Page 227 of The Encore’s Crown

Chapter 78

Fucking Sick

Kiri

After Saint Lucia, time starts moving too fast again.

Ma decides she likes the rental enough that calling it the rental feels wrong, so we buy it for her. Natalia goes back to the old house once to collect the rest of her clothes, photographs, and anything she refuses to leave behind, but Ma never steps through that door again.

She gets stronger every week. Walks farther. Cooks more. Starts insisting she doesn’t need anyone hovering over her. According to Natalia, that stops being a problem the day Ma and her mother begin what she calls the war of the kitchen.

“She came over for lunch,” Natalia tells me over the phone, “and somehow the correct dough thickness for dumplings became a blood feud.”

“Pierogi?”

“That was Mama’s argument.”

“What was Ma’s?”

“That dumplings are dumplings and Mama needs to stop acting like Poland invented flour.”

I laugh.

“Mama almost threw a rolling pin.”

“Where is she now? Safe from Polish rage and rolling pins?”

“I left two hours ago to get my nails done. I assume Ma lives there permanently or Tata drove her home after they reached a peace treaty.”

Something insanely bright blooms in my chest, a strange sort of feeling, one that I'm not used to. A real family. By the time festival season starts, Natalia has stopped pretending she isn’t waiting for me to beg her to join me. So, I put her out of her misery and get on my knees for her like the absolutely broken man I am.

“Kroppy, now that Ma's settled in, you know the only place you belong is with me.”

There’s a pause.

“With you where?”

“Everywhere? Anywhere? Now that everything’s official, come take pictures. Enjoy the festivals, eat overpriced hot dogs. Make content. Do your thing.” I let the silence stretch. “Do me. It’s an entire package.”

Her laugh hits me straight through the phone. For once in her life, she doesn’t argue.

“Fine.”

I sit up. “Fine? That was too easy.”

“You're about to ruin it.”

“Does this mean you missed me?”

“Don’t get used to it.”

She arrives two days later.

An hour after that, Ronan takes one look at us and stops dead.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he says. “Do I need to get the water hose?”

Natalia’s laugh breaks against my mouth, warm and breathless, and I smile into it before forcing myself to pull back. It's still nowhere near a respectable distance.