He wanted a movie night on the sofa with Emma and Konstantin.
“I can sit with you, but I need to do some work on my computer,” Konstantin told their son.
“Okay, Dad. Thanks for taking me to the park and the Children’s Museum today. It was lots of fun.” Mickey yawned.
“But now you want to relax. It is good you recognize what you need.”
“Mom says that if I’m feeling cranky, I need to look inside and try to know why.”
Smart mom, but everything Konstantin observed between Emma and Mikhail told him she was an exemplary mother. “Oh, were you feeling cranky?”
Mikhail shrugged. “Tired.”
Konstantin nodded. “Sure. I’m a little tired myself,” he admitted.
“But you still have to work?”
“I do.” Konstantin swallowed his own yawn.
Emma came into the room carrying a big bowl filled with popcorn, which she placed on the coffee table. “You two get settled. I’ll get the lemonade.”
“What movie would your mom like?” Konstantin asked Mikhail conspiratorially.
Mikhail brought up their streaming service on the smart TV. He clicked on a family movie about a princess who saves herself. “She likes this one.”
Naturally. “Your mom is a strong lady who can take care of herself just like this princess.” However, it would be Konstantin’s pleasure to care for Emma’s needs going into the future.
“Only Mom isn’t a princess.”
“But she would make a good one, don’t you think?”
“Like this princess?” Mikhail considered. “Yeah, maybe.”
“I agree.”
“What are you two agreeing about?”
“You’re like this princess, Mom.” Mikhail snuggled in next to Konstantin.
Emma sat on the other side of their son. “Am I?”
“Definitely,” Konstantin answered as their son took a handful of popcorn and tried to shove all the kernels into his mouth at once.
He shook his head and smiled at Emma.
She grinned back and shrugged. “What can I say? He likes popcorn.”
Mickey wasn’t the only one who had been craving more family, Emma realized as she relaxed with her son and the man who had been her only lover.
She used to dream of simple evenings like this, her and Mickey cuddled on the couch for a relaxing evening in with the man in her life. That guy hadn’t had a face in her dreams, but his body had been suspiciously like Konstantin’s, his skin the same tone, his hands strong and capable.
She’d never dated, too burned by the double rejection of the man she loved and the parents she adored to risk putting Mickey through anything similar.
But this? Felt right. Too right for a man who had ejected her from his life like dangerous waste.
Maybe she had been dangerous to him.
By his own admission, Konstantin had found it hard to stay away from her. However, he’d been determined to keep his commitment to that darn contract. He hadn’t even tried to renegotiate it.