Then why, even after reliving it in all of its painful glory, didn’t it hurt like it used to?
“What happened after the engagement ended?”
“My brother was arrested less than four months later. The prestige we enjoyed shriveled away like dry fruit. No one wanted to marry a woman who is the sister of a convict.”
“Well, something’s change. Else why would you dad be trying to set you up again?”
“Papa said it was because my brother is sick. He wants to see me have a family of my own. Or, maybe enough time has passed and people’s memories have a short life span. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.”
She started to walk away when Leon grabbed her arm and halted her steps. “Why doesn’t it matter?”
“If I decide to marry, it will be my choice.”
“Then what was all that about being okay with arranged marriages and all? Aren’t you just waiting for your father to pick the right one?”
“No. When I decide to marry it will be my choice alone.”
She stilled as the answer slipped from her without conscious thought. The person who she was back then was not the person she was now. Then, she’d been a girl who played at womanhood. The ritzy life. Her charity work to keep her grounded. Riding her brother’s coat tails. Immersed in her love for her fiancé.
Now, she wasn’t living in foolish girlhood anymore. Somehow along the way, she’d become a woman who had dealt with much. This woman could stand on the dictates of her own heart.
She loved her brother fiercely but in hindsight, she should have stood her ground. If she wanted to end her engagement, it should have been because of her wishes and desires, not loyalty to the family.
But if she had, would she be here with Leon?
The question of why did bad things happen to good people reared its head once again. Yet, as she stared into the ever-deepening gaze of Leon’s dark golden eyes, a profound wonder came over her.
Had all those awful things led to this moment? Her mother’s untimely death, her broken engagement, her brother’s unjustified conviction, and illness. Had it all led here? To this place in Tawas, next to a small pond in a park, with the sound of children laughing and playing in happy abandon?
A well-known verse echoed in her mind: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
His hand drifted slowly down her arm, leaving trails of heat until his fingers interlocked with hers. “Do you mind?” He gestured to their clasped hands.
“No.” She gripped them harder while a radiant glow lit her from within. “Not at all.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Look at you, bhaii! You’re a superhero!”
A strained smile etched Dev’s face as he took another laborious step across the hospital room. The nurse a small, slender thing with the strength of three men, hovered by, holding him upright when his foot slipped or he lost balance
“A very feeble superhero. I couldn’t save a leaf from falling right now.”
Sweat rained profusely down his body. It matted and curled his hair. Drenched and soaked his clothes. Lifted the peculiar odor of mustiness and his own masculine scent to her nose.
All in all,Dev’s wrestling against the weakness of his body as he struggled to walk under his own power meant only one thing.
Finally, at long last, things were starting to look up.
After another step, he shook his head and gasped out. “No more.”
The nurse wrapped her arms around his lithe, weak frame and practically carried him back to bed.
“It’s still good, Mr. Kapoor,” the nurse commented as she settled him back into the bed. “You’d already completed a round around the ward. You don’t want to overextend yourself too much.”
Dev’s chest heaved with exertion. It was so good to see how far he’d come in a few short days.
A few days…
Her happiness dwindled. In a few days, he’d be back in prison.
The state’s prison representative had already been notified Dev’s progress. In a rare generous overture, they allowed her brother another week before being sent back to prison. The Lyme disease aspect had no sway with them. As long as he was ambulatory and no one knew about their screw up, he could go back to jail.
Gargi recalled the conversation she’d had with Dr. Chalker over the phone earlier this morning when the woman called to check on Dev’s progress.
“I would have thought Dr. Manchester would have kept you updated,” Gargi said. “Not that I mind the personal phone.”
“There’s something of a professional conflict between us, Gargi. Dr. Manchester relied solely on the blood work and mainstream tests she performed in order to advise you. I have to be blunt with you. It’s quite a lucky thing your brother had a bull’s eye rash as most patients do not. Most of these tests are unreliable and there are a lot of false negatives. In your brother’s case, the blood work corresponded with the diagnoses.”
Luck? Gargi vehemently denied that. No, a divine, deliberate Hand had everything to do with it.
“This is not to say Dr. Manchester hasn’t been forthcoming. Quite the opposite in fact. I’ve received updates but I thought I’d reach out you as you have to advocate for your brother.”
Advocate. How would she be able to advocate for proper medical treatment with Dev behind bars? She kept the worry to herself as she gave the doctor a brief overview, which coincided with what Dr. Manchester had related.
Dr. Chalker sighed on the phone. “Lyme is a very misunderstood disease, Gargi. It’s very difficult to properly diagnose and it’s even more difficult to treat. It takes allopathic medicine, natural medicine, and nutrition in concert to even give someone a fighting chance of recovering enough to have some semblance of life.
“There is no cure at this time. It is a very serious disease that deserves respect. The patients who suffer with it deserve to be heard and properly treated. The loved ones deserve to know the truth about Lyme disease and be given the opportunity to help.”
“Chhotee bahan?”
Gargi pulled away from the morning’s conversation. “Sorry. I was miles away.”
“What were you thinking about?”
“The stuff Dr. Chalker talked to me about.”
Dev nodded. “I like her. I like how she puts everything out on the table. Just plain-speaking. If it wasn’t for her—”
“Let’s not look back,” Gargi interjected. She knew what the alterative could have been. “Bhaii, let’s look forward.”
Her brother’s eyes started to flutter close. “I’ll go now. You’re exhausted.”
“Nahin. Stay a while and talk to me. Soon, I will long for days like this.”
She swallowed. “Next week—”
“Shhh.” He put a finger to his lips. “Tell me, has Papa brought anymore prospects to you?”
Glad to get off the subject of next week, she crossed her legs. “Haan. I’m met a wannabe Peter Jennings two days ago.”
“How do you mean?”
“He called his traffic report ‘the show’.”
Dev guffawed and winced at the same. “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.” A few chuckles still escaped.
“Papa was embarrassed for Govind Acharaya even if he wasn’t.”
“Govind Acharaya? Funny, I believe I do know him.”
“Indeed? You’re a fan of the show?”
Dev laughed. “Well, not a fan. But I do remember he came to me once because he wanted me to set up some investments. I tried to help him but he said my strategy wasn’t aggressive enough. The guy didn’t have much money to work with so I’m not sure what he was looking for.”
“He didn’t mention he knew you.”
Dev gave a dismissive shrug. “Who cares?”
A sudden thought exploded in her brain. “Bhaii! I forgot to tell you. You won’t believe it. We’ve got two hundred thousand dollars!”
He jerked upright and fli
nched. “What!”
“Yes!” she nodded happily. “Two hundred thousand dollars!”
A glimmer shone in his eyes. “How?”
“I found out the day you went into hospital. A few years ago, you must have opened a money market account for me, made an initial deposit, and forgot about it. It grew from there.”
Dev tensed. “How much was the initial deposit?”
“Fifty grand.”
He sat quiet for so long, staring hard into her face that Gargi’s smile fell away. “Dev, what is it? What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happy as much as I am. It won’t make a dent in the restitution payments but at least it’s something.”
His eyes dropped from her. “Chhotee bahan, I’ve never opened an account in your name.”
“Huh?”
“I’ve never opened an account in your name. I wouldn’t do so without your permission.”
Blood pounded through her ears. “But, how?”
“When was the account opened?”
“About four and a half years ago.”
Dev fell back on the pillows, a deep furrow grooved on his forehead. “That’s about the time you were engaged to Rahul, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” What was he getting at?
“Did you and Rahul ever talk about opening accounts together?”
Remnants of a long-ago conversation flitted to front of her mind. “I think so,” she said. “It was around the time you and Mr. Khatri were in discussions.”
His lips flattened. “Do you remember what was said?”
She racked her brain, trying to remember. Then she snapped her fingers. “Rahul had stated we should both start an account and begin to put money away for…our children.”
“Had you decided to do that?”
Gargi shook her head. “No. I remember laughing about it and telling him it was too soon when we weren’t even married yet.”
She paused. “Dev, you don’t think—”
“I don’t think anything. Maybe you did set up a money market account and can’t remember. It happens more often than people think. Let’s just be thankful for God’s provision.”
Heat flamed her skin as the anger rose. “Dev, stop trying to protect me and be honest. Do you think Rahul had something to do with this?”
The very idea that a man she loved with such intensity could—
“I’m not going to assume anything. It could be nothing and maybe you did open it without realizing it. I would suggest you look further into the opening of the account before make any more assumptions.”
She opened her mouth again to protest when she saw his eyes drifted downward again.
“I’ll look into it. Now I’ll let you get some sleep.”
“How is Leon?”
The unexpected question made Gargi pause in gathering her purse. “Dev?”
A wry grin lifted the corners of his mouth. “Let’s just say Papa told me he caught you and Leon about to kiss in front of the entire neighborhood.”
“Leon didn’t kiss me!”
“I believe you. However, Papa is not happy about it.”
“There’s nothing for Papa to be concerned with. It’s not as if we’re—”
“Dating?”
“That’s right. We aren’t.” She averted her gaze from the gleam in her brother’s eyes. She wasn’t fooling him one bit and they both knew it.
In the past two days, she and Leon had spent as much time as possible together. Every morning after she visited Dev, she raced home and called him. What seemed like seconds later, Lean appeared at her front door and they went out for the day.
The more time she spent with Leon Reckley, the more she wanted to see where a relationship with him could go.
“Tell me, Gargi. Does Leon still believe I stole his mother’s money?”
And therein lied the rub. She and Leon tiptoed the around the one issue that brought them together in the first place—her brother’s “guilt”.
“We haven’t discussed it,” she said truthfully.
He grimaced. “I understand why you wouldn’t. But Gargi, can you really be with a man a man who believes I’m guilty of such a heinous act. I was wrong about Rahul. That was a business decision I turned into a personal affair. This however is different. There’s no way I can countenance a man in our family circle who believes—”
“There’s nothing for you to worry about, bhaii. We’re just friends.”
Friends who couldn’t get enough of each other’s company. Friends who spent an inordinate amount of time gazing into each other’s eyes. Friends who couldn’t even hold hands because the electric connection crackled in intense arcs of awareness. An accidental brush jolted through them like a lightning bolt.
Friends who really, really wanted to be more than friends.
Her phone buzzed and she took it out the purse to swipe the screen and see the text message icon.
I can’t wait to see you.
While her heart did a flip flop in her chest, her teeth bit at her lower lip. Eventually, she and Leon were going to have to face this issue straight on if there was any hope they would ever be together.
Brown woman voodoo.
Krause’s choice set of words resounded in Leon’s mind as he and Gargi along with another couple traveled up the eighty-five wrought iron stairs of Tawas Point Lighthouse.
“Good thing we’re both in shape, right, laal sher?” Gargi quipped as she bounded up the stairs with a light foot.
These past two days with Gargi had been a couple of the best of his life. His mornings were filled with the anticipation of seeing her, knowing that some time, after she finished her routine with her brother, she’d call him. Hightailing it over to house as fast as he could without breaking the speed limit, he bounded up the narrow walkway which had once been a source of conflict.
They talked a lot about many things. He found himself shocked by how much they had in common. She had an eclectic taste in movies which matched his own varied tastes of old classic cinema. They both read science fiction novels although she hadn’t picked up one in years. He told her about his childhood growing up in a trailer park. She talked about being an Indian girl growing up in a predominantly Indian community but going to predominantly Caucasian schools.
“The Indian community is pretty close knit,” she said the day before over coffee at a tea shop on the main strip in town. “We support each other, help each other, marry each other’s kids.”
I hope not.
“It’s how we keep our families together. Our memories are long but not over the small things. A friend is a friend no matter how long it’s been.”
“You know something, Bugsy? Growing up as trailer trash, I guess you could stay we had a tight community, too. I remember when Krause’s mama died, my mama picked up and became his. The neighbors may have made their moonshine out of leather boots but you could count them to be there when you need them.”
She rested her chin on her raised hand. “We’re not all that dissimilar, are we?”
“Leon?”
He came back to the present to see her eyes fixed on him. “Are you okay?”
The tips of his ears burned. “I’m fine.”
Her hand reached down through the narrow opening at the top of the stairs. “Come, laal sher.”
He loved it when she called him ‘Lyle’ now. He didn’t even ask her why ‘Lyle’ was her sweetheart name.
If only he could hold and kiss her like a sweetheart.
“I wonder what the view is like,” she said. “I bet it’s lovely.” They entered the cupola housing the light.
His view was spectacular, one consisting of a cascade of black, wavy hair intermixed with those fascinating amber strands. Feverish excitement sparkled her dark chocolate eyes like diamonds. Her skin, which had tanned in the past couple of days, resembled dark cocoa with its ever-present luminosity.
Everything about Gargi had an enchantment to it. The way she smiled, her graceful walk, her high-pitched laugh, everyt
hing. It wasn’t some brown woman voodoo
Just the essence of her.
“Laal sher, look!” Her finger pointed to the window.
Reluctantly he turned away to behold another sight easily as captivating as the woman beside him.
The view of Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes of Michigan, gleamed like a sea of sapphire. Waves crested along the shore while the early afternoon sun created a view meant for paintings and postcards. Beyond the quaint farmhouse attached to the lighthouse and the picturesque view of the well maintained 200 acres of land. Evergreens, maples trees, and tall, peridot green grasses surrounded the place, creating the illusion of an island.
“Wow, this is amazing,” he said with awe.
“This is one of the prettiest sights I’ve ever seen!” Gargi exclaimed.
He turned to look at her but the picture she made as the sunlight flowed over her, illuminating her like an unearthly being, he said. “Yeah, beautiful.”
Her head turned toward him, a smile gracing her lips. Something of his thoughts must have reflected in his face. The smile slowly died away to be replaced by a shy lift of her mouth. Those long, curly lashes draped a dramatic fan over her high cheekbones and gave her a surprising coy and enticing look which made his heart hammer in his chest.
How long could this thing between them continue unfulfilled? Leon was sure Gargi was the woman for him. Positive.
Her brother’s guilt stood like a brick wall. A nearly insurmountable wall. He had to find a way to scale it. Only then could they go anywhere.
“I don’t think either of you heard a word I said.”
They both jumped at the sound of the tour guide’s voice. She laughed. “You kids want to see the rest of the view? Or just look at the one in front of you?”
They both shared sheepish grins and went back down the stairs.
He drove them out of Tawas Point State Park and back onto the main road. “You wanna go anywhere else?”
“The pier.”
“As you wish.”
She grinned at the use of the famous phrase but said nothing. Soon, they were at the pier overlooking Tawas Bay.
A companionable silence fell over them. Leon basked in it. They strolled along slowly, passing other couples doing the same. A fisherman cast his line over the railing.
Time to Say Goodbye (Michigan Sweet Romance) Page 17