Page 61 of Dimitri
"You were asking about the guards." She flicked a glance to the men who had ordered their own meals. "I've gotten, how do you say? Resigned to it." She smiled serenely as she sipped her water. "Being married to a Petrov, you pay the price of lack of privacy. As you will now discover."
Allison shook her head in denial. "We do things differently in the states. Yes, people will want to photograph us." She grimaced at the very idea of it. "But we don't walk around with guards trailing behind us." She looked around the busy street in contemplation. "But I suppose in Russia, it's a whole lot different."
"Would you live in this country?" With the innate instinct of a mother, Anastasia rescued the utensils from her son's eager hand and put them away.
"I love the place. At first when Dimitri suggested we come here for our honeymoon, I was petrified." She smiled her thanks as their food was brought out to them. "You hear stories of what happens in Russia, the kidnappings, the imprisonments and we're not exactly on friendly terms with this country."
"And yet, you're married to a Russian."
Allison smiled as she spooned up her soup. "If anyone had told me I would fall in love and marry a Russian, I would have thought they were high on drugs." She clarified when the other woman looked confused. "But here I am. And yes, I will live here if he asks." She grimaced. "That's what love does to you. It turns you around. But my husband is settled at the farm, which is a good thing." She continued drinking her soup. "And I have a family here now." She reached out to tousle the child's dark hair and gained a wide smile. "So, we will be visiting frequently."
Anastasia touched her hand briefly. "I never had a sister, now I have one."
Allison's eyes moistened. "Same here."
*****
"Twins." Even now the very mention of the word paralyzed her. The doctor, the very best in her field had come, did her examination, and confirmed the suspicion she had and left after assuring them that she and her team would be monitoring Allison very closely.
"It will be fine. We—" He stopped abruptly at the killing look she threw at him. She was almost four months pregnant and should have realized she was carrying more than one baby at the rate her tummy was growing. Not to mention the fact that her ankleswere swollen and she was being a bitch to everyone, especially her husband. Double the damn hormones.
"There's no we." Pushing herself up from the comfortable chair, she ignored the two elderly people inside the cozy flower filled gazebo and started pacing. It was an incredibly lovely summer afternoon with birds chirping and the scent of freshly cut grass vying with the smell of flowers blooming.
After the doctor had left, she had wanted to get out of the house and get some air. Of course, Elizabeth and Alvin had joined them. And her grandmother was on the speaker phone.
"It's just me." She turned around and went to take her seat. "I'm almost forty-one. I expected just one baby, now two?" She looked at the three people standing there. "How am I having twins?"
"Dimitri's mother was part of a twin." Elizabeth told her quietly, smiling when he turned to look at her in surprise. "It's not something we like to talk about. He died at birth."
"I'm so sorry." He murmured, crossing to give her a hug.
"And your dear grandfather was also part of a twin. He died of pneumonia when he was only ten years old."
"Great." Throwing up her hands, Allison glared at the phone. "Thanks for all this information."
"Darling—"
"No. I'm not in a good place right now, so that's not going to work."
Ignoring that, he came and hunkered down in front of her. "Look at me." He commanded gently. When she did, he took her hands in his. "I'm here. I cannot bear the children for you, but I will do everything else. I will be by your side every step of the way. Any hour of the night, if you have the need to drink tea, I'm at your service. If you crave something ridiculous like prunes or pickles, I will get it for you. If your back aches and I'm in the dead of sleep, just call me and I will attend to you. Anything, everything, I'm yours."
Her eyes flooded, and she realized how patient he had been with her mood swings. "I'm scared." She acknowledged huskily.
"My indomitable wife afraid?" he scoffed, a smile teasing his lips. "We'll get through it." Lifting her hands, he brushed his lips against her knuckles. "I'm all yours."
Tightening her fingers on his, she sniffed back the tears. "You'd better be."
*****
Their children came into the world on a sweltering day in the middle of October, one day after Dimitri's birthday. His family had flown in for the birth as well as her grandmother. The pregnancy had been surprisingly easy. Their son, Adrian Ivan, named for both grandfathers, was the first to arrive, squalling furiously as if he objected to being ejected from his comfortable home inside his mother's womb and weighed in at seven pounds flat.
His sister, Anya Angela Donna, was five minutes behind him and had a temperament that was quite the opposite of her brother. She cried quietly for a few seconds and stopped, staring at the people crowding around her with a patience that reminded her mother of Dimitri.
"They both look annoyingly like you." She told her husband in disgust. "I carried them around for almost eight months and they end up favoring you."
"At least, our son has your impatient manner." He reminded her. He could not get enough of the babies and had stopped the nursefrom taking them away when they were fed and dressed. He was a father. Something he never thought would happen to him.
"That's absolutely no consolation."
