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“It is our home while we are in America.”
“Ours?”
“I bought it.” He nods. “For you.”
Dimitri shoots a grin over his shoulder at us before he exits the car to walk toward the cherry red one that currently sits in the driveway. I feel overcome with emotion—because this house is perfection.
“It’s perfect.”
“It has everything you once told me you dreamed to have.” His eyes watch as mine fill with emotion. “I want you to have all that you want from this life, Ruby. From your life with me. I want to be the man to make all your dreams—every single one—come true.”
I don’t think, I just blurt exactly how I feel as I throw myself into his arms. “I love you.” I laugh, even as I sob. “I’m so in love with you, it terrifies me.”
His arms close around me, and he holds me to him for a long minute. Then, against my lips, he tells me again, “I love you, my Ruby, my wife. I will love you until my dying breath, and I believe with all of me, that I will love you beyond this life.” He pulls away to link his fingers through mine. “Come. I want to show you your home.”
Thirty-Nine
Ruby
Kirill leads me to the bright red car where a woman dressed in black, apart from a neon pink blazer, exits the car. Her smile is wide and over-the-top happy, which makes her extraordinarily beautiful in my eyes.
“Hi!” she greets us enthusiastically as she hands Kirill a set of keys. “I’m Brooklyn.” Her now empty hand falls to her belly—a belly that I realize is quite pregnant. “Congratulations on your purchase, and welcome home.”
I don’t know what it is, but seeing the pregnant woman has ice spreading through my veins just as a cold sweat prickles my flesh. The group begins to move toward the house, but I’m not present. At least not mentally. I’m way back in time, trying to calculate the time between my past period, and now.
I can’t. I just know that when I thought I was going to get it—I didn’t. I blamed it on stress, like I’ve blamed everything lately. But can I be blamed? My life is the pinnacle of chaos.
Oh, God…
“Are you feeling all right?” Kirill asks me quietly as I lean against the wall of a lovely entrance. It’s board and batten, topped in a lovely floral blue wallpaper.
If I weren’t freaking out, I might have laughed. This does not seem like a house Kirill would buy.
Me, however—I could stay here in this entrance forever.
“Mmhmm.” His eyes narrow as my head bobs quickly.
“Are you sure? You’re pale.”
“Oh.” I wave it off. “Must be jet lag.”
“Mmm.” He doesn’t look convinced. I hurry to follow a happily chattering Brooklyn from the entrance. Mostly, I’m just trying to escape my husband and his questions, but it doesn’t take long before I’m thoroughly absorbed in the home that I can now call my own, for however long we are to remain here in America.
If I’m being honest, I pray we never leave. I could live out my life and die here in this house happily. It’s that perfect.
When I see the newly green cluster of clearly lovingly tended roses, my emotions get the better of me, and I begin to cry. I can see them from where I stand at the kitchen sink—farmhouse in style, and crafted of white porcelain. The cream-colored, antique designed cabinets, with the charming curlicues bracket the sink, topped by a warm stone granite in shades of cream and brown, veined in gold. A charming brick backsplash ties it all in with the most charming, black iron fixtures.
“The house comes furnished, but anything you don’t like, the seller is willing to have removed.”
“We like it,” I hear myself say, before I glance, my face on fire, at Kirill. Smiling, he nods.
Brooklyn laughs. “I like it, too. Good choice.”
“Why were they selling? This is—” I sigh. “It’s such a lovely home.”
“They raised their family here in this house. The wife has loved the sea for as long as she can remember, and now that they’re retired, their children off living their own lives, they’ve decided to buy a houseboat and sail.” She clasps her hands with a dreamy sigh. “I think it’s just a dream.”
I couldn’t agree more.
