Page 84 of The Primary Pest
“Uh, Violet, maybe now’s not the time.” Maybe his dad saw the numbers on those monitors rise to dangerous new levels.
“Sure. The thing is, honey,” she went on, oblivious, “I hope you’re not going to make any serious decisions right now because my guess is you’ll be disappointed by the outcome. Things happen and you feel one way. And that’s awesome. But then things change, is all. In the end, you’re still you. You have your life to live, and Dmytro is—”
“Don’t you dare say he’s just an employee.” Ajax gritted his teeth. “Don’t you dare.”
“Oh. That’s my cue.” Zhenya shot away from the wall. “I’m going to go check on Dmytro for you, Ajax. Would you like that?”
“Don’t handle me, please, Uncle Zhenya. But yes.”
Zhenya nodded once and left the room.
Violet watched him go. “I’m not going to say Dmytro’s an employee. He’s obviously much, much more than that. But he’s thirty-six years old. Nearly twice your age.”
“He has children, Ajax.” His dad met his mother’s worried gaze. “He obviously had a wife in the past whom he loved. He’s still very close with his sister-in-law. We just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“It’s not like that. I love him. Will he wake up and feel the same way about me? I don’t know. Where will I even be in a week, or a month, or a year from now? I have no clue. But that won’t change how I feel about Dmytro.”
“You’ll be fine, no matter what. You know that, right?” Violet said. “You’ll be just fine.”
Jackson cleared his throat. “We think you should come stay at the ranch with us for a while.”
Ajax visualized spending time with his parents at their place in Idaho. The ranch always felt warm and cozy, especially in the fall, but his parents would only make it home on occasion—maybe once or twice a month—and work while they were there.
“Wouldn’t you like that, sweetheart?” Violet asked. “We’d love to have you. We haven’t spent nearly enough time as a family since you graduated from college.”
“I don’t know. I—” He blinked back tears. “I don’t know.”
Jackson held the tissue box for him, and he grabbed a few.
“Thanks.”
“My absolute pleasure.” His dad beamed at him.
Maybe it was his dad’s absolute pleasure to hand him a tissue. They thought they’d lost him forever. When he’d talked to them on the phone, they’d all believed he was saying goodbyeforever.
“You know what?” Ajax’s eyes streamed. “You guys are so awesome.”
“You’re kind of awesome yourself, little man.” Violet turned away brusquely. She cleared her throat. “You were always a good boy.”
“Mom,”he groaned.
“She’s right, though,” Jackson said. “Technically, we’re all awesome.”
“Here’s the thing.” Ajax prepared himself to let them down again, but this time only a little. “You only get to the ranch so often. I spend most of the time rattling around in the house with the maid and the groundskeepers and that old guy… What does he even do again?”
Jackson cuffed his arm. “He’s your grandfather, son.”
“Oh, right.” Ajax winked. “You know I love all of them, but—”
“This time I’ll take time off,” his mother promised. “I swear it. Let me have my executive assistant go over my calendar and—”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“But son,” Jackson broke in, “we can. We will. I want to just… have breakfast with my boy again.” He turned to his wife. “Violet. Make him see reason. I want to take walks with him. Watch a ball game. Read the paper. We’ve missed so goddamn much.”
“Jackson.” She sighed when her husband burst into tears.
“We almost lost him, Vi. What would we do?”
