Page 109 of Toxic Salvation
“You mean the conversation where we ask them to take care of our children if we kick the bucket prematurely?” I try to keep my tone light, but even I can hear the tension underneath. “That’s a conversation everyone has with their friends at some point, right?”
“I already know what Charity is going to say,” Vesper says confidently. “And you know what Pavel is going to say, too. This is just a formality.”
“I know that.” The frustration builds again, different this time. More personal. “It’s just…”
“Yes?”
“It’s bad juju, okay?” The admission makes me feel like an idiot, but there it is.
Vesper’s eyebrows go up. “I’m sorry, did you sayjuju?”
“Shut up.”
She starts laughing—really laughing, holding her sides as she rocks back and forth in the passenger seat. The sound fills the car and despite my embarrassment, I find myself fighting a smile.
“I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff,” she manages between giggles.
“I don’t.”
“And yet here we are.”
I park on the side of the road and turn the engine off. The sudden quiet is making me claustrophobic.
“Superstitions are stupid and unscientific and completely ludicrous,” I say, doubling down on my rationality. “But… Vitalii asked me to take care of Luka, and then three weeks later, he was dead.”
Vesper stops laughing immediately. Her hand reaches across the console to touch my arm, her fingers gentle and warm against my skin.
“Don’t worry, my love,” she whispers. “You and I are going to raise our boys. Together. I promise you that.”
“How can you be so sure?”
She shrugs, then tilts her head back to look up at the darkening sky through the sunroof. “I don’t know. It’s just a feeling.”
I’m not a superstitious man. I don’t believe in predestiny or fate or any of that nonsense. I believe in preparation, strategy, and superior firepower.
And yet, when Vesper assures me that it’s just a “feeling,” somehow it makes me feel better.
“Guess what?” Vesper squeals, ambushing me on my way back from the restroom.
I glance around the restaurant’s narrow hallway. “Can we play this guessing game back at the table? Pavel and Charity are waiting for us.”
“I can’t very well talk about Pavel and Charity in front of Pavel and Charity, can I?”
“Is that what we’re doing?”
“Charity just told me that she and Pavel have been secretly seeing each other for three weeks now,” she confesses in a rush.“They just didn’t want to tell us until they knew what it was between them.”
I pause, processing this information. Pavel hasn’t said a word to me about dating anyone, let alone Vesper’s best friend. “They’ve figured it out in three weeks? That seems unlikely.”
“Why?”
“Because I know my brother, and he’s not the type who commits in three weeks. Or ever, really.”
Vesper crosses her arms, giving me a look that clearly says I’m being obtuse. “That was probably true of you at one point, too.”
She has me there. Three months ago, the idea of planning a future with anyone would have sent me running. Now, I’m discussing guardianship arrangements and shopping for cribs. Life moves fast.
“What exactly did Charity say to you?”
