Page 91 of Cross the Line
‘Says the race car driver.’
I finally crack, grinning so wide it almost hurts. I’m just so glad to see her again, up close and personal. ‘Come here, Wills.’
Despite her sarcastic comments, she doesn’t waste a second throwing herself into my arms. I gather her body to mine and hold her close, inhaling her sweetness. With each breath, a little more of the stress of the past seven days washes away.
‘I missed you,’ she mumbles, her face buried in my chest. ‘You’ve been next door this whole time, but it felt like miles.’
‘You know you could have come over, right?’ I tease as I rub her back, grateful to feel every divot and groove of her spine. I want to memorize every inch of her. ‘You could have come up with an excuse to steal me away. I’m sure there was social media stuff to be done. I’m disappointed with your lack of creativity and effort.’
She snorts into my shirt. ‘Yeah, right, and have all your aunties descend on me? I don’t think so. Besides . . .’ She drops her hands from my waist and pulls back as far as I’ll let her. ‘I didn’t want to interrupt your time with Oakley.’
It’s kind of her to give me that opportunity, but she’s forgetting that I’ll have to learn to balance my time with her and with her brother soon enough if we’re going to make a relationship work. I hope this doesn’t mean she’s having any second thoughts.
‘You still in this with me?’ I ask, dipping my head to catch her eye. ‘No doubts?’
She regards me straight on, eyes nearly black in the low light. ‘No doubts,’ she says firmly. ‘I want to tell Oakley after the wedding. I don’t want to risk ruining Alisha’s day – well,days– if telling him goes wrong.’
‘Yeah, if he beats the shit out of me, I won’t be able to dance,’ I joke.
Willow doesn’t seem to find the humour in it. ‘I really hope it doesn’t come to that.’ She worries her bottom lip between her teeth, glancing away. ‘And I don’t think it will. He only did that to Jeremy because of how terrible he was to me.’
‘So don’t be an asshole, and I’ll be fine. Got it.’
She blows out a breath, shoulders slumping. ‘Dev . . .’
‘I’m sorry,’ I say quickly, cupping her face so she looks at me again. ‘You know I resort to terrible jokes when I’m nervous.’
I’m desperate to change the subject now, to get away from anything that steals her light. I scan her room, honing in on the Desi clothes hanging up on the edge of her closet door. ‘Are those your outfits for the wedding?’
She brightens again, leaving me to exhale a small sigh of relief.
‘Yeah, I still need to pack them up,’ she says. ‘You like the colours? Neha Aunty helped me pick them out.’
I survey the chaniya cholis, lehengas and saris, taking them in a little more closely, something nagging at the back of my mind. ‘Do you have them in order? Like, for all the events?’
‘Yep.’ She points at each one as she goes down the line. ‘Pithi, mehndi, garba, wedding ceremony and wedding reception.’ Yellow, pink, green, orange and purple.
It clicks then. ‘I can’t believe that woman.’
‘What?’
I release my hold on Willow and run a hand through my hair as I fight the heat creeping up my neck. ‘I hope you don’t mind colour-coordinating with me, because those are the exact same as all my outfits – which my mom also picked out.’
‘Oh mygod,’ Willow whispers fiercely. ‘No. She wouldn’t do that.’
‘She would and she did.’
‘But she doesn’t know about us!’ she practically shouts. Her eyes immediately go wide, and she drops her voice again. ‘Wait, wait, wait. That morning when I had breakfast at your house, right after I started working for you – you said something to her in Gujarati, and she practically fell out of her seat laughing. Why?’
I should have known Willow wouldn’t forget that, and now I have an embarrassing confession to make. ‘Because I . . . I told her that nothing was ever going to happen between you and me.’
Willow blinks up at me for a beat, and then she doubles over in quiet giggles. ‘I can’tbelieveyou,’ she gasps, her body shaking. ‘Literally a minute later, you were telling me you’re obsessed with me!’
I grudgingly pat her shoulder, grateful for the low light so she can’t see how red my face probably is right now. ‘Yeah, all right. Maybe I did. But I—’
‘Don’t even try to deny it,’ she says, grin so wide and dimples so deep that when she looks up at me, I can’t help but dazedly smile back, blinded by the pure joy emanating from her. ‘I guess she was right to laugh.’
‘Truly.’ I shake my head. Mothers are the world’s best fortune tellers. ‘Come on, let’s get you and Ellie to bed.’
