“Between which jobs?” he asked.
Before she could answer, Roshan spoke up. “Dad. Some things are personal.”
“What?” he asked, looking around the room. “It’s a legitimate question.”
“I went to school to become a biomedical engineer and worked at a big firm for a few years. But I took a few years off to be a flight attendant.”
Uncle looked at her blankly, like he did not know what to make of that answer. “Why would you become a flight attendant if you have a degree in BME?”
“Dad!” both of his children chided him. He waved them off.
“I needed to figure out some things,” she said.
“Did you figure them out?” he asked.
“I’m working on it,” she answered.
“Okay.” He eyed her with complete bewilderment.
“Let’s start the puja,” Malini said as she brought a tray of sweets into the family room.
They prayed to Lord Ganesha to remove all obstacles before performing the housewarming ceremony. The smell of incense and ghee took Nimita back to her childhood. When she and Reena were a team. They had sat through many a puja like this, and Reena had always had a hard time sitting in one spot. To occupy her, Nimita taught her sign language, and they would play silent games together. She had adored her little sister. In fact, Reena had adored her back then, too.
She missed that time with Reena. When they were friends, a team even. It was time.
It was time to focus and make things right with her sister.
Chapter Eighteen
Roshan showed up at the beach for Malini’s surf lesson. If his sister insisted on doing this, he would at least be there. It wasn’t because Nimita was teaching and he needed to be in her presence, whether they were together or not.
He was exhausted, having just pulled an overnight shift. Finn was enjoying the treat of playing in the ocean. He’d heard the stories about Finn dragging her into the water, but she’d earned the dog’s respect, it seemed, and he was behaving for her.
The air was warm, the sun had just come up, but the water was quite cool, so he preferred wearing a wet suit. Nimita and Malini were also clad in short wet suits. He watched them from a few feet away.
Nimita nodded in his direction as she spoke to Malini. “What’s he doing here?”
“He insisted on being here,” Malini said, looking at him. “But he said he’ll stay out of our way.” She glared at him.
“Love how you talk about me like I can’t hear you,” he said. He wasn’t here to be liked. He was here to look after her. Malini was going to do whatever she wanted. She had proved that when she got her own place.
Nimita flicked her gaze in his direction. She also did not appear happy to see him, but she seemed resigned.
Nimita started Malini out slow, like she had with him and the guys in Hawaii. Had that been only two months ago? She first went over popping up.
Roshan recalled feeling like he had no control of his body when he had tried to learn this. The number of times he fell in the water. He smiled to himself.
Being lithe and flexible, Malini was able to jump up to standing quickly. Nimita looked in his direction with a small smirk, indicating that she, too, remembered his difficulties with this move. Luckily he had his aviators on, or Nimita might have seen the longing in his eyes.
Holi had been a week ago. He was just having a hard time letting his feelings for Nimita go. Didn’t help that she seemed to be his sister’s new best friend.
Malini mastered popping up quickly, and Nimita got her out riding the white water. Malini seemed to belong on the surf board. She was graceful and seemed to understand the board and the water and her body all at the same time.
Roshan decided to join them in the water. He had just reached the water’s edge when a huge wave came out of nowhere and took both women down.
Roshan raced into the ocean. Nimita popped up in seconds, looking around frantically… Where was Malini? He saw the unoccupied surfboard at the same time she did, and both of them raced toward it.
“Malini!” Nimita called out, reaching the board first.
