The Vibrant Years(61)

A laugh spurted from him. “That Taking Earth Back place? Shit. Don’t you read the Shady Palms message boards? It’s been on the blacklist for months.”

Silence settled between them at the mention of the message boards.

“Why would I be on the message boards? It’s not like I’m welcome there.”

“Since when has that stopped you?”

Her step faltered.

“I’m sorry,” he said, quickly, sincerely. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

“Then stop. Stop acting like you know me or we’re friends. You don’t even like me.” And yet he’d rushed here when she was in trouble. She hated men like him. Men who believed themselves so honorable, their own wishes didn’t count in the face of the good of others. “I’m not your charity case. Just leave me alone.”

He was still holding her hat. She snatched it out of his hand and started walking again, opening her rideshare app as she went.

“Bindu.” Why was he still following her?

“What?” She’d always prided herself on being the kind of person who never snapped at people, but to hell with that. She stepped into his space and flung the word at him with a fury she couldn’t control.

He didn’t so much as blink. “I never said I didn’t like you.” It was a whisper, his green eyes so defenseless, it was like she’d stripped him bare. “I don’t think I’ve liked anyone this much in a long time.”

Silence burned around them like the brutal sunshine singeing her skin. Their breath became the only sound as they stood there, not knowing what to do with the words he’d just said.

Well, snap out of it, Bindu.

“Is that why you called me trouble? Because you liked me so much? Without knowing the first thing about me.”

“Is that why you’re so angry with me? Because I called you that?” He searched her face, confident that there was more, as though he saw that there was more. Story of her life. Men who thought they saw her.

She stuck a finger in his face. “One, I’m not angry with you. I don’t do anger. Two, how would you like someone you’d never met throwing that word at you?”

“You think I meant it as a bad thing? You’re exactly the kind of trouble I’ve always wanted to be. The kind of trouble that changes things. Anything worth doing in the world only ever gets done because of the troublemakers. Especially the troublemakers who know exactly why they want things. Because it’s right to want them. Not because it’s easy.”

Her stupid heartbeat sped up. “Well, you’re wrong.” She’d always chosen easy. “But thanks for turning me into your preconceived notions.”

He blinked, then swallowed. “Haven’t you done the same? Assumed who I am?”

It was her turn to blink and swallow. She’d written his entire life history the first time she’d met him.

Suddenly he looked young and lost. “Even if you have, it doesn’t make it okay that I did too,” he said slowly. “I’m sorry.” He pushed his hand at her. “Can we start over? I would love to get to know you, if you’ll give me a chance. I’m Lee Bennet. I was a county circuit judge for twenty years. Recently retired. Widowed for ten years. One daughter. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I’d love to be friends.”

This level of cheesiness from him was so unexpected that she took his hand and shook it. And giggled. It had been years since she’d giggled.

“That’s a line straight out of a Bollywood film. Where the hero asks the heroine to be friends with him.”

His smile was nervous. “And? Does she comply?”

Ah, what the hell. She’d eaten bugs today; she could do anything. “She does.” She gave his hand another shake. “I’m Bindu Desai, and yes, I’d like to be friends.”





CHAPTER TWENTY


CULLIE


How she could bear to go through life with such vulnerability, I’ll never know.

When I asked her how she was never afraid of anything, she said, “If I’d been afraid, I wouldn’t know what it was like to love you. If ever I’m afraid, I’ll remind myself that being fearless gave me you.”

From the journal of Oscar Seth

Here! I fixed yours, but my life is still an unmitigated disaster,” Cullie said as she handed Rohan’s computer back to him, his earth-shattering crisis solved.

Tears of relief sprang into his eyes. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he said the file she’d saved was his life’s work. With a quick swipe of his face against his shoulder, he wiped away the evidence, and a raging and unfamiliar warmth squeezed at Cullie’s heart.

She’d never met anyone as completely comfortable in his skin as Rohan. Borderline cocky might’ve been a more accurate description if not for the way he wore his emotions on his sleeve. When he’d called her, he’d barely been able to breathe from panic.

Over the past two weeks, he’d called her for all sorts of reasons. Advice on where to shop for groceries. Where to find cosmetics for his three older sisters, who kept sending him shopping lists from India. That was when he wasn’t texting her. To be fair, she’d been texting him at least as much.

At first it was only to test if the little uptick in her heartbeat when she heard from him or saw him was real. It was, and she liked it. It had even made hitting a wall with the app bearable.