Dorothy didn't know what to expect as she, Alex, and Kate followed Yuri to his motel room. The first time she'd met him, she'd been quite frightened of him, and now that he was suddenly here again, she didn't quite know what to make of the situation.
She parked right beside Alex and Kate. Kate took Hailey out of her car seat, and the three of them entered the motel room together.
Yuri and his daughters were still unloading their luggage from the rental car and taking it into the motel room. Alex went to help them while Kate sat on the sofa holding the baby and Dorothy sat beside her.
"Want to go to Grandma?" Kate asked her daughter. Dorothy held her hands out invitingly, and Hailey grinned and went to her.
The others left the luggage in the bedroom and then joined Kate and Dorothy in the living room. Alex sat on the sofa beside his wife, and the other three sat in chairs. Yuri pulled his chair up to the sofa right beside Dorothy.
"I am sorry I cannot offer you refreshments," Yuri said. He meant it for all his visitors, but he looked at Dorothy when he said it.
"Oh, that's all right! We're fine!" Dorothy said generously.
"She is precious." Yuri smiled at Hailey, and he held his hand out to her. Hailey looked troubled.
"No hair on head frighten you, yes?" Yuri chuckled as he rubbed his bald head.
"She's a little bit afraid of men she doesn't know," Kate said apologetically.
"How old are your daughters?" Dorothy asked Yuri.
"Inna is eighteen, and Zoya is sixteen," he told her. "If we decide to stay, they will go to school here in fall."
"I hope things work out where you can stay," Dorothy told him.
"I hope so too." He gave her a smile that made her heart flutter. "Inna and Zoya have never been to United States. Many opportunities for them here." He looked at Dorothy. "So do you think that you would ever marry again?"
"I don't know," Dorothy replied honestly. "After what Stan did to me, I'm not sure I could ever find a man I could trust again."
"Yet such man may exist," Yuri said thoughtfully. "You never know."
Dorothy blushed slightly. "What about you, Yuri? Do you want to get married again someday?"
"Perhaps someday, if right woman come along."
Dorothy didn't know what to say. "So, tell me about Michael," Yuri continued.
Dorothy smiled. "Michael's in the army. His wife's name is Annie, and they have two children. Tyson's six, and Tara's almost three." She took a photograph from her purse and showed it to Yuri.
"Ah! They are beautiful children." Yuri grinned. "They have beautiful grandmother as well."
Dorothy blushed deeply.
"So you have job, yes?" asked Yuri.
"I'm retired," Dorothy told him.
Alex, Kate, and Dorothy ended up staying much longer than they'd originally planned, finally leaving with reluctance so that the Rozanovs could get settled in.
"They like each other," Kate said to her husband when they got home."I can tell."
