All the Lies We Tell (Quarry Road #1)(49)

“It’s bad.” Galina said from the bathroom doorway. “But you can fix it?”

Niko shrugged, turning. “I’m not sure. I mean, yeah. I think so. I should be able to. The plumbing part of it, sure. The wall, I dunno. It’s going to depend on what kind of mess we’re looking at behind it. This might be a bigger job.”

Galina pursed her lips, studying the damage. “You can do it.”

“Nice that you have such faith in me, Mom,” Nikolai said with a grin.

“You’ll come through for me, Kolya.” His mother went to the sink and opened the medicine cabinet, then closed it with a creak. She smiled at him in her reflection. “This next. I’d like a nice mirror in here. Maybe a pedestal sink instead of this useless thing. New, fresh paint. We’ll get rid of the wallpaper.”

Niko brushed the crumbles of plaster dust off his hands. “Sure. We can do all that. Why not pull up the linoleum while we’re at it? See if there’s a real wood floor under here?”

“Ooh!” Galina clapped her hands and grinned at him. “Yes. That would be great. You can do that, too?”

He could, but that wasn’t so much the point he’d been trying to make. “Look, I know you want to get this place in better shape, and it certainly needs a bunch of work done to it, but . . . where are you getting the money for it?”

Money had always been a sensitive topic with her. He knew she’d often asked Ilya for loans she’d never paid back, or flat out asked his brother to cover her expenses. Ilya had bitched about it, but he’d done it. Galina had never come to Niko for money. She’d always relied on him for other things. Sometimes, he wished he’d been able to simply write her a check, instead.

“Don’t you worry about that. It’s my problem.” Galina shrugged. “And it’s not so much, is it? When you’re doing the work for me? If I had to pay someone, it would be much more.”

It would not have been the first time his mother had come up with some grand plan or scheme that she’d been unable to see all the way through. Not even the first time she’d put herself in debt chasing some crazy idea. One of the reasons Niko had gone so far from home, stayed away so long, was to distance himself from this very thing. The mania and the inevitable crash that came after.

“It’s a lot, that’s all. This house, it’s a big project.”

Galina laughed and shook her head. “It’s my house. My responsibility. Is it so wrong for me to want to make it nice for you boys? It’s all I have to give you, really.”

Niko frowned. “I don’t need you to give me anything.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to. I’m your mother, and I know I haven’t been the best one.” She studied him. “Besides, the more you have to do here, the longer you can stay.”

“If I can. I have some things coming up I won’t be able to get out of.”

That was a lie. He’d already started talking to the council about cashing out his contract. He wanted to stay here, and not so he could fix up his childhood home for his mother. He wanted to stay because the thought of leaving and not seeing Alicia again had woken him more than once in the night, his mouth dry and tasting sour, his heart pounding painfully. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do about that. He was still running, but not sure in which direction.

He did not want his mother to know this. Her decision not to go back to South Carolina wasn’t trustworthy. Unless maybe she knew he wasn’t leaving, but he absolutely didn’t want to be the reason Galina stayed.

She tilted her head to look him over. “Surely you can find work around here that won’t take you away.”

“You don’t understand how the kibbutz works. I signed a contract with them. It’s not so easy to simply walk away. “

“Really? You seem to walk away so easily from everything else.” Galina shook her head. “But I let you go because I thought it was important for you to have a chance to see the world, if you wanted to.”

All this time, and she so obviously was still telling herself some kind of fairy tale. Living in her own reality. Niko shook his head.

“You didn’t let me go, Mom. I just went.”





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR


Alicia had asked Theresa to meet her at a new coffee shop on the edge of town, where they each picked up a mug from the rack to take advantage of the “bottomless cup,” along with a couple of pastries. They took seats at one of the tables in the front window. The warmer-than-usual winter meant there’d been little snow, but there had been some ice. It was melting now, pattering like a mini waterfall down the glass, streaking it. Alicia liked this reminder that winter was on its way out.

“So,” Theresa said before Alicia could start the conversation, “I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”

Alicia sipped her coffee for a second. Too hot. She blew on it, then nodded. “A few, sure. Mostly like, how much of a coincidence is it that you’re the one assigned to this project?”

Theresa laughed and wrapped her hands around her mug. “Not much. The people I know with Diamond have been talking about acquiring a new property and expanding for a number of years. I was the one who suggested they look at the quarry.”

That wasn’t the answer Alicia had been expecting. “You were?”