It’d be so easy to tell her. I’m feeling something and it terrifies me. But for whatever reason, I can’t bring myself to admit it. Maybe I’m more like Mom than I’m willing to admit: too afraid of the truth to say it out loud.
“You need to get out of the house more,” I tell her instead. “You need to meet someone.”
“Men my age are so damn boring. They don’t interest me.”
“You haven’t dated in a long time,” I point out.
“What’s happening here?” she asks in a teasing tone. “You’re married now, so you want to marry me off, too?”
We both laugh as I watch Demyan walk back up towards the house. Aleks stays by the lake, cutting a brooding figure against the metallic sheen of the sunlit water.
It feels like the perfect moment to go down there and start up a conversation. I have no idea what I’
