Page 140 of Heartfelt Pain
I think ideally, she would’ve moved further upstate. Off the beaten path completely. But she could never leave her grandchildren, so she’s far enough out of the city to get her space and close enough that popping in isn’t a struggle.
And Davis and Carden love it out here, so we find ourselves here more often than not.
This weekend is all about celebrating Grandma Lana’s birthday, but Max is a surprise.
“When did you decide to come?” Roma asks his brother.
“My kids deserve grandma time too,” he replies. Another black SUV rolls up. The car doesn’t even fully come to a stop before Ivan jumps out.
The adults collectively wince but Ivan isn’t troubled.
“What are you doing here?” Ivan asks Sailor.
She, the first grandchild, never forgave Ivan’s birth. Piper, she can tolerate because there’s nothing like bossing your sister around. Ivan is not the type to take orders, though. Very reminiscent of his father in a lot of ways.
“Grandmother.” Ivan wraps his arms around her, not embarrassed to show affection.
“Hi!” Lennie waves as she gets out of the car. She calls out to her son, “I don’t suppose you’d like to help unload the car.”
He rolls his eyes at his mother. “I have to do everything around here,” he mutters. The adults collectively bite their lips to stop from laughing.
“I love your hat, Millie!” I tell my niece. She’s got a straw hat on and she walks over in her flip flops and takes her grandmother’s hand. Yelena squeezes it, staring down at her granddaughter with a smile on her face.
Yelena and Lev never got a divorce. But things definitely changed between them. I can’t answer for everything they had towork on in their relationship, but there’s some sort of peace. And an acknowledgment that the power dynamic has changed.
The grandkids prefer grandma and I think it’s the first time Lev’s identified his vanity. As the head of the Zimin household, he’s used to people coming to him. Now he’s got to bribe his grandkids and even then they’re just going to take whatever toy or adventure he’s offered and run back to Yelena.
“Where is your sister?”Yelena asks Millie in Russian.
I’ve picked up a lot of the language and I even visited the country with Yelena a while back. We’ve all done our best to make sure our kids keep in touch with their roots.
Millie turns back to the car. Emma is a shadow by her dad’s side until she sees Yelena and heads over. Though, the toddler does, to Lev’s satisfaction, offer her grandpa a hug first.
“Look at what I’ve got,” Lennie says as she comes up to me. She shows off a canvas tote bag. I already know it’s full of books. “I figured we’d have plenty of reading time.”
Lennie’s dark curls are up in a ponytail. Her face is bare but happy. It’s fun being sister-in-law’s with one of your best friends.
Russet pokes her head out of the house. “I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I’m fairly certain there’s a mouse in here.”
Emma and Millie look disturbed but Ivan high tails it inside.
“I thought we had the exterminator come out.” Lev frowns at Yelena.
I elbow Roma’s side and he rushes inside. The good thing is since Lev just mentioned exterminators no one can prove anything if it turns out Carden managed to smuggle a friend inside.
“I hope you don’t mind that we’re crashing,” Lennie says while the men move toward the house. Elijah stops beforeYelena, silently placing a kiss on her cheek in greeting. They never say much to one another, but years have gone by without the pair getting into it.
“Nah,” I tell Lennie. I figured others would show up for Yelena’s birthday and it’s nice when everyone gets together. Yelena’s created a real home away from home, a place where we can escape the city and work and do things like chase mice around together as a family.
“Come on, it’s just a mouse,” Lennie says to her girls. They’ve paused on the front porch, peering in through the open door.
I’m left with Yelena.
The woman meets my eyes, smiling. There are soft lines around her ice-blue eyes. Her blonde hair has a bit of a curl to it, the texture changing slightly as she ages.
“There are cages in the shed,” she says.
“Don’t tell Carden that,” I beg, knowing where her mind’s already gone.
