Life Begins (27 page)

              “I already have plan,” Žarko promised her. “I just have to put in a bid for the property.”

              “Okay,” she said, before reaching up and pressing her lips against his. “I’m willing to trust you.” She already did.

Chapter 28

              “We are going to see
baka
and
deda
,” Desa was busy telling Josif as Žarko drove them to the airport. “You will like them. They give the best gifts.”

              Josie looked over her shoulder into the back seat to watch the children interact. “
Baka
makes the best cookies,” Desa continued to say. “You will love our
porodica
. Right,
tata
?”

              “Of course. You will have much fun with
baka
and
deda
. They have already promised to take you all shopping. Not that any of them need anything else,” he finished for Josie’s ears.

              It had taken months for the family to be able to schedule a trip out of the country, what with the cops randomly showing up at their house, constantly questioning and harassing them about what happened that night. Josie had yet to change her story, knowing that one, she couldn’t, and two, she didn’t have any sort of details that would have been useful to the police.

              It didn’t matter that they called themselves warning her about her husband’s
past
. As far as Josie was concerned, they didn’t know anything. Her husband had seconded that information, making it clear that all the police wanted to do was to create dissension between them, something that she would never allow to happen as long as she held breath in her body. Even if the police and others were being well meaning, Josie couldn’t allow them to make her rethink her marriage.

              Because the police had no evidence, they were unable to say anything about Žarko taking his family outside of the United States for vacation purposes. Even Josie had to snort with laughter about that one. By the time they arrived in Serbia, she most likely wouldn’t be allowed a return trip because of the advanced stage of her pregnancy.

              She knew that it was something that her husband desperately wanted, to have his son born on his home soil. Hell, his own parents had made it clear that they wanted her to give birth in Serbia instead of allowing the baby to be born in the United States.

              “I’m not sure I care what they do with the kids. I just really want to have a peaceful rest of my pregnancy. The doctors had already warned her about her penchant for worrying. “Your mom is going to be doing all the cooking and the cleaning? And all that I have to do is sit back and watch? Your parents can be saints in my book.”

              “You say that now, but wait until they get going. You will never see Juljiana or Josif again.”

              She reached over to rub his forearm. “I would worry if I weren’t still breast feeding. My baby isn’t quite ready yet to disappear from her mother.”

              For such a long trip out of the country, she worried about how her little ones would travel. Žarko didn’t seem worried at all, but she had a feeling that it was more that he didn’t have any sense to know better. She knew her children enough not to trust them on a plane full of people.

              “Stop worrying. The trip will be fine,” Žarko told her. “You just rest while
tata
takes care of everything.”

              She wasn’t sure about that, but she could do nothing when they parked at the airport. Srecko met them there, guiding the family to a private room where they were to wait. Since Josie liked to think of herself as intelligent, she stared at her husband. This wasn’t even the first class lounge.

              “We’re taking a private jet?” she asked him. Her husband nodded.

              “How else do you think I would be able to get you out of the country when you are so clearly pregnant?”

              She wanted to hate him for that, but she loved him too much and felt too much relief to even care. When they were guided onto their plane, Josie had no problems sinking into one of the luscious seats and resting her body. It only would have been better if she had a foot stool to put up her swollen ankles.

              Žarko surprised her, by having Nenad waiting on the plane for them, being willing to take care of the little ones for her. The girls didn’t need to be told what to do. They had already taken a seat and were listening to their MP3 players and fooling around on their I-pads. That just left her husband sitting at her side.

              She released a groan of pressure, the baby seeming to be right there with her as he stretched himself inside of her. “Someone seems impatient to get out,” she said quietly. Žarko settled his hand over her bulging stomach.

              “You still have time,
beba
. It is not yet ready for you to make an appearance.” He then looked at her, noticing the lines of tiredness around her eyes. “You should sleep while it is possible. Nothing much will happen on the trip for you to be concerned.”

              She nodded, making sure she did exactly that. Sleep had never been so good.

              Josie finally understood what her husband was talking about with his parents. They had barely arrived at the house when her children were scooped right out of her arms and carried off to parts unknown. They had yet to return and Josie had no idea as to when they would, or if they ever would.

              “Are you sure the kids are okay with your parents?” she asked him again, while lounging on the sofa in their private room. “It seems like we’ll never see them again at this rate.”

              “It has been a long time since they have seen their grandchildren and now there are little ones in need of a city tour. I thought you did not mind this break.” He barely glanced up from the phone he’d been texting on since the plane landed. “They will be back in time for dinner.
Majka
will never let a pregnant woman starve.”

              Especially since the woman seemed to think that Josie wasn’t gaining enough weight with her pregnancy. She had no idea what her mother-in-law felt was sufficient, but as far as Josie was concerned. She felt as if she were carrying around a basketball. She was only seven months along after all.

              “Are we going to take our own tour of Belgrade, since you’re trying to convince me to move here and all? Or are you going to be constantly ignoring me so that you can have a phone affair with Srecko back in Chicago?”

              She did her best not to laugh at the glare he presented her with. “I have to make sure that organization remains safe just because I am here.”

              Josie read between the lines on that one. She wasn’t foolish enough to think that he wouldn’t have enemies all over the place, waiting to take everything that belonged to him. “Do you think that there’s going to be trouble with you being gone?”

              He shook his head. “No one would dare, but I always have my eyes and ears out just in case someone wants to do something stupid.”

              She hesitated to ask. “So then, what’s wrong? Why are we constantly texting?”

              “Because we are moving.”

              “And you need your organization,” she finished for him. She then sighed. “I get it. Do what you have to do. I’ll just lay here, looking pretty while you work.” She probably had a book somewhere that she could read. If not, then she could probably look at her phone.

              She kept quiet and ignored her husband while she waited for something to happen. When she couldn’t find something to distract herself with, she decided that it would be a nice idea to take selfies of herself around the house. The view was pretty spectacular outside anyway.

              It gave her a chance to get oriented to her in-laws’ house and it gave her a chance to take a look around the kitchen, even knowing that her mother-in-law wanted to do all the cooking. She had no idea when anyone would return and desperately found herself needing to do something.

              She nosed around things, seeing what kind of ingredients were available. Her fingers practically itched to grab a knife and start cutting up vegetables. Good thing she heard the door opening to admit her children and her in-laws.

              She vacated the kitchen, knowing that her face looked guilty, but not being able to help herself. No one seemed to notice much of anything over the excited chatter that came from the kids about being out and about with their grandparents. Desa, in particular, was animated in explaining the fun of their trip into town with
baka
and
deda
.

              Josie had to smile at that. Even Josif had fun talking about getting some ice cream and getting the chance to run around at the park. It made her happy, and hopeful that her children would be able to have a good future here in Serbia.

              Her mother-in-law, Jovana, handed over Juljiana while addressing all the girls in the room. “Why don’t we head into the kitchen to get started on dinner? I’m sure the
beba
has to be hungry.”

              Yes, Josie thought. She really was starving. “How about I watch you guys help your
baka
?” she said, almost stumbling over the Serbian word. In the back of her mind she pretty much knew that she was going to have to learn the language. As much as everyone in the house spoke and understood English, it would be in her benefit to prove to them that she was willing to accommodate them. She would try to talk to her husband about that.

              She finally got the chance to get out, without her husband unfortunately, but she at least had her mother-in-law with her. Sure, they didn’t do much more than walk around a small part of Belgrade, but that was more than enough to entertain Josie. She wanted to do a more extensive tour with Žarko, something that Jovana seemed to respect.

              She just wanted to get the chance to catch some sun and get some exercise. It also gave her time to get to know her mother-in-law, and she found that she and the woman had a lot in common. She too, had been married young and enjoyed working at home. Where they differed was in the fact that having Žarko made it impossible for her to bear another child. It was kind a sad, in a way, for a woman so motherly to only bare one child when she wanted so many more. But, as Jovana said, it gave her plenty of opportunity to turn it around on her grandchildren. It explained why the girls were so big on spending time with her.

              “My son has always been terrible at choosing women,” Jovana said when they had stopped at a café for lunch. “His girlfriends were terrible and then he’d chosen that one wife and I worried that he would never get it right.”

              Josie hid a grimace as her son shifted inside her womb. “I bet it must have been insane. He’s told me a little about his first wife.”

              The other woman waved it away. “He probably doesn’t know the half of what she’s done to him. I am just glad that he finally got it right this time.”

              Josie gave a bashful grimace. Sometimes it was hard to take compliments from other people because it felt like people occasionally gave her more credit than she deserved. She didn’t know why it was difficult, but it was and having her mother-in-law do it made it that much more difficult to deal with.

              “I can’t say that the marriage is perfect, but I like to think that we’re getting ourselves together.” Especially for how little they knew one another in the beginning. “I love him. I definitely love being with him.”

              “Which is all that I desire for him.”

              Josie could understand that sentiment. She would hate for any of her children to end up with the wrong person, like she and Žarko did the first time around. Bad marriages were terrible to deal with and recover from. She never wanted that to happen for the kids.

              She wasn’t sure how much of the story Žarko’s parents knew, but she was pretty sure that he’d had to tell them about how little time they spent in a relationship before deciding to get married. Okay…she had to remind herself, they actually didn’t date before getting married. And she couldn’t exactly say that they dated after, but she supposed that didn’t matter. They found a way to make a relationship together, and it seemed like they were going to be stable.

              She didn’t think it a good idea to say anything, just in case. Instead, she turned the conversation to some history about Serbia. She was interested about the culture, knowing that this was the country she would be raising her children. Even if they decided to move elsewhere, she still knew that this was the country of her husband’s birth.

              “We will need to have a party for the little ones,”Jovana said, interrupting the conversation suddenly. “It will be fun and will help them to feel a part of the family. And it would be a good way to make up for all the missed birthdays of the
bebe
.”

              Josie smiled at that. That actually would be a good idea, though it was hard to believe that her children were getting so much older. “Let’s do that. Josif loves birthday cake and I can only imagine how Juljiana is going to react to eating something new and sweet.” Her babies deserved it after all.