A Virgin for His Prize(57)
“I’m sure he doesn’t get it from a stranger.” Romi’s smile took some of the sting from her words, but not all. “There’s more than one flaw floating in our gene pool I guess.”
Incredibly, his mother laughed.
Romi reached out, took his wrist and tugged. “Sit down, Mr. Tsar. Your mom will behave and we’ve got wedding plans to make.”
“Your fiancée is a very confusing woman,” his mother said. “I like her.”
“I do, too. Very much.”
“More than that, I think,” Viktor said with that smug superiority Maxwell always wanted to knock off is his face.
Surprisingly, Mama didn’t start in on one of her antilove tirades. She was busy asking Madison where she thought they should go shopping for Romi’s wedding gown.
“I’ve asked our favorite boutique to get in a selection of vintage bohemian chic.”
“You are not going to wear your mother’s gown?” Viktor had asked what Maxwell wanted to.
Admittedly, he knew little of this type of thing, but Jeremy Archer had happily proclaimed to anyone who would listen that Madison was wearing her mother’s wedding dress.
“Maddie’s dress is a family heirloom,” Romi explained. “My mom’s was a typical 1980s monstrosity. Poufy sleeves, layers and layers of polyester lace and about four inches too long for me.”
“Oh,” Max said as if he’d asked the question.
“It’s really not Romi at all. Besides, her dad doesn’t need the reminder,” Madison declared.
Romi grimaced and Maxwell reached down to squeeze her thigh in support. “He will be delighted to see you in your finery, whatever it ends up being.”
Her smile in appreciation of his support was worth any amount of firm talks he would have to have with his mother.
“Where are we having the reception?” Natalya asked.
“We will host it, it’s the bride’s family’s prerogative,” Madison replied with no room for question.
“You and the Graysons are related?” Mama asked.
“She’s my sister-by-choice,” Madison said firmly.
Romi nodded. “We chose each other before we knew people didn’t just get to pick their family.”
“They do if they want,” Madison opined.
“I would have liked to have chosen my family,” his mother said with more feeling than she usually showed. “Mine soured me on any familial relationships but mother and son.”
“Do you miss them?” Romi asked.
“I do.” His mother’s face took on a faraway look. “I didn’t realize that neither of us was all wrong or all right until Maxika was a boy in school and I was too proud to write and tell them where I was.”
“So, they don’t know?” Romi pressed.
His mother shook her head. “I will never know if my own mama could forgive me and accept the woman I have become. She would have been proud of Maxika in any case.”
“I’m sure your whole family would admire the man Little Max has become.” Viktor’s tease on Maxwell’s other nickname didn’t negate his words.
And Maxwell found himself oddly moved by the other man’s approval.
“As your family is,” Natalya said with a pat to Viktor’s hand. “To think you two were once little boys together.”
“It’s hard to imagine either of them as little anything,” Madison said with a laugh.
Romi gave them a droll look. “For me, too.”
“I assure you. While he’s always had a voice worthy of the little bear I called him, my Maxika was a small baby.”
“His dad must have been a giant,” Romi said with a smile for his diminutive mama.
Large in spirit, at a scant five foot nothing, her stature wasn’t nearly as imposing.
“Oh, he was. In so many ways.” Natalya winked at Romi.
And Maxwell started wondering again about how soon he could take her home.
“He would be so proud to know how well our son turned out.”
“You never said that,” Maxwell blurted before thought.
His mother looked more shocked by his blunt admission than he was by her forthright speech.
She reached out to pat his hand. “I never saw the point talking about a man you could never meet.”
Maxwell was surprised when not a single person at the table asked why he couldn’t meet his father.
“I’m sure he would be proud,” Madison said.
It was Romi’s turn to offer comfort with a caress on his thigh. “I think you got the best of his gene pool anyway.”
He grinned down at her. “I am glad you think so.”
“Oh, he did. My Maxika, he is a son to make any mother proud.”