Page 52 of Nine Months to Love

“We’re all dying. Some of us just have better timing.” She studies me. “You didn’t answer my question.”

I sigh wearily. “Yes, Babushka, I’m meeting Olivia for dinner tonight. On the yacht.”

Her eyebrows rise. “A date?”

“Adinner.”

“In that suit? With that cologne? After sending Taras to buy out half of Newbury Street?”

“How did you—never mind.” Of course she knows. Babushka knows everything that happens in my life, usually before I do.

“It can wait ten minutes for a conversation with your babushka.” She leans forward on her cane. “Trust me, what I’m about to tell you can only help this dinner tonight.”

I check my watch. I’m already cutting it close, but the steel in her voice tells me this isn’t negotiable.

“Fine. What do you want to tell me?”

“I caught your Olivia snooping around the manor this morning.”

My stomach drops. “Snooping where?”

“The basement door. She was trying to get in.”

Fuck.I should have known she wouldn’t just accept my refusal to explain. Olivia Aster doesn’t do passive acceptance.

“She claimed she was looking for the bathroom,” Babushka continues. “A terrible liar, that one. Her whole face turns pink when she’s being dishonest.”

“Fuck.”

“She suspects you’ve got someone down there, Stefan. And because she can’t trust you to tell her the truth, she’s doing her own detective work. You know what’s worse? She doesn’t trust me, either. When I caught her, she told me she was looking for a bathroom. Or the laundry room. She couldn’t decide which.”

“You didn’t tell her anything?”

“What would I tell her? That you have your head of security locked in the basement? That you’re torturing information out of a woman who’s been like a daughter to you?” She shakes her head. “No, I kept your secrets. But I shouldn’t have to.”

“It’s for her protection?—”

“Bullshit.” The profanity sounds wrong in her voice, but it gets my attention. “You’re protectingyourselffrom the possibility that she might see the real you and run.”

“The real me is exactly why she should run.”

“The real you is the man she’s already falling in love with, you idiot boy.” She raps her cane against the floor for emphasis. “But she can’t love someone she doesn’t trust. And right now, she doesn’t trust you. She’s suspicious of you, and she has every right to be.”

“I know.”

“Do you? Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you’re doing everything possible to push her away while claiming you want her close.”

I sink into my desk chair, suddenly exhausted. “It’s complicated.”

“Love always is. That’s what makes it worth having.” She softens slightly. “She didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth, either. She thinks we’re all keeping secrets from her.”

“We are.”

“Then stop.” She pushes herself up with her cane, moving toward me with surprising speed. “Don’t waste time keeping the truth from her. Whether it will hurt her or not is irrelevant. She needs to know. She needs to be able to trust you.”

“If only she knew you were on her side.”

“She needs to know that you’re on her side, too, Stefan.” She cups my face in her weathered hands, the way she used to when I was small. “You love this woman. Don’t try to deny it—I see it inyour eyes every time you say her name. And she’s carrying your child. Your father would be so proud.”