I reached over and rested my hand over Rose's to stop its trembling.
She kept fidgeting and adjusting her outfit or pulling and tugging on the ends of her hair.
"Rose, calm down. You look beautiful. Today is going to be fine," I reassured her.
She attempted a grateful, relaxed smile but it came off as worried.
She bit her bottom lips nervous.
"You act like you're on your way to meet death. It's just a friendly, family oriented dinner. They'll love you."
My words seemed to work better this time and she outright grinned.
It took less than a minute for that to wear off and she was back to her frown.
"What if they find out about my past and they don't like me?"
"They're not going to judge you that way. They've had and suffered as many hardships and know life isn't any. They can probably relate to some of the things you've been through."
She still looked worriedly out the window.
"We don't have to tell them if you want," I offered.
She thought about it and then shook her head.
"No. I want to be completely honest, full disclosure, only if they ask of course. I want them to like me for me."
I leaned over, stopping at a red light, and kissed her on the cheek.
"They'll like you, inside and out."
I smiled over at her and almost missed the light but gazing at those wide eyes I loved.
It was a bit of a struggle keeping my eyes on the road.
She always looked beautiful, without even trying but today she was breath taking.
She decided, after an hour of mixing and matching different outfits, on wearing a simple white dress, an equally white sweater that tied at the waist and a pair of those girl legging things that went to her knees.
And when I thought she couldn't take any longer to get ready she took another fifteen minutes to pick white flats to match.
"You look amazing," I had complimented this morning.
She had turned a few times to look at her self in the mirror and decided she was please with what she saw.
"Are you finally ready?"
She gave me one of those girl-scolding looks and went back to fixing her hair.
"You grew up with five women. You should know we take a while," she said smiling.
"After Victoria came along, I learned to just use the bathroom at the gas station."
She giggled and pulled a brush through her long hair.
"I just want today to be…close to perfect," she sighed.
She stuck one of those butterfly clips on either side of her hair and it feel in curls at the bottom.
"Why not just plain old perfect?"
"I'm never that lucky. Close to perfect is good enough for me."
I moved behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist, giving her a couple of quick kisses along the side of her neck.
"It's enough for me too," I smiled leaning down to kiss her again. She giggled and pushed me away moving closer to the sink.
"No foreplay. Not until today is over."
Being stubborn I reached for her again hoping she'd give in.
She pushed my hands away.
"Stop. Any wrinkles in my dress would make a bad impression."
I chuckled and just went back to the living room hoping she'd be ready before the night was over.
We drove another ten minutes of Rose being nervous and me trying to calm and reassure her before we made it to my family's house.
It was a big two story white house in the center of a grass field. There were tall trees that surrounded the grounds and only one paved waved road without a sidewalk on either side. My mother's Honda Accord was pulled into the paved drive way and my sisters' Ford explorer that they shared.
I realized with a light tug at my chest that I'd missed being home with my family.
I pulled into the driveway and climbed out of the car. I went around to Rose's side to open the door. She was gaping open mouthed at the house before her while I lifted her out of the truck.
"Wow," she breathed. "I thought I'd only see houses like these on TV."
"You like it?"
"It's beautiful. I especially like how isolated it is and that the nearest neighbors are a little ways down."
"I do to. The closest towns are miles away. I like it out here but sometimes we miss Baia."
"I bet it feels good to be home," she said taking in my thoughtful tone. She noticed the homesickness in my voice.
"Yeah," I answered honestly. "It does. I miss my family."
As if on cue, the front door opened and out came Paul and little Zoya. Paul ran straight into me shouting, "Uncle Dimka's here." It took Zoya a while since she teetered and tottered, barely learning to walk.
I picked Paul up from where he was hugging my legs and grabbed Zoya with the other arm. The laughed and smiled and locked me in as tight of an embrace as any little kid could manage.
"I missed you both very much and you know what?"
I put them down on the ground all of us still smiling.
"What!" They both squealed excited. Zoya was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her curls swaying from side to side.
"I have a surprise for each of you." When Rose and I went into to town yesterday I had picked up a few gifts to make up for taking so long to visit.
Rose handed me the gifts from the car.
I took them and handed them both to Zoya and Paul. I'd bought him an entire pack of hot wheels that he was obsessed with and I gave money to Rose to pick out a Barbie doll for Zoya. It would have been awkward if I went into the toy store, doll shopping.
The both gasped and widened their eyes in surprise.
"It's a Barbie!" Zoya squealed, a bit of a lisp in her voice.
She turned to see her mom, Karolina in the doorway, and they both ran to her excitedly.
"Look what uncle Dimka got us!" we could hear them telling Karolina.
Soon everyone was in the doorway excited to see me, peeking out. I held my hand out to Rose who was hiding behind my truck, leaning her head against the frame.
"Ready, Roza?"
Her head snapped up and she smiled at her name.
She exhaled and took my hand firmly.
"Ready."
RPOVI don't exactly remember when I lost my grip on Dimitri's hand.
It was sometime between when his sisters tackled him and when they herded everyone into the house.
Dimitri was smiling and laughing so much; I didn't mind walking behind them quietly. I liked watching as they all took in the moment, being together as one again. In a sad way it reminded me of what I didn't have: a real family to go home to.
I had Dimitri thought and was plenty enough for me.
If today went all right, maybe I'd have a few more added in family members.
We ended up in the kitchen and a good fifteen minutes had passed before the conversation shifted to me. I was s out of it, looking around the house, that I didn't realize everyone was staring at me expectantly, Dimitri smiling.
He broke out of the tight embrace his sister Victoria held him in and came to stand next to me.
He pulled me by the hand to move closer to the center of the kitchen instead of awkwardly in the doorway.
"It's going to be fine. I'm right here," he whispered to me before pecking me on the cheek.
I fought the urge to slap him across the arm for doing so and managed a small smile on my face.
"This is Rose," Dimitri introduced.
"Rose, this is my mother, Olena, my grandmother, Yeva, and my three sisters, Karolina, Sonya, and Victoria. You already met Paul and Zoya."
He gestured to each of his family members.
The all in a way had the same features, which shouldn't have been so surprising considering they were related, but it was just so striking to me. I couldn't decipher whether it was the cheekbones, the slightly angular face or the thick brown hair with the deep eyes to match. Maybe it was all four.
"Hi." It came out in sort of a horse whisper and I managed to tingle my fingers in the stupidest way of greeting possible.
The all broke out into Dimitri like grins and faint smiles and greeted me.
All except Yeva and the middle sister, Sonya, who stood with a swollen belly to the side of the kitchen counter.
Olena moved toward me first, arms outstretched.
She hugged me tight, her starched white shirt tight around my skin.
"It's nice to meet you Roza," she greeted.
I was a bit taken back by the hug and it's suddenness that I teetered on contact and it took me a few good seconds to react and pat her back awkwardly in a lame hug.
She pulled away but still held a firm, motherly arm around my shoulders.
"Sorry, Rose, my mothers a little forward," Dimitri laughed.
She gave him a playful scold; squinty eyes included and looked down at me again.
She held me out and spun me around to get a good look at me.
"Well, you are certainly a little thing but very beautiful," she added, complimenting me, bring a light flush to my cheeks.
"Th-thank you," I stammered.
I generally was used to the 'all eyes on me' 'attention' thing and it brought out the worst nerves in me.
She turned her attention to Dimitri, her arm still rested around my shoulders.
"You've brought a beautiful young lady home with you," she told him, her accent crisp.
She smiled down at me; laugh lines clear on her face.
"Are you Dimka's new girlfriend?" Paul asked from across the room.
Every turned, adoringly, to look at him and smiled.
"Yes," Dimitri answered, fighting a smile.
"Are you going to get married?"
Karolina, thank fully, stepped in and patted Paul gently on the arm, smiling,
"That's enough, Paul."
She turned to me smiling, Zoya bobbing on her hips, still holding the Barbie doll I picked out.
"I'm sorry Roza. My son is at that straightforward age. It's just that Dimka's never brought a girlfriend home before. We're a little caught off guard," she told me truthfully.
"Yeah, you must be pretty special to our Dimitri for him to bring you home to meet us," Victoria said coming around the kitchen counter. She sat beside Dimitri at the counter.
"She is special to me, so I thought it'd be a good idea for you all to meet here," Dimitri told them. His eyes were particularly on Yeva, who was definitely giving me the evil eye and Sonya who rolled her eyes and sat at the kitchen table rubbing her stomach.
"That's sweet. So you two are serious," Olena said.
It was a question but Dimitri, my hand still in his clasp, rubbed his thumb over my skin and said, "yes we are."
Olena nodded, happy and content, as far as I could tell.
"We've only been together for a short time but…Rose means a lot to me, and you guys of course mean a lot to me and I wanted to push all of you together."
It was a lot for Dimitri to say but it warmed my heart.
I smiled at him, grateful to have someone so sweet and kind to me.
"Well that was beautiful. I want to hear more about you two and everything that's been going on and we will over dinner," Olena said. She smiled as nicely as Dimitri but more often. She gave out instructions for Victoria to help her and asked me if I wanted to help.
I nodded, unable to speak.
My voice decided now to stop working.
Maybe I was too overcome with emotion like in those hallmark or lifetime movies.
Dimitri smiled, happy we were getting along and kissed the back of my hand.
"I especially want to hear what happened to your face, Dimka," Olena added gesturing to the bandage Dimitri still wore on his forehead.
"It's a long story," he sighed.
"I don't care. We have time. I want to hear all of it."