It didn’t look like Ren was going to come. I resigned myself to that and resolved to be happy without him.
Kishan brought me back after our fourth dance and then asked Nilima for a turn. As Mr. Kadam left to get me a drink, my golden fan slipped off my wrist. I looked at it on the ground and stamped my foot in frustration. There was no way I could bend over in my tight dress to pick it up.
A warm voice behind me purred silkily, “Allow me.”
“Ren!” I turned to him with a smile and sucked in a breath. He wore white slacks and a fitted blue pinstriped shirt open at the throat. The shirt was night-sky blue, the same color as my dress. He smiled, and my heart started thumping.
He walked a few steps and crouched down to retrieve my fan—then froze in place. His eyes followed the slit of my dress. Though he didn’t touch me, I felt his gaze caress me, moving up my bare leg slowly and purposefully from my ankle to the top of my thigh. I swayed, feeling a little light-headed. What Kishan could accomplish by holding me close, Ren could do with his eyes alone. He stood slowly and openly admired the rest of my costume, before finally settling on my face.
“That dress … was a very, very good decision. I could write an entire poem on the virtues of your legs alone. You are a feast for the senses.”
I smiled softly. “I don’t know about a feast. Maybe just an hors d’oeuvre.”
Ren wrapped my hand around his arm. “Not an hors d’oeuvre. The dessert. And I plan to spoil my appetite.”
He started to pull me off in one direction when Mr. Kadam approached. Ren spoke softly to him and then quickly returned to me.
“What did you say to him?”
“That I’d be keeping you occupied for the rest of the night. We’ll drive back in the Jeep.”
“Kishan won’t be very happy.”
Ren growled softly. “Kishan has had you all to himself for more than half the night already. The rest of the evening is mine. Come on.”
We started walking away when I heard Kishan shout. I turned, shrugged my shoulders, and smiled. He started after us, but Mr. Kadam put his hand on Kishan’s arm. Ren tugged me enthusiastically.
“Let’s go!”
He wove between some people and started moving faster. I had to run in my heels to keep up. I laughed as he pulled me along, my hand still clutching his arm.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. It’s a surprise.”
We ducked under a flower garland, around groups of people who gaped at us as we rushed past, and through a park gate. As we neared the grassy center, he asked me to close my eyes.
When it was time to look, I found myself near a wooden bench. Lanterns cast their soft yellow light from the trees nearby, and in the center of a stone patio grew an old mango tree. Little colored paper wishes hung all over the tree, flapping in the light breeze. Ren handed me a sprig of lilac, tucked a few of the flowers into my hair, and touched my cheek.
“You’re a breathtaking woman, Kelsey,” he grinned, “especially when you blush like that.”
“Thank you.” I smiled back. Distracted by the flutter of paper, I said, “The tree is beautiful! There must be hundreds of wishes on it.”
“There are. My hand is still cramping.”
I laughed. “You did this? What on earth for?”
“Kelsey … has Mr. Kadam told you anything else about the Star Festival? I mean, how it originated?”
“No. Why don’t you tell me?”
Ren urged me to sit and took a seat next to me, stretching his arm behind my back. Scanning the sky, he pointed up. “There. Do you see that star?”
I nodded.
“That one is Vega and the other one next to it is Altair. The Chinese version of the story is that Vega and Altair were lovers who were kept apart by the Sky King. He created a great river, the Milky Way, to separate them. But Vega wept so much for her lover that the Sky King took pity on them and allowed them to come together once a year.”
“On the seventh day of the seventh month.”
“Yes. So when the two stars come together, we celebrate their romantic union by placing wishes on a tree, hoping that they will look down upon us in their happiness and grant us our wish.”
“That’s a lovely story.”
He turned to me and lightly touched my hair. “I filled the tree with my wishes, which are all variations on the same theme.”
“What’s your wish?” I asked softly.
Ren twined his fingers with mine, though I knew it burned him. “My wish is that I can find a way to cross that river and be with you again.” He raised my hand to his cheek.
I brushed a strand of his hair gently away from his forehead. “That’s my wish too.”
Ren slid an arm around my waist, drawing me closer.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I whispered.
“Don’t think about it,” he replied. He cupped my face and kissed me tenderly—just barely brushing his lips against mine—but I felt his arm tremble and gently pushed him away. “You’re getting sick. You can stay near me longer if you move away a little.”
“Don’t you want me to kiss you?”
“Yes. I want it more than anything, but if I have to choose, I’d rather have you near than kiss you briefly and have you leave.”
He sighed. “Okay.”
“You’ll just have to woo me with words instead of kisses this time.”
Ren laughed wryly. “‘As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.’”
“Well, if anyone can do it, you can, Shakespeare. May I read some of your wishes?”
Ren smiled. “If you do that, they won’t come true. Don’t you believe in wishing on a star?”
I stood, walked to the tree, and plucked a leaf. “Shakespeare also said, ‘It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.’ We’ll make our own destiny. We’ll shape our lives the way we want. I want you in my life. I chose you before, and I choose you again. We’ll just have to deal with the physical barriers. I’d rather be around you like this than not at all.”
He walked up to me and wrapped his arms around the fabric of my dress. I laid my head on his silk shirt.
“You may accept this now, Kelsey, but in the end you might choose differently. You will want to have a family, children. If I can’t get over this, we could never be together that way.”
“What about you?” I mumbled against his chest. “You could be with another woman and have those things. Don’t you want that?”
He was quiet for a long minute. “I know that I want to be with you. Kishan was right when he said that you are the perfect girl for me. The truth is we can wish all we want to, strimani, but there are no guarantees in this life. I don’t want you to sacrifice all those things, to sacrifice happiness, to stay with me.”
“I would be sacrificing happiness if I left you. Let’s not talk about it tonight.”
“It’s something we’re going to have to talk about eventually.”
“But you don’t know what will happen. You could get your memory back when we find the next object or complete the four tasks. I’m willing to wait that long. Aren’t you?”
“It’s not about me. It’s about you and what’s best for you.”
“You’re what’s best for me.”
“Maybe I was once.”
“You still are.”
Ren sighed and stepped away. “Shall we head back?”
“No. You promised me a dance.”
“So I did.” He held out a hand and asked gallantly, “May I?”
I nodded, and he wrapped both his hands around my waist and kissed the top of my head. I cuddled against him, and we swayed to the music.
When the fireworks began, we sat on the bench and watched the brilliant colors spark against the dark sky. Ren kept an arm around me but was careful not to touch my skin. At the end, I said, “Thank you for the tree and the flowers.”
Ren nodded and lightly touched one of the bloo
ms in my hair. “They’re lilacs. When a man gives a woman a lilac, he’s asking her a question: Do you still love me?”
“You already know the answer to that.”
“I’d like to hear you say it.”
“Yes. I still love you.” I plucked a lilac from the sprig he’d given me and gave it back to him.
He took it and twirled it thoughtfully in his fingers. “As for me … I don’t think I ever stopped.” He touched my cheek and trailed his fingers down to my jaw. “Yes, I love you, Kelsey. I’m glad we found each other again.”
“That’s all I need to know.”
He looked at me and smiled sadly. “Come on, Kells. Let’s go home.”
“Wait. I’m taking some of your wishes.”
Ren nodded as I pulled five papers from the tree and took his arm. When we drove home, we were both quiet. He helped me out of the car, escorted me to my bedroom door, and pressed a warm kiss on the top of my head before saying goodnight.
After I changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed, I turned on my lamp and read Ren’s five wishes.
I want to give her the best of everything.
I want to make her happy.
I want to remember her.
I want to touch her.
I want to love her.
7
The Yacht
Mr. Kadam announced that we’d be leaving for Mumbai early the next morning, so we should enjoy our last day relaxing on solid ground before we got down to business again. We all slept late. When I finally opened my bedroom door, I found Ren waiting on the other side.
He smiled and said, “I thought you might like to eat together. Want to grab breakfast?”
“Sure.” I smiled back shyly. “Chocolate chip, peanut butter, banana pancakes it is.”
He blinked. “Do I like those?”
“We’ve had lengthy discussions on your pancake preferences. Come on, Tiger.”
We made a thorough mess of the kitchen, but it was worth it to see the look of ecstasy on Ren’s face when he took his first bite.
“If I didn’t love you before, this would have shot me over the edge,” he mumbled with his mouth full. “What can I do for you to equal this? Surely there must be something.”
“They are pretty good. Definitely worth a trade. Hmm, you know what I miss? Your massages. You give the best back rubs on the planet, but it would hurt you too much now. Maybe I’ll ask Kishan. He’s pretty good at it too. I think I slept on my neck wrong last night.”
Ren set his fork down and frowned at me. “I don’t want Kishan putting his hands on you. I’ll suffer through it.”
“You don’t need to. He’s perfectly capable.”
“Kishan is capable of a great many things, and girlfriend stealing is at the top of his list of skills.”
“So is that what I am? Your girlfriend?”
Ren searched my face with his blue eyes. “Don’t you want to be?”
“I didn’t think you were ready to define us yet.”
“Labels aren’t as important to me as knowing how I feel. I know I want to be with you, and the farther away Kishan is, the better I feel.”
“Are you jumping the gun with this because Kishan is interested? Leap on the deer before the other tiger does? That sort of thing?”
“That may be a part of it,” he confessed. “But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong to move ahead in this relationship. You just feel right. In every way possible.” He grinned. “So? Will you be my girlfriend again?”
“I never really stopped being your girlfriend. I’ve always belonged to you.”
Ren gave me one of his heart-stopping smiles and said, “That’s exactly what I needed to hear.” He took my hand, kissed it, and then happily dug into his pancakes again.
I frowned and swirled my fork in the syrup. “I’ll have to talk with Kishan.”
“When are you going to tell him?”
“I think the sooner the better. He’s probably still mad about me ditching him last night.”
“Right. Okay, meet me back here in an hour or so. I’ll clean up. You go talk.”
“Why? What are we doing in an hour?”
“I have plans to spend the day with you … as a tiger. The benefit is I can spend hours with you with no side effects. And if you feel the urge to stroke my back, scratch my ears, and kiss me? All the better.”
I laughed. “Okay, it’ll be just like old times. I’ll see you later.”
Kissing the top of his head, I set out to find Kishan.
I had to use my phone’s GPS tracker to locate him. He was in the woods behind the house using the chakram to level a tree. I heard the thwang of the returning disc and ducked in automatic response. He spoke without turning.
“What brings you out here? Isn’t Ren keeping you entertained enough?”
“You’re mad at me.”
He sighed. “It’s not that I’m mad. I’m just … I’m unsettled.”
“Can we talk?”
He finally turned around and looked at me. He was unhappy, but he nodded and held out his hand. I took it, and he led me to a log where we sat down, resting our backs against it.
“First, I’m sorry I ditched you last night. Ren planned this big thing, and he worked really hard at it.”
Kishan threw a rock against a tree which thumped before falling to the soft ground. “I’m pretty sure I can figure out why.”
“Right,” I went on. “But I really enjoyed the time I spent with you.”
“Kells, stop. You don’t have to explain anything. You wanted to be with him, so you went. End of story. You haven’t made any promises to me, and you don’t have to feel guilty about it. If I got my hopes up, it was my own fault, not yours. I read too much into your actions.”
“What do you mean? What actions?”
“When you threw your lantern into the fire and smiled at me, I thought maybe, just maybe, it meant you were considering me.”
“That’s true, sort of. I didn’t float my lantern on the water because I know that the man I’m going to end up with is here.”
“Right, Ren.”
“I hope it will be. We talked last night, and he says he loves me. He wants to try to be with me again.”
“So you’re back together?”
“As much as we can be. And I was thinking about him when I threw the lantern. But I was also thinking of you.”
“Thinking of me how?”
I sighed and drew my knees up. “I guess I thought of you because I know that if, for some reason, I can’t be with Ren that I would choose you.”
“So I’m your runner-up? Your backup plan?”
“I wasn’t thinking of it like that. You’re not a second choice, or a lesser choice, or a wrong choice. You’re a different choice. I guess it’s not so much that I felt as sure of the man as I felt sure of this family. I belong here. I’m a part of you.”
He grunted. “That much is true. If Ren lets you go, I sure as hell wouldn’t let you walk away.”
I nodded. “I guess I just felt a strong conviction that I belong with the tigers.”
“You belong to the tigers.” Kishan put his arm around me and pulled me closer.
“I don’t know how all this is going to play out. I promised you a happy ending once, and I’m still hoping we all get one.”
“I don’t think that’s possible, but thanks for not dashing all my hope.”
“I’m not sure I did you any favors.”
“You did. You committed yourself to us. No matter what happens, you belong to Ren and me. I’ll always have you around, and that’s nice to know.”
“And I know I’ll always have you two.”
I nestled my head on his chest, winced, and rubbed my neck.
“I slept wrong last night.”
“I can massage it for you.”
“Ren will be mad. He wants you to keep your hands off.”
“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Turn around.”
After a thorough
neck massage, I wandered back to the house to find Ren waiting for me in the library. True to his word, he morphed to a tiger and made himself comfortable on my lap. I’d made him promise no tiger kisses, but he still licked my arm anyway. I stroked his back and read poetry to him while he dozed on and off.
He stayed a tiger, even following Kishan and me into the theater room to watch a movie later that evening. I sat on the floor next to him and fed him popcorn, letting him lick the buttery snack from my palm. Then I rested my head on Kishan’s knee and fell asleep.
When I woke in the middle of the night, I was lying on my bed covered with my grandma’s quilt. I kicked off the blanket in the pitchblack room and swung my legs over the side of the bed. My feet struck a furry body on the floor.
“Ren? Is that you?”
The tiger purred in response. Ren.
I smiled and kissed the top of his head on my way to the bathroom. After brushing my teeth and putting on proper pajamas, I headed to bed and saw a pair of golden eyes staring at me from the veranda. Opening the door, I petted the black tiger.
“Thanks for carrying me to bed. Goodnight.” I kissed the top of his head too and went back to sleep.
The next morning, I heard a knock on my door and muffled words. I promptly fell back asleep until I felt Ren’s light touch on my forehead.
“Time to wake up, sleepy girl. We’re going to the yacht.”
I rolled over and mumbled into my pillow, “Five more minutes. Okay?”
“I’d love to give you five more minutes, but Kadam is ready.”
I groaned and shook my head as Ren smoothed the tangled hair away from my face. “You’re so cute when you’re whiny. Come on, iadala. We need to be on our way.”
“Ren? You never call me iadala anymore, which proves I’m still dreaming. Let me sleep.”
“Okay, strimani, then.”
“Nuh-uh. I like iadala better.”
“Okay, meet you downstairs.”
By the time I’d showered, dressed, and grabbed my bag, everyone was already packed into the car. Mr. Kadam was behind the wheel next to Kishan, and Ren was in the back. When I threw Kishan a puzzled expression, he smiled sadly, indicating I should sit in the back. Ren was all grins as I hopped in. He pressed a quick kiss on the top of my head, morphed into a tiger, and put his head in my lap.