“Not if you stay with Maksim.” She waggles her eyebrows.
I shake my head. “My bills are my bills.”
“That’s not how he works.” She pours herself a margarita from a pitcher and offers me some, which I accept.
“That’s how I’ll make sure it works.”
She picks up a carrot and points it at me. “Oh, I like you. You’ve got spine. Inessa will like you too.”
I frown. “Who is Inessa?”
“Maksim’s mama,” she says with a look of concern over the fact that I didn’t know that.
In truth, I don’t know anything about his family. He never really talks about them. I guess at this point, I shouldn’t be surprised.
“Hey, I didn’t hear the door.” Maksim walks into the house from the porch, wearing board shorts and no shirt.
I hate that Nadiya sees him like this every day. It’s just not a good feeling when another woman knows your boyfriend better than you do, even if their relationship is platonic.
He bends down and kisses me. “Since when do I not get a kiss first?”
“So demanding.” Nadiya sips her margarita. “She brought cheesecake.”
“You’d think someone told you Nadiya loves cheesecake.” He winks at me before heading to the fridge and pulling out some brown packages.
“Taking credit for something you didn’t do.” Nadiya refills her margarita and comes over to sit next to me on a breakfast stool while we watch Maksim open the packages of meat. Chicken, steak, and bratwurst.
“Good thing I’m not a vegetarian,” I say.
Maksim peeks up at me. “That might’ve been a deal breaker.”
“No, it wouldn’t have. He loves you,” Nadiya says.
Maksim gives her a look. One that says shut up. A look one might give to a little sister.
Some of the tension coursing through my body relaxes. I’m way too hung up on the fact that Nadiya should be a model for her own fashion designs, rather than the fact that she’s just a close friend of Maksim’s.
Maksim picks up the plate with all the meat on it. “Come join me at the grill.” He waits for me to stand.
“Sure. Are you coming, Nadiya?”
“No, I’m waiting on Jessie.” She waves for me to go. “You guys can have some alone time to make out.” She laughs and takes another sip of her margarita.
I follow Maksim out onto his pool deck that overlooks the ocean.
“I didn’t see your bag in there?” Maksim says, placing the meat on the sizzling grill.
I sit with my margarita in one of the lounge chairs, stretching out my legs. “It’s in the car.”
He places the plate down next to the grill, closes the lid, and sits on the edge of my lounger. Leaning down, he rests his forehead to mine. “Hey.”
“Hi.”
“I’ve missed you.”
“You just saw me yesterday.”
“I can’t wait to have you alone.”
I wind my arms around his broad shoulders. “Me either.”
And that’s the truth. I love being with Maksim. So much that it scares me. Although I trust him, especially after Nashville, when I witnessed his own insecurities with our relationship. He was afraid of losing what we have too. I know this—us—means something to him.
We sit like that for a while, listening to the waves.
“I’m thinking sex on the beach tonight?” he whispers.
“Sounds good to me.”
He rises moments later to check on the meat and I watch, thankful to have scored a guy like him. Besides putting his feelings for me out there, he’s nice to look at. His muscled back flexing as he turns over the meat. His perfect V shape that tapers down to his waistband. The man really is an Adonis.
“Jessie’s here!” Nadiya calls, joining outside with a woman at her side.
Who I thought was Jesse is actually Jessie. She’s a short-haired brunette with tattoos sprinkled all over her body. She’s wearing a tank top and a short fluffy skirt, and her eyes are as sparkling blue as Maksim’s. She’s very pretty.
“Hey, Jessie,” Maksim says.
“Hey, big guy.” Jessie rises onto her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. She turns around and sets her gaze on me, a smile on her lips. “So this is the girl you’ve been cheating on me with. Nice.”
“Sorry, but she prefers what’s under my shorts,” Maksim says, and they both laugh.
Nadiya sits next to me on the lounger, nudging me to scoot over even though there’s a perfectly good empty lounger next to me. “Maksim doesn’t understand lesbians.” She chomps down on another carrot.
“I understand them just fine. I understand wanting tits and pussy over some dick. Especially when it comes to my girl.” He winks, and I cross my legs as Jessie’s gaze settles on me.
I finally clue into the dynamic and what it means. Once again, I feel like an idiot because I’ve been kept out of the loop.
“She’s very cute, like the girl next door,” Jessie says. “But I bet she’s kinky.”
Jessie sits in the lounger next to me, and Nadiya quickly swaps out mine for hers. She gives Jessie a quick kiss, and Jessie holds Nadiya to her body much like Maksim does to me.
“You really need to learn how to fill a girl in,” I say to him.
Nadiya sits up. “He didn’t tell you I was a lesbian?” She looks at Maksim as he shrugs.
“It’s not my business to tell. Besides, I didn’t see why it mattered. If Paise trusts me, she trusts me, regardless of whether the girl living with me likes dick or not.”
Nadiya and Jessie look at one another.
“You were testing her,” Jessie says exactly what I was thinking.
“No, I wasn’t.” He disappears inside with the dirty tray.
“Don’t be mad at him,” Nadiya rushes to say to me. “He just wants to make sure you two can deal with the groupies who don’t understand the word no.”
“Don’t make excuses for him,” Jessie tells Nadiya, shaking her head.
“I’m not. But you know how jealous girls get when they’re dating. It’s the number one reason for their breakups—the insecurity of not being enough for him.” Nadiya softens her expression as if saying, “You understand how it can be.”
All I can think about from what she said is how many other girlfriends he might have had. I want to scream. What the hell is wrong with me? I’ve had boyfriends too. Of course he’s had girlfriends. We both have a past. But I don’t want to think about any of that because in my head, he’s mine.
Maksim comes out and interrupts our conversation, carrying a clean dish to put the meat on. He barely looks at us until he takes everything off the grill. “Let’s eat so these two can leave and I can have you all to myself.”
Nadiya smacks him on the back, and we all file inside to prepare our plates.
The conversation over dinner is enjoyable and I enjoy getting to know Nadiya and Jessie a bit more, even if I’m pushing my irritation with Maksim to the back of my head the whole time.
After we eat, all four of us sit around the pool. Nadiya tells me how her relationship with Jessie started when they met in a class and how they’re developing a clothing line together. Watching them is like looking through a peephole you can’t look away from. They’re so cute together, and it’s clear to see why they’re a couple.