Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (The Rajes #1)(89)

Their bags showed up on the baggage claim belt and Trisha pulled them off. Neel had gone to find a cart. Mishka’s phone pinged and she started to furiously type something out. Then she flipped her phone over and showed Trisha her new phone case. “It’s Mr. Bean . . . well, Rowan Atkinson; doesn’t he look totally different? It’s from the National Portrait Gallery. I loved it so much that Barbara had it printed on a phone case for me. Isn’t it amazing?”

Barbara? Why the hell was ex-Barbara giving Mishka phone cases? “Totally amazing.” Trisha handed the phone back to Mishka. “Did you enjoy it? The gallery?” And why the hell was ex-Barbara taking her niece to art galleries? That was something she did with Mishka. It was their auntie-niece thing.

Mishka actually bounced on her heels in excitement. “It was incredible! Barbara’s friend gave us a tour. Like a backstage tour at a concert. She was really cool.”

Trisha had never thought of Barbara as cool. Too pseudonerdy for her taste. Horn-rimmed glasses, plaid—who dressed like that outside of books? “Barbara must’ve gotten cooler over time,” she said, when she shouldn’t have.

“Yipes, not Barbara!” Mishka said, and Trisha tried not to smile. Really, she did. “I meant Reina, the curator. She’s really cool. Wore the highest boots I’ve ever seen.” She pointed to her thighs, looking completely smitten.

She did sound different. They were going to have to go to the movies, eat some In-N-Out. Do something American. “Ah, so Barbara didn’t go with you?”

“No, she did. For a while, then she and Dad went off and left me with Reina. You want to see a picture?”

“Sure.”

Neel came back with a cart and started to put the bags on it.

“That’s Reina and that’s Barbara.” Mishka handed Trisha the phone.

The bag slammed Neel’s fingers into the metal of the cart. Not even a whisper escaped him, but Trisha gasped. “Neel! You okay?” She pushed the bag into place and grabbed his hand.

The skin on his knuckles was all scratched up and a blue welt was starting to form across his fingers. “I’m fine.” He pulled his hand away and started pushing the cart toward the parking garage.

When they got to the car, Mishka climbed in the backseat and pressed her phone to her ear. “Mom’s not answering,” she announced and then popped her earbuds into her ears.

Neel waited a moment to make sure her music was on, then took a deep breath. “Where’s Nisha, Shasha?” he said without looking at her.

“She’s got tuberculosis.”

“What?” Neel spun to face her.

“What?” Trisha moved the car into traffic.

“Did you just say Nisha has tuberculosis?” He squeezed his hurt fingers with his other hand because he’d just slammed them against the dashboard in his shock.

“No. What? Not Nisha. I thought you were asking about a patient of mine. Um . . . Nisha’s in Carmel.” Someone help me. “Mishka’s phone case is really nice.”

Neel turned back around still gripping his fingers, poor guy.

“Should we stop for ice? Or an x-ray?”

He shook his head. “I’m fine. What’s Nisha doing in Carmel? Why didn’t she tell me?”

Why did you drop you daughter off with a stranger to go off with your ex? “It was an emergency. Well, not an emergency exactly, but Naomi had some ideas for the fund-raiser and Nisha needed to go check them out.”

“I thought DJ Caine was doing the fund-raiser. How is Naomi involved?”

“I’m not quite sure but DJ and Naomi were trying some . . . um . . . farm-to-table stuff. Naomi has coops. Did you know Naomi has coops? But yes, it has to do with California and farmers and everything.” She took a breath. “They’ve been working all day. In fact, it’s going to take a couple days, because while Nisha is there she was going to set up the family getaway at the beach house.”

“A family getaway?” He looked like he was furiously trying to remember if he had forgotten about a family event. See, she was a genius.

“Did you forget? We’re all going to the beach for the weekend once the fund-raiser is done. Ma wants to do a postmortem weekend this time instead of just a tea.”

Neel groaned. Then covered it with a vigorous throat clearing. “Of course I didn’t forget.”

Trisha felt awful. “Nisha said she’d call you as soon as she gets back to the beach house and gets service.”

That seemed to satisfy him.

“So why the rush to come home?” she asked, focusing hard on the road.

“We were done with the trip,” he said a little softer than usual. He must have realized how cryptic that sounded, because he added, “Work was piling up and I figured being gone so close to the fund-raiser wasn’t fair to Nisha. I wanted to make sure Yash didn’t need something before the big announcement.”

With that he moved the conversation to the fund-raiser and kept it there until Trisha dropped him and Mishka off at their house and went back home to her sister.

Before she got home, Neel had already called Nisha.

“Why did you have to come up with a place that’s only two hours away? Now Neel wants to drive out and see me. It wasn’t easy to hold him off.” It was the first thing Nisha said when Trisha walked into her room.