The Singles Table (Marriage Game #3)(58)

“Fine.”

Rick snickered. “Christ. When I told my buddies you got a minor concussion after banging your head on a cauldron full of zombie brains—”

“Mom?” Jay made a hasty retreat and followed the delicious scents of cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves to the kitchen, determined to convince his mother to dump Rick and find someone with a slightly less biting sense of humor.

“Have a seat.” She pointed to the table with her wooden spoon. “I was just about to grate some coconut on the rava upma. You can eat it while it’s hot.”

Jay wasn’t about to turn down a home-cooked breakfast even if the table was so full there was barely space to eat. The South Indian delicacy made with fresh vegetables, spices, lentils, aromatic nuts, and curry leaves had been a childhood favorite.

“I’ve made enough food to last you a few days.” She spooned the rava upma into a bowl. “You won’t go hungry.”

Jay surveyed the foil-covered dishes on the counter. “You’ve made enough food for a month.”

“Rick and I are going for a drive this afternoon so I brought you a little something for Sunday dinner.” She handed him the bowl. “When I saw your empty fridge, I went home to pick up my cooking supplies. I didn’t want you to starve.”

Jay’s dislike for Rick increased another notch. Even when his mom had been going through her cancer treatment, they never missed spending Sunday evening together.

“I thought maybe you could share all this food with someone . . .” She wiped her hands on her apron, a seemingly casual gesture that was anything but. Jay knew that move—the inquisition was about to begin. “Maybe your friend from the hospital?”

Jay stirred the steaming dish. “We have an arrangement. Nothing more. She’s still trying to find me a match. I introduced her to a minor celebrity. It’s all going as planned. I’d made that promise to you, and our most promising investor hinted that community and family ties were important to the bank, so it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“And now?” She took a seat across from him, clearing a space for her elbows on his glass-and-steel table. He’d picked all his furniture in one afternoon, making his choices with functionality rather than aesthetics in mind.

“Now things are complicated,” he admitted.

His mother lifted a basket from the counter and handed him a fluffy pav. “I saw your face at the hospital. It’s not complicated at all.”

“Whatever it is, I don’t have time for it.” He tore the soft roll in two. “We’re about to settle a big lawsuit so it will be full steam ahead for the international expansion once we secure our funding. My focus needs to be on the business right now.”

“Love doesn’t come when it’s convenient,” his mother said. “It crashes into your life when you least expect it, when your guard is down and you’re looking the other way. Love slips through the cracks and into the corners of your heart. By the time you realize it’s found you, there is no escape.”

“I don’t know anything about love.” He bit into the pav, savoring the soft texture and delicate flavor. “I do know that Zara can be impulsive and stubborn and she calls things as she sees them. She follows her own path and refuses to compromise even if it means turning down a job at the biggest law firm in the city, or losing a paintball game. I’ve never met anyone who takes so many risks or embraces life so fully. She’s loud and colorful and passionate and utterly unapologetic about who she is. But she’s also warm and kind and devoted to her friends and her family. She has no hesitation putting herself out there, and when things go wrong, she just bounces back.”

His mother chuckled. “I knew l liked her when we met. Now I like her even more.”

“She’s the opposite of me,” he grumbled. “We couldn’t be more different.”

“Are you sure about that?” She poured two cups of coffee. “Before you left home, you had that passion, that love of life. You came back to me in a dark place, and it hurt my heart that I couldn’t do anything to bring that Jay back. It didn’t help that you had to leave your career to deal with me.”

“I didn’t have to deal with you, Mom.” Emotion welled up in his throat. “It was a privilege to be there for you the way you were always there for me.”

“Hey, babe,” Rick shouted. “You gotta get in here. This is the season where everyone gets drugged and kidnapped, and they all go around stabbing each other in the back. It’s a fucking soap opera.”

“It is, literally, a soap opera,” Jay muttered under his breath.

“You got any more of that Chablis?” Rick called out. “Goes great with the wings. And some of those sweets you made last night? The yellow ones with the nuts on top.”

“I thought he was a biker,” Jay said. “The whole Chablis and Days of Our Lives thing is throwing me off. And he’d better not be taking you out on his bike after he’s been drinking.”

“Don’t be hard on him.” She covered the rolls and turned off the stove. “He’s a good man. We’re going in my car. I have to pick up some supplies for the daycare, and he offered to come with me and make a day of it. It’s a big thing for him, traveling in a cage.”

Jay leaned forward and lowered his voice. “What about that guy at the wedding? The one you invited to take my seat? He seemed . . . normal.”