Meghna’s cheeks took on the slightest rosy glow. “You know, that…that we’re—”
“Oh. I get what you mean.” Karthik waggled his eyebrows and tried to give her a suggestive look, which only sent Meghna into a fit of giggles.
Karthik couldn’t help but smile, even after Meghna’s laughter came to an end.
“What?” Meghna asked after she’d gained control of her breath.
“I love your laugh,” he said honestly, his hand lightly playing with the ends of her hair. “I love being the one to make you laugh.”
“I like your laugh too.”
“Almost as much as you like the way I smell?” Karthik asked, his voice as smug as he could make it.
Just like he’d hoped, Meghna laughed again. “Yes, almost as much as that.”
“So, what do you want to tell them?” he asked. “When we go back in?”
“The truth?” she suggested.
Karthik leaned forward and kissed her, and it felt softer and sweeter than any kiss they’d shared before.
“That sounds good to me.” They looked at each other for a long moment, discussed the remaining details, and then left the study, walking out hand in hand.
Meghna’s mother was the first to notice that he and Meghna were back in the room. She smiled widely, then elbowed her husband in the ribs.
“Jaan, you owe me fifty bucks. They’re holding hands.”
Meghna’s father smirked but shook his head. “We don’t know what they’re going to say.”
“Well, clearly they’re still together.”
Meghna laughed. “Fifty? You’re betting higher than usual, Mom.”
“That’s how confident I am, beta.”
Karthik’s mother frowned. “I thought our bets were supposed to be secret.”
“Thank you, Shanti,” Meghna’s father said. “Excellent point. And we definitely weren’t supposed to announce them the second the kids came back.”
Karthik’s eyes widened. “Amma, you’re part of this?”
His mother shrugged. “Why not? We had to find some way to pass the time. We thought we’d make our predictions about what you two talked about. But I’m not telling anyone my guess.” She waved a small slip of paper in front of her. “They were supposed to be secret. That’s why we wrote them down.”
“I’m sorry they sucked you into this, Aunty,” Meghna said wryly. She took a seat on the couch, and Karthik joined her.
“Don’t be,” Karthik said. “I shouldn’t have been that surprised. Amma’s something of a card shark. She’s legendary at twenty-eight.” His mother denied ever cheating, but somehow she always ended up winning.
Today, though, she had an unfair advantage. Before coming here, he’d called his mother and told her his plan. And the truth. That his engagement to Meghna had been a farce from the beginning, but along the way, he’d fallen for her. His mother had been surprised and hurt, but she had put it aside for now, insisting that she come to Dallas with him.
Meghna’s mother’s eyes shone with interest. “We should play, Shanti. I’ve got a set of cards somewhere. We have an uneven number, but we could make it work. Do you usually—”
“Mom,” Meghna interrupted. “Can we save that for later? Karthik and I have something to say.” She took a deep breath. “We were planning on telling all of you that we had decided to call off the engagement.”
A sharp inhale came from Meghna’s mother.
“But we spent some time talking and, well, we realized that we really care about each other. And we don’t want our relationship to end.”
“I knew it,” Meghna’s mother said triumphantly.
