Incense and Sensibility (The Rajes #3) - Sonali Dev Page 0,57
movie, you can take that.”
She looked at her phone. Yup, the eyes warmed over again. With her usual quick efficiency, she typed something on her phone and put it away.
“Everything all right?” he asked for the second time that day, and she threw him a look that said, Which part of “ignore me” involves being all up in my business?
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” He merged onto I-280 and was met with an ocean of cars. Traffic was a sign of a vibrant economy, he didn’t begrudge it.
“It’s my daughter. She’s—” She cleared her throat. “She’s getting ready to ask a boy to a dance. And she’s . . . um . . . she’s never nervous about anything.”
“Wow, things must’ve changed since I was in high school.”
“She’s in middle school. Sixth grade.”
“That’s somehow even more impressive. Do the girls ask now? Or is it one of those turnabout dances?”
“No, she just likes this guy, so she’s going to ask him.”
He had never asked anyone to a dance his whole life, so this child had his respect. “It’s pretty impressive to have that kind of self-confidence so young.”
Her smile completely transformed her face. “She’s a special kid. Actually, I lied earlier. She isn’t nervous at all. I . . . I kinda was the one who was nervous, so . . .”
“So you asked her to keep you posted.” Yash found himself smiling. “And she’s keeping you posted? That’s a great kid.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you have only one?”
“Yeah.”
So they were back to the monosyllables. Her phone beeped again and she looked at it.
“Did she do it?” he asked.
“It’s done,” she said.
“Yes!” they said together, with the same kind of excitement he felt when the Niners scored a touchdown.
“Details?”
That got him a smile. “Apparently I was being extra with my concern. She asked, he said yes, and that’s that.”
Without doubt she was the least extra person Yash had ever met.
“Your daughter should meet my mom if she thinks you’re extra. Not that my mom ever had to worry about me asking a girl out.”
“Come on. With the famous Yash Raje charisma, you probably had to fight them off.”
“Quite the contrary.” The Raje kids were most certainly not allowed to date in middle school. The only one who’d possibly even considered breaking that rule was Vansh. There wasn’t a rule the brat had met that he believed was meant for him.
Through most of high school, Yash had been preoccupied with trying to get out of a wheelchair, and through college he’d been just too driven to care about anything but proving everyone wrong about everything. “What about you?”
She made a snorting sound that he would never have associated with her. “When I was in high school you couldn’t exactly show up at a school dance with a girl if you were a girl. Or at least not in Chattanooga, Tennessee.”
“It couldn’t have been easy,” he said.
She made a grunting sound.
“Did you meet your . . . girlfriend? wife? . . . here in California, then?”
She went impossibly still and Yash knew he had crossed a line. “Sorry. I’ll ignore you now.”
A long silence. Then, “That’s fine. I’m surprised you don’t already know everything about me. It’s all in the background report.”
“Nisha takes care of all that.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend or a wife.” A jaw clench. “She died two years before we could have married in the state of California. Ellie is her daughter. Well, she’s mine now.”
Chapter Twelve
India had been poring over their accounts for two hours. They were already over leveraged on the studio and the incense orders were low. At least the classes were filled to capacity and India’s client list was full, but it wasn’t enough. A bubble of anger sprang to life in her chest and started to fill. She traced its growth and squeezed it inward until it popped.
What would anger accomplish? Nothing. She’d forced Mom to the doctor. He’d confirmed that Tara had Hep C and advanced fibrosis. The treatment was going to cost a few hundred thousand dollars at the outset.
Mom was so ashamed about having canceled her insurance that she didn’t want China or Sid to know, so asking them for help wasn’t an option. India knew her siblings didn’t have the money to help and she didn’t want them weighed down with guilt. The check from the retreat would cover part of Mom’s first payment. India would figure out the rest.
Not having to count on others simplified life, and India valued simplicity