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“I don’t want to move again. I like it in Birmingham. Please, don’t make us move.”
Getting hit by a Mack truck wouldn’t have struck me quite as hard. “We don’t have to move anymore,” I assured him. “If you’ll just tell me what you want, I’ll make sure that you get it.” I glanced at Adrian, who nodded in encouragement. “Since we’re here, can we?—?”
“Elias, your mom and I have decided that we’re going to try and have a relationship.”
The boy’s nose scrunched. “Like dates and stuff?”
I nodded. “Exactly like dates and stuff,” I said.
“Eww,” he said.
Adrian nudged him with his shoulder. “Don’t knock it until you try it.”
“I guess,” Elias started, and then he got quiet. “But I’m confused.”
“About what?”
“I thought you and Adrian hated each other,” he said, looking at me. “You two didn’t seem to like each other very much when we first met.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks. “Maybe we had our disagreements in the beginning,” I said, “but we didn’t actually dislike each other.” I glanced at Adrian. “Right?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “Right from the start, I thought your mother was the most beautiful woman in the world. I did everything in my power to get her to talk to me—but I was nervous, so I messed it up. She finally forgave me, though, and then we started getting along.”
“That is pure nonsense,” I said, giggling. “You weren’t nervous at all.”
Adrian shook his head. “I definitely was,” he said.
I leaned forward and kissed him, just once, and Elias gagged. “You’re going to have to get used to it, kid,” I said. “Adrian is my boyfriend, and I hope he sticks around for a long time.”
“So long as that’s okay with you, bud?” Adrian jumped in. “Would you mind letting me in to your family?”
Elias was quiet for a long while. But finally, he took a breath and said, “You’re not going to break my mama’s heart?”
Adrian crossed his heart. “I will do my absolute best to never do that.”
Elias considered him. “Okay,” he finally said. “You can be in my family.”
I had never hugged two people harder in my life. “I love you,” I told my son. “Thank you.”
“I love you too, Mama,” Elias said.
TWENTY-FIVE
ADRIAN
“Idon’t need to sleep,” Elias said for the dozenth time. “Please let me stay up!”
Nataliya shook her head and pressed him back onto the mattress. “You need rest, sakharok,” she said softly. “It’s already so late.”
Tears shone in his eyes. “Please, Mama?—”
I could see the hurt in her eyes, how much she hated denying him after not seeing him for days, but I could also see she was tired herself. “Hey, bud,” I said, drawing his attention to me. “We’re not going anywhere, okay?”
The boy pouted. “I know that.”
Do you? “So, because we’re not going anywhere, you can go to sleep and not worry that we won’t be here in the morning.”
Elias blinked. The crease between his eyebrows deepened. “You promise?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper, like he was embarrassed he needed to be reassured.