“You were her sperm donor?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
“This is going to blow the top of Dad’s head off.”
The four of them considered that and then Dev snapped to. “I got Sarina pregnant. We’re having a baby and we’re getting married.”
“On Sunday,” Ana chimed in.
Rani did The Exorcist-inspired head swivel again. “Have you all gone mad? When you say you got her pregnant, what exactly do you mean?”
“Sheesh, what do you think I mean?”
She stared at him, two bright spots of color on her cheeks. “You poked Sarina’s bear and made a cub.”
“What?”
“You put tadpoles in Sarina’s pond and made a sprog. You put your pecker in her bird’s nest and laid an egg.”
“Seriously?”
“You put your dick in Sarina and made a baby.”
“Rani.” He snuck a look at Connor. This would be the first time he’d been to dinner with the family; if he could stick by Ana while the Patel’s melted down for the second time in as many months since Ana announced she was pregnant, there was a chance he could go the distance.
“I want to be perfectly clear what we’re talking about here,” Rani said.
“I love Sarina. Have done since Stanford. We had sex, ordinary people sex. She got pregnant. We’re getting married on Sunday. How is that unclear?”
Rani thumped down on a kitchen stool and opened her mouth to protest but all that came out was laughter. And it was contagious to the point that they were all crying a different kind of tears. Eventually Rani said, “Shotgun wedding,” and that started them off again. At this rate, Dev would never have a meal organized in time.
He started puttering about with pans and the hot plate and Rani asked about Shush. “Does she know? You can’t land it on her same time as everyone else.”
At this rate he might as well set up in his office and have each extended family member come to him for their individual entertainment. He’d tried to get hold of Shush earlier, but she wasn’t answering her phone and it wasn’t the kind of thing you left on a message. “If I can pull her aside without a fuss, I’ll try, but you know, Shush and me were never really a thing.” Except for a month or so when they had been kind of a thing.
“You slept with her.”
“And it was . . .” He was going to say, wrong, but it wasn’t wrong, so much as badly timed and awkward. It’d been fun, but his fling with Shush had been a distraction and had signaled to Sarina that he was off the market, sending her into the muscled arms of the cheese man, and the seduction of Reid’s sperm selection database. His throat tightened thinking about it. “Shush and I are good.” He didn’t exactly go from Shush’s bed to Sarina’s without thought, but it might look like that to Shush and her parents, Tavish and Nita.
He’d planned to feed everyone into a stupor and then land the news on them in one swoop, invite them to the wedding, and then send them home to digest it all in the privacy of their own homes.
Idiot.
Trainwreck.
It was never going to happen that way.
“Shut up when everyone else arrives, okay.”
Rani snorted so Ana kicked her. Heaven help him. Then the two of them acted like they were high when their parents, and Tavish and Nita arrived. Dad refused to say Ana’s name. Connor kept well away from Dad after he got a single nod in greeting, Shush sent a text to say she’d be late and to start without her, and Dev had never been so glad Sarina suggested he do this alone. It was a kind of torture there was no name for. Slow death from family weird-out; suffocation by parental expectation.
They got through the starter with a lot of wild eyes and people saying, “What?” and when Shush still hadn’t arrived and the tension was at first man ever to get morning sickness, at night, Dev tapped his glass for attention.
“About time,” Dad muttered.
“What is it?” said Mom.
“Nothing to do with me,” said Ana.
“Or me,” said Rani.
He gave his sisters the not helping glare and cleared his throat. “You know my partner, Sarina.” This was more for Tavish and Nita’s benefit.
“Oh, Dev, did something terrible happen?” said Mom.
“No, no. Let me get to it.”
“Is she leaving Plus?” said Dad. “That would not be good.”
“She’s pregnant.”
The doorbell went and Ana got up to let Shush in. There was that inevitable chatter and movement that happened when a person who was late arrived. Ana served Shush her starter, more wine was poured. No one mentioned Sarina. Connor gave him an oh dude, so sorry look.
Shush said, “What have I missed?”
Dev cleared his throat. Take two. “As I was saying, Sarina is pregnant.”
“Yes, yes, get to the reason we’re here,” said Dad.
“Keeping you up past bedtime, yaar, Vik,” said Tavish.
Ana giggled, which made Tavish beam. None of this was funny. “Sarina is pregnant and it’s my—” His phone rang from somewhere in the living room.
“My pleasure to cook the most excellent meal for my family,” said Tavish. The man thought he was Comedy Central.
“No more wine, Tavish,” said Nita.
The table fell silent and they all listened to his ring tone. The Eagles, “Witchy Woman.” He winced. “Let it go.” It was Sarina and if he lived through this he’d describe the ordeal to her in painstaking detail later. Wait. He shot out of his chair. It was Sarina and she was pregnant. “I should get that.”
His phone was on the coffee table. He took it down the hall to his office and hit callback.
“Hi, how did it go?” she said.
“Er, still going.”
“What was the reaction?”
“When I say still going, what I mean is I haven’t told them yet.”
Sarina laughed. “Oh Dev. It’s that bad.”
“No, no, it’s just I keep getting interrupted.”
“And I interrupted.”
“I was going to let your call go, but then I remembered you’re pregnant and you might need me and there was no way I was leaving you hanging. And by the way I have probably never loved you more for suggesting I do this alone. It would’ve been a cruel, cruel thing to submit the woman I adore to.”
She made a happy humming noise. “I hope you know how desperately I crave you, gorgeous man.”
Wow. He sat on the couch because his legs didn’t feel all that steady and he didn’t want to go back into the dining room. “Could you say that again? I might have misunderstood.”
“Dev Patel, I love you desperately, utterly, completely, without reservation, through every hardship, around every obstacle, in spite of any interference, till I am cold and dead and buried. PS I want to die before you because I cannot stand to be without you.”
His throat had gotten tight before. He was choking on emotion now. “Have to see you tonight. Be there in a couple of hours.”
“No you don’t. You have to be with your family and I’m going to bed now. I’m exhausted. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I’ll be there when you wake up.” To make sure she wasn’t alone on the bathroom floor.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said softly.
“Sarina Gallo, I love you endlessly, impossibly, ridiculously. You are so much better at this than me, but yes, we’re going to need a death pact because there is no light in the world for me without you and the least I can do when you vomit is be there to flush.”
He got back a breathy whimper and for a while they just held on listening to each other breathe until she said. “Is your family waiting?”
“Yeah.” He could hear them talking, laughing, a tipsy Tavish the loudest.
“Go invite them to our wedding.”
He rang off and went back to the dining room. Ana and Rani had stepped in to serve the next course.
“Everything all right?” asked Mom.
> It was miraculous. It was astounding. It was frightening how close he’d come to screwing everything up. “Sarina is pregnant with our baby and we’re getting married on Sunday.”
All hell broke loose.
No, no, it didn’t.
Talk about an anticlimax. The only sound was someone’s knife clattering on a plate. Eight people made fish faces at him, including Ana, Connor and Rani; what was up with that?
“No one has anything to say?”
The next sound was Shush’s chair tipping to the floor as she shot up from the table and made toward him. He braced. She looked upset and getting whacked with a pillow might be the least of the violence he’d experience tonight. “Shush.”
She flung herself in his arms so hard he staggered. “I’m so happy for you,” she said.
“You are?” She was crying he realized, wetness on his neck.
She pulled away. “Of course I am, dummy. We’re friends, we’re family. I’m going to be an aunty.”
He hugged her back. “You’ll be an excellent aunty,” and when she let him go it was to move into Mom’s embrace. “I love her, Mom.”
“You will be so happy together,” she said. “You make me so happy.”
He might’ve held on to Mom a little too long, because Tavish and Nita were laughing with Shush and Rani, and Ana and Connor were moving dishes back into the kitchen, but there’d not been a sound from Dad.
“Don’t worry about him,” Mom said, pulling away, “He’ll be fine.”
This Dev had to see, because his usually generous, gregarious Dad had not been fine about Ana’s pregnancy, about Connor’s presence in her life, to which a black eye was testimony, and about his own declaration he loved Sarina and intended to be there to help with her donor baby. Instead of fine, he’d been insulting and intractable, said Sarina was unsuitable, because she had a hippie family, and still treated Ana with polite formality instead of showing acceptance and support.
“Well, Dad?” Were his eyes wet? He stood away from the table, silent and alone until Ana planted herself in front of him and all the chatter and movement stopped.
“You’d better be okay with this, Dad. You’d better, because Dev did all the right things. And even if this is a shotgun wedding, he’s loved Sarina for years and nothing else is more important than family,” she said.
“I hear you, daughter,” Dad said.
“Ana. My name is Ana.”
Mom tensed beside Dev and he put his arm around her and whispered, “Let her go.” Ana had things to say and the courage to say them.
She spread her hand over her belly, now starting to round, but didn’t take her focus off Dad. “I’m having a baby with Connor and it wasn’t what we planned but it’s happening and you can’t keep ignoring it. Everyone else got over it except you. Get over it, Dad. Deal with it. Stop shutting me out. Stop being awful to Mom. Stop being a bastard to Connor. Tell Dev you love him and you’re proud of him.”
Dad opened his mouth, shut it. His eyes were red and shiny. He passed a hand over his face and then he crumpled forward, reached for Ana, saying her name over and over. Ana let him fold her into a hug, softening into his grip with a loud sob, as Rani said, “Thank all the damn gods,” and a few seconds later Dad stood in front of Dev, with Ana tucked under his arm and his face wet with tears.
“I love you and I am proud of you, Dev.” He held a hand up and Dev clasped it. “What I said about Sarina, that was wrong. She has been your friend your whole adult life. She will be a wonderful wife and mother.”
“I’m glad you think so, Dad.”
Dad, squeezed Ana and turned her to face him. “How I treated you, Ana, that was wrong. When you needed your parents, I abandoned you and I am ashamed about that. I apologize to you.”
“I forgive you,” Ana said. “My baby needs a grandpa.”
Dad looked at Connor, who’d sensibly kept the table between them. “I apologize to you, Connor, for my rudeness.”
Ana elbowed him. “And for punching him.”
“And for punching you.” Dad shook his head. “I have never hit anyone in my life. I thought I broke my hand and Leela told me to find someone else for sympathy because she didn’t have any spare.” He looked to Mom. “Leela, I apologize to you for being a disrespectful husband. I made you choose between me and our daughter and that was cowardly. I promise not to make you regret marrying me again.”
“I don’t regret marrying you, Vik. We’re going to be grandparents,” said Mom.
Dad turned to Tavish, Nita and Shush. “I was a bad friend, please forgive me.”
“So long as you’re not bad grandpa,” said Tavish, and Nita hit him on the arm while everyone groaned.
“What?” he said, “It’s a movie. A funny movie. Oh, is it Dirty Grandpa? Don’t be dirty grandpa, Vik, yaar.”
“Dad?” Shush hissed, “Be quiet.”
“It’s don’t mess with grandpa,” said Connor, making Mom cover her mouth and Dad’s brows jump. This was the first time he’d spoken up and Ana beamed at him. Living dangerously.
“Tea,” said Rani. “I’m making tea.”
In Dev’s pocket, his phone buzzed. While everyone chattered, picked at food, moved about, he looked at the screen. Sarina’s wise woman cartoon avatar, and beside it the words: Deliciously, deliriously, determinedly in love with you. Can’t wait to marry you. If you are coming in the morning, please bring more sorbet.
Shotgun, and still the wedding day couldn’t come soon enough.
NINE
Zarley
Barefoot, Zarley paced her office. In fifteen minutes, she had to put her shoes on. In twenty, she had to brief the new permanent and temporary staff. In an hour’s time, the wedding guests would start arriving. By the end of the night Dev and Sarina would be married, Lucky’s would’ve been put through the paces of a soft opening and a new phase of her life would have begun.
“You’re going to wear a rut in that floor.”
She glanced at Reid, seated on her couch. He never thought about how he looked and it wasn’t often he wore a suit and she couldn’t afford the time to truly appreciate how incredibly fine he looked in it. No tie, but the shirt was crisp perfection, with French cuffs and silver cufflinks, and the charcoal pants did a great job of emphasizing his long legs, one of which he extended to stop her progress.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” he said.
Fire, flood, electrocution, plague of locusts. Not enough alcohol, poorly briefed staff, stuff-ups in the kitchen, rubbery chicken, too fishy fish, wrong choice of music. An owner-manager who didn’t have any prior experience at this. The list was endless.
Reid reached for her. “Fuck him, Zarley.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m not worried about that.” If Dad didn’t show, there was nothing she could do about it, and when Mom called to say she’d checked in to the hotel she didn’t mention Dad, so that was that. Fuck him.
“You don’t need him.”
Her father had checked out of her life a long time ago. It was fine by her if he didn’t want to check back in. “The only one I need is you.” And how was that going to go when Reid worked days and she worked nights, when her weekend was Monday. When was there going to be enough time for them?
“And I won’t get in Dalton’s face,” he said, the line of his lips telling her how much he disliked making that promise.
Her old sweetheart might get in Reid’s. “I didn’t think he’d come.” They’d meshed the wedding guest list with the original soft opening guest list and she’d hesitated to add Dalton, but now she was glad she’d done it. “It’s been so long.”
“I’ll be nice. It’s a wedding. Besides, my Mom will be here and she’ll hurt me if I misbehave tonight.”
Spats between the guests. That was another thing that could go wrong. She pulled away from Reid, but he stood and body-blocked her. He smelled wonderful, something warm and spicy that was new. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and stop the clock, prevent
it from delivering her to the time when they’d be pulled so urgently in different directions. She was jittery and he felt it with hands curving over her hips to pull her into his chest.
“Flygirl, Is this stage fright?”
It was adrenaline. It was that hot, brain bright, too jangled moment before you went on stage, before you committed, when there was nothing more you could do but go for it. Anything could go wrong, but that was part of the thrill. It was heightened awareness, sharpened reflexes and being tuned up to incandescent. She loved this moment. She’d lived for it as a gymnast and as a performer. There’d been no better high in her life until she’d met Reid.
“I feel great.”
Except fifteen minutes was almost up. It was almost show time, and on the other side of this night and all it promised, lived the real fear; not seeing Dalton again after so long, not being slighted by her father, not locusts or runaway brides or food poisoned guests and goof-off staff or faulty plumbing.
She stood on Reid’s shiny shoes on her toes and tipped her face up. She had exactly what she wanted, her own business and a man who excited her, who looked at her, touched her with the force of how he loved her in his hands and eyes.
But what if the things she wanted most turned out to be incompatible with the life they’d made? It would take patience on Reid’s part, and that wasn’t something he was famous for. It would take strength and flexibility on hers, and she had those attributes to burn. She’d find a way if it meant she gave up sleep to do it.
She kissed that hope into Reid’s mouth, messing his hair and creasing his shirt, ruining her lipstick, but it was worth it for the satisfied sound he made, the way he wanted to crush her closer.
He didn’t know she was performing later. She’d kept that a secret. She’d missed her time in the spotlight and she was taking it back. Reid’s favorite booth no longer existed, but later, when the bride and groom departed with stars in their eyes, and the guests had been shown the door, when the staff had cleaned up and clocked off, she had a date with this man on an antique bar top, where nothing would come between them.
She pulled away from him reluctantly. She’d be too busy to spend time with him for the rest of the night. “I need to—”
Shotgun Wedding (Sidelined #4) Page 8
