s so cute.” Sadie’s cheeks dimpled with her smile.
“Cute is what I’m going for,” Roman replied. That’s why he spent a fuckton of hours lifting weights every week.
“Who is tying who to which appliance?” Anna asked.
“No one,” Mom replied. She gave her kids a glance that would freeze even the hardiest of sailors.
Luckily, they were Dvornakovs, which meant they could withstand that winter chill.
“What happened?” Sadie asked, sipping on her vodka champagne.
Roman’s sister began telling, in detail, the horrible affair.
It wasn’t Roman’s finest moment when his brother Jase got the upper hand in their last brawl. Roman was recovering from a stomach flu, so he wasn’t at his best. Jase licked him in about ten seconds—because, again, puking for days. To add insult to everything, Roman ended the evening hugging the refrigerator with rope tied around him.
He’d extracted himself in twenty seconds, but no one remembered that part of the story.
Now that he was back in Denver, he was waiting—oh boy, was he waiting—for Jase to catch some kind of bug so Roman could tie him to something.
By the time Anna finished regaling the story, everyone in the room had dissolved into stitches. Even his mother, who, up until recently, hadn’t found much funny at all.
That was thanks to Heather. She and Heather had gotten off to a rocky start, but they were now the kind of friends who talked almost every day. Since Roman had been back in town, his mother was substantially less stressed all the freaking time.
“I can’t believe you let him beat you,” Sadie said through her peals of laughter.
That, right there, was why he adored her.
“I beat him fair,” Jase replied, laughter still evident in his tone. “I could do it again, too.”
“Like to see you try, baby brother,” Roman replied.
“No.” Mom held up her hands. “Please.”
Well, since she said please. Roman gestured between himself and his brother with two fingers.
“Later,” he mouthed.
Was he imagining it or did Jase pale a little?
“You’re an attorney?” Mom asked Sadie.
She nodded.
“That must be so interesting.”
Sadie’s eyes stopped dancing from the Roman-versus-refrigerator giggle fest. “Not really.”
“Oh, come on,” his mother encouraged. “What’s something interesting that happened today?”
Sadie stared at her drink. “I am negotiating custody of a large array of fish. Today, I discovered that in a school of fish it’s not the fish on the outside of the school who steer the way. It’s the fish on the inside of the group. The others follow their lead.”
“I aspire to someday have enough fish that I need an attorney to negotiate their settlement in my divorce,” Jase said.
“Puh-lease,” Heather replied. “Like you’d get our fish in any kind of settlement.”
“Then I’ll just keep my own fish in the settlement, the ones I already have.” Jase pressed a kiss against Heather’s forehead.
“What are you talking about?” Roman asked.
“You know, my swimmers?” Jase pointed at his crotch.
“Do not point at your fly when we have company.” Mom narrowed her eyes at Jase.
“They’re not fish, dipwad.” Zach hopped up on the counter, crossed his feet at the ankles, and just dared their mother to get on his ass for bouncing his shoes against her prized oak cabinetry.
“Then what are they, asshat?” Jase asked.
“Sperm?” Mom replied. “Please don’t talk about your special swimmers at dinner.”
“If they’re not fish, then what are they?” Jase asked like this was a real question, but his eyes danced. He clearly enjoyed driving their mother nuts.
“Mammals? The beginning of a mammal.” Sadie sipped at her champagne. “They didn’t have to teach me that in law school, I already knew it.”
“What judge in the state of Colorado would not grant custody of the fish to me?” Jase wrapped his arm around Heather’s shoulder.
Roman settled in to see where they were going to go with this.
“Any judge in the state when I represent Heather,” Sadie replied, deadpan. “With these questions, I’m certain I could get full fish custody granted to her. Not of the sperm, of course, they’re yours to keep. I’m referring to any aquatic acquisitions that take place during the marriage.”
“However short-lived it may be,” Zach added.
“You cannot get divorce until you have babies,” Babushka declared. “I forbid it.”
“She’s got a point,” Jase said. “We should have the kid first and then get divorced.”
“So shall we say about nine months from now?” Heather’s own eyes danced.
Did they just—
Was Roman going to be an uncle?
Was this a…?
His chest went heavy. He wanted a niece or a nephew. He wanted Jase to have everything he’d ever wanted. There was only a small amount of green jealousy settling against Roman’s ribs because Jase had absolutely everything he’d ever wanted.
Yeah, he was thrilled for his brother. And stoked he was going to be an uncle.
The room went quiet, all eyes on Heather.
Roman took in the bottle of seltzer in Heather’s hand. She was usually one of the first to hit the vodka at these events.
“I call dibs on the favorite uncle title,” he said before anyone else in the room had regained their bearings.
Sadie’s lips tucked up at the edges, and he might have imagined it, but he was pretty sure her own eyes had misted. Was she feeling the same green-eyed monster he was?
He’d seen the way she took to Luke and Luke took to her. She’d make a great mother if that’s what she wanted.
“He always gets the good titles,” Zach said with a huff.
“Heather?” Mom asked with tears in her eyes. “Really?”
Heather nodded as Mom wrapped her in a hug.
Suddenly, Roman felt all alone in the midst of a sea of family. Funny thing, Sadie seemed to have the same thought.
They gravitated toward each other while Babushka gushed about the brains her great-grandchild would have, his mother insisted Heather sit down, and Zach and Anna bickered about potential names.
“Your family’s great.” Sadie sipped at the champagne.
“They are,” Roman replied.
“Here I was thinking I’d have to find a closet to hide in.”
Ah, the closet. “Nah, you’ve got a shirt on, so I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”
Sadie laughed. “I wish I could forget about that.”
“My condom stash has never been so organized,” Roman said quietly. “Or my socks. Or my shirts.”
“What else was I supposed to do in there?” Sadie asked like she hadn’t had the option to open the door and show herself.
Which, for the record, would have been his preference.
“Mom and Heather didn’t get off to a good start,” Roman said.
He wasn’t really sure why he said it. Just felt like it was important.
“Really?” Sadie didn’t seem to believe him. For good reason, seeing that his mother and Heather were tight as tight could be these days.
Do Me a Favor: A second chance, hilarious rom com! (Mile High Matched Book 4) Page 16
