Second Chance Under the Stars - Chapter 2

Five months later

Every year as the Diwali Mela came around, the Aunties on the organizing committee found a man to “assist” Devi with all the volunteering activities she usually took on. It had become as much an annual tradition as the sparklers her dad bought for them to burn secretly in their garage or the beautiful pearl-and-diamond jhumkas Amma let her borrow only during Diwali—on the condition that Devi wear one of Amma’s silk saris.

With the Mela in three weeks’ time, today’s meeting had had a full agenda. And yet the whole time, the Aunties had teased and taunted Devi about the “hot new assistant” who would be helping her pack the sweet boxes sold during the Diwali Mela.

Devi picked up the chai cups and other dishes they’d used during the three-hour meeting and took them to the sink in the small kitchenette, where she watched as it filled with water and dish soap.

Maybe this “hot new assistant” would distract her from thoughts of Kiran and his kiss. Because nothing else had in the last five months. They’d kept in touch, of course. But it had been polite, almost fake, as if they were both determined to make sure their friendship didn’t suffer.

She’d just dunked her hands into the soapy water when she heard a sound outside in the corridor. Smiling, she looked up, wondering if Padma Auntie had forgotten something when she saw him lean against the doorway.

Kiran was here. In Houston. In front of her.

Hands tucked into his pockets, one booted foot crossed over the other, he said, “Someone order a new assistant for a Ms. Devi?”

Devi stilled and stared. And stared. From those long legs to his lean waist to the broad shoulders, to the V at his throat, and the sharp chin with his big bridged nose and warm, twinkling brown eyes.

His thick, curling hair hadn’t been cut in a while. There was a grin playing at his lips. Her chest filled with an overwhelming gladness to see that twinkle back in his eyes, that smile straddle those kissable lips. It had been missing in the last few years.

And then as their gazes met and held, the memory of their kiss moved through her, like an old song invoking every touch and sound and scent associated with it. Taking her back to that moment with his fingers digging grooves into her hips, his lips tasting her, his moan humming through her. Her lips trembled now, her entire body swayed, as if wanting to lean into the solid weight of his chest again.

“Hey” was all she could manage, her heart pacing away, her thoughts chasing each other in endless circles.

“I was told the boss was a demanding taskmaster and I’d have to really prove myself,” he continued, pushing away from the doorway. With every step he took toward her, Devi’s pulse pinged. “Apparently, she’s a paragon of virtues and no man could be perfect enough for her.”

Devi heard the invitation and entreaty all wrapped up in the humor in his words. Whatever the reason for his visit, he was opening the door between them again, pushing away the awkwardness of the past five months, making an effort.

A part of her was very relieved, because she didn’t want to lose him. A part of her was furious and sad that he didn’t think their kiss was even worth discussing.

The first part won, just barely. She turned toward him, deciding to join in the joke. “Let’s see if you’re up for the challenge, then.”

His tentative smile bloomed into a full-blown grin, melting her heart. “Say the word,” he said, a roguish glint in those warm eyes. Half challenge, half tease.

Raising her right hand, she did a twirling motion with her forefinger and flicked her brows up.

His shoulders shook with mirth, his eyes lit up. And then he did it.

Raising his hands in mock supplication, he twirled around. Broad shoulders, lean hips, and damn, but the man had a fine backside. All tight and curvy and compact.

He threw a look over his shoulder that could only be called raunchy. Her pulse raced at this new awareness stretched and pulsed between them.

“I can only clench for so long,” he said.

Laughter burst out of her. “You can release now,” she said, her throat still dry.

He turned. And Devi could swear their shared smile could fuel the entire county’s power grid at the height of summer.

“So, what’s the verdict?”

Her exaggerated leering aside, Devi had to acknowledge he looked good. And not just “good for a forty-four-year-old man.” His brown skin was glowing and he looked lean and fit, almost brimming with…a certain inner resolve and well-being, if she could call it that.

“You look good. Really good. Better than I’ve seen you in years.”

“Yeah?” Kiran said.

She nodded. There was a note of yearning in that one word. She wasn’t going to think on what that meant, though. “Yes, truly.”

He smiled but didn’t elaborate.

Devi could hear the echo of all the things unsaid between them, awareness of how hungrily they’d touched each other almost tangible in the air, pulling the cord of tension between them tighter. She could also feel his gaze on her—in a different way, almost…assessing. No, not assessing. More…like devouring. As if he was seeing her anew after all these years.

And every inch of her was responding to that, like a spark to dry tinder.

Devi turned back toward the sink. Would she look totally bonkers if she just turned the cold-water spray on herself? “When did you arrive in town?”

“Four days ago.” The plastic chairs creaked on the linoleum floor as he straightened the table and chairs. “I told Mama to not spread it around.”

Even as a teenager, Kiran had always wanted to leave their close-knit community for a more exciting life. But she’d always been a homebody. Not that she’d ever stopped wondering if she’d have gone with him if he’d asked her to.

“That’s quite an ask of your mother,” she teased, pulling herself into the present.

“I gave her the proper motivation to keep it a secret. It worked too, until last night when Padma Auntie spied us together at the grocery store.”

She wasn’t going to ask what the proper motivation was. She wasn’t. “Poor you! I’m sure you were signed up for volunteering before you even remembered her name.”

“She didn’t rope me into anything,” Kiran said, moving closer. She could feel the warmth of his body sliding up against hers. More familiar than it had ever been before. “I was the one who asked her if I could help with the Mela.”

Why would he ask to volunteer when he was on vacation?

She could sense his expectation in the air around them, waiting for her to ask the question. Some stubborn urge kept her mouth shut.

Dunking her hands into the bubbles, she rubbed at the lip of a mug with her fingertip. And then he was there, next to her, his hip just barely bumping against hers, the scent of his skin already deep in her lungs.

It wasn’t that he’d never touched her before. But it felt different. God, everything was different now.

Every muscle in her body tightened, yearning, expecting. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him roll up his sleeves, revealing silky hair curled over corded forearms.

And then his hands found hers in the bubbles.

Her breath came shallow as his long fingers overlapped hers, his grip gentle but resolved. Devi closed her eyes, willing her heartbeat to slow down. Willing some kind of sense into her brain.

But all she felt and heard and saw was Kiran.

*

Marry me. Today. Now. At midnight. Under the stars.

The words hovered over Kiran’s lips, suddenly desperate to be spoken. An urgency he’d never known before slammed through him, the same keen note he’d felt for five months.

Because their kiss had been a revelation to him. A scorching, rock-the-ground-under-your-feet kind of revelation.

He’d been so stunned, so…shocked by his own behavior that night that he’d let her rush him out the door. As if he hadn’t loved what they’d done. If he’d felt anything less than he had, maybe he’d have found a thread of rationality to talk to her. Or he’d have laughed it off.

But after the last couple of years where everything in his life had simply imploded, the sudden yearning he’d felt behind his ribs had…short-circuited his brain.

He hadn’t even gone home immediately. Had hovered in the lobby of her hotel like some teenage Romeo. But he couldn’t bring himself to break their suddenly potent connection by walking away.

He’d somehow fought the urge to show up in that lobby at dawn’s first light to catch her on the way to the airport. But this was Devi…his oldest friend. The woman who’d always been there for him… He could never in a million years hurt her. And that thought had finally stayed his hand.

His fears had been for nothing. Because the conviction that Devi was all he’d ever needed in his life, all he’d ever wanted, had only cemented over the last five months, becoming the very foundation of his new life. For the first time, he’d paid attention to his instincts, had quieted all the noise outside and listened to what his heart was telling him…

It was the last part of the puzzle slotting into place…the most important part.

It had taken him five months to close the last chapter of his life in New York and move back here.

And now that he was here, standing next to her, breathing in that subtle rose scent emanating from her skin, touching her…his happiness settled into place, digging in, already forming new roots.

The man he’d been before his divorce, even five years ago, would have charged in here with all the swagger he could muster and told her that he wanted her in his life. A part of him still wanted to do that…but the wiser part of him, thank God, wanted to take this slow, wanted to make sure he didn’t hurt her. At any cost.

He hooked his fingers around hers in the soapy water, the hum of desire under his skin contesting the slow drone of the old refrigerator in the dimly lit room.

Breath hanging in his throat, he waited for her to push his fingers away. Or simply retract her own. That she didn’t do either gave him hope. Filled him with fresh resolve. The small intimacy she allowed opened up an ocean of yearning in his heart. “Ask me. Whatever you want to,” he said, gently nudging her side with his.

She looked at him then and he saw a wealth of questions shimmering there. About the kiss. About them. But when she spoke, she said, “Why are you here? I mean, of course you’re visiting your mother. But why are you volunteering?”

“I’ve made enough money to last me a lifetime. I want to give something back. I’ve accepted a job at the community college here and I start teaching the executive finance program in the new year. So basically, I’m coming home.”

He could feel her freeze next to him, sense the tension ratchet up around them at his revelation. And he didn’t know how to bring it back to the easy, laughing dynamic they’d had just moments before.

Neither could he see her expression. “I knew it would be a surprise, but I’d hoped you’d be pleased.”

“What?” she said, blinking, pasting a faint smile on her lips. Her gaze finally met his. “Of course I’m pleased for you. It’s just that…”

Pulling away from his grip, she ran her fingers under fresh water and he instantly missed her touch.

She grabbed a hand towel, but she didn’t use it. Just stared at him.

The sudden splash of water from the tap had wet the bodice of the white, sleeveless cotton tunic she was wearing. It stuck to her skin, calling his attention to her full breasts, and he swallowed. Apparently, after being MIA for several years, his libido had decided it was time for a comeback. With a vengeance.

But he couldn’t make a move on her without being sure that it wouldn’t destroy their friendship…not when there was a chance their kiss had been just a kiss for her. An interesting accident. Or even worse, a pity kiss you bestowed on a friend who was down on theirluck.

Damn it, he was too old for this.

“I’m surprised, that’s all. You didn’t even hint that you were thinking of moving back home when I was with you last.” As if on cue, her cheeks reddened.

Kiran felt a ray of hope that their kiss had affected her just as much as it had him.

He took the towel from her, refusing to let their relationship move back three steps instead of forward. Holding her fingers in his, he slowly dried her hands.

And he felt it then—the slight tremble of her fingers in his, the indrawn gasp, the sway of her body toward him.

Before she jerked her hands away, saying, “I think I’m dry enough now.”

The satisfaction he felt was overwhelming. She was just as affected by him as he was by her. And he would make this happen, he would help her see they were perfect for each other, however long it took, however patient he had to be.

Devi was worth all the heartache and the wrong decisions and the huge blunders he’d made, if it meant he was here now. With her.

“After you left,” he said, “the new apartment, the new lifestyle I was determined to have in New York, felt…strange, somehow incomplete still. I realized my marriage with Nyra wasn’t the only problem I’d had. Continuing in the same city, in the same job that I’d grown to despise, it wasn’t the fresh start I’d hoped for. So I decided to quit the rat race.”

“You did what?” she said, surprise painting her face.

He shrugged. “I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out that I was chasing a dream that wasn’t even mine anymore. I took a whole two months off work for the first time in…two and a half decades. Then it came to me…what I really wanted.”

She blinked. And then she laughed. Not mocking, but again surprised. “You never liked living here. You’ll grow bored in two months.”

“I…want to be part of a community again. Everything that I thought was…boring and dull, I finally see the true value of it all.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious, Kiran,” she said gently, as if she was afraid he’d regret his decision.

“There is when you’ve let the noise of the world convince you that you’re nothing without all the trappings of wealth. You saw what I needed and you made me understand quitting is sometimes the best thing to do.”

He stepped closer and stretched out his hands, palms open.

After a moment’s hesitation, she placed her hands in his. He tugged her and she came. His heart thudded at all the feelings he wanted to put into words. All the promises he wanted to make her. But he was wary too. Not because he was afraid of her rejection, but because this was the most important step he’d ever taken in his life and he had to get it right.

“I won’t lie and pretend that the thought of you didn’t make this prospect all the more inviting.”

“Because we kissed?” she said, something snapping inside her. “Because I’m here to provide you with temporary entertainment?”

He looked so stricken that Devi knew instantly that she’d taken it in the worst possible way. That she was acting out of a sense of self-preservation. That Kiran, her oldest friend, would never think of her as someone to use.

He stepped back, ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. With a little soap bubble now floating in his thick hair and the chagrined expression on his face, he looked so endearingly handsome that she wanted to grab him and kiss the hell out of him again.

But he was moving back and that was a lot to take in. A lot…

There was hope blooming like sunlight on a summer morning in her chest, and there was fear that he’d just get bored and move away again. Then there was their kiss and all this new awareness and…

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that,” she said, reaching for his hands. “It’s a little…confusing, isn’t it?”

“It is. And I want to make it clear that I’m not assuming anything about us.”

“Would you like there to be an ‘us’?” The question zoomed out of her before she could stop it.

“Yes.” His answer came, like a missile aiming straight for her heart.” He cursed, then looked around at the corridor that led to the main chamber of the temple and flinched. As if he was worried that one of their pantheon of Gods might curse him for cursing.

Devi thought she might burst into an old Hindi song, she was so giddy.

“I mean, that was too good a kiss between two consenting, free adults to not explore. But I’d never rush you into anything. And I swear I’d never walk in here thinking you were mine for the taking. I’d never be that arrogant.” He thrust a hand through his hair, messing up the curls a little more.

His raw confession made the fear and anger deflate out of her as fast as it had come. Now her brain kept whispering too good a kiss in an unending loop. “I’m…happy you’re here, Kiran. I wish I could tell you…”

He pulled her forward and she went into his arms gladly. He knew words were hard for her now and she loved him so much for not demanding them. But things had changed, they’d crossed that line and she felt it in the hug.

Her breasts flattened against his chest with a sweet, delicious ache and his hands on her hips drew mindless circles, hovering around the hem of her short tunic. And his heart…God, his heart was thundering away at her ear. And Devi reveled in all of it—in the tight band of his arms around her, the taut strength of his thighs, the suddenly hardening length of his…

He put her away from him abruptly and she was half relieved and half disappointed. Joy was a mad bird fluttering in her chest, but she kept that door locked tight, still too wary to let it fly free.

“You have to give me a ride to Mama’s place,” he said, as she locked up the community center. They hadn’t said much to each other in the last fifteen minutes, and yet the silence had been wonderful. Full of promise and potential and a sweet torment that she couldn’t get enough of.

When she hesitated, he laughed. Moonlight glimmered in his gray hair, turning it into silvery strands. “That bad still, huh?”

“They’re just as obsessed with matchmaking as they ever were. But with me, they take it to the next level. You don’t want to be caught up in that.”

“I don’t mind getting all entangled with you,” he said. “If it helps, I mean.”

Devi dug her teeth into her lips, feeling like a teenager all over again. A giddy excitement grew in her belly much as she tried to corral it. He was back. He was here. And she couldn’t stop smiling.