Page 84 of Obsessed Bratva Daddy
"Show off," Sienna murmured.
"He cheats by paying attention," Mikhail complained. "It is unfair. It is also illegal in three states."
Mikhail then proceeded to lose at trivia about his own wife. He got Sienna's favorite drink wrong twice. He guessed her birthday off by a week.
"Are you sure you are married to me?" Sienna asked.
"Extremely sure," Mikhail said. "I'm just bad at memorizing things. I peaked at your phone number."
"Mm," Sienna said.
"I love you," Mikhail tried.
"Mm," Sienna said again.
Daniil quietly cleaned up at the balloon relay. He moved like a man who had been timed at things his whole life, sat on the balloons faster than the rest of them with an economy that was almost graceful. By the end he was up two rounds, Ivan was wheezing, and Mikhail had a flat balloon stuck to his hat.
We collapsed at the table laughing, slightly out of breath, hats sideways. Rhea had paint on her own nose from where she had wiped her cheek. Beom-Beom had been awarded a tiny pastel heart on his chest, matching Daniil's.
The candles got lit. A row of them along the cake, the small flames throwing warm light up onto Daniil's face. They softened the scar at his temple and made him look young in a way he rarely did.
"Make a wish," Rhea ordered.
He looked at her. He looked at me. He blew them out in one slow breath. He did not say his wish out loud.
We ate. The ramen was rich and steaming, and Sienna spooned soft eggs into everyone's bowls with the efficiency of a woman who had fed grown men before. The cake got cut into big uneven slices. The brothers argued about who got the corner piece. Mikhail won by stealing it and running. Rhea presented her secret card to Daniil with both hands and a serious face, and inside, in careful crayon, she had drawn the six of us holding hands in a line, Beom-Beom at one end. Daniil read it twice. He folded it gently. He tucked it into his shirt pocket over his heart.
The noise softened into warm chatter. Lily was leaning into Alek's shoulder. Jade was feeding Ivan a piece of cake off her own fork. Sienna was wiping a spot of buttercream off Mikhail's tiger stripe.
Under the table, I found Daniil's hand. I squeezed it. He turned his head and looked at me, hat slightly crooked, the small red heart still on his cheekbone.
"Happy birthday," I whispered. "I love you."
He stilled. His face did the same thing it had done in the doorway, that quiet undoing. Then he leaned across the corner of the table and kissed me. Not deep. Just real. The kind of kiss that lands.
"I love you too," he said. Low. Sure. No hedging in it anywhere.
I forgot how to breathe for a second.
Across the table, Mikhail dropped his fork with theatrical force.
"Oh come ON," Mikhail groaned.
"At the table," Ivan said flatly. "Really. With cake present."
"You are making the rest of us look poorly," Alek said in his mildest voice.
Daniil did not look away from me. He was smiling now, slow.
"As if you are not this sweet to your women," he said. "If you are not, then I pity them."
The wives lost it. Lily laughed so hard she had to lean fully into Alek's shoulder. Jade slapped the table hard enough to rattle the forks. Sienna pointed at her husband and said, "He has a point, sweetheart." Mikhail groaned with his entire body and slid halfway down his chair. Ivan, deadpan, said, "I am extremely sweet. In private. Where it is private. Where there are no witnesses and no cake."
Jade reached over without warning and kissed his pink-flowered cheek.
"Confirmed," Jade said.
He turned the color of his hat.
