by Mona Shroff
Without shifting his gaze, Deepak-mama addressed his daughter. “Sejal. Go inside. Now.” Sejal took a step back from him, but remained in Maya’s line of view.
“Sir.” Sam’s voice did not falter. “I—”
“Stop. Talking.” Deepak-mama barely moved his lips.
Sam did as he was told, but Maya felt his muscles tighten while his heart thumped wildly against her back.
“Maya. Come.”
Maya did not move. “We didn’t do anything wrong.” Maya surprised herself with the strength in her voice.
“Your mother will disagree.”
Still, Maya did not move.
“Come. Now.” Deepak-mama’s simmering anger was getting ready to explode.
Sam loosened his grip on her arm, and almost imperceptibly, nudged her forward with his body. Maya straightened her shoulders and took the last step onto the porch. “Good night, Sam.”
His lip twitched. “Good night, Maya.”
Maya turned back and glared at her uncle as she passed him into the house. Deepak-mama followed her and shut the door without a word to Sam. He attempted to stare Maya down. “I’ll call your mother in the morning. Go to bed.”
“I went on a date, Deepak-mama. What did you think was going to happen?” Maya didn’t care how mad he was. She hadn’t done anything wrong.
“I thought you would conduct yourself in a respectable manner.”
Maya rolled her eyes. “There was nothing not respectable about that.”
“What will your mother say?”
Maya was silent. Her mother was going to be pissed. And not just because kissing was “not respectable,” but because Maya was breaking her cardinal rule: no boys. Her mom was going to get a bunch of news in the morning.
Sejal tugged at her arm. Maya followed her up the stairs and into the room they shared. Sejal shut the door and sat down next to the window. “Well?” Her eyes twinkled as if nothing had just happened downstairs.
Maya could not suppress her smile. “Looks like I’m in trouble—but totally worth it!”
Sejal glanced out the window, and then stood up to get closer. “Maya-didi, come.”
Maya peeked over Sejal’s shoulder. Sam was leaning against his car, flipping his coin in the air. He looked up and saw them in the window. Maya wiggled her fingers at him. He waved back and watched her for a minute before getting into his car.
Sejal displayed all her teeth and all her sass, as she turned to Maya. “I told you he didn’t have a prayer.”
CHAPTER TEN
SAM
New York, 2012
SAM STUFFED HIS gloved hands into the pockets of his woolen coat, buried his chin inside his scarf and headed out into the blustery cold. Suddenly, October was behaving as if it were January. He decided against using the company car and instead walked a good five to six blocks from his office before hailing a cab.
Sam removed his gloves and loosened his scarf to settle in for the trip from Manhattan to Queens. He hadn’t told Paige about his daughter yet. He just wasn’t sure how she would take it. He gazed through the window as the city passed in a haze of buildings and cars and his thoughts drifted back, once again, to that summer in Maryland.
The cab ride to Queens was surprisingly uneventful, and before he knew it, Sam was drawn back to the present. He paid the driver and traded the warmth of the cab for the bitter cold of the day.
Sam found himself standing in the cold, a smile plastered on his face. Of course this was the place. Though there was no real reason to be surprised. He’d had faith that anything Maya was involved with would be incredible. But it was so much more. Sweet Nothings was classy and refined, not just a place you’d go for a simple treat. This was where you came because you required something extraordinary.
He fingered the coin in his pocket, barely even aware that he did so. What would Arjun have said of this particular predicament? Sam would’ve given anything to have his brother to talk to right now, as opposed to just his coin.
In place of a door jingle when he entered, a soft bell chimed. The rich aroma of roasting coffee beans, mingled with the enticing scent of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, was overwhelming, creating a pit in Sam’s stomach he thought he had long ago eliminated. Familiar orange undertones in the coffee jolted him back to a time of flickering candles and soft sheets. He shook his head as if to dislodge the memory. This was the coffee she served here? He should have just called her.
“Hello! Welcome to Sweet Nothings! How can I help you?” A young woman with a bounce in her voice and a lovely smile greeted him pleasantly from behind the counter.
Sam started at the girl’s voice as he was once more pulled back to the present. “I’m here to see Maya Rao.” He flashed a warm smile, attempting to hide his distraction. She blushed as she turned to get her boss.
Behind her was an observation window that allowed customers to watch the artistry in progress. An automatic coffee bean roaster took up a corner of the window, the small brown gems tumbling about—proof that the roasting was done on the premises. The rest of the window revealed two women in hairnets and chef’s whites, working on a three-tiered cake. The woman with her back to him was painting a city scene on the side of the cake, while the other attached some kind of flower to a higher layer. Maya had always worked well with her mother.
Maya caught his eye, and nodded in the direction of the door. She quickly put aside the flower, and appeared behind the counter.
“Sam!” Maya was breathy and panicked, her eyes darting toward the window. “What are you doing here?” Rather than wait for his reply, she turned to the young girl at the counter. “Julie, can you see if the cupcake order for the Kantharias has been boxed yet?”
Julie flicked a quick look at Sam before excusing herself, leaving Sam and Maya alone.
Maya grabbed a paper towel from behind the counter and wiped her hands as she came around the front of the counter, leading Sam to a table in the far corner. When she finally spoke, it was almost a hiss. “I thought we decided not to meet at workplaces.”
“Well.” Sam turned his back on the observation window and followed her as he took off his gloves. “Since you went ahead and left me a voice mail, I figured we were ignoring the rules.”
Maya pursed her lips at him and managed to look slightly abashed. “Well, fine. Okay, you’re here.” She tilted her head. “Are you going to help me?”
Sam fidgeted with his gloves, trying—and failing—to not look at her. Her chef’s whites, unbuttoned at the top, were stained with various colors. Her hair was trapped in a net, and there was most definitely colored icing on her cheek. Any other woman dressed like this would have conjured up nightmares of the lunch lady from school, but not Maya. Maya managed to make you wish you were the cake.
His gloves lay abandoned on the small table between them. A small voice in the back of his head kept telling him to look away. Or at least say something. She gasped—it was a small thing, someone else might have missed it—and then her hand was at her head as she yanked off the offensive hairnet. Sam swallowed hard as dark hair fell in soft waves around her shoulders. It was time to look away.
“I, uh... I just came to say that I can help you out,” he said. “Byron Stevenson and I went to law school together.”
Maya smiled expectantly, and Sam remembered why he had wanted to do anything for her back then. “You’re friends?”
“Not exactly. He was kind of an ass in law school, so in helping out your...our...” He paused at the word.
Maya finished for him. “Daughter.”
“Daughter. Yes. I’m still getting used to it.” He shook his head and sighed as he watched Maya. “So, in helping our daughter, I will get the added benefit of annoying Byron, so...”
“Oh, Sam!” She beamed as she stepped closer, almost as if she were going to throw her arms around him. She stoppe
d midway, and grabbed his hands in hers in an awkward, backward, two-handed handshake. “Thank you!”
She glanced down at their hands and dropped them as if struck by electricity. “Oh, sorry, you—have—uh, well green icing on the edge—well—it’ll come off.”
Sam scraped dried icing from his cuffs, but his hands still held the memory of her touch. For a split second he had thought Maya was going to hug him. Their nonembrace lay thick in the air between them, forcing Sam to remember what it had felt like to hold her, making him wonder how it would feel to hold her now.
Sam cleared his throat and willed his body to squelch that memory. He was engaged to another woman. “Uh, no problem.” He was treated to her blush. “I don’t like this coat anyway.” He smiled at her. “But before you’re too grateful, you should know that I do have one stipulation.”
“Fine,” she said quietly, giving a sharp nod.
“How about some coffee?”
“Um, sure.” She gestured toward a table.
Sam came around to her side and pulled out a chair for her, before removing his coat and sitting down opposite her. The table was next to a window, and the noontime sun sent warmth from high in the sky.
“Julie, could you please bring us two coffees?” Maya nodded her thanks to Sam as she sat down. “Just a splash of cream and one sugar for Mr. Hutcherson here.”
“And just a splash of cream and no sugar for your boss.” Sam grinned.
Julie seemed a bit confused until Maya nodded her away.
“You remember.” Maya’s voice was gentle, no sign of irritation or demand.
“I remember lots of things.” Though he tried not to, his gaze lingered on her. “Like the coffee you have here.”
He waited for her to make some sort of excuse to justify using that specific coffee in her shop. Some reason why she would have bothered to learn how to roast and flavor this particular coffee. She shifted in her seat and looked away, saying nothing.
“Do you remember that Honda Civic I drove that summer?” Sam broke the silence.
Maya gave her slightly lopsided smile that Sam remembered so well, and let out a “humph.” “Of course. Powder blue, if I remember correctly. And the passenger-side door stuck from the inside.” She sat back in her chair and raised one eyebrow at him.
Sam dropped his gaze and chuckled. “You do remember.”
“Whatever happened to that car?” She caught his eye.
“Totaled it.”
“What? Were you hurt?” She sat up in her chair and leaned in toward him.
“Nah.” Sam shrugged. The sweet scent of flowers and sugar coming from her drew him in closer. “I was lucky. The car actually saved me.” He looked her in the eye. “I notice your sign is the same color as that car.”
Maya sat back. “Is that so?” She shrugged. “Coincidence.”
Her eyes didn’t quite meet his.
The coffee arrived and Sam stared at it for a moment, knowing that one sip of that coffee was a trip to a past he had fought to forget. He took the sip. The richness of the coffee was balanced with just a hint of orange flavor. Even though he knew it was coming, he nearly choked on it. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had this.”
“Yeah.” Maya busied herself with her coffee.
“I can’t believe you serve it here,” he said, not bothering to hide his irritation.
“What? It’s a coffee shop. We serve specialty coffees.” She waved a dismissive hand, her focus on her mug. “Don’t look too hard into it.”
Sam pushed the coffee aside and leaned in toward Maya. “You know what I would like to look a little harder into?” He was close enough to whisper aggressively in her ear. “I would like to find out why I was never told you were pregnant.”
Even as he said the words, a knot formed in his stomach and an unfamiliar hardness tightened his throat. He leaned back enough to look her firmly in the eye, but remained close enough to feel the panic in her breath. “I want to know how it is you turned me away from your door that day.” He nearly growled his next words. “When you knew you were pregnant with our child. That’s my stipulation to helping you. That, and I want to meet Samantha.”
“I’ll tell you what you want to know, but let’s not bring—” Maya stopped short and her eyes filled with alarm as footsteps announced someone behind him. Sam turned around and all the tightness in his body released. There before him was the girl who had been painting the scene on the cake.
The girl he had only seen in a photo.
“Mom,” the painter called to Maya, “since when do you go around having coffee with strange men?” She nodded at Sam, and her eyes widened as she took him in. She sighed and placed her hands on her hips in an almost maternal gesture. She turned her attention to Maya. “No matter how good-looking they are?”
Sam looked to Maya. Her eyes locked on to Sam’s. The blood had drained from her face. This was why she didn’t want him here.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MAYA
New York, 2012
MAYA’S HEART POUNDED in her ears as she shifted her gaze from Sam to Samantha. They weren’t supposed to meet. They weren’t supposed to meet!
For his part, Sam looked as pale as Maya felt. Samantha opened her mouth as if to speak, but closed it again. Odd. Samantha was many things, but at a loss for words was not one of them. She couldn’t possibly know.
Could she?
Sam’s gaze darted from her to their daughter and back. The silence was endless. What was he doing, coming here, anyway? All dressed up in that perfectly fitting suit, wielding that dimple as if he had no idea what it did to her. The fact that he actually had no idea what it did to her made it worse. The remnants of whatever musky cologne he wore did nothing to hide that clean scent that was essentially Sam. Combine that with the coffee, and it was no wonder she’d almost hugged him, and it was all she could do to not touch him again.
The pounding did not cease, but Maya forced calm into her voice. “Samantha.” She nearly tripped over her chair as she scrambled to stand behind her daughter. “This is Mr. Hutcherson. He’s a lawyer and he’s just come by to tell me he can help us out.” Maya nudged her daughter to prompt her manners.
Samantha threw her mother an irritated look before turning to Sam. She smiled and wiped her hand on her apron before offering it to Sam in greeting, a robotic “Nice to meet you” emitting from her lips. Her daughter’s behavior was odd and surprising, but Maya’s full attention was on Sam.
He simply stared at Samantha, his eyes darting around her face, studying her. For a moment, Maya forgot why she had ever left Sam, and allowed herself to drink in his wonder and astonishment at seeing his daughter for the first time. She quickly squelched that warm and happy feeling, reminding herself that father and daughter meeting each other was not good for any of them.
A beat or two stretched between them before Sam regained himself and shook Samantha’s hand. But before he could gather himself to speak, Maya stepped in front of Samantha.
“Well, Mr. Hutcherson, thank you for stopping by.” Her own voice reminded her of the vice principal at Samantha’s school. “Feel free to call me for any details you require.”
Samantha’s glare pierced the back of Maya’s head as the silence built again.
“Yes.” This time Sam broke the silence. “Nice to meet you, Samantha.” He looked around Maya at Samantha. The way he said her name, Maya knew he wanted to say more. She turned her body, forcing him to look at her.
He lowered his head toward her, his voice soft and intimate. “I’ll be in touch regarding that other matter.” If Maya had melted into his voice in any way, his words set her straight. More than a touch of warning was directed her way.
“Anytime,” Maya said, louder than was necessary, as she guided Sam to the door. “Thanks so much for stopping in. Very kind of you.” She all but pushed him out
into the street.
With Sam gone, Maya faced her daughter with a smile plastered to her face. “Well, nice of him to stop by and let us know he can help out, huh?”
She ignored Samantha’s narrowed gaze and started for the kitchen. “Yeah, it was.” Samantha followed her mother through the door to the kitchen. “I’m sure he’s a busy man. Why wouldn’t he just call?”
Maya found a hairnet and resumed work on the gum paste flowers. “How would I know? Maybe he was in the neighborhood.” She picked up her utensil and sighed. “Don’t you have a cityscape to finish?”
“A guy like him?” Samantha pointed to her finished cityscape and rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Mom.”
Maya glanced at the finished cityscape and turned her back on Samantha to work on the flowers. The girl worked fast. And she was still talking. “Did you not see the suit he had on? He obviously works on Lex. Not way out here in Queens.”
Alarms blasted in Maya’s head. “How do you know he works on Lex?”
“I found him on a Google search,” she mumbled.
“What were you looking for?” Maya snapped her head around, and in doing so, crumpled the current flower she had been sculpting.
Samantha paused and made eye contact before spitting out her reply. “I was looking for my dad!”
Maya was treated to the full teenage head-shake that stood in for the word duh. She stepped away from her work area and closed in on her daughter. “What do you mean, you were looking for your dad?”
“Exactly what I said! I can figure things out, you know!” Samantha did not waver under Maya’s anger. She took a deep breath. “And that man is my father.”
Oh God. Maya’s hand flew to her Ganesha pendant. Obstacle! Do something!
“Oh, honey. Stop searching for your dad. We’re fine. Finding your dad will only lead to—” she looked down at the crumpled flower somehow still in her hand “—confusion. Can’t you just be content with me and your grandmother?”
