DHILLON
“Sit.” Dhillon reached into the pocket of his scrubs, pulled out a small cracker and placed it in front of the dog’s snout. “Good girl!” The German shepherd–husky mix crunched up the biscuit with a wag of his tail and looked to Dhillon for another.
“That’s enough, now, Hobbes.” His owner, a college kid, tugged at the leash. “Time to go.” With a small whine of protest, the dog walked over to his owner and waited. “Thanks, Doc,” the kid said. “See you next time.”
“Take care.” Dhillon waved him out and then headed to his office in the back to work on charts. His desk was nothing more than an eight-foot fold-up table. He didn’t need more than that, he told himself, just a place to put his computer and a picture. There were no paper files anymore, and buying a real desk was not a priority right now.
The photo was of him, his mom and his dad. It was from before Hetal was born. It was Dhillon’s first ski trip—actually, it was everyone’s first ski trip. His mom and dad had had their first ski lesson right along with Dhillon. Dhillon had loved that day, watching his dad learn to ski, so they could do it together.
He was well into his charts when Shelly poked her head in his office, her short blond curls bouncing. “Good night, Doc. You should go home. Been a long day.” She yawned.
“Thanks, but I have to finish these charts before I head over to the soccer field.” He glanced at the time on his screen. “I have an hour.” He tapped a few keys and looked at her. “And you know you don’t have to call me Doc when the patients are gone.”
Shelly had been the one who trained Dhillon in all the operations of the office when he worked the desk after school as a teenager, and she’d been thrilled to stay on when he came back from school and bought the practice. She knew how to run the day-to-day, and Dhillon found her invaluable to his team. Not to mention that she was amazing with the animals.
She shook her head and leaned against the door frame, her petite body barely filling the space. “Whatever you say, Doc.”
Dhillon grinned. “I do want to have a meeting about how we can improve the flow of the office without doing a major overhaul.”
“You want to modernize? About time. Let’s do it!” Shelly’s blue eyes lit up, and she started pacing, talking about a new office she had seen that had all the bells and whistles and—
“Shelly. Just baby steps. I don’t have the money for an entire redo.”
Shelly froze midstep. “Take out a loan.”
“Not right now.” Dhillon shook his head. “Hetal is still in college. I still have a loan on this place.”
Shelly deflated. “Okay. You’re the boss. But I do think it’s high time you found yourself a nice girl and settled down.” She eyed him, as if appraising him. “You’re handsome, but you’re not getting any younger.”
Dhillon grimaced at her and turned back to his computer. “You know, I have a mother at home.”
“Clearly you need a mom here, too. You can’t live alone forever.”
“I’m not alone. I have my family. I have my practice. I have you.” His life was full. He loved his work, and he had people he cared about. Riya popped into his head.
“It doesn’t have to be Riya.” Shelly sighed.
“Good night, Shelly.”
Shelly turned, saying goodbye to Hetal, and left on another sigh, her sneakers gently squeaking on the tiled floor.
Hetal came into his office, removed her lab coat and sat down across from him. She said nothing. Just watched him, her dark eyes fixed on him, her mouth set in a line. The last time she had done this was to tell him their mother had opened a profile for herself on shaadi.com.
He continued his charts for a few more minutes until he could no longer ignore his sister’s eyes boring into him. Defeated by her silent insistence, he sighed and turned away from his monitor. The lights flickered. “Is Mom getting married?”
“What? No. That last guy turned out to be married. Mom called his wife.” She pursed her lips and dipped her chin before breaking out into a huge smile that was almost the exact replica of their father’s, except that Hetal had perfectly straight teeth. Dhillon’s heart ached with a sad happiness he could never really put into words.
“The lawyer? Huh.” Dhillon allowed himself a moment of pride for his mother as well. Do not cross Sarika Vora. “Okay, Mom’s not getting married. So why the stare-down?” He glanced at the monitor.
“You work too hard.” Her ponytail bounced, adding emphasis to her statement.
“That’s not a thing.” He tapped away for a minute, adding notes to a chart.
“Yes, it is. You should at least take a break, go out, have some fun. Call Ryan. Or better yet, go out on a date.” Her voice rose in pitch.
“Stop talking to Shelly.” Dhillon pursed his lips and pointedly maneuvered his screen between them. If she wanted to talk dating, she could talk to herself. He didn’t have time for that right now. He had a business to run, patients to see, debt to manage.
“I made a profile for you.” She bit her bottom lip.
