Phil placed a hand on her shoulder. “Clara has your favorite waiting in the back.”
Mrs. P. was forever feeding her, but Annika was still grateful every time she remembered to save a generous bowl of the crab soup for her.
“Nothing gets between Clara and feeding the ones she loves.” Phil grinned and squeezed Annika’s shoulder. “She’s got plenty.”
Content with love, Annika smiled and headed for the window that opened to the kitchen. Clara, or Mrs. P., as everyone else called her, was quiet and introverted, the yin to Phil’s yang. Her cooking was amazing, and more than once she hit Annika up for Indian recipes, always looking for new dishes to learn. On cue, Mrs. P. hit the bell again for Annika to pick up the soup.
Annika grabbed the soup, inhaling the comforting aroma of cream and spices. This soup rivaled her mother’skhichdifor best comfort food ever.
She brought it to chiseled-jawed, double-dimpled, green-eyed, superhot Chopper Guy. Oh, God! Was she a teenager again? She showed him the spoon before pointedly placing it next to the bowl. “So you don’t have to stare at it.”
Chopper Guy rewarded her mockery with a laugh. And what a reward it was. His eyes crinkled and his mouth opened wide, revealing almost perfect teeth. One of the very side ones was slightly crooked, and it caught her eye and her curiosity. It was the sound of his laugh that drew her attention. It started as a low rumble, almost as if he hadn’t laughed in a while and needed to warm up. Then it progressed to a more abandoned sound, not loud, but rumbling and free. The laugh gave her a reason to look at his mouth. She was drawn to that mouth, more than seemed normal. If looking at a guy’s mouth even qualified as normal.
The truth was, she had recognized him as soon as he’d entered the bar. It was the walk. Sure, he was tall and muscular and had that chiseled jaw and great hair, but she remembered the quiet confidence of his gait from the other night. The way he had moved efficiently and gracefully, completely unaware of his own presence.
The laugh ended in a smile, perfect lips parted just slightly over those almost perfect teeth, with a dimple on each side, and her knees actually weakened a bit as she stood there.
Annika had no trouble believing that all he had to do was turn on that smile and women would swoon.
His eyes met hers, and something jumped in her belly. How could you not notice those eyes? With dark chestnut hair—just long enough to tempt one to run her fingers through it, yet short enough to be professional—and skin the color of desert sand, one expected rich brown eyes. So, when Chopper Guy flashed fiery green eyes at her—and he did flash them, intentionally or not—one had to look twice. She just didn’t have to melt like she did.
Right now, those eyes studied her, and her belly fluttering was getting out of control. It was bad enough that Bobby had to announce that Chopper Guy was superhot (Bobby always noticed the hot ones, and always tried to set Annika up with the ones he wasn’t interested in), but she had gone all hot and sweaty with embarrassment. Bobby had grinned when he noticed, so she knew Chopper Guy had noticed, too.
He granted her a playful version of that smile and picked up the spoon. “I don’t have a questionable history with cream of crab soup.”
How many versions of that smile were there? She wouldn’t mind finding out. But the smile disappeared as he brought the spoon to his mouth. “Mmm.”
It was almost a groan, and Annika swallowed hard. She was salivating. And it wasn’t because of the soup.
“You were not kidding.” Chopper Guy landed his gaze on her again.
Who reacted to a groan like that? “I don’t kid about soup.” Fantastic. She was talking to this hot guy aboutsoup. Clearly, she was not ready to be in the company of attractive men.
Thankfully, Chopper Guy directed his appreciation toward the kitchen, where Mrs. P. stood in the window, watching them. Mrs. P. nodded and returned to the back, accepting his broad grin and thumbs-up.
Chopper Guy took another spoonful and turned those green eyes on her. “Thank you.”
“Just doing my job.” She needed to walk away from him, but her knees had once more turned to jelly. So she stood frozen for a moment longer than necessary.
Amusement filled his eyes as he leaned toward her and whispered, “You going to watch me eat?”
Annika flushed. He was very close, anddamnif he didn’t smell amazing. A combination of some musky cologne, soap and something deliciously unidentifiable. With great effort, she gathered herself and leaned away. “Well, it would certainly be more entertaining than watching you drink.” She smiled at him and nodded at his bourbon before finally making her legs walk away from him.
This guy was trouble.
CHAPTER SIX
ANNIKA
MILDNAUSEACLAWEDat Annika’s stomach as she drove the thirty-five minutes from her apartment in Baltimore to her childhood home in Columbia, Maryland. She’d been making this trip more often these past few months since...everything.
When she had been with Steven, she’d ignored the obvious strain her relationship with him had put on her relationship with her family. She had told herself they simply didn’t understand, and they would come to love him, just as she did.
But they had seen what she had not, and while she’d chalked up their resistance to Steven to his not being Indian, or that she was pregnant outside of wedlock, the reality was that they hadn’t liked Steven because he was selfish and didn’t really have her best interests at heart. They loved her, and so had ultimately gone along with her decision, but a distance had crept between them. She missed that closeness and was working to get it back.
Problem was, her parents were pushing for her to get married. Like, soon, before she could make another mistake.
Her teenage brother, Nilay, was out on the driveway playing basketball with his friends. They were dressed in shorts and muscle shirts, seemingly oblivious to the October chill. They stopped playing as she drove up, and Nilay ran to her car.
