“Just sit,” Hetal said.
Riya did as she was told. Hetal sat across from her. “What’s going on?” She looked to Dhillon for an answer. He just shrugged his shoulders, jubilation playing in his eyes, a smile taking over his lips.
“Riya Didi, I know that traditionally, we tie rakhi to our brothers, wishing them a long and happy life, because brothers are supposed to love us and look out for us, always.” She smiled at Dhillon. “So much so that, sometimes, they won’t even move the hell out of the house.”
This earned her a glare from Dhillon and a chuckle from the rest of the crowd.
“Anyway... Riya Didi, you’ve always been a big sister to me. You’ve looked out for me and loved me like I was your own blood. I don’t remember a time in my childhood where you weren’t there for me.” She paused. “One of my favorite memories was climbing trees with you when I was little.”
“You sprained your ankle that day,” Dhillon interjected.
Hetal’s face lit up. “I know. But the climbing was fun, and Riya took such great care of me after. We had ice cream and watched movies.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “Dad had been gone a little while, and I remember that being the first time I had fun in a long time.”
Riya teared up again at the young woman’s words.
“So I’m tying this rakhi on you today to wish you a long and happy life. Because sisters should be able to celebrate their bond, too.” With that, she took Riya’s right wrist and tied the rakhi around it. “This rakhi I made for you is the color of fire. So you’ll be safe, always.”
They fed each other sweets.
Riya studied the rakhi, and a tear dropped from her eye. When she found her voice, she looked at Hetal. “I don’t have a gift for you.”
Hetal hugged her, a playful smirk on her lips. “I’ll take an IOU.”
Scout wiggled and barked in the back seat of Riya’s mom’s car. Riya was running a couple of errands for her parents today. She was meeting Dhillon tomorrow to scatter Lucky’s ashes and then moving back to her apartment. She wanted as much time with Scout as possible.
She’d just got a text from Ambrose requesting she stop by the firehouse for a minute. She’d been off for a few days, but she was on shift tomorrow night. Whatever it was apparently couldn’t wait.
“All right, Scout. Let’s go see the guys.” She got out of the car and unhooked the puppy. Before she could get the leash on, Scout bolted out and right into the station. Riya followed.
Scout had gone directly to Ambrose, since the lieutenant spent most of his time off hanging out at the Vora house with Hetal while she healed. Ambrose got down on his knees to greet Scout, taking all the doggy kisses and tail wags she had to offer.
Alvarez came from the back. “We fed you, too, dog.” Scout ran to him and jumped up and down to play. Riya walked back to Alvarez.
Schultz came up to greet Scout as well and ran back toward the locker room with her. Riya followed.
Once Scout had made the rounds, she settled in at Riya’s feet. “So what’s going on?”
“Well, we missed the dog.” Ambrose nodded at Scout, his eyes filled with humor.
Riya was confused. “You see her all the time at Hetal’s.”
Evans spoke up. “Yeah. But we don’t.”
Something was up. “No way you called me all the way down here just to see Scout.”
Ambrose looked around at all the men, then back at Riya. “We have something to show you.”
“We—” he spread his arms out to indicate all the men “—are all brothers here. We take care of each other. We have each other’s backs.”
Evans looked Riya in the eye. “We’re your brothers, too.”
“So we always have your back,” Alvarez added. “You should have told us how bad it was with Walsh.”
“I was handling it.”
“You don’t always have to handle things on your own,” Ambrose said. “We can never replace the brother you lost, but we’re here for you. Always.”
They were standing in front of the locker room. The men parted, forming an aisle for Riya. She looked at each of these men as she walked past them until she reached the locker-room door.
