But that was far too much to explain to Sadia now. “I’ll try,” Jia said cheekily.
She put her tablet away. It was a little bizarre, actually, how little anxiety she felt. She pulled out her phone and navigated to the voice note she’d recorded during a small window of privacy earlier in the day. “Hi Jia,” came her own voice. “Do you regret anything?”
“Nope,” she said.
“Good. That’s what confidence feels like. Memorize this feeling.” The recording ended.
Are you sure you’re confident? He seemed totally fine about running away from you right after the wedding.
She slammed the lid on that box of insecurities. He was a practical man, and Luna needed her stuff. Sure, could he have taken Jia with him? Could they have had a romanticnight drive along the PCH, and at least smooched a little here and there, giddy on being young and married?
Sure. Sure. But again, he was practical. He wasn’t too much, like her. He wasn’t too little, either. He was just right.
Chapter Twenty-Six
JIA GLANCEDin her rearview mirror at her mother. “Are you crying?”
“No,” Farzana sobbed. Mohammad put his arm around his wife.
“She is having a delayed reaction to yesterday,” her father said. “She’ll be fine once she’s on the plane.”
Farzana wailed. “Soon all my daughters will be gone.”
“Are we dying or getting married?” Jia whispered to her sister and got a poke in return.
Ayesha twisted in her seat. “Mom, please. You can’t cry all the way through LAX.”
Farzana sniffled. “We should have accepted Shweta’s offer to charter a plane for us.”
“She just became family,” Jia said dryly. “Let’s not go taking advantage of the Dixit fortune right away, hmm?”
Farzana glared at Jia, which was better than crying in her back seat. “What a tacky thing to suggest. I would never.”
Jia inched along in the LAX roundabout. The traffic was, as usual, horrendous, but luckily her family was flying out of the first terminal. “Sorry, Mom.”
“You will bring Dev to our home next month, for at least a full week. That way we can all get to know him, and you can spend time with your sisters and we can plan your real wedding,” Mohammad said. There was no arguing with the stern tone in his voice, and Jia didn’t want to. As far as her father was concerned, yesterday’s ceremony had merely been paperwork.
“Of course.”
“Good.”
They pulled up in front of the terminal and said goodbye in a flurry of hugs and kisses. Jia’s mood depressed a little as she left her family and got back in her car.
She placed her hands on the steering wheel, then frowned. Where was she supposed to go? She hadn’t discussed this with Dev before leaving. The house had been so busy, what with her family packing up and saying their goodbyes. She’d only waved at him.
She called Dev as she worked her way out of the airport’s congestion.
He answered on the first ring. “Hello?”
“I dropped them off. I’m leaving LAX now.” She wiped her palms on her pant legs.
“I’m home. Would you... would you like to come to my home for dinner? I mean. Our home? The flat?”
Her heart sped up. There was no need to get too excited. She’d been to his home before, and they’d had dinner together.
Never as a married couple, though.
“Sure.”
