“I can come and get you. Be there in about half an hour.”
Thirty minutes was going to feel like thirty hours, at this point. Ilya tried not to party too hard when on a trip, because hangovers and deep dives definitely do not mix. But on that last night in the hotel, with a late-afternoon flight home? He might’ve indulged a little heavily in island rum and a couple of bachelorettes. He’d managed to sleep a little on the plane and then on the bus back from the airport, but that was why his phone was now dead, since he hadn’t thought to plug it in.
He grabbed a bottle of water from the mini fridge and settled into Allie’s desk chair. The motion of him nudging the desk shook the computer enough to wake it from sleep, and he took the mouse to see if he could pass the time watching funny fail videos, or something. The screen lit—her e-mail program prominent—and a new message caught his eye.
From Theresa.
He read the message, of course, not caring at all that it wasn’t addressed to him. Go Deep was 40 percent his business, and this was the business computer. He sat back, reading the points Theresa had outlined trying to convince Allie that this offer from Diamond Development was going to change their lives.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered.
Ilya drained the bottle of water and tossed the empty into the trash. It didn’t do anything to fend off the headache, or his anger. He got up to pace the tiny office. By the time he heard the faint jingle of the bell on the front door alerting him to Niko’s arrival, he hadn’t managed to calm down.
“Hey,” Niko said and stopped at the sight of him. “You okay?”
Ilya gestured at the computer screen—not that Niko could see what he meant. “Allie is totally going behind my back.”
“About . . . ?” Niko’s voice went cool and steady, and so did his gaze.
Oh, yeah, he knew exactly what Ilya meant. Not only had Theresa talked with Allie about it, but it looked to Ilya like Niko had also been let in on the deal.
“This offer. From Theresa.”
Niko’s eyes narrowed, and his mouth pursed for a second before he said, “What are you talking about?”
“This offer. To buy the shop and the quarry. Some hotel wants to make it into a water park.” Ilya gestured again, confused now by his brother’s sudden look of ignorance. “You looked like you knew what I was talking about.”
“I have no idea.” Niko shook his head.
Some of his ire eased. Ilya stood, moving from behind the desk. “Shit. Are you sure she didn’t say anything to you about it?”
“She definitely did not say anything to me about any offer to buy the business,” Niko said with a bite in his voice. “But it sounds like something you need to discuss with her, not me. Are you ready to go? It’s cold in here, and I have stuff to do at home.”
Niko turned without waiting for an answer. Ilya followed him out of the office and into the shop. “They want to come in and build condos or some shit. Do you even have any idea what that means? How about everything I’ve done over the years? You want to know how hard it is to even find a helicopter, much less get it here and sink it so we have something different and unique to bring people in? They think they can just come on in here and tear down some walls and make it pretty, and that’s going to make it better?”
His brother turned at the grasp of Ilya’s hand on his coat sleeve. “Back off, man.”
“You don’t give a damn at all. Why am I even talking to you about it?” Ilya shook his head.
Niko frowned. “Okay, Galina.”
Those were fighting words, but all at once Ilya didn’t want to fight. “That’s low.”
“You’re coming at me the way she does. It’s not that I don’t care, Ilya. Okay? It’s just that it’s not anything to do with me. I can’t fix this.”
Ilya took a breath and unclenched his fists. “I’m not asking you to fix it.”
“I know,” his brother said.
“Anyway, you’ll be out of here soon, and you won’t have to deal with it.”
Niko looked guilty.
Ilya paused. “Right?”
“I haven’t told anyone else this, yet. But I’m cashing in my contract.”
Ilya had only the vaguest idea of how the kibbutz had worked. He knew his brother was part of a collective, that he worked in exchange for food, board, a stipend. Beyond that, he had no clue.
“It means,” Nikolai added, “that they’ll give me a payout based on my years there, and I’m no longer obligated to work there. It also means I’ve terminated the rights of living there. So in other words—”
“You’re home? For good?” Ilya clapped his brother on the shoulder, happier than he had expected to be at this surprising news. “Welcome home, brother. Welcome home.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Then
Alicia’s jaw cracked from the effort of holding back a yawn. She was cold, too, although sitting shoulder to shoulder with Nikolai on the Sterns’ battered picnic table, she felt a warmth that had nothing to do with the weather or the layers she wore. She tipped her head back to look up at the sky. Waiting for the clouds to clear.
“How long do we have to wait? It’s freaking cold out here.” Ilya shrugged deeper into his heavy winter coat and acted like he wasn’t watching Jennilynn from the corner of his eye.
He should’ve just sat next to her. He wanted to. Jennilynn wanted him to. But, instead, the two of them sat on opposite ends of the picnic table, as far apart from each other as they could possibly get.
“It might be too cloudy.” Nikolai stretched out his legs and leaned his head back to look up into the winter sky.
There was supposed to be something special up there. An alignment of the planets, nine of them. Something rare. A once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing.
“Just watch,” Jennilynn said, her voice uncharacteristically quiet. “It’s going to be amazing.”
This felt right. The four of them, together, the way they’d been for as long as Alicia could remember. Friends. More than friends. Without thinking about it, she let her head rest on Niko’s shoulder, then smiled when he tilted his to rest on hers. Beneath the blanket covering them both, his hand found hers. Fingers squeezed.
“Wouldn’t it be great,” he said, “if we could travel into space the way we can fly in an airplane?”
Ilya inched closer to Alicia to grab some of the blanket, and as if on cue, she and Nikolai released each other’s hands. “Why would you want to?”
“I’d like to,” Jennilynn put in. She did not move closer to Nikolai’s other side, although the blanket was big enough for all of them. “Just . . . fly away.”
Ilya leaned to look at her. “Where would you go?”
“Anywhere.”
“I’m with you,” Nikolai said. “Get out of this town. See something. Do something important.”