“He said fiancée?” Cassie said.
“No. Mr. Frannelly said fiancée after Roman said something in Russian. Moya...something. It started with an n.”
Evette cocked her head. “Nevesta?”
“Yeah, that one.”
Ducking her head, Evie covered her mouth with the back of her hand, trying very much in vain to hide her smile.
Cassie snickered.
Bonnie shuttled her attention between the two of them. “What? What’s so funny?”
Evie cleared her throat, lifted her head and tried to school her expression. While the smile wasn’t as big, her eyes were full of laughter. “We’re sorry. We really are.”
“Speak for yourself,” Cassie said. “I think it’s awesome.”
“Some guy I’ve known less than a month is buying me ridiculously expensive gifts and telling people I’ve just met that we’re engaged, and you think it’s awesome?”
Cassie jerked her head in a sharp nod. “Oh, yeah.”
“Cassie,” Evie chided. “For a girl who was in the same boat not very long ago, you sure are smug.”
“It’s not smug. It’s happy. Jubilant. Heck, I’m downright ecstatic!” Her eyes got big and she splayed her hands wide on the table. “Oh, just wait ’til we tell Ninette and Sylvie.”
Afraid as she was to wade into whatever was going on, Bonnie did it anyway. “Tell them what?”
“That you’re getting married!”
Bonnie stared at Cassie. “But I’m not. I mean, he didn’t even ask me. And even if he had, who the heck gets engaged in this short of time?”
Evie slowly raised her hand. “Guilty.”
Cassie mirrored the action. “Me, too.”
Shit. Now that she thought about it, Cassie’s relationship with Kir had escalated kind of quickly. She looked to Evette. “Seriously? You two moved as fast as Roman is with me?”
“I think Cassie’s timeline was a bit more of a whirlwind than mine, but probably only a week or two faster.” She paused a moment as though considering her words. “Here’s the deal. Roman and Sergei and Kir aren’t like guys here. They’re from Russia. More than that, they’re bratva and very old-school. Their idea of dating isn’t like the men you’re used to. They see what they want and they take action.”
“Boy, do they,” Cassie said with a dreamlike smile on her face. “And I do love when my man takes action.”
Oh, God.
They were serious.
Bonnie pushed her plate away and clasped her hands on top of the table. Her lungs struggled to draw in air and her throat felt like it had a noose around it.
“Hey.” Evette rested her hand on top of Bonnie’s. “It’s going to be okay. Really. I remember what it felt like. How overwhelming it all was. The back and forth of being swept off my feet and feeling like I was drowning.”
“You felt that way, too?”
“Oh, yeah.” Evie jerked her head toward Cassie. “So did she.” She sighed and shook her head. “I’d spent years living in a shitstorm that never seemed to end. Nothing good excepting having Emerson. I couldn’t fathom how my life could turn into a fairy tale overnight. But it did.” She kept her hold on Bonnie’s hand for another moment, gave her a gentle squeeze, then released her hold and leaned against her seat back.
Bonnie looked to Cassie. “What about...” She looked to Evie, but still couldn’t find the right words. “You know...what they do for a living? That doesn’t bother you?”
“Oh, it bothered the heck out of me,” Cassie said. “Or I should say it bothered me when I was going on rumor instead of what I saw and accepted for myself.”
“Which was?”
Cassie paused as though looking for the right words. “That Kir was a man with a deep sense of right and wrong. That he had honor. Respect for me, for his brothers and the rest of his family. That he would do absolutely anything in his power to protect me and the people he loves and that he would always be honest with me.”
“I get that. Any idiot that looks at your husbands when they’re with you knows that. But is the way they make their living legal?” She looked from one woman to the other. “I mean, seriously. Do you even know what they do every day?”
“Mostly,” Evette said. “Sergei’s done a lot in the time he’s been here to diversify family investments. Roman and Kir help him manage them.” She crossed one leg over the other and smiled. “They’re certainly not running guns and dealing drugs, if that’s what you’re asking.”
They weren’t? Wasn’t that what mobsters did? “So, you’re telling me they’re just straight up businessmen? That their reputation is just gossip?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far,” Evie said. “They’ve got influence. And they’re certainly not afraid to flex their muscle or more if the situation calls for it. But the only time I’ve ever seen them use their power was to help someone they considered theirs. For me, that was the difference. Like Cassie said—they protect the people they love and they do it in the most fiercely honorable way possible.”
Shit.
She’d never thought about it like that. “When you put it that way, they sound like Russian Robin Hoods.”
Laughter filled the kitchen in a second and Cassie doubled over with a hand wrapped around her waist. “Oh, my God. I gotta tell Kir that one. I’m not sure if he’d be flattered or incensed.”
Evie chortled and held her hand over her face, her cheeks bright red. “I just got the funniest picture in my head of Sergei in green tights. Can you imagine?”
A fresh wave of hilarity rolled through the room, one that took a good minute or more for everyone to get themselves pulled together. When they finally did, Cassie looked to Bonnie, a warm understanding waiting behind her mirth. “Sorry. We shouldn’t laugh. Both of us remember what it was like, but trust me when I tell you—sometimes you really do end up in a fairy tale. And when Prince Charming—or Robin Hood or the Jolly Green Giant—shows up with the slipper you left behind, you put the damned thing on. Not conk him on the head with it.”
It couldn’t be that simple.
Nothing in her life had ever been that simple. Or that good.
But it had happened to Evie and Cassie. And neither of them had had it easy before they’d met their guys either.
A loud gong sounded in the main hallway that ran through the first floor. An almost divine sound that seemed to add its approval to her thoughts.