Page 25 of Paved in Hate

When Emily sees the drawing on my bed, her whole face lights up. I look down, seeing the pair of bluebirds I’d drawn a while ago.

“Did you do these?”

“Yeah.” I fidget with the pencil in my hand. Aside from Vitaly, no one’s ever really looked at my drawings. My brothers didn’t care enough to want to see them, and Simeon just didn’t give a shit.

“These are amazing,” Emily says, holding it up so the others can see. She turns back to me with an excited look on her face. “Do you think you could paint some of these on a wall?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I say, wondering what she’s getting at. I don’t usually paint, but I’ve done it before and enjoyed it, and I’ve drawn these birds enough times by now that I feel pretty confident I could replicate them with paint.

“Would you be interested in painting our nursery?” she asks and then quickly adds, “I mean, you don’t have to, please don’t think you have to say yes, but these are amazing, and I think it would look so cute in the nursery.” She pats her pregnant belly. “We recently found out we’re having a boy.”

“Congratulations,” I tell her.

Simona laughs and walks over to the rocking chair. “They all went out baby shopping last month, and Vitaly and Matvey got us each one of these chairs, but they decided they both needed one, too, for when they babysit.” She plops down in it, resting her hand on her smaller baby bump.

I try to imagine Vitaly out baby shopping and then being so excited about babysitting that he decides to buy himself a rocking chair. I’m surprised by how easy the image comes to mind. I can easily imagine his smiling face getting excited about his future nephew, and I find myself getting a little jealous. I may be married to the man, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even like me. The women around me know him far better than I do, and he shares parts of himself with them that he’ll most likely never share with me.

“What’s he like?” I ask, unable to hold back my curiosity.

“Who? Vitaly?” Simona asks.

I nod while she thinks about what to say. “He’s very funny,” she says, smiling at some memory she has of him.

“Yeah, he’s always the one cracking jokes,” Emily says.

“He’s also really nice,” Jolene says. “He’s very close to his brothers.”

“And he hates historical romances,” Emily says with a laugh. “They all do.”

I wait a second, thinking about everything they’ve said as I try to piece together an accurate image of my husband. “Does he have a temper?”

I see Emily and Jolene share a quick look before Emily says, “Vitaly would never hurt you.”

It’s an evasive answer, but like before, they don’t seem scared of these men at all. I’ve never been around women who acted like this. They don’t lower their eyes or bow their heads. They don’t act timid, they aren’t walking around like they’re sore, and I don’t see any bruises.

“I don’t understand any of this,” I admit.

Jolene pats my leg. “It’s okay. Just keep an open mind. You can trust Vitaly. We wouldn’t lie to you about that.”

Years of mistrust make it impossible for me to just blindly trust her, but I smile and give her a soft nod anyway because I appreciate what she’s trying to do. Needing to do something other than sit here and worry, I look over at Emily and ask, “When do you want me to get started?”

“Really?” Her excited grin has me smiling in return. “Can you walk? Maybe you should rest for a few days.”

“I’m going to go crazy if I sit in this bed all day.”

“I understand that,” Jolene says. “Come on, we can help you get downstairs.”

My feet sting like they’re on fire, but with one hand on the railing and the other gripping Jolene for support, we manage to get my ass downstairs. I freeze when I see the four armed men standing in the kitchen.

“It’s okay,” Jolene says, giving me a worried look. “They’re just here to watch over everything while the guys are gone.”

Looks like I won’t be free of Simeon-like men after all. When I look over at them, I’m not met with indifferent, hard looks. They’re all four looking at me, but they’re also smiling. It’s not a face-lit-up kind of smile, but it’s friendly and nonthreatening.

“This is Sergei, Aleksandr, Grigori, and Feliks,” Emily says, pointing them out one by one. “I’m not sure how Feliks’ gaming skills are, so I’m not sure yet if we can kick his ass as easily as we do the others, but I’m guessing we could probably take him.”

Simona laughs while the guys shake their heads.

“No way,” Sergei tells her. “Last time was pure luck.”

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