I don’t want to take the family from Elio. I love him deeply, and he’s my brother.
However, should he decide that the stay-at-home dad life is for him…
I finish my vodka.
I’m kind of hoping he does.
I set my glass down and stroll into the living room of my suite. The hotel offers an excellent view of Old Town, and while I can’t see the red-roofed buildings in the dark, the city glitters before me.
It’s pretty.
There’s actually a little café down on the corner that I might go to in a minute. It serves a pretty mean espresso martini, and if I want to stay awake long enough to video chat with Luna after she gets back from her first day of school, I need to mix some caffeine with my booze.
The last time I had an espresso martini was…
I shiver.
In Minsk. When I was trying to figure out who the hell sold Luna out to the Irish mob.
When Sal…
I gulp. There’s no other way to remember this.
He saved me.
The memories of Belarus feel like they’re crowding my mind. I sit down on the couch and sigh, closing my eyes against the images that are flashing behind my eyelids.
I’m just tipsy enough to admit that I miss him.
I don’t want to miss him.
My eyes snap open.
About four weeks ago, Sal made it abundantly clear that we were friends. That despite everything we’d been through together, he didn’t want to ‘take advantage’ of me.
I had offered him something that I’d never offered a man in my entire life.
And he said no.
So, that night, after Elio informed me that he would need me to take over some of his duties as the head of the family while he focused on Caterina, I had done the only thing I could.
I had told Sal there was nothing between us. That anything we’d had had just been because of Belarus.
Because of the way we needed each other then.
And we didn’t anymore.
Two days later, he hadn’t been at Luna’s birthday party.
And now…
I haven’t spoken to him in weeks.
The thought makes my heart ache. Despite the fact that Sal and I could never be anything other than friends, than relatives, I didn’t want to stop talking to him altogether.
In the last four months, Sal became my best friend. We did everything together.
We slept in the same room because I couldn’t sleep alone.