Dhillon narrowed his eyes at her, an alert going off in his head at the tone of his sister’s voice. It tamped down the spike of happiness. “She saved people on the ambulance, too.”
He’d practically raised his sister, so he knew her too well. Hetal’s voice was off right now, reminding him of the numerous times she had tried to evade telling him the truth about something. He turned his monitor away from him.
“What’s going on?”
“Well, I was talking to Riya the other day...” She ripped small pieces of her napkin.
“Yes.” He put down his sandwich. Anything having to do with Riya was going to affect his appetite.
“And I think it would be great to be a firefighter.” She spit the words out quickly. She’d known he wouldn’t be happy. She was right.
She was also out of her mind. “Absolutely not.” He turned his screen back to him. Conversation over. No doubt in his role today. Today he was the firm father figure.
“What do you mean,absolutely not?”
“What part do you not understand? Theabsolutely? Or thenot?” He typed with extra vigor.
“I am twenty years old and fully capable of deciding what I want to do with my life.”
“Clearly not,” Dhillon spit out, more the older brother now than a reasonable father figure. He didn’t care. “And Riya does whatever the hell she wants.” Without really considering the risks to herself. Or what it might mean to the people who cared about her.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a firefighter.”
“You’re right. There isn’t.” He kept typing. “It’s a noble profession. I have no problem with it. For other people. Not us. We have already sacrificed plenty to fire.” Like their father. Who really should be the one having this conversation with her, not him. But that was no longer possible.
“Well, Riya said she would help me,” Hetal said, as she finished the last of her sandwich.
Dhillon stopped hammering his keyboard, blood pounding in his head. “Shewhat?” Was there no end to the ways in which Riya Desai could manage to upend his world? He was going to have a word with her. It was one thing if she wanted to risk her own life—which still made Dhillon panic—but encouraging his sister? No. Line crossed.
“She said she would help me. Like a mentor.” His little sister said this like it was a normal thing, when it was anything but. What was normal about supporting a young girl in her desire to put herself in constant danger?
“No. That’s not happening.” Fear grew heavy inside him as he envisioned his sister running toward flames. He couldn’t keep Hetal safe if she were a firefighter. Every cell in his body screamedShut it down! Shut it down NOW.“I don’t care what she says. This will kill Mom.”
“Mom’s tougher than you give her credit for.” It was a fact as much as it was an accusation.
“I know Mom’s tough—”
The front door jingled, announcing their first afternoon patient. Hetal chugged the last of her water and gathered her lunch box. “Duty calls.”
“Hetal.” Dhillon narrowed his eyes at his sister. “This isn’t over yet.”
“Says you,” she spit at him as she whipped around and left his office.
Ten minutes later, Hetal popped her head in his office, a light in her eye and a smirk on her face as she spoke. “First patient waiting for you in Exam 1.”
Dhillon nodded as he stood and grabbed his lab coat. He entered the exam room to find Riya sitting there with Scout in her arms. She was smiling, her face and eyes soft as she scratched Scout under the chin. Riya glanced up as he walked in, and some of the softness left her face, replaced by a mask designed to hide her vulnerability. A pang of regret reverberated through Dhillon’s body, reminding him that he had allowed that to happen. He had allowed the distance between them to creep in and take hold when he was a teenager mourning the loss of his father, convinced that Riya couldn’t possibly still want him. Even though he had known that she mourned, too.
The pang was gone as quickly as it came, as Dhillon took in Riya’s firefighter blues, the Howard County Fire Department emblem over the left breast. She was going to help his sister run into fires, too.
Not if he had anything to do with it.
She spoke first. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He glanced at Scout and felt a smile at the edges of his mouth that he couldn’t stop. Well, he wasn’t mad at the puppy.
Riya seemed to lower her guard and soften again as his smile widened.
Dhillon couldn’t move. He was angry with her, at the same time that he was taken in by how gorgeous Riya was when she wasn’t trying to prove something.
