Page 58 of Born into Chaos

“I know. We’re going to say something soon. I want to see what Niki can find first, and I figure we have a few more days before Dad comes snooping around.”

“If you’re lucky,” Val says. “Mom’s getting curious, too, by the way. It’s not just Dad.”

I lean my head back against the couch and sigh. “I’ll text them both and let them know we’ll come back after the weekend. If I give them a definite return date, maybe that’ll buy us some time.”

“Maybe. I’ll do my best to keep them in the city.”

“Thanks, Val.”

He looks over at me and smiles. “I’m going to miss our ‘80s movie marathons.”

“Oh, those will never end,” I tell him. “Even when we’re both married and living in separate houses. We’ll just have a few more butts on the couch.”

He smiles at the thought and jerks his chin towards the chair. “I noticed you named her Samantha.”

“It’s a classic movie, and one day we’ll watchSixteen Candleswith her, and she’s going to think her name is the coolest thing ever.”

“Definitely,” Val agrees, giving a soft laugh. He keeps watching Yelena feed Samantha, and the longing in his eyes breaks my heart.

We’ve been keeping our voices low, but I lower mine even more when I say, “One day you won’t have to hide anymore. We’re both going to be out in the open with the people we love, and it’s going to be fucking amazing.”

The smile he gives me is more sad than anything else, but he nudges my arm and agrees, “One day.”

Raising my voice, I say, “I hope you two like babysitting, because after all this is over, Vitya owes me like a hundred date nights.”

“I do?” Vitya hollers from the kitchen.

“Yes,” I holler back. “You haven’t let me do anything for the last two years, so you owe me some fun nights in the city.”

His reply is just a simple, “Yeah, we’ll see about that.”

Yelena laughs and says, “Don’t worry. We’ll babysit this cutie anytime you want. In fact, Val and I are going to crash here tonight, so we can watch her for you. We can use the room upstairs that Natalya and Dominic always stay in. There’s a crib up there and everything.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I start to say, but she just shakes her head at me and starts to burp Samantha. Yelena has always been good with babies. She’s a natural at it, and Samantha looks perfectly happy to stay in her arms.

“We’re happy to do it.” She darts her eyes to the kitchen and whispers to me, “It’ll give you two a chance to be alone.”

I think about what happened earlier and mutter, “We do have unfinished business.”

Yelena laughs while my brother groans and says, “I don’t ever want to know what that business is. Keep your secrets, Sveta. I don’t want to hear them.”

I laugh at the horrified look on my twin’s face and spare him the details while I wiggle my brows at Yelena. She gives me a thumbs up, knowing exactly what I’m talking about. Samantha lets out a happy squeal, sensing the excitement in the room but having no clue what it’s about. Yelena kisses her cheek and then gets up to put her in Val’s lap. My brother is used to holding babies thanks to Isabella and Roma, so he handles her like a pro, supporting her head and smiling down at her as she kicks her feet and beams up at him.

“Hey, Samantha. Look at how strong you are.” He laughs when she squeals and flings her arms out. Yelena watches them with a big smile on her face and then takes several photos of the two of them.

“It’s nice to see you both like this.” I look between my brother and Yelena, not doubting for a second that these two were meant to be together. We may have been raised as cousins, but we’re not blood related, and there’s no law against it. It might be a bit taboo to some, but when has our family ever worried about following the rules? We just need to convince our parents to open their minds a bit.

“You don’t ever have to hide how you feel in front of me,” I tell them.

“It’s nice to not have to hide,” Yelena says, “but it also makes it easy to slip up when we’re with everyone else.”

Val reaches out and grabs her hand, pulling her closer to him. “It’s just one day, Yel. We can give ourselves one day.”

With one arm securely around her waist and Samantha in the other, he looks up at her, waiting to see what she’ll say. Yelena cups his face and looks down at him. Her dark eyes search his, and when he gives her a wink, she smiles and leans closer so their faces are almost touching.

“Fine, but you better not slip up and accidentally grab my butt in front of my dad.”

Val gives a soft laugh. “I promise I won’t.”

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