Page 36 of Unrequited

All our friends come. The whole extended family shows up—wives, brothers, even the littlest nieces and nephews, sticky-fingered and wild. We’re a big family now, with my brothers’ wives and their children, and somehow there’s still space for more.

“Zoya,” Anya says from behind the bakery counter. She beams at all of us, happy to have us here. Anya’s had a roughgo of it and appreciates the found family she has with us now. “I made your favorite.”

I have a lot of favorites of hers. I smile at her as I walk behind the counter. Anya’s little brother, Stefan, comes at me with a running tackle, nearly knocking me down.

“Careful, Stefan,” my older brother Semyon chides. “You’ll knock her over.”

“Oh, I’m alright,” I tell him, even as Stefan rights himself and pats my shoulder to make sure I’m okay. “Look how much taller you are! Your whole head is higher than the counter!”

He grins bashfully as we go to see the treats Anya’s made us.

I enjoy everyone’s company. There’s laughter, storytelling, shouting over music, and clinking glasses as the bakery’s closed for the night, and we’re reveling in each other’s company.

But I’m not here, not really, because I can’t stop thinking abouthim.

Ihaveto stop thinking about him.

“You seem distracted, Zoya.”

I look up to see Ember watching me, her gaze flashing with mischief, her coppery red hair twisted into a messy bun. “Someone’s got your attention at school,” she says, sly and teasing. Her eyes glint like she already knows that I’m obsessed with a certain man with a thick Irish brogue, heavy brows, and those shocking blue eyes that seem to look right through me.

As ifI could have a crush on a boy from school.Please. I smile, barely, and shrug one shoulder, not really sure how to respond.

I definitely don’t, no. I’m not crushing on aboy. I’m in love with aman. A man I barely know.

But I know enough, don’t I? I know he’s fiercely protective. I know he’s the kind of man who listens, who doesn’t flinch when things get ugly. He’s gentle with me. Kind, even. Even when he’s ice-cold with everyone else.

I know he loves his family. That he speaks well of his parents and younger siblings, talks with his hands when he tells me stories, a wistful glint in his eyes. It makes sense, I guess, that a girl like me, the youngest, would fall for a man who makes her feel seen.

And I want to go to him. Why did Anya have to have a birthday on a Thursday? Thursdays are usually the easiest day I can sneak away, and now it’s all I can think of.

Finally,finally,Stefan yawns wide and Semyon ruffles his hair. “Time to pack this party up.”

I help them clean, then pretend to head home.

It’s harder than usual to get away—my brothers are home, making plans, watching everything. And it’s late, much later than I mean for it to be, after the birthday party. I think he’ll be gone by the time I get there. Maybe he’ll think I ditched him.

I have it down to a science now as I sneak out through the hedges, my decoy in place… and head to the bar.

But when I walk in, he’s still there, seated in the back corner, nursing a club soda like it’s the only thing anchoring him to this earth.

I walk up to him slowly, my head bowed, biting my lip. “There you are,” he murmurs. “Thought you wouldn’t come. Almost didn’t make it myself,” he adds, shaking his head.

“Did you?” I ask. “Why?”

He shrugs. “Eh,” he mutters. “Don’t want to get into the details. Let’s just say I was… detained for a bit. But I made it out.”

Detained? Made it out? What the hell is he talking about? But I don’t ask. I don’t press.

I don’t want to know.

Do I?

“I made it too,” I say softly, somehow suspecting that my “making it out” without my brothers noticing my deception is a whole other level from his.

But then there’s movement behind us. A tall, lanky guy with a tuft of blond hair and muscles and tats for days leans toward Seamus. Tension cuts through the room like a knife.

“Sir, you need to come here. We need to talk.”