Incense and Sensibility (The Rajes #3) - Sonali Dev Page 0,84

laughed at that. One of those laughs annoying younger siblings laughed when they caught you in a lie.

“Please tell me there wasn’t a search party out. I told Ma I was fine.” He had texted his mother and told her he had work to take care of and planned on staying at his apartment. He hadn’t lied, because he had planned to go home. It wasn’t like he’d planned to spend a night dragging India to the hospital and then sitting on her front step.

Not that any of it deserved to be met with a stealth search-party mission.

“Let me get this straight. You got shot. You had panic attacks when you tried to campaign. You shut yourself off from the rest of us for two weeks. Then you disappeared for an entire night. Did you really think Ma would let it be?”

Turns out, when he hadn’t answered the phone—because he was too busy having his broken brain set straight by the only person he wanted to be around right now—Ma hadn’t believed that he was in his apartment. Neel had been dispatched to check Yash’s apartment in San Francisco. When Yash hadn’t been found where he’d said he was, they had called Naina, and she had admitted to him being with her.

“I don’t understand why you’re lying about it. I know you’ve always been private about your relationship but everyone is happy for you. Both Ashna and I live with our boyfriends. I’ve always been so proud of you for supporting Naina one hundred percent in what she wants to do with her life. But if she’s voluntarily back, then why is that a problem?”

Instead of answering, he made an incredulous sound.

“Wait, you think she’s doing it just to help your campaign. You don’t want her to make a sacrifice for you. You’re trying to protect her.” She made one of those faces his sisters made when they thought something was romantic. As a brother of this particular cornucopia of meddlesome sisters, he knew there was no dissuading them from their fanciful imaginings after that look.

“She’s not wrong,” Trisha went on. “The voters love her, and having her by your side is certainly not something to push away right now. You might have to stop being a hero and let her help you this time. You’ve asked for nothing from her all these years.”

Yash blew out a breath. “I set out to win this election by myself, without her here. I shouldn’t need her here to win.” It was time to end this farce. Way past time. He had to talk to Naina about it today.

Trisha looked at him like he had sprouted a horn in the middle of his forehead. Fortunately, Brandy marched up to them with her usual purpose. She’d been patrolling the cafeteria and keeping an eye out for other psychos who might want to shoot him. “It’s time,” she said with her usual sunny minimalism.

At least they’d all agreed that he didn’t need security 24/7, but just for public appearances and media events.

Standing up, Yash gave Trisha a quick hug. “I have to get to an interview. You’ll keep me posted about Abdul? And you’ll check up on Tara?”

She saluted. “Yes sir. Break a leg.” She threw a grateful smile at Brandy, then turned to him again. “And get over yourself. It’s okay to let people take care of you.”

Yash was fuming when Naina greeted him at the studio. Flying at him, she dropped a kiss on his lips as cameras went off. What the hell? This was not how they greeted each other.

“Thanks so much for being here.” Anne Shobraj, the host of Morning Mountain View, said, an awww written all across her face.

Naina smiled up at him, causing the awww to intensify.

As soon as Anne had excused herself and hurried off to the stage, Naina turned to him, confusion written large on her face. “Will you stop looking so tortured?”

“Why did you lie to Ma?”

“Lie?”

“About me spending the night at your place.”

“Yash, come on, we’re almost forty, it’s not like our parents think we’re playing Scrabble with each other for entertainment.”

He hated when she did that, bought into her own lies. “We are not a real couple, Nai. I need you to stop acting like we are.”

“What are we, then? And if you say the words ‘fake relationship’ again I’m going to kick you in the shins. The way I did when we were kids.”

He hated that he smiled at that. “We’re friends who