Page 4 of Her Selfless Warrior (Omega Sky)
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“Lexi, did you hear me?”Irina asked her daughter from across the dining room table. Kostya heard the frustration in his sister’s voice, and he couldn’t blame her. What had happened to his little Lexi? It was like a switch had been flipped. It had only been a year ago that his niece would come running to the door to give him a hug when he came to visit. Now when he came over for dinner, she wandered down to the table, usually late, with her nose stuck to her phone. Could turning thirteen really change a girl this much?
“Lexi,” Irina said louder. “Put down your phone and participate with the people who are at the table. Am I making myself clear?”
His niece immediately shoved her phone into her back pocket, recognizing the voice of doom when she heard it. Kostya turned to his sister and gave her a wink that neither of her two children could see.
“Irinushka, when is Tony coming back from Macau?” he asked.
His sister’s eyes softened at his use of her childhood nickname. “He should be home on Wednesday,” she answered. “He said the quality levels coming from the new manufacturing plant looked great.”
She shifted her eyes towards her daughter. “I have high hopes that Lexi will remember how to make conversation again by the time her father returns.”
“Mom,” Lexi whined. “You’re always picking at me.”
Lexi’s older brother snorted. “She’s picking on you because you deserve it,” Roman said. Kostya looked at his fifteen-year-old nephew and marveled at the difference between him and his namesake. The only thing they shared was their soulful gray eyes. He wondered if his own brother had survived their escape from Russia if he would have ever turned into such an outgoing and confident young man.
Kostya picked up his water glass and took a long sip. Thirty-four years later and he could still be knocked back by a flashback of that treacherous winter and all that he’d lost as they’d crossed over into Poland.
“Don’t be all sanctimonious, Roman. The only reason you’re not on your phone is that Haley’s just too busy with cheer and working at the ice cream shop to text you,” Lexi teased. “Otherwise you’d be worse than me.”
“I’m just smarter about how I play things. You need to watch and learn, little sister. Watch and learn.” Roman picked up the bowl of beef stroganoff and served himself then passed the bowl to Kostya.
And just like that, Kostya was back in the present. He loved the way his niece and nephew interacted—when Lexi was off her phone, that is. Irina and Tony had done a wonderful job raising their two kids. He’d been worried when they’d gotten married so young, but they’d pulled it off.
“How about you, Uncle Kostya? Have you been anyplace interesting that you’re allowed to talk about?” Roman asked him as he heaped green beans onto his plate.
“Does California count?” he asked. “I know it’s not as exotic as China.”
Roman snorted again. “So that means you can’t tell us. Okay, so I’ll bite; what was in California?” he asked.
Kostya thought about how to respond. “An Afghan friend of mine passed away not so long ago. I went back to California last month to check in on his widow and their two daughters to make sure they were settling in okay here in the States.”
“That’s so sad,” Lexi said as she put down her fork. “How are they?”
Nowthatwas the girl he remembered. “They’re living with an Afghan American couple who are helping them navigate living here in the States. Right now their biggest hurdle is assimilating into school.”
“Do they speak English?” Roman asked. “You and Mom didn’t when you got here, and Mom said that was the toughest thing about coming to America.”
“They don’t,” Kostya answered.
Irina caught his eye and grimaced. Pain lanced through Kostya like a knife. It hadn’t been learning English that had been so damn hard. Hell, the schools and dealing with the foster care system were a comparative breeze, even losing Mama and Papa eventually faded, but losing Roman was an open wound to this very day.
“Are you going to see them again?” Lexi asked.
“Soon.”
“How old are they?” she asked again. Before he could answer, she turned to her mother. “Don’t I have some old clothes that I could give them? I know that some of them are really cute and we were saving them for when your friend Melanie’s daughter gets a little older, but can’t we give them to these girls instead?”
Looking at this beautiful girl that his sister had created helped take the pain away. “Taja is eight years old and Nazy is five. A friend of mine’s mother has probably bought out Nordstrom to kit them out, but if you can think of something special for either of them, I’ll tell them it came from you and they’ll treasure it.”
“Nordstrom?” Lexi asked.
“Afriend?” Irina raised her eyebrow.
Kostya focused on his niece. “The lady has the big bucks,” Kostya laughed. “Lexi, besides shopping at Nordstrom for the clothes, she probably bought them both a pony.”
“I want to hear more about your friend, Konstantin,” Irina ordered.
