Leaving him alone. As she'd been left alone. Both feeling guilt because both of them had thought themselves responsible.
"You're saying I should forgive him?" Her palm closed around the egg. She couldn't do it.
"Forgive him so he can disown me later? What's the point?"
An eyebrow lifted. Damn arrogant Kaerta men. "You're afraid he'll disown you?"
"I'm not afraid," she bit out. "I'm examining the different outcomes." She threw his own words back at him. "That is the most likely outcome. My mom was sweet and kind. He disowned her. I'm neither sweet nor kind." She was well aware of the gaps in her personality. "Him disowning me is a foregone conclusion. We might as well reach it immediately."
"He'll never disown you."
She turned to stare at him. He sounded so certain. "Why not?"
Nikky's grandfather laughed. "Because you won't allow him to. You're like my Nikolay that way. What you want, you get. If you want Igroek, that stubborn ass, as your grandfather, he'll be your grandfather, his opinions be damned."
"And if I don't?"
"If you didn't, you would have shot him today." Nikky's grandfather placed his hand on the doorknob. "Should we let him in now or let him stew some more?"
Tatyana rolled her eyes. Bossy, bossy men. "Let him in but..." Oh, damn. Nikky's grandfather had already let himself out.
Igroek entered, his eyes widening.
Tatyana pivoted away, ignoring him. It didn't mean anything that he was here. He was a stranger. Nothing more.
"You look beautiful, Granddaughter." His voice sounded strangely small. "Like your mother."
Her mother. She picked up her bouquet, sticking her face in the flowers, sniffing the roses.
She would not cry. Not in front of the crazy gnome.
"That must be whyȄ"
"Why what?" She brushed her nose against a petal.
"Why the Kaerta boy stares at you the same way your father stared at her."
"He does?" Her head rose.
"Unfortunately, yes." Igroek chuckled. "It was a living hell." He rubbed his temples. "I wanted to rip the eyeballs out of your father's head." He shook his head. "It is damn hard to watch a man lust after your little girl. God willing, your Nikolay will find that out. And Sergei will be there to ensure he doesn't make the same stupid mistakes I did."
Because he had made a mistake, disowning his daughter, her mom. "You might be there, also." Tatyana peeked out from under her lashes.
His face lit up. "I'd like that."
She'd like that, too. To have a grandfather. Not a perfect grandfather. She examined the old geezer. He was far from that. But then, she wasn't the perfect granddaughter, either.
She took a deep breath. "If we're going to do this, Igroek, we're doing this on my terms."
She lifted her chin, staring him straight in the eyes. "You will support this marriage. You may argue with Nikky, but you will not try to kill him." The two asses would argue, she knew that. "You may also disagree with me however much you want but you will not disown me. Not ever. I won't tolerate that nonsense, understand?"
Igroek swallowed. "Understood."
"Good." That was settled. She played with her pendant. Igroek, her grandfather, gawked at her. Now what? She raised her eyebrow, having mastered the art. She had to. She was about to become a Kaerta. The eyebrow raising was expected.
"That's a nice necklace, Granddaughter."
She suspected her grandfather, like Nikky's, never made casual conversation. She looked down. The pendant was very old, very valuable, and Nikky wouldn't tell her where it came from. "Was it Mom's?" A lump formed in her throat.
Igroek's eyes widened. "Her mother's. Did he...?"
"No, I figured it out." Did Grandfather think her an idiot? "Women have brains, too." Male chauvinist pig.
Igroek opened his mouth, paused, closed it. Finally, he said, "She wore it on her wedding day. She would have wanted you to..."
She was dead. He wanted her to wear it. "I will." Another awkward pause. What did he want? A hug? Like hell that was going to happen. "We should start this wedding." Before someone died. She thought she heard Chan's voice earlier. "Will you help me find Nikky's grandfather?" She took his arm.
"I'd be honored." Igroek clasped his hand over top hers, strength in the deceptively frail frame.
It was a short search. Nikky's grandfather stood right outside the door, talking to a man in a long trench coat. A trench coat at a summer wedding. Tatyana blinked. What was he carrying in that thing? A bazooka?
"Ready, Granddaughter?" Nikky's grandfather stubbed out his cigar. Igroek glared at the trench coat-clad man with unconcealed hatred.
"Ready." She tried to slip her hand away from Igroek. He held on tightly. "Igroek."
"One of my regrets is not being by my little girl's side as she got married." Igroek pulled the sentimental big guns.
"She asked me, Igroek." Nikky's grandfather wasn't stepping aside.
"Stand by your own granddaughters, Kaerta."
"Did you have a look in the church, jackass?" Tatyana had. The pews had been satisfyingly full. A pleasing turn out for a midnight ceremony. "Kaertas make boys. I don't have any granddaughters to stand by."
Tatyana closed her eyes as the men nattered away at each other. If only she had her gun. Or a time machine. Because the organ player was repeating the opening strains of a sugary sweet ballad over and over and over again. The wrong auntie had been put in charge of music.
"Enough." She broke into the bickering. "Both of you can stand by me." What was one more stubborn ass holding the crown, signing the papers, or glowering at guests from the front of the church?
The two grinned. They were a little too satisfied with her solution. She narrowed her eyes at Nikky's grandfather, suspecting his plotting. She would have told them off but then that damn music started up again.
A happy day. Her wedding day. With a hand on each grandfather's arm, she floated toward the vestibule, toward Nikky. Tatyana
