Page 11 of P.S. I'm With You
“Dominik.” I manage over a sob growing. “Is this it? Will you stay with me now?”
“If you’ll keep me, I’ll stay with you.” He leans in and presses his lips to mine and I am transported back to my late twenties. I feel alive, happy and free. I feel complete. Dominik is here, he’s with me, finally.
“Hey!” I break at the sound of Stefa’s loud voice. “Get your fucking hands off my grand… ma? Baka? Why are you crying?” She sounds genuinely fearful—understandable, since I’ve never cried in front of her.
“Bejbe! What’s with the shouting!” Zora huffs as she walks out, but stops a few feet from us when she spots Dominik. “Mama?” she questions cautiously as Dominik lets out a shaky breath.
“Zora?” he asks me, and I nod.
“And her daughter, Stefa, she goes by Stevie.”
“Baka! No full-on Croatian if you’re talking about me,” Stefa huffs, and Dominik laughs before looking at Zora.
“Look at you,” he says in English. “My little girl has grown. Such a beautiful woman.”
“Daddy?” Zora whispers, tears welling up in her eyes before walking over and hugging him. Dominik pulls me and Stefa into the embrace, holding us all tightly as he and I cry freely.
Finally, after a lifetime, we are able to be together, to hold each other with no fear. Kasapin is long gone, and I can be the baker with her old husband—we can have our own happily ever after.
“I love you,” I say, kissing him again. He smiles down at me.
“I love you too, my queen.”
