Page 41 of In Her Blood
“I’m good, Kat,” Lina said. “I’m looking forward to it, even. I’m going to refresh as much of my wardrobe as I can and we’re going to enjoy our weekend, regardless.”
Katenka beamed. “Attagirl!”
Otto bit back another groan. The only thing worse than ordinary Katenka was Katenka on any form of energy booster—and for her to be this enthusiastic in the middle of the afternoon, she’d almost certainly consumedsomething.
It was going to be a long damn weekend.
Fort Wayne, Indiana greeted them with a light, icy drizzle for nearly the entirety of the time they spent standing in line on Saturday morning. Evelina was immensely glad Otto had reminded her to pack her raincoat, as bulky as it was, or she’d be soaked and miserable.
“I forgot howfreakingearly people line up for this thing,” Kat groused as they neared their turn to be ushered inside. She wasn’t wrong, it was a lot. But then, they’d done it, too.
“Pretty sure this is why we got tickets before,” Evelina said.
Kat flashed her a grin. “Could be.”
The words were barely past her lips before they were guided past the threshold. The event, of course, rented out security and had strict rules, so they had to pass over their bags and allow themselves to be searched for weapons. It wasn’t a problem for Evelina, or apparently Kat, but Evelina felt a twinge of nerves when it was Otto’s turn.
He refused to simply hover outside the space while she shopped—she hadn’t really expected that suggestion to fly, anyway—and that meant he had to pass security. Had he remembered to leave his weapons in the SUV? Was he trying to smuggle something in in his boot?
Would he get away with that?
She watched out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t want to make her nerves obvious or raise suspicion.
So, she had to keep her relief quiet, too, when the rent-a-cops finally motioned him through.
Kat leaned close and whispered, “D’you think he smuggled in plastic cutlery or something?”
Evelina bit her lips to hold back a laugh. “If he thought of it, he might.” She let a small smile peek through when Otto rejoined them.
“All right!” Kat declared, spinning toward the rows of fabric on display. “It’s time to shop until we’re out of quota!”
Someone near the end of an aisle turned a laugh their way.
Evelina looped her arm through her friend’s. “Let’s maybe remember our inside voice, hm? I don’t feel like drawing extra attention.” She didn’t wait for Kat’s response before pulling her forward to the closest aisle, knowing Otto would follow.
It wasn’t long before patterns, colors, and luxurious textures practically surrounded her. Everything was beautiful in its own way, even if not everything was her taste. To be fair, Evelina knew her tastes were skewed. She’d been raised in a nonstandard home environment.
As she shopped, she kept in mind she really was looking to give her wardrobe a face-lift. If she wanted to be pakhan, she needed a selection of serious, woman-in-power clothes. She wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, so she judged each item that appealed to her as she found them. A few selections would need some tweaking at the hemline, because of her own height, but she had a tailor for that.
Kat found a one-piece thing she immediately fawned over, and Evelina couldn’t stop from crinkling her nose. They didn’t need to try things on for her to see it would look like maternity wear on Kat’s slender frame.
Evelina folded the soft-like-velvet shoulder wrap she’d picked up for herself, tucked it into her bag, and side-stepped closer to Kat. “Honey, I’m totally willing to hook you up with my tailor if you’re sure you love that, but as it is … that’s gonna pouch on you. I know you can see it.” She spoke quietly in the hopes of not embarrassing her friend, who had spent most of the day so far helping her pick out things for herself.
Kat’s face turned the color of a tomato and she lowered the ensemble, but didn’t put it back. “Right, so, um”—she cut an awkward glance around, as if she were worried about eavesdroppers—“I didn’t know how to say anything, what with the timing being so miserable and all…”
Evelina blinked at her, feeling confused.
Kat met her stare, despite the continued redness of her skin, and managed to lower her voice even more. “I kinda actually am … pregnant.”
Evelina continued to stare, waiting for Kat to burst into loud laughter. But she didn’t. She instead ducked her gaze and began awkwardly folding the maternity piece.
“I mean, it’s way early for maternity clothes, but I’ll need something eventually and I’d be crazy not to get something nice like this since I’m here, right?” She let out a small, quiet, painful laugh and tucked it into her bag. “So, this’ll be my thing. It’ll be way easy to pick out from yours, obviously.”
She’s not joking.Evelina pulled in a breath and kept her voice hushed. “Bozhe moy, Kat, of course you should have told me! Shit. Are you—Does he—I mean, this is good, right?” How did she tactfully ask if the father was the guy Kat had recently confessed to seeing casually or the boyfriend she’d broken up with not so long ago?
Kat finally smiled, her complexion returning to a more normal hue. “It’s really good,” she said, a note of breathless excitement slipping into her voice. “I kinda haven’t told him either, actually, but I’m working on it. I’m gonna see him tomorrow night, and I’m gonna make myself tell him then.”
Evelina blanched. “You haven’t told him yet?”
