by Sara Desai
“Auntie-ji! Sit down. You might disturb people.” Daisy shot a frantic glance around the waiting room where photographs of people and their pets covered the bright white walls. A woman with a cat in a carrier sat in one of the colorful plastic chairs and a man with a birdcage was talking to the receptionist. No one seemed annoyed. In fact, everyone was smiling, amused by her aunt’s antics.
“She’s a Bollywood fanatic,” Daisy explained to Liam. “We teach Bollywood dance classes together, and . . .” She gestured to her aunt. “She loves to dance.”
Liam laughed, the sound rippling over her skin, easing her tension. He scrolled through his phone to a YouTube version of the song. “Let’s help her out.”
By the time the last few notes of the song faded away, everyone in the waiting room was clapping along. Daisy didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but her muscles were no longer tight and she could breathe again.
“He’s a good boy.” Mehar Auntie patted Liam’s shoulder. “Maybe I should go home and get some rest since you have extra company.”
“I’m happy to stay as long as you need me.” Liam placed his hand, palm up, on his knee and Daisy took the invitation. Warm, solid flesh squeezed her hand tight.
“If you’re okay with it,” she said to her aunt. “I know you love Max . . .”
Mehar Auntie leaned down to whisper in her ear. “He came all this way for you. You don’t need an old auntie when you have . . .” She gestured to Liam, her lips curved in a knowing smile as she turned to leave. “This.”
“You passed the test,” she said after her aunt had gone. “Good call on the music. There’s nothing she loves more.”
“I aim to please.” Liam squeezed her hand. “Do you need anything? Are you hungry? I can bring you something to eat.”
She needed Liam to not be Liam but another kind, caring man who would race through the city to sit with a woman in an animal hospital after only three fake dates, a man who would not only humor a Bollywood-loving aunt, but also enjoy her show.
“Avocado and hummus quesadillas.”
Liam chuckled. “What about baked tofu fries?”
“Batata vada.” Jana Auntie’s potato fritters, coated with chickpea flour and served hot with chutney, were one of her favorite snacks.
“How about that crunchy snack food in the red bag that your relatives always bring from India?” Liam put an arm around her and she leaned against him.
“Kurkure Masala Munch?”
“That’s the stuff. Loved it. It was an effort not to eat the whole bag.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “I appreciate your restraint, but that was your bag. Sanjay never liked it and I had my own hidden away.”
He stared at her in mock horror. “You mean I could have eaten it all?”
“Every bit.”
She dragged her teeth over her bottom lip, berating herself for falling so easily back into their old banter. It was almost too easy to get comfortable with him, to feel the pull of longing and forget the abject humiliation and the soul-destroying pain. She had rules and she needed to stick to them. Rules kept her safe. Feelings, not so much.
“You don’t have to stay.” She pulled away from his warmth. “It was nice of you to come, but I might be here all night.” She gave a resigned shrug, hoping he would take the hint. “Even if I wanted to go, I can’t get up. I think my muscles are locked in this position.”
“What if you have to pee?” He moved their clasped hands so he could rest his ankle on one knee, all cool and casual like he hung out in animal emergency hospitals with fake fiancées every night.
“Seriously?”
“I’m very serious,” he said. “They won’t want you to pee on the floor. It’s not hygienic.”
“I don’t need to pee, Liam.”
He raised a dubious eyebrow. “You didn’t pee at my grandfather’s house, and I’m pretty sure you didn’t pee when you picked up Max and brought him here. That’s a long time. I have superior bladder function and even I couldn’t go that long.”
She rubbed absently at her bare arms. Her sweater was still in the car and she could feel the goose bumps on her skin. “I can’t believe you’re tracking when I pee.”
“Just being observant.” He rubbed his thumb over her fingers, making it difficult to concentrate on anything but the soothing sensation that fuzzed her brain.
She stared at him, incredulous. “Of pee?”
“Of you.”
Warmth flooded her chest, disconcerting in its intensity. She looked away and saw the woman with the cat watching them. “Keep your voice down. I don’t want people to hear us talking about pee.”
“They’d hear a tinkle. That’s for sure.”
Her face flamed when the woman snickered. “Fine.” She jumped up from her seat. “I’ll go to the restroom simply so you’ll shut up about it and then you can go.”
Liam stood beside her. “Or, since you’re standing . . .” He swept her up in his arms like she weighed nothing, although she knew exactly how much she weighed. And why had she stuffed her face with jalebis and laddu at Mehar Auntie’s house earlier that afternoon at the dance rehearsal? Everyone knew that the weight from sweets you shouldn’t eat went on immediately and took at least five days to lose.
“I’ll carry you to your car and take you home.”
“Liam!” A tingling swept up the back of her neck and across her face. “Put me down.”
“I will.” He bent to pick up her purse, shifting her weight to one arm. “In your car.”
“You guys are so cute together,” the woman with the cat called out as Liam carried her through the waiting room. “He’s a real catch.”
“Did you hear that?” Liam murmured in her ear, his voice amused. “I’m a real catch. You shouldn’t let me get away.”
“I’m beginning to worry we might not both fit in my car given the size of your ego.”
“Daisy?” Still holding her tight in his arms, he pulled open the door.
“What?”
“Don’t pee on the seat.”
• 18 •
NOSTALGIA hit Liam hard when he walked with Daisy up the sidewalk to the bright blue Victorian house that had been his second home. Everything looked the same, from the white picket fence to the tiny front garden, and the porch hidden behind a giant Maidenhair tree.
“I climbed to the top of that tree once.”
“I remember.” Daisy pulled out her keys. “You and Sanjay threw water balloons at me.”
“And then you locked us out of the house and we didn’t get our afternoon snack.”
She looked back over her shoulder. “Why do all your memories of that time have to do with food?”
“I was a teenager. Food was my life.” It had also been a way to connect with Daisy, but that she didn’t need to know.
“Do you want to come in for tea while I call an Uber to take you back to your motorcycle?” She flicked on the lights, illuminating the familiar hallway with a warm glow. “And don’t even think about calling them yourself. I’m paying and that’s all there is to it.”
“I can’t believe nothing has changed.” Liam walked into the living room from the small hallway. “Same drapes. Same couch. You even have the same pictures on the walls.” He knew this house better than his own, he realized. The Murphy living room had been a place of fights and violence instead of fun and relaxation, and he’d avoided it when he could.
“Look!” He pointed at a dent in the wall, a thrill of excitement flowing through his veins. “That’s from the time Sanjay threw a baseball at me. Your dad had just finished repainting the living room. I think that was the most annoyed I’d ever seen him.”
Daisy watched him, amused. “You have more memories of my house than I do.”
“What about the kitchen?” He took off at full stride to the small count
ry-style kitchen with its whitewashed cupboards and fading melamine counters. “This is the same, too.” He pointed to one of the kitchen stools, the vinyl seat torn and showing its stuffing. “There’s my chair.”
“It’s Priya’s chair now. She’s my dad’s new girlfriend. He was alone for twenty years, and then one day I came home for dinner and there she was. It was awkward at first. It had just been Dad and me for the longest time. But Priya is great. I’ve never seen him so happy. And since she runs a bakery, we always have treats.”
“I’m glad for him. It must have been hard to be alone for so long.”
Daisy tilted her head to the side, her forehead wrinkling. “I never thought about my dad being lonely. He had his work, his friends, his family, and us. He never complained. It’s one of the reasons I never pursued a serious relationship. If he was content for twenty years without a partner, I could be, too. If you don’t get too close, you don’t get hurt when people leave.”
Liam sat on his old stool. “I made the same decision about relationships, but it was because my parents had such a terrible marriage. I worried that one day I’d turn out to be like my father.”
“I don’t know all the details of what happened in your house, but I know you,” she said quietly. “I can’t imagine you hurting anyone that way.”
Liam watched Daisy bustle around the kitchen making chai and heating up pastries from the freezer. A deep-seated longing for the past, when things had been easy between them, clogged his throat. How had he screwed up so badly? He missed her, not just romantically, but as a friend.
“The first time I had chai was the night my dad broke my arm.” The words spilled out, an attempt to bridge the gulf between them, to reforge the intimacy they had lost. “When my mom brought me to the hospital, I begged her not to tell them what really happened. Every time Social Services got involved, my dad took it out on her. She was afraid to take me back home, so I asked her to call your dad. He’d told me once his door was always open if I ever needed a place to stay.”
“I remember that night.” She stirred the chai. “You had two black eyes. I’d only ever read about people getting a black eye from being punched. I didn’t know it was real.”
“Dear old Dad did a real number on me,” he said. “It was the first time I tried to stop him from beating on my mom. Brendan wouldn’t do it, and I figured that at thirteen I was big enough to take him on. I guessed wrong.”
“I can’t even imagine how hard it must have been,” she said quietly, placing the pastries on a plate.
“I can’t imagine what I would have done without your family.” He traced a groove in the melamine counter. “I had some of the best times sitting around your table, throwing out math problems for you to solve or talking hockey with Sanjay and your dad.” He pointed to the dent. “Do you remember this?”
Daisy put the pastries in the microwave and took down two mugs from the cupboard. “What is it?”
“It’s where I dropped a bowl of pakoras when you walked into the kitchen wearing a tight green dress that Layla had bought for you because she was dragging you to a school dance. You were sixteen, and you looked amazing. Your dad and Sanjay went crazy. I think your dad threatened to lock you in your room forever, and Sanjay insisted you wear a winter jacket. Layla had to run interference. That was the day I realized you weren’t a little girl anymore and I couldn’t treat you like you were.”
She dropped her gaze, thick lashes brushing over brown cheeks. “I didn’t think you noticed.”
Liam chuckled. “I noticed. Maybe too much. But I couldn’t say anything out of respect for your family. If the thought of you going out in that dress made them crazy, imagine how they would have felt if I’d asked you out? I wasn’t the guy any girl could take home to meet the parents.”
She left him in the living room with his tea and pastries and went upstairs to change out of her dress. Liam had just gotten comfortable on the couch when Daisy walked in wearing a tiny pair of worn shorts and a Marvel superheroes T-shirt cut low to reveal the crescents of her breasts.
Liam’s mouth went dry and he choked on his pastry. No, she definitely wasn’t a little girl anymore, and the things he was thinking were definitely not appropriate for Mr. Patel’s worn couch.
“Are you okay?” She sat down beside him and those tiny shorts rode up so high all he could see was a long expanse of beautiful, firm brown thigh only inches away from his hip.
Fuck. He shifted on the couch, trying to hide his growing arousal. Maybe if he focused on the food, or the colorful elephant painting on the wall, or the chai in his hand, or work. Work was a good topic. There was nothing sexy about work.
“I’m good. Great. How’s work?” He sipped his chai, savoring the rich spices on his tongue.
Daisy frowned. “Um . . . Fine, I guess.”
“Good.” Her arm brushed against his when she reached for her mug, sending all his blood rushing to his groin. Liam choked on his chai and quickly put down the cup. “How’s it going with Brad?”
“Mia and Zoe think his ideas are out of touch with our target market.” She settled back on the cushion. “They came up with a branding proposal last year that focused on female empowerment, but Tyler wasn’t interested. It was gritty and real and featured diverse women being strong and fierce. Brad’s proposal is almost the opposite of their vision. He has no idea what today’s women want.”
Well, that dealt with the situation down below. Nothing like a good work discussion to keep things in check. “Did they discuss their proposal with him?”
“They’re afraid to lose their jobs.” She twisted her lips to the side. “Could you ask him to consider it? Or at the very least just hear them out?”
If she’d asked him to get rid of Brad, he would have done it. He trusted Daisy, trusted her judgment. She was quick, sharp, and fiercely intelligent. If she stood behind her colleagues, then their proposal merited a serious look. “Of course. I’ll speak to him first thing on Monday.”
Her face lit up with a smile, undoing the effects of the work talk in an instant. Dammit. He was here to support her, not indulge a fantasy he’d had since he was a teen.
“It’s strange to sit here with you and not play Xbox.” She put her cup on the table. “I don’t think we ever sat here together for anything else.”
“I’m game if you are.” He’d only ever felt her equal when they were on a virtual playing field. And since their work talk was done, it would be the perfect distraction from the sensual curves of her body, the softness of her hair as it brushed over his arm, and the tart sweetness of her perfume.
Daisy stiffened and for a moment he wondered if he’d said something wrong.
“Or I can go,” he said quickly. “It’s late and—”
“No. I want you to stay.” She gently pushed him back. “It’s just . . . I’ll have to go and get it. We moved the console up to Sanjay’s room after he broke the old TV stand.” She hesitated. “It happened when my mother came back.”
“She came back?” he repeated. “After all those years? Is she around?” Sanjay had rarely talked about his mother, but Liam knew he had been deeply affected by her departure. At the time, he’d figured it was the reason why Sanjay had gone off the rails in high school. He’d tried to help by taking the fall for his friend when he could.
Liam had never regretted his decision. After all, no one expected anything of him, and it was the least he could do for a friend who had opened his home and given him the closest thing he’d ever had to a loving family.
“She came and then she went again.” With a sigh, Daisy leaned her head against his shoulder. “It was the year after you left. She’d been gone twelve years by then, and one day she just walked in the door.”
“Fuck.” He squeezed her hand, although what he really wanted to do was pull her into his lap, wrap his arms around her, and hold her tight.
“Yeah. That sums it up. Sanjay was in the last year of his medical degree and he’d come home for Sunday dinner. We were all in the kitchen, and suddenly she was there. She’d been in touch sporadically over the years—the odd phone call, the occasional birthday card, sometimes an e-mail—but that was the first time we’d seen her since she left. At first I thought she’d finally come home for good. And then I thought maybe she finally wanted to build a real relationship. But she wasn’t interested in us. She didn’t want to see my room or hear about my classes or my friends or my dancing. She didn’t seem to care that Sanjay was in medical school. She’d come for money.”
“Jesus Christ.” As if she hadn’t put the family through enough.
Daisy’s voice wavered. “She and dad still owned the house jointly, and she needed her share. Sanjay lost it. He threw his phone at the TV stand and broke the glass doors.”
“I can’t even . . .” He shook his head. “I wish I’d been here for you both.”
She pressed her lips together, her eyes glistening with tears. “It was terrible. Sanjay walked out. Dad was shouting . . . She didn’t say much to me except to ask if I was still ‘weirdly smart.’ I ran up to my room, and when I came down she was gone. My anxiety got bad after that. It was like being rejected all over again except this time I knew she’d left because I wasn’t normal. That’s when Layla gave me Max, and he’s made all the difference in the world.”
For a moment, Liam couldn’t speak for the fury surging through his veins. What kind of mother would say that to her daughter after twelve long years? He didn’t like to judge, but hell, he had no problem judging Daisy’s mother and finding her totally unworthy.
He curved his arm around her to hold her close, rested his cheek against her head. “Don’t ever think there’s something wrong with you,” he murmured. “You have gifts that people can only dream of having. They make you special and utterly unique in a way that is as far from weird as you can get. You blew my mind when you were a girl. I loved coming here to see what you could do, whether it was solving difficult math puzzles, destroying your dad at chess, memorizing the entire Human section of The Guinness Book of World Records, or trying to beat me at video games.”