Chapter 25
Mina woke up to the soft brush of fingers against her cheek.
Hem pushed her hair out of her face to expose her to the bright morning sunlight.
Instead of rolling over and snuggling into him, she pulled one of the pillows out from under her head and covered her face.
She lay on her side with Hem at her back, and she could feel that he was already awake. “It’s too early, Hem,” she snarled. She loved the man, but she was definitely going to kill him if he didn’t let her sleep.
Hem’s soft chuckle hinted that he was inching closer to her. “We have a lot to do today,” he whispered. “Starting with each other.”
His hands stroked over her thigh and one of his legs pushed gently between hers. Mina grunted, but she didn’t push him away. Her awareness grew when his hand snaked over her torso and cupped her mound.
“Are you awake now?” he whispered. She let out a soft sigh when he pressed slow, firm circles against her clit.
It took less than thirty seconds for his touch to elicit a moan.
She shoved the pillow off her face and rolled onto her back.
Hem’s lips were waiting for her, and she cupped his face when their mouths met.
Their lovemaking was slow and sweet. Hem took his time pleasuring her, and Mina slowly stroked her hands down the ridges of his back.
When he finally slipped inside her, she was fully awake and all her thoughts were of Hem.
He lifted her to the highest peak of an orgasm, and when she tumbled over, he found his release as well.
What felt like hours later, Hem rolled to his side and pulled her against him. “I love you,” he said in Punjabi.
“I love you,” she repeated. “Even though…”
“Even though, what?” he prompted.
“Even though you never saw me, and I never saw you until I started working with you.”
“I promise to make up for lost time,” Hem replied.
“I love you, even though you have way too much money.”
Hem chuckled. “We’ll give it away.”
Mina stroked a hand over his cheek again. “And I love you even when you woke me up when I so desperately wanted to sleep.”
“I wish I could let you,” Hem said.
“You could’ve,” she said and stretched against him. Her body felt loose and limber after her quick mattress workout, but she could use a few more hours of rest to let her brain catch up.
“What time is it anyway?”
“Almost 11:00 a.m.”
“Hem, if a person spends the day with the FBI, then most of the night working with the press on interviews and releases, they deserve as much sleep as they want.”
Hem nuzzled his nose against hers. “I’d love to give you that luxury, baby, but we have somewhere to be before my parents come over for the dinner celebration tonight.”
“Oh, that’s right. What are we celebrating again?”
“We’re going to toast a successful board meeting. But don’t worry about that right now. Come on. Let’s get ready. I’m going to take you out.”
Mina groaned when he got out of bed. He’d been so warm and snuggly. The blankets weren’t a bad replacement, and she tried to cover her face with them, when he ripped them away.
“Hey!”
“I guess you need some help,” he said cheerfully as he scooped her up like a petite damsel in distress instead of a 5’10” basketball player and carried her into the bathroom.
“I better get coffee after this!” she shouted as he ushered her into the shower stall.
An hour and a half later, after Hem spent a little longer than necessary taking care of her with the help of strategically aimed body jets, they turned down a side street in Jersey City. “I didn’t even get coffee yet,” Mina mumbled.
She was barefaced and had barely managed to get her hair pinned up.
“I thought you might want some chai instead.”
“Chai?” The thought had her cheering up as Hem parallel parked the car in the first available spot.
“Where are we getting chai here? Isn’t there a Little India section a few streets away?”
“You’ll see.” He rounded the car and met her on the sidewalk.
They strolled hand in hand toward the closest intersection.
The air was crisp, and the feel of Hem against her side made her brim with love.
It was surreal how quickly her life had changed in such a short amount of time.
She’d woken up on her thirtieth birthday alone and with the single focus of honoring her mother’s memory.
Now, she was making peace with the past and looking to build a future with someone new.
Hem pulled her to a stop in front of a store. “Here we are.”
Mina looked up and burst out laughing at the sign. “Parantha Palace? Really?”
Hem shrugged. “It’s supposed to have some of the best paranthas in the tristate area.
The restaurant owner has a successful place in Delhi and then tried to make it work in Queens, but they were competing with other fast food Indian chains like Dosa Hutt.
So, Jersey City became their new home. I think it’s going to work out for them. ”
Mina smiled. “Okay, let’s go in.”
They stepped through the doors into a charming café with thick wooden tables and Bollywood posters on the walls. The smell of spices filtered through the kitchen door behind a glass counter. Mina’s eyes nearly fell out of her head when she saw the extensive menu.
“Why are we here again?” she asked.
“Just order. I’ll tell you when we grab a table.”
She went with the basics and decided that they should come back so she could go down the menu in order and try something new each time. Hem got the same, and after paying at the counter, he led her to a table in the back of the restaurant. “So?” he said. “What do you think of this place?”
“It’s cute. What brought this on, though?”
Hem reached across the table, hands up. When she put her palms against his, he gripped her fingers. “Our first breakfast together. We had paranthas.”
“Our first . . . oh!” For the first time that morning, she beamed. “That’s so cute, Hem. Thank you.”
“I thought this was fitting after that night,” He replied. “I know my family has said it, but I don’t think I have yet. Thank you. Thank you for coming to us, for helping us, when you didn’t have to. I know that going against your mother’s firm wasn’t something you ever wanted to do, but?— ”
“No,” Mina said. “No, stop. Hem, my uncle was wrong. What he was doing was wrong. And after talking to my father, I know that my mother’s firm closed the day she died.”
A waiter brought two steaming- hot cups of chai to their table, forcing Mina and Hem to pull apart. Hem immediately reached across the table to resume the connection after the waiter left.
“Want to know why I really brought you here?” Hem asked.
“Why?” “Because I think this could be our Dosa Hutt.”
“What? What do you mean?”
He rubbed his chin and then the back of his neck.
“My parents used to talk about impossible dreams together when they sat across from each other at the Dosa Hutt after they moved to New York. They knew that if they were together, the impossible was within their grasp. That’s what I want for us.
When we want to talk about our dreams, we can come here, to our version of the Dosa Hutt.
I’ll believe in you, if you believe in me. ”
Mina felt her eyes water under the intensity of the emotions on his face. She couldn’t help herself. She leaned across the table, grabbed Hem’s face in her hands, and kissed him. It was quick, considering their current location, but it felt right.
“I love you so much, Hemdeep Singh. Yes, of course I’ll believe in you. Always. Here, we’re on equal ground.”
He gripped her hands in his. “Are you going to work with me? Build my firm into our firm?”
“You really want me to? I mean, I know that I was temporarily working with you so I could be in that boardroom, but I never expected you to make me a permanent member of your team.”
“Partner. I want you at my side. I want to work with you, argue with you, and be with you every day.”
“Then yes!” Mina laughed. “Yes, of course I’ll work with you. As soon as you put me on payroll.”
“Done.”
His grin was infectious, and it was that expression that had Mina taking a leap of faith and accepting the fact that she was about to have more changes in her life. “Hem? Because I believe in you, and we can believe in the impossible together, I’ll finally answer your question. Yes.”
“Yes?” His brows knit together. “Yes, to what?”
“Yes, I’ll move in with you.”
Mina had the pleasure of seeing his face morph into shock. Then she was pulled out of her chair and spun in a circle in the middle of a half- empty restaurant in Jersey City.
It didn’t matter to Mina, though. She was with the love of her life, and her future had never looked brighter than it did in that moment with him.
“How are you holding up, beta?” Hem’s mother asked. She’d arrived with Zail and Hem’s father an hour earlier. It had taken her only moments for them to realize something had happened between Hem and Mina.
When Hem had told her that they were moving in together, the older woman had teared up and grabbed both of them in fierce hugs.
There was only one way to celebrate, she had said. With food.
Deepak Singh had been equally enthusiastic.
You’ll be good for my son. He lights up from the inside when he looks at you.
Mina could tell that even though Hem didn’t need his parents’ validation or approval, having it as the eldest in a Sikh Punjabi household was a bit of a relief.
“I feel good,” Mina said in response to Sangeeta Singh’s question. She helped pour a cup of chai. “I think that after Sanjeev was held accountable, I realized how important it was to do what was right for me versus what I thought was right for my mother’s legacy.”
Hem rounded the counter and wrapped an arm around Mina’s waist. “I’m sorry about the office raid at Kohli & Associates today. I know they were only seizing computers and documents that connected to your uncles, but that couldn’t have felt good.”