“Thanks. Can you grab a few towels?”
He smiled. “You get to work. I’ll get the towels.”
She thoroughly scrubbed and washed Finn and managed to get the sand off herself in the process. Her father produced a few beach towels so she dried Finn and herself as best she could, too. The jeans shorts needed to come off, but she had to drop off Finn first.
“What happened?” Neha asked, her eyes wide, as Nimita and Finn approached.
“He wanted to swim. In the ocean.”
“Oooh, I forgot to tell you about that.” Neha looked chagrined.
Nimita glared at her cousin. “Did you?”
“Sorry. I’ll find someone else to walk him.”
“Why? I’ll be back in the evening,” Nimita said. “I’ll just be better prepared. And we won’t go near that beach.” If she was going to fix things, the least she could do was walk a dog properly.
Nimita went home and freshened up. There didn’t seem to be anything that needed doing, so she grabbed her laptop and researched dog training. When she heard the tap of a cane approaching, she found her dad and asked him if he’d like a game of chess.
Later, Reena’s husband, Hiral, arrived home and set to the task of feeding little Naya her dinner. He was making airplane sounds to try to get her to eat, and the little girl was loving it. Toddler giggles filled the silence as Nimita helped—or tried to help—Reena get food on the table for the rest of the family. Reena insisted that she could manage and didn’t let Nimita do much of anything. Nimita kept her mouth shut, though she didn’t understand why Reena wouldn’t let her help.
Nimita watched her brother-in-law feed his daughter. Hiral had been part of their family long before Reena married him. As far as Nimita knew, there hadn’t been a time in Hiral’s life that he hadn’t loved Reena.
For that alone, he held a special spot in Nimita’s heart. Not to mention, he was just an all-around great guy and loved their father like his own. Which, considering the amount of time Hiral had spent at their house growing up, was not too far from the truth.
“So then, Nimita asked me to get towels.” Papa was reciting the day’s events, his face lit up.
Reena froze while making rotli. “She what?” She turned to glare at Nimita.
“I was soaked through; the dog was soaked through. I was not about to bring sand and sea into your home. Papa was there.”
“You can’t ask him to do those kind of things.” Reena flipped the rotli onto the flat pan for roasting.
“Why?”
Reena started rolling out another flatbread. Perfectly round and thin, like their mom used to make.
“Your sister thinks I am too frail to do those things,” Papa sighed.
“You are,” Reena said without looking up. “The doctor has warned you about falling.”
“I didn’t fall.”
“But you could have,” Reena insisted. Nimita moved her hand to flip over the rotli on the pan, but Reena reached it first. Nimita drew her hand back. She caught Hiral’s eye.
Nimita pressed her lips together. “He was fine. I mean, he took his time—”
“You don’t know anything about it,” Reena snapped. She picked up the hot rotli with her fingers and dropped it on the open flame. It puffed up perfectly.
Of course it did.
“Then tell me,” Nimita said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Reena said.
“Of course it matters,” Nimita countered.
“We have to be careful he doesn’t fall,” Reena muttered.
