I’d created using a variety of items I'd taken from the small space. When the marble ended its run and landed in the dump truck, Maks began clapping. I looked up to see Nikolai watching us both with that same strange smile that I'd seen before. I didn't really get to dwell on it because Maks immediately insisted on going again, so I returned my focus to him.
Maks played with the obstacle course for about ten minutes before he was willing to sit down and eat the food Nikolai had made for him. He only ate about half the soup, but he was considerably calmer when Nikolai settled him on his lap, and it wasn't long before Maks drifted off. I began cleaning up the mess I’d made.
"Where did you learn to do that?" Nikolai asked.
"What? Cleaning up?" I asked with a grin.
Nikolai tipped his head at me. "No, building stuff like this," he said as he motioned around the room.
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, I just started doing it." I sat down on the couch and looked at what I’d built. "It just kind of comes to me, I guess. A lot of the toys that foster families have are just bits and pieces, you know? So it was hard to play with just any one thing the way it was meant to be played with. And as you know, I wasn't a fan of the race cars, so I was always looking for something else to keep busy with. I guess when I built something, it seemed like…"
"Like what?" Nikolai asked.
"Like mine," I admitted.
"Makes sense," Nikolai responded. A comfortable silence fell between us for a few moments as Maks began to softly snore. "Thank you, Jude," Nikolai said before he looked up at me.
"I didn't do anything," I said.
"Yeah, you did," Nikolai murmured. He didn't expand on his statement and I didn't ask him to. I watched the little boy sleeping comfortably on his uncle's chest.
"You really love him, don't you? Natalia too," I observed.
Nikolai nodded.
"Can I ask what happened to their father?"
"He passed away shortly before Maks was born. He and Elena had been together since high school. He helped in the bakery. One day he was doing a delivery down the street and some kid who figured texting while driving was a good idea jumped the curb and hit him. Killed him instantly. Just like that, Natalia and Maks lost their father and Elena lost the love of her life."
"So you stepped in to help raise them," I offered.
"I'd already left the military, so it was easy to do."
"Why did you join the military in the first place?"
"I've always been close to my family. They’re the most important thing in my life," Nikolai said. "After the towers fell, I knew that I had to protect them. As hard as it was to leave, I didn't want that fight to come to our shores ever again." He paused before adding, “I just assumed I would make a career out of it but sometimes things don’t happen the way we expect them to.”
"So you moved back here after you were discharged?" I asked.
"I moved back here to the city, but not here," Nikolai said as he motioned to our surroundings. "Mike and I had talked about starting a business together, so I found a place closer to Brooklyn.”
"Are you talking about Smithfield Security?"
Nikolai nodded. "Mike and I were going to be equal partners, but when Maks got sick, everything changed."
"How so?"
"The medical bills started piling up. Fast. I didn't know it at the time, but my parents began selling off all of their assets, including cashing out their retirement plans, to pay the bills. It wasn't until they closed the second shop that they'd only opened last year that I realized something was wrong."
I thought back to when I’d initially met Nikolai and had done the research on his family. At the time, I’d just assumed the worst—that they weren’t good at managing their business. Later, when Nikolai had let it slip about Maks’s health problems and his parents getting behind on the insurance payments, I’d realized I was wrong. But to know that Dimitri and Anna had given up everything for the little boy just like they’d given up their previous life so Nikolai could have a future in the United States was like a punch to the gut.
That kind of unconditional love seemed like a fantasy to me, but I was staring it right