Yash seemed taken aback by that. Rico hadn’t figured the man for someone who let his feelings show easily, but up close there was an almost vulnerable honesty about him, also very much like his cousin. Why wasn’t someone in his campaign making sure the voters saw that side of him? Because it didn’t come through on the TV screen or in his interviews at all and it was pure media gold if leveraged right.

“What a charming little girl.” A gorgeous older woman Ashna had been speaking with earlier walked up to them. “And look how smart! She seems to have you two wrapped around her finger.”

She had to be Ashna’s aunt, and the other woman who followed her had to be one of Ashna’s cousins. There was an unmistakable resemblance between the cousins, something about the shape of the eyes and the delicacy of the jaw, and of course the graceful bearing. Although, none of the others had the intensity, the vibrancy that Ashna’s beauty was painted in. Hers were vivid strokes of oil pastels to their watercolors. And he was a really bad poet.

“You’ve got some good taste in men, baby girl,” this subtler version of Ashna said to the child in Rico’s arms.

Ashna finally crossed the distance and joined them.

Rico felt his stomach muscles tighten. He braced himself for the pretense of being a recent acquaintance. His star to her chef. Not the man who had sought her out because for ten years he’d craved who he was when he was with her.

“Here is our star. You two were amazing today!” Ashna’s aunt said, wrapping her arm around Ashna’s shoulders.

The look Ashna gave Rico was stubborn as hell, every bit New Ashna. “Looks like you’ve met them already, but this is my aunt, Mina Raje, and my cousins, Nisha and Yash—Trisha’s sister and brother. And this is Mishka, Nisha’s daughter. Everyone, this is Frederico Silva, my partner on the show.”

Rico shook everyone’s hand, trying to ignore the feeling of being kicked in the solar plexus. What kind of idiot got so caught up in something as stupid as being acknowledged by an ex he was trying to get over?

They laughed various versions of the same laugh. “Yes, we’re aware that he’s your partner on the show, Ashi!”

Idiot that he was, Rico threw a glance at Ashna. Thanks!

She went all stiff and defensive. You didn’t actually expect me to tell them now, did you? Her answering gaze said.

No, he didn’t, because no one could possibly be that much of a delusional arse.

“He’s also the best living soccer player on earth,” Mishka said. She obviously shared Yash and Ashna’s love of the sport.

“You retired recently, I hear,” Ashna’s aunt said, “so where is home?”

“I’m kind of homeless right now.”