Читать книгу Whiskey Sharp: Jagged - Lauren Dane - Страница 13

CHAPTER FIVE

MAYBE SHOWED UP before Rachel had even finished taking off her makeup.

“No, we didn’t have sex. Yes, we kissed. A lot. Like, he’s a tasting menu of kissing and it’s mind-blowing. I think I might combust when we finally fuck.”

Maybe closed her mouth and just watched Rachel finish up before following her out to the bedroom.

Finally her sister broke with an excited little dance. “So this is really good and I’m trying hard not to show just how excited I am so as not to spook you but I need details.”

After she got changed into warm pajamas, she and her sister got under the blankets. “It was a nice date. He took me to that little French bistro at Pike Place. He asked me questions about who I was as a person, as an artist.” She fell silent for a bit. “Perhaps that’s why I react to him so strongly.”

“That or the fact that you’ve known him for a few years and over the last six months especially you two have been circling one another slowly. That’s like foreplay.”

“He just clicks all my buttons. It feels like a lot. And the old Rachel would have been suspicious of it and avoided him until it went away.”

“As I happen to be feeling pretty intensely about Alexsei right now I can relate. It’s a loss of control to be that into someone. To be feeling all those chemicals bubbling around. The attraction, the sense that this person is unlike anyone else you’ve come across.”

It did feel a little like the way she did just after riding a roller coaster.

“And,” Maybe continued, “you’re not that Rachel anymore. So there’s a thing. An important thing. And it’s not like you’ve been choosing one terrible dude after the next. You just haven’t really been choosing at all. Past the scratching that itch stage.”

“It’s intense.”

“Totally.” Maybe rested her head on Rachel’s shoulder a little while. “Tell me the rest.”

“We had dinner. He’s a door opener and a chair puller outer. You know? He’s gentlemanly without being controlling. Bossy and used to getting his way probably through charm alone. And, Maybe, his face! How the hell can I resist? Which is rhetorical because I’m not resisting. I haven’t made out with a dude in a long time. Probably since college. It’s a simple pleasure. I could do it every day, much like eating bread and drinking coffee. Funny how he’s related to two of those things. I just...when I’m with him I don’t feel broken.”

Or maybe that the way she was broken was okay. And beautiful.

“We’re going on a hike this weekend.”

Maybe turned to give Rachel a face. “Ew. Well, you two kids have fun while I won’t be hiking. Or outside in the cold when I don’t have to be. Weirdo.”

“It’s nice to be able to go on a hike. It’s been a while.” She loved hiking but after the kidnapping it had taken her two years before she’d drummed up the courage to go into the woods again.

“You do look super cute in your hiking gear. Wear those spandex pants that make you look like you’re training to be in the next dystopian action movie I can’t wait to watch.”

Rachel laughed even as she knew the exact pair of pants her sister meant and put them into a contender spot. They were great in wet weather, kept her warm and made her butt look fantastic.

“I have heart-shaped vatrushka with strawberry. I was going to have a cup of tea. I’ll share with you and your wild bearded Russian.”

“Score. He brought gelato home and I think it should go with all that.”

“He’s a super useful new roommate. I’m just going to get that out there,” Rachel said.

“I agree. He’s even more useful to me. And I mean that in a totally sexual way,” Maybe told her as they got out of her bed.

“I figured that out.”

“Just wanted to be sure you understood.”

Rachel flipped her off.

* * *

FRIDAY EVENING WHEN she and Maybe walked up the street from the bus stop, Irena came out to the front porch and called to them.

“Come have tea. I made golubtsi, you can have some too.”

“We’ll be over after we drop our things off,” Rachel told her as they hurried up to their front door.

“Looks like a full house over there. I can’t believe Alexsei didn’t mention that.” Maybe dumped her backpack into the closet. “I need to change. I’ll meet you back here ASAP.”

Naturally, she freshened up and brushed her teeth. If Vic was there, she might kiss him. But she did it quickly because neither Dolan sister wanted to make Irena wait.

“Come over for tea,” Maybe muttered as they approached the front door. “There’s a full-on family dinner situation going on in there.”

Rachel really liked the big family events at the Orlovs’. Loved not just the volume of food, but the people, the easy back-and-forth between them as they teased, lectured and shared news.

Sometimes it got heated—well, often—but it wasn’t mean. Lots of passion. Rachel hadn’t known how to handle it at first. They’d grown up with quiet judgment from their mother and reprimand from one source only, their father.

Vic opened up, smiling at them both as he stepped back to admit them. “Come through. She’s already making you plates.”

He gave her a hug and brushed his lips over hers. A kiss that told everyone in the house they were together. A kiss Rachel knew the rest of the family was okay with as no one stopped what they were doing, though they all noticed.

Pavel shouted a hello before enveloping Maybe in a big hug and then, surprising Rachel, he gave her one too. Though not as ebullient as Maybe’s, which made her choke up a little. He knew enough to want her to know he was happy to see her but also knew she needed to be approached gently.

And then Vic was there, drawing her away toward the big dining room table where, as he’d noted, his mother had set out overflowing plates she described as “a little bite.”

Rachel wasted no time tucking in. She’d last eaten hours ago and the food smelled as good as it tasted. This was comfort food at its most perfect. Warm and hearty. The sauce on the golubtsi was spicy rather than sweet. Nestled up against that were the potatoes that padded the carbs until all her cells relaxed with a sigh.

She must have made the sigh audible because when she snapped from her food fugue, she noted Irena giving a satisfied nod. Vic draped an arm over the back of her chair, leaning back so he could continue flirting with his aunt Klara.

Klara gave his arm a blatant look and then tipped her chin. He grinned like he had a secret, unrepentant.

Before Rachel had kissed him that first time, she’d been able to appreciate his charms but keep a distance between them. Now it was like her attraction to him—her awareness of him—was at ten.

He was fucking adorable. Irresistible. God help her.

Irena sat across from them at the table with a tired sigh. “Get the girl some tea, Vityunya.”

He kissed the top of her head as he stood and went off to do his mother’s bidding.

“This is all so good,” she told Irena as she made the superhuman effort not to stare at Vic’s butt while he puttered around in the kitchen.

Vic’s mother attempted a casual shrug but there was pleasure on her face at the compliment. Irena loved taking care of her family and friends. She baked you something if you were happy or sad. She made soup or dumplings if you were sick. A cluck or a tsk. A hug, a congratulations, a stern talking-to. A whole emotional language through food.

“Until we moved next door I’d never had cabbage rolls. I had no idea what I’d been missing,” Rachel said. Their mother had been a good cook, but for her, food had been a means to an end. Fuel and nutrients.

One of the reasons Rachel had been active from an early age was her mother’s constant focus on weight and clothing size. It had been Rachel’s way to control food and her body.

Still, she liked food and while she knew she tended toward obsession when it came to exercising and physical strength, she felt like she had a better handle on it than she ever had, even before the kidnapping.

Irena frowned and then pushed some bread and butter her way. “I will teach you. It’s easy.”

Rachel somehow doubted it was what she’d consider easy, but she liked knowing things. Liked learning and mastering things. And she liked being in Irena’s kitchen, in the heart of the house. Liked being part of what the Orlovs had built.

“I’d love that. I’m always happy to learn whatever you’re willing to teach me.”

“If she learns them then she can make them at our place,” Maybe said.

“Or you could make them for the rest of us. I’ll pay for groceries,” Rachel said before she thanked Vic for the mug of much-needed tea he brought her.

“I know you like the kind without caffeine so I bought some,” Irena told her.

“Better sleep at night without it so late in the day,” Vic said, as if to remind her he hadn’t forgotten about her sleep problems.

When Vic and his mother doted on her and did nice things, it made her extra blushy and a little shy. Sometimes she wondered what they saw in her that made them like her so much.

Evie joined them. “You’re here. Let’s talk about the tattoo I want.”

Panicked, Rachel looked to Irena and then Pavel. Evie’s parents frowned, but they didn’t say anything.

Vic snorted. “She’s a big girl. If she wants ink, they’re not going to stop her.”

“Not when you have it and they didn’t stop you,” Evie told him.

Irena chuckled as she waved a hand. “Don’t worry, Rachel, we don’t hold it against you.”

“I do. But you’re too sweet to stay mad at,” Pavel said.

That cracked her up. Vic’s dad was hilarious and nearly as adorable as his son. The noise level rose, but it was pleasant instead of annoying.

“Since your specialty is bird tattoos, I’ve been thinking about a firebird. The mythological kind. Which isn’t real of course, but it’s a bird,” Evie said.

“Why a firebird?” The answer would guide the design.

“When I was little, my mom would read us fairy tales from this beautiful old book she brought with her from Russia.”

“Color?”

Evie nodded.

Orange and yellow. Rachel could see the design in her head already. Placement would be key.

“Where?”

“I’ll leave that up to you. I have another small tattoo on my calf already. But. I want it big and bold.”

Irena said a long stream of something in Russian at that. Evie was an adult and if she wanted to get a head-to-toe tattoo it was her business. But that was between her and her parents, and as a child’s girlfriend, Rachel had no place in the discussion.

Finally they stopped sniping and Irena rolled her eyes, sitting ramrod straight. She’d said her piece and it was over.

Evie looked back to Rachel with an expectant smile.

“Call the shop and tell them to set you up with the appointment. I’ll work up a few sketches so you can look them over first.”

Evie clapped her hands, clearly excited, and it was impossible not to get caught up in it.

Vic’s sister wanted a tattoo from her. She mentioned other ink on her calf so she already had a tattoo artist she knew of. But the design she wanted meant something to her, which meant something to Rachel.

It also made it easier for Rachel to create an image meant for Evie and Evie alone. There would be other firebirds, but only one like what she’d put on Evie.

Every piece Rachel did was unique. Little details that no one else would have. It was just a little thing she did. And now she’d do one for Vic’s sister.

Stuffed and feeling rather warm and loose, Rachel sat back and rubbed her stomach. “That was so good. Thank you for inviting us to dinner.”

“A full house makes her happy,” Vic said.

“It does until a quiet house makes me happy,” Irena replied and Rachel could totally relate.

“Let me clean up,” Rachel said, standing and beginning to gather plates.

Irena made a dismissive sound. “You can help.”

Maybe joined them in the kitchen as they put away the food and then began the process of tackling the dishes. Vic came in to ferry whatever food that hadn’t fit in the fridge to the one in the garage.

It didn’t take very long and, in the meantime, the cards had come out, along with a chessboard, and Evie’s best friend—and Alexsei’s ex-fiancée—had shown up.

Maybe rolled her eyes, but only when no one could see her face except Rachel. Rada and Maybe had achieved a truce and were fine being civil with one another but Rachel knew her sister still thought the other woman was an asshole.

Vic grabbed her by the waist to waylay her, drawing her close. “It makes my mother happy to teach you things,” he murmured in her ear.

“It makes me happy to learn things and eat what she cooks.” She tried to get a little space, knowing they were being watched. “Really, I like your family.”

“That’s good. Since they’re part of the package.”

It was a pretty spectacular package, all teasing aside.

“Come play cards,” his father called out from the dining room.

“Aren’t you tired?” she asked Vic quietly.

“In a good way. If you want to go home, no one will be offended. But I’d like it if you stayed. They would too.”

A warm wave flowed over her. She knew the look on her face was goofy but it couldn’t be helped. She was happy.

“I’m a night owl. You’re the one who gets up at four every day.”

She’d be worth a tired day. “Not tomorrow though. I get to sleep in.” He wasn’t going to beg, but certainly a cajole would be fine.

Especially when it made her features soften and get a little more tender. He was a sucker for her soft side. Wanted to coax it out. And when she was kind to his family, laughing and playing with them, it was like nothing he’d ever experienced.

“All right. But don’t expect me to take it easy on you tomorrow on our hike.”

“I’d never expect anything less. Now go lose some money to my father and I’ll get you some tea and me some vodka.”