It made me smile.
“It’s bullshit, Mom.”
“Oh, be quiet. Ivan, you don’t care that a little girl beat up her older sister, do you?” Mom asked.
There was a pause and then, “I’m sure you weren’t the first person Jasmine has ever punched. Or the last.”
There was another pause, and then Tali added, “No. I wasn’t.” Then there was a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort. “She’s always been a scrappy little shit. Wasn’t she like three when she hit that kid in daycare?”
“I thought she kicked that boy that tried to look up her skirt when she was three?” Jojo asked.
“It was both—” my mom started to say before Ivan laughed.
“What?”
“She got her first warning kicking a boy who pushed her down. Then she got kicked out of that daycare when she socked that same boy when he tried to look up her skirt. To be fair, I’m pretty sure Sebastian told her to do that when the kicking thing happened.”
“Then she got detention in kindergarten twice. One girl pulled on her hair, so she pulled her hair right out—”
I recognized James’s laughter.
“Then another girl ate her snack, and she threatened to spit in her eye and the teacher overheard,” Mom continued. “In first grade, she got suspended for giving a boy a wedgie. Jasmine said it was because he had been picking on another little boy. In second grade, she got detention twice. She spilled milk on—”
And that was enough of that. I’d been a little shit. That shouldn’t surprise anyone.
“Okay, Ivan, Aaron, and James don’t need to know all the times I got in trouble when I was little,” I said, as I finally came into the kitchen.
My mom had taken a seat between Ivan and Ruby and shot me a huge smile. “I was just getting to the good stuff.”
“I wouldn’t mind hearing everything else,” James piped up with a wink.
I sighed and stopped behind Ruby. “Mom can tell you about ages five through ten next Saturday.”
Mom pushed her stool back. “Let’s eat, children.” Then she glanced at Ivan. “Are you eating with us? It isn’t Gold Medal approved, but—” She shrugged. “—it’s good.”
I should have known Mom would invite him to stay and eat too. Shit.
Ivan seemed to think about it for a moment as I stood there on the brink of praying he would say no, before glancing in my direction and asking, “Are you eating?”
Fuck. “Yes. It’s my cheat meal.” I wasn’t sure why I’d explained that.
Those glacier-colored eyes lingered on my face for a moment. “Okay.” Then he turned to my mom. “If you have enough, I’ll stay, but if you don’t, I understand.”
Mom snickered. “We have enough. Don’t worry about it.” Then it was her turn to pause. “We eat in the kitchen.”
Ivan blinked. “Okay.”
“That was awkward,” Tali mumbled before shoving her stool back and getting up. “I’m ready to eat.”
Like we had done it for the last twenty-plus years, plates were grabbed and handed over. Then we filed in line to grab food from the pans Mom and Tali spread out on the counter. I waited in the back for Ivan while he went around the island, and I let him go in front of me.
“I’m not really surprised you were raising hell since daycare,” was the first thing he whispered.
I rolled my eyes. “I’ve had a lot of practice since then.”
He raised the eyebrows on that annoying face of his. “I’ll keep that in mind next time someone bothers me.”
Huh.
Was this us trying to be different? I wasn’t sure. “Okay.” Then I kicked him in the calf. Gently. Mostly. “Move up the line. I’m starving.”
He took a step backward, glancing over his shoulder to see he was directly behind James, who was still in line, before looking back at me and whispering, “You don’t care I’m here, do you?”
Yes. I definitely cared. I didn’t know what to do with it. With him. With Ivan Lukov who had less than an hour ago said we should try get along for some reason.
After all the things we had said to each other and all the things we had done to each other, this man I thought I knew wanted us to try and be friendly.
I didn’t like not knowing what to do or how to react.
But I didn’t say any of that shit to him, mostly because my nosey-ass family was around, and I knew at least a couple of them were eavesdropping. Instead, I lied and went with, “I don’t care.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You’re sure?”
I really was a horrible liar. I raised my eyebrows and figured there was no point in trying to play it off. “Would it matter?”
That made his pink mouth curve up at the edges… slightly freaking me out. “Nope.”
That’s what I thought.
“Your family is funny,” he kept going.
“Sure they are.”
“You already know mine, it’s only fair.”
“Fair for what?”
“For us. Being friends.”
I didn’t even realize my hand had gone to my bracelet, picking at the plate between the links, until the metal dug into the pad of my thumb from how hard I had subconsciously started playing with it. Glancing around, I made sure no one in my family was at least looking at us when I whispered, “I don’t get what all this being friends thing means.”
He blinked. “What do you mean?”
I didn’t look at him as I said, “What it sounds like. I don’t know what you’re expecting out of me.”
“Whatever friends do.”
It was my turn to blink. And because no one was looking at us, I kept on telling him the truth, because it wasn’t like it was a secret. Or that I was ashamed. Because I wasn’t. “I get that. But you know your sister is the only real friend, that I’m not related to, that I’ve managed to keep over the years.” I was proud of it. I didn’t have time for other people’s bullshit. I thought that was one of my most admirable traits, honestly.
All Ivan did was look at me.
I lifted a shoulder.
Then he blinked again. “Have you talked to her recently?”
I shook my head. “You?”
“No.” He turned around and took a step forward just as he made it to the counter. Over his shoulder, he asked, “Did you not tell her we’re partners then?”
Shit. “No.” I paused. I had assumed he would. “You haven’t told her either?”
“No.”
“Your parents?”
“They’re in Russia. I haven’t spoken to them since worlds. Mother has sent me a few picture messages, but that’s been all our communication.”
Double shit. “I thought you would have told them.”
“I thought you would have told Karina.”
“I don’t talk to her as much as I used to. She’s busy with medical school.”
I could only manage to see the back of Ivan’s head as he nodded, slowly and thoughtfully, like he was thinking the same thing I was. And his next words confirmed it. “She’s going to kill us.”
Because she was. She sure as fuck was.
“Call her and tell her,” I tried to throw it on him.
“You call and tell her,” he scoffed, not looking at me.
I poked him in the back. “She’s your sister.”
“She’s your only friend.”
“Asshole,” I muttered. “Let’s flip a coin to see who should do it.”
That time he did glance at me. “No.”
No. Ass.
“I’m not doing it.”
“Me neither.”
“Don’t be a pussy and do it,” I hissed, trying to keep my voice low.
His snicker made me frown. “Sounds like I’m not the only pussy,” he returned.
I opened my mouth and closed it. He got me. He fucking got me.
“Question. Do you two ever agree on anything?” Jojo asked, from where he stood a few feet ahead of Ivan, in front of the counter holding a plate piled high with food.
See? Nosey. Eavesdropper.
“No,” I answered at the same time Ivan said, “Yes.”