CHAPTER 38
C HAPTER 38
C urtis pulled up to Kurien’s new home and parked. He planned to walk around back, sit on the patio until Kurien woke up. See if maybe Jiyan or the guards had coffee brewing. There were worse ways to prepare for the coming declaration of love. However fractured.
But when he rose from his SUV, Elena emerged from the lone Land Rover and walked over. “Where have you been?”
“Walking the beach. Why?”
“The lawyer lady has been trying to reach you.” She waved at the house. “Ms. Morais came bouncing out of the house about an hour ago. Holden and two of our guys were hard pushed to keep up. They jumped in one of the Rovers and off they went.”
Curtis knew immense relief at knowing he could first speak with Kurien alone. The prospect of doing this with the both of them, together, all at once, had made the drive over an endurance contest. “Can you call and see what’s going on?”
“I can try. But nobody tells me anything.” Elena pulled out her phone, hit speed dial, spoke softly. Then, “Holden says you should hang tight, and treat that as an order from on high. Don’t go anywhere.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Then I guess I don’t have to cuff you to a post.” Elena pointed at the path leading to the boat dock. “The old man is on the back patio.”
Six-fifteen in the morning, the heat was a growing force. As Curtis started around the home, he heard a man singing.
Or rather, a man singing badly.
As he entered the backyard, a woman standing in the boat dock’s shade offered Curtis a two-fingered wave. Up ahead, Kurien was seated by the patio railing, coffee in hand, singing to the gulls and rising sun. The living-room stereo blared out a show tune from South Pacific.
“ ‘Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger.’ ” The man could not carry a tune in a forklift.
Kurien waved his mug in greeting. “No one has ever designed a melody like Rodgers and Hammerstein. No one!”
“Now I understand why Amiya ran away.”
Jiyan appeared in the doorway. “He’s been like this all morning. Coffee?”
“Please.”
“It’s the air,” Kurien explained. “The light. The wind. And Amiya promised to make me green eggs and ham for breakfast.”
Jiyan stepped out, bearing a second steaming cup. “He means, baked eggs and green harissa.”
“Amiya learned the recipe from her mother.” Kurien watched Curtis pull over a chair. “She loved the dish even as a young child. She renamed it after her favorite story.”
Curtis sipped, breathed, drank again. Steeling himself. “You’re in a good mood.”
“I feared the board would not let me leave. Of course, I understand now why it happened. They wanted me away so they could vote in Ajeet’s schemes for taking control.” He used his mug to point at the shimmering waters. “Then I woke up this morning, dragged these old bones out here, and was greeted by a dawn that promises better days to come.”
Curtis decided he would not ever know a finer starting point. He set his mug on the floor by his feet and felt the day’s disparate elements click into place.
It was time.
He asked Jiyan, “Could you cut off the music and make sure we’re not disturbed?”
Kurien’s hands whitened as they gripped the mug. Curtis knew the old man feared more bad news.
He hoped desperately he was about to prove Kurien wrong.
Curtis rose to his feet, took a hard breath, and said, “Sir, I have loved your daughter since my earliest days in Delhi.”
“My dear friend, please—”
Curtis used a single uplifted finger to silence him. “I loved her as a friend. I loved her as a colleague. I loved her as someone I could trust with my future and my life, just as I do you.”
He watched Kurien use the chair arm as a means of steadying his mug, so his free hand could cover his eyes.
Curtis went on, “Then we both went through our very hard times, and I came to love her as a sister. Now the time has come to take the next step. I respectfully ask your permission to marry your daughter.”