Page 12 of Forged By Sacrifice

I wondered what my family would think of Georgie. Of her energy and sass. My sisters would love that she called me out on sh?stuff. My mom would love that I brought anyone home. My dad would probably run a background check on her. Or maybe that would be Granddad. I guess I needed to think that way these days myself. If I wanted to make a run for office, it would mean having a partner who was an asset, not a deficit. That seemed like such a cold way of choosing the right someone to be at my side, especially when I really believed what I’d told Georgie on the beach. I wanted to find the person who my heart and soul told me was the one. My heart was skittering around my chest tonight, wondering if maybe the one had come careening back into my life now for a reason.

Georgie

CAN I HAVE A KISS?

“Excuse me for this,

I just want a kiss.

I just want to know what it feels like to touch,

Something so pure.”

Performed by Kelly Clarkson

Written by Baker / Clarkson / Messer

I smelled bacon and cinnamon when I woke the next morning. I wasn’t sure how Ava and Eli kept up the hours they did with both of them working days and nights. Ava was at the bar around the clock, and Eli joined her there every night after his job with the emergency preparedness consulting firm. The bar was closed on Wednesdays during the off-season, but during the summer, when the tourists were bringing in the core of their business, it was open seven days a week.

It wasn’t a life I wanted. Even at the salon, which had been open six days, I’d only worked five. I needed time away. Ava said that it was because it wasn’t my passion, and she was probably right. The salon had simply been a must. A way of surviving.

What I was passionate about was the law. Facts. Justice.

When Grandma had taken me in after Dad had gone to jail, she’d encouraged my goals the only way she could have: with love and work at the salon. She’d shown me that getting my cosmetology license and working through high school and college was a way I could get my degree without being buried in a lifetime of debt. And it had worked while I got my bachelor’s. It had worked until Grandma died, and I was suddenly shouldered with a lease I couldn’t break. I’d had to put off my dreams until the lease was up.

Until now.

But I’d never regret it because my grandmother had given me everything. A childhood filled with hide-and-seek between hair-washing stations and tickles between clients. A childhood filled with love and laughter. My dad loved me—just not as much as he loved money. My mom loved me, but she had a life in Russia without me. Both my parents loved me in their own way, but it was from afar. Grandma had loved me up close.

My phone vibrated, bringing me out of my memories of Grandma. I groaned internally at my stepbrother’s text.

MALIK: Raisa says you found an apartment in D.C.

ME: Yep.

MALIK: And?

ME: And what?

MALIK: You’re impossible to text with.

ME: This is not news.

MALIK: And where is it? Will we get an address so we know how to get a hold of you? Can I come visit?

ME: It’s near the college. Raisa already has the address. And you won’t want to stay there any more than you wanted to stay at my apartment in NYC.

MALIK: Fine.

Of my two siblings, Malik was always easy to rile up and the first one to pout. Raisa was fiery like our mother, whereas Malik was more of a spoiled, rich-kid heir.

ME: Don’t be sore.

MALIK: Sore?

ME: Hurt.

MALIK: I just want to see you.

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