“Please, call me Grace.” Her mother gave Ivan a wary, wavering smile. “And thank you for giving us the chance to see Ana becoming a bride.”
Fixing her with a warm gaze, he covered the hand she had placed on the table. “Every mother and father should be there when a man offers his heart and life to their daughter.”
A murmur of appreciation went around the table as another wave of searing love filled Anastasia’s heart.
She was on the verge of tears, when Ivan’s father, who’d been her beloved Uncle John until a few hours ago, rose to his feet, his face splitting on a delighted smile. “We need to toast the bride and groom!”
Ivan’s mother, Aunt Glenda to her, and until so recently almost as close to Anastasia as her own mother, followed her husband, enthusiastically sweeping around the table and filling everyone’s glasses with the sparkling white wine her father had selected to go with the seafood.
As she filled Ivan’s glass, she squeezed his shoulder, looking down at him in such awe and affection. “You’re going to be as good as my son-in-law, too, do you know that?”
Anastasia winced at the sight Ivan made with the woman who’d abandoned him, the skewer in her heart turning as she realized their green eyes were almost the same.
She battled to keep tears at bay as he looked up at his mother. Then he made it almost impossible when his face shockingly gentled as he patted her hand, the same unexpected and agonizing kindness in his voice. “Anyone who loves Anastasia can count on me as the best relative they can have.”
Looking delighted, his mother beamed down at him. “And as the one Anastasia loves most you’re going to be deluged in new relatives yourself. Good thing you can’t have enough family!”
Fiery indignation on his behalf lashed her, flinging the sharp words out of her mouth. “Ivan doesn’t have any family.”
Ivan raised his glass to her, his gaze soothing her. “The only important thing to me is that I’ll now have one with you, my love.” He looked around the room, his gaze containing nothing but genuine geniality. “And clearly many extensions, too.”
She nodded tightly, letting him pull her back from the brink, gratitude engulfing her that he was giving her the opportunity to make it all up to him for the rest of her life.
But as if to further inflame her, his mother touched his shoulder again, her eyes probing, pained. “Are you an orphan?”
There was no use. She couldn’t hold back. And she didn’t.
“Worse. His parents abandoned him.”
His parents had the gall to look horrified.
Then Aunt Glenda whispered, “That’s terrible. Were you very young? What happened to you?”
Clearly deciding to put an end to this, Ivan rose and turned to his parents with an easy smile Anastasia had no idea how he managed. “As you can see I far more than survived. Now I found the biggest part of my soul and I am the happiest man on earth.”
Uncle John, his father, looking as if he’d dodged a bullet, laughed and raised his glass. “And now you do have more family than you’ll know what to do with. You have two fathers-in-law and two mothers-in-law and a bunch of in-laws—siblings, nieces and nephews. Before this alarms you, let me assure you it’s a bargain. We’re full of uses, all ready and eager to do any amount of chores and babysit on demand. And we’re only slightly interfering.”
Her father rose with a wide smile, raising his own glass. “Ivan doesn’t strike me as the kind of son-in-law who’d allow any level of interference.”
Ivan returned her father’s smile. “Not even from a superpower.”
Swallowing down her agitation, Anastasia volunteered the explanation. “He’s not being metaphorical here. Remind me to tell you about the time when he blithely ignored the Russ
ian premier’s demand for a personal meeting because he thought babysitting me was more important.”
All voices rose around the table, demanding she tell the story immediately. And in telling it, she and Ivan relaxed back into their flawless rapport, and what she never thought could happen did. The night turned into an immensely enjoyable interlude, especially when Cathy and the kids came over.
For long stretches of time during the night that extended into the early hours of morning, Anastasia found herself forgetting everything but that she was with the people she loved most on earth, the people who surrounded the union she was forging with Ivan with delight and caring.
But every now and then, the illusion cracked and she saw the truth. The truth that was uglier than anything from a nightmare. Ivan bolstered her, absorbing her agitation as soon as it surged. But even if he’d dealt so incredibly well with what he’d lived dreading—seeing his parents up-close again—she could not do the same.
After their wedding, she would never expose him to them again if she could at all help it. His parents didn’t deserve the happiness and privilege of knowing him as he’d made himself, didn’t deserve his unbelievable mercy.
* * *
With the countdown to the wedding rushing by, Anastasia found herself sliding into stretches of absolute euphoria.
Being with Ivan now that she was certain of his love was a happiness she hadn’t known could exist.