The Memory Keeper of Kyiv (104)

She meant to be flippant, but a hollow feeling settled in her stomach at the thought of not seeing him regularly.

“You’re right,” Nick agreed. He stared down at his hands. “I’m sure you’ll be glad to have me out of your hair.”

Cassie sagged in her chair. She shouldn’t have expected a different response. She’d told him she didn’t want a relationship, and, being the gentleman he was, he’d backed off.

Be happy. Live your life. Henry’s words pounded in her head. She closed her eyes and heard Bobby’s voice. Looking to the future doesn’t mean you have to forget the past. You can have both.

But what did she want? What choice did she want to set in motion?

Nick looked up. His deep blue eyes locked on hers, and warmth pulsed in her veins.

This. Choose to live.

The empty feeling in her stomach morphed into resolve. She stared at Nick so long and so intensely that he touched his mouth. “What? Do I have something on my face?”

Awareness surged within Cassie and pushed her to her feet. “I’m only thirty-one!”

Nick folded his hands behind his head and grinned. “I would have guessed late twenties.”

She blushed. “That’s not the point. But thanks. The point is, I’m still young. Bobby lost so much more than me, but she found a way to go on. Maybe I can, too. I think… I think Henry would want me to live my life.”

A hopeful expression grew on Nick’s face, and his voice quieted. “Then you should.”

Before she could think or over–analyze the situation, she leaned over and kissed him. His soft lips moved against hers differently than Henry’s had, but their touch sent ripples of excitement surging through her and her heart soared above the ache of the loss she’d been trapped in for so long.

His arms wrapped around her, enveloping her in his warmth and strength. “Are you sure, Cassie?”

She nodded and spoke against his lips. “Yes.”

When they finally broke apart, a smile stretched across her face. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

“Whatever it was, I hope it’s a permanent condition,” Nick said, and he kissed her again.





36





KATYA





Sunflower Palace, July 2004





The legs running beneath her weren’t her own. Or, if they were, they were a much younger version. Far too nimble for her old body, they held her up, sure and strong, each step a leaping bound into the next. She looked down at her hands. Smooth and supple. The gnarled knuckles had disappeared. No pain or twisted fingers. She touched her face. Firm, young skin bounced back against her fingers. Around her, wheat stretched out in a golden, rippling blanket. She inhaled and the smell of rich earth and wheat kernels baking in the sun filled her soul. This was Ukraine. Home.

Sunflowers waved in the distance. Their tall stems bobbed and swayed over the wheat. She moved toward them, and heard her name being called. The voices sent shivers through her. Alina. Pavlo. Kolya.

They were waiting for her.

If this was a dream, she didn’t want to wake up.

She sprinted toward the sunflowers.





EPILOGUE





CASSIE





Illinois, May 2007





“There, Mama! I found Bobby!” Birdie’s voice rang out over the birds singing in the cemetery. Full of excitement, she ran ahead of Cassie and Nick to the grave tucked under a blossoming crabapple tree.

“Can I put the flowers in the vase?” The bouquet of miniature sunflowers waggled in her hand, and a smile stretched between her rosy cheeks as her dark wavy hair danced in the breeze.

Cassie gave her a thumbs up, then returned her hand to Nick’s and watched as Birdie divided the bouquet and placed half in the vase on Bobby’s stone and half in the vase on the stone next to it.

“Alina would like some, too,” she explained to Cassie and Nick as they got close. “Remember? They’re her favorite.” She reached out and traced her finger along the etched words of the memorial stone they’d had placed next to the headstone Bobby shared with Dido.

IN MEMORY OF ALINA BILYK, PAVLO BILYK,

& ALL THE OTHERS LOST IN THE HOLODOMOR





“Of course Alina should get some.” Nick said as he squatted down to help Birdie.

Cassie clutched her swollen belly as their baby kicked, her fingers brushing against the ring Nick had given her two years ago in a quiet garden ceremony where they’d bound their hands together with Bobby’s wedding rushnyk. This man, and Bobby’s example, had given her a second chance at happiness. Love for all of them welled up in her and made her misty-eyed.

She touched Nick’s shoulder. “Could I have a moment alone? I want to tell her.”

He kissed Cassie’s cheek. “Of course. Come on, Birdie, let’s take a little walk.”

As they stepped away, hand in hand, Cassie opened her purse and pulled out the envelope her editor had forwarded on to her. She’d already read it a dozen times, but it still didn’t seem real.

“Hi Bobby, Dido.” Cassie waved her hand towards her grandparents” headstone and the memorial to Alina and Pavlo. “I guess this news is for all of you, really, so I hope you can hear me. I got something in the mail yesterday that you’re going to want to know about. Something that I wish had come when you were still alive. It changes everything.”