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I open my mouth to say… shoot,something, though I have no idea what, when Dominik pokes his head through the door. “Come on. Dinner is ready.”
“I just wanted to show them the?—”
“And you’ve shown them,” Dominik interrupts. “Now, I want to show them my risotto before it gets cold.”
“Why are you so stressed about this risotto?” Kira teases, following him down the hall to the kitchen. “Are you cheating on me with the Barefoot Contessa or something…?”
I hear them bickering playfully all the way. But Arsen is still here with me, drinking in all the details of the room. His face is unreadable.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I manage through a tight throat.
When he looks over at me, there’s something in his eyes, though I’ll be damned if I know how to capture that sight in a word. “It’s a room,” he says at last.
Then he walks out.
36
LAILA
“I literally cannot eat another bite.” I’m groaning, pacing back and forth across the small kitchen like maybe that might help me feel less like a human cement mixer. “This baby is taking up too much space inside of me. There’s no more room.”
“Well, girl, you better make room.” Kira opens the oven and pulls out a steaming apple crumble. “We have dessert.”
“I thought you invited us over to be nice, not to murder me via delicious food.”
She laughs. “If you have to go, that’s the way to do it.”
As full as I am, I’m inclined to agree.
Kira opens the freezer and pulls out a tub of vanilla ice cream, and I notice the collection of pictures tacked to their fridge.
I burst out laughing and jab my finger at a picture of Dominik. “That goatee should be a crime.”
She cackles. “Right? If he told me that’s what he was in prison for, I’d believe it. Horrendous. I almost shaved it in his sleep.”
I choke on my tongue. “I’m sorry. Prison?”
“He served eighteen months.” She tips her head to the side, questions I don’t want her asking flashing across her face. “That’s where he met Arsen. Didn’t you know…?”
I feel the color drain from my face, but I do my best impersonation of a casual, deeply-involved wife hearing information about her husband not at all for the first time. “I knew that… about Arsen. I knew that. I just didn’t know that’s how they met.”
Kira’s gaze is questioning, but she nods. “Yeah, Dominik doesn’t like to talk about it much, either. They had a hard time in there.”
His scars…
Is that where he got them?
I should know that. That’s something a real wife would know.
“Anyway, I looked past his hideous facial hair and ignored what my parents had to say about dating a felon, and look at me now. Now, all of my friends are felons,” she giggles. “It’s worked out great for me. Arsen gave us this house, but he also paid for our wedding and got my brother into rehab. He even paid off my parents’ mortgage when they were struggling just because Dom mentioned it to him in passing once.”
“And you still don’t like him?”
Kira whirls on me. “Who said I don’t like him?”
I’m fully blaming my lack of tact on shock, but I can’t even tell Kira that without admitting I know nothing about my husband. “Dominik might have insinuated?—”
“That man has such a big mouth!” she snaps. “First of all, I don’t want you to think I’m some ungrateful bitch. It’s not that I don’t like Arsen, it’s just… He’s a hard person toknow. He keeps everyone at arm’s length.”
