“As gross as shaving cream?”
He looked like was thinking about it.
Once our teeth were brushed, hair neat and stubble shaved, we went into the bedroom. My men loitered around the room, including Anton, who was standing still for his father as Dmitri tied his bowtie.
Artyom clapped my shoulder in greeting. “How are you feeling?”
I shrugged on my shirt. “Good. Did Roman get the rings?”
“Everything’s going to plan,” he assured me. “Roksana won’t let anything go wrong. She even managed to get Babushka into a dress.”
“Poor cat.”
Roman tugged at his collar, muttering under his breath. “I know how she feels.”
Olezka was helping Nikolai put on his shirt, even if my son looked very disinterested. Elena had warned me that the toddler would dirty the white fabric before the ceremony began. I had told her I could keep him clean, but the determined look in Niko’s eyes didn’t make me feel as confident as I had.
In hindsight, perhaps a wedding in the garden wasn’t the smartest course of action.
“Are you nervous, boss?” Roman asked.
Dmitri shook his head. “Why would he be nervous?”
“He’s about to be chained down for the rest of his life–by Elena, nonetheless.” To Niko, he said, “Your mother is a wolf.”
“No, she’s a human.”
I smiled and ruffled my son’s hair. “We’ve all got a little beast inside us, my boy. Especially your uncle Roman.”
“At least I’m free,” Roman replied.
That made me chuckle. “Are you?”
His cheeks went slightly red at what my tone implied. The topic of him and Danika was the hornet’s nest none of us wanted to poke.
We were all dressed in tuxes, the little boys included. The ceremony wouldn’t be starting for another hour, but the close confines of the room made my men restless. When Anton and Nikolai began to play tag to burn off some boredom, we made our way downstairs and to the garden.
I spotted Babushka, a large white skirt tied around her waist. She looked furious.
Artyom caught me a moment alone as the clock drew us closer and closer to the wedding. He clasped the back of my neck in brotherly affection. “I’m happy for you,” he said. “I’ve wanted this for you for a long time.”
I bowed my head. “Thank you, brother. Without you, I would have no happiness to celebrate.”
“How far we have come from the teenage boys who ran the streets of Moscow. I wonder what they would think of us.”
“I imagine they would be wondering if they could rob us.”
Artyom shared my laughter. “Indeed. Quite atrocious, weren’t we?”
“We still are atrocious, just with better suits.”
“And shoes.”
We both chuckled again.
I fell quiet when I saw the wedding setup in the garden. There had never been any discussion about the venue; everyone had known immediately Elena and I would be married at the estate. Either in the library or garden, Roksana had said, depending on the weather. We’d been blessed with a sunny day, allowing us to get married outside.
It was a small, intimate, but no less beautiful. A few chairs were lined up on either side of the aisle, leading up to the arbor. Flowers and vines twisted around the wedding arch, their frost-kissed stems resembling a winter wonderland. Blankets had been left on chairs, and winter bouquets had been made and used to decorate.
Elena and I had been banned from seeing it this morning. Danika had overseen guarding the door and proved to be quite the obstacle.
“You did all this in a few hours?”
“It’s only small,” Artyom reasoned. “We took the chairs from the dining room and found the arch on the property. There are flowers everywhere, so they weren’t hard to find. Actually, the most difficult part was clearing enough space to set up. We need to start cutting back the bushes.”
“No church wedding for Elena and me,” I said, referring to Artyom and Roksana’s wedding.
He smiled faintly. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was thinking about his wedding day or amused by the irony.
“I’ve been waiting for her since that moment.” His sentence was so abrupt for a second, I didn’t know what he was referring to.
“Waiting for who?”
“Elena.”
I arched an eyebrow. In the distance, I could hear Niko and Anton yelling as they weaved in and out of the bushes. I didn’t need to turn around to know they were already covered with dirt–Roksana would not be impressed.
“You were waiting for Elena? Have you forgotten how long it took for you to warm up to her?”
Artyom didn’t refute my statement. “It takes me a long time to warm up to everyone.”
“Excluding Roksana.”
“To me, Roksana isn’t everyone.” He looked to me, crow-black eyes alight with some piece of knowledge I didn’t hold. “I never thought either of us would fall in love and get married, that we would have families like the ones we saw on television. I had always assumed you would reproduce to have an heir and that would be the end of our attempts at a family. But then I saw Roksana.”
“I remember.”
Artyom’s lips twitched. “The moment I discovered the euphoria that love brings you, the comfort and happiness that the women we love bring to our lives, I have yearned for you to find it as well. I always hoped you would meet someone worthy to stand at your side, someone who didn’t accept your charismatic exterior, but saw the man you are beneath.”
“I did.”
“You did. You found her and I was horrified. She was a widow, and quite frankly, a pain in the ass. I love Elena,” he added when he saw my expression, “but she is nothing like what I had imagined for you. Although, I doubt anyone imagines someone like Elena as their true love...except for you, I suppose.”
I arched a brow, urging him to go on.
Artyom sighed. “I’ve never been good with words but what I’m trying to say is: it has been the honor of my life watching you grow into a man and father, and now into a husband. I see your equal in Elena, and I can honestly say, there is no one else in the universe who deserves to stand by your side more.”
“You have become soft in your old age,” I said to cover the emotions building in my chest.
“It’s fatherhood,” he replied. “I’ve turned into a sap. Roksana’s delighted.”
“Yes, children do have a strange way of impacting their parents.”
We shared a look of amusement and affection, brothers united. Two young boys and then two men. Now, two fathers. Time, once again, had won the war and I could do nothing but surrender to her vicious continuity. After all, time had brought Elena and my son back to me–and there were many more gifts in the future my family would yet receive.
It was Danika who came to tell us the ceremony was starting. She wore a deep pink dress, the ends already dirtied and a stain already darkening the skirt; she must’ve spilled something on herself.
“She’s coming, boss,” she told me, voice overflowing with joy. “You have to get into your position.”
I stood beneath the wedding arch, Artyom by my side. Dmitri and Roman wrangled in the boys, breaking up their game of tag and forcing them into their seats. Nikolai was in charge of the rings–the rings which Dmitri was taking care of before it was the correct time. Leaving the toddler in charge of the jewelry had never been a viable option.