It was a lot for anyone to take in. But this time I would be there, I wouldn’t be leaving her sight anytime soon. As soon as we arrived I would be bolting the fucking doors after us. I wanted to keep us in and the world out for the rest of our lives. We’d overcome so much but if anything else tried to keep her from me I wouldn’t have been able to handle it.
“Ana, baby we’re here.” I hated to wake her but it was only five o’clock. If I’d let her sleep she probably wouldn’t have slept through the night. Still, I unbuckled her seatbelt and slipped my arms around her. I loved the feel of her in my arms as I proceeded to carry her inside the house.
It wasn’t dark yet but the sun was starting to set. I noticed that the windows had been replaced while I’d been away. When I’d left they had been boarded up, now they were back to normal - plain glass windows. It was like all evidence of the attack had been scrubbed away, except for the fact that I knew that night would forever be burned into my brain.
The worry, the fear… the sheer panic over Anastasia’s life.
I automatically held her a bit tighter to my chest as I thought of it. I never wanted to experience anything like that again. It was one of the reasons I’d been considering moving. But I knew that it was something that I needed to discuss with Ana first.
I could picture us in a house in the country, on a remote farm. Just the two of us, it would be perfect.
But… the choice would be left up to Ana because I knew that wherever we were, as long as we were together, we would be fine. I’d be happy anywhere as long as she was by my side.
As soon as I unlocked and pushed open the front door, Heather was there. I whispered a greeting and exchanged a smile before she disappeared outside. I assumed she’d grab the bags as I walked Ana to the living room and laid her down on the sofa.
“Baby?” I squeezed her hand gently. It seemed that she wasn’t ready to wake up.
“Nikolai,” came her breathy sigh. She squeezed my hand back and blinked her big blue eyes up at me. There she was.
“Are you hungry?”
“Starving,” she said, turning onto her side and sitting up. Stretching her arms back, she looked around and sighed contentedly. “What’re you cooking?”
“Me? Nothing, Heather’s here doing dinner for us.”
“Heather? Nice.” She smiled up at me and patted the seat beside her. “I’ve really missed this place. I’ve missed you.”
Before I had the chance to sit down, there was a scuffling, scraping sound from the hallway and Achilles came bounding into the room. He leapt up onto the sofa and began whining and licking Ana’s face. She laughed and stroked behind his ears. For a second, I found myself jealous of my boy.
“Guess you’ve lost your seat now,” Ana said, grinning at me before speaking to Achilles; “I missed you too, I did!”
He calmed down as she petted him and eventually got down off the sofa to lay at her feet.
“Seems like I have competition for your affections!” I laughed, rubbing Achilles’ head. Ana’s grin only grew as I leaned over to kiss her. “Come on, let’s go to the kitchen — Heather will want to know how you want your steak cooked.”
“Ooh steak? What’s the special occasion?” she joked followed by the magical sound of her laughter. “Medium-rare obviously. With those chunky-ass fries that she does, and ketchup. My god, I’m salivating at the thought.”
“Ketchup on your steak? You monster!” I laughed.
“No!” she protested, pouting and batting my arm. “For the fries!”
I shook my head, still chuckling, and held out a hand to help her up. “Come on, beautiful, kitchen.”
Hand in hand, we walked through to the kitchen where Heather was shuffling food around. The smell of a rich red wine sauce wafted through the entire downstairs and made Anastasia’s stomach growl loudly. Ana laughed self-consciously and put a hand over her stomach as if that would soothe her hunger. The kitchen was warm from Heather’s cooking.
Heather turned as we entered, a welcoming smile stretched across her face. She was genuinely happy to see Ana and while it wouldn’t have made a difference either way, I liked that Heather had grown fond of Ana. It meant alot to me, more than I’d ever share with anybody out loud.
“Ana, dear, it’s so good to have you back!” she exclaimed, dropping her wooden spoon into the saucepan and coming over. “I’m making you a special welcome home dinner. Steak. How would you like it?”
“Medium-rare, please,” Anastasia answered, taking a seat at the breakfast bar. “It’s so good to be back here, I’ve really missed it.”
“Well, all that matters is that you’re back now,” Heather said, giving Ana a motherly smile. “I’ll get on that steak. Nikolai, why don’t you take a seat?” She headed back to the stove, humming as she went.
A few moments later, the steaks hit Heather’s hot pan with a satisfying sizzle. While I enjoyed cooking, I wasn’t a patch on Heather. Ana yawned from her seat beside me.
“We can head straight to bed after dinner if you want?” I asked her, taking pity.
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” She giggled as she fought yet another yawn.
I laughed, “There’s no way you’re sleeping through the night,” I had a feeling she didn’t care. She shrugged.
“I have the rest of my life to sleep through the night. For now, I just want to
