Who reacted to a groan like that? “I don’t kid about soup.” Fantastic. She was talking to this hot guy about soup. Clearly, she was not ready to be in the company of attractive men.

Thankfully, Chopper Guy directed his appreciation toward the kitchen, where Mrs. P. stood in the window, watching them. Mrs. P. nodded and returned to the back, accepting his broad grin and thumbs-up.

Chopper Guy took another spoonful and turned those green eyes on her. “Thank you.”

“Just doing my job.” She needed to walk away from him, but her knees had once more turned to jelly. So she stood frozen for a moment longer than necessary.

Amusement filled his eyes as he leaned toward her and whispered, “You going to watch me eat?”

Annika flushed. He was very close, and damn if he didn’t smell amazing. A combination of some musky cologne, soap and something deliciously unidentifiable. With great effort, she gathered herself and leaned away. “Well, it would certainly be more entertaining than watching you drink.” She smiled at him and nodded at his bourbon before finally making her legs walk away from him.

This guy was trouble.

CHAPTER SIX

ANNIKA

MILD NAUSEA CLAWED at Annika’s stomach as she drove the thirty-five minutes from her apartment in Baltimore to her childhood home in Columbia, Maryland. She’d been making this trip more often these past few months since...everything.

When she had been with Steven, she’d ignored the obvious strain her relationship with him had put on her relationship with her family. She had told herself they simply didn’t understand, and they would come to love him, just as she did.

But they had seen what she had not, and while she’d chalked up their resistance to Steven to his not being Indian, or that she was pregnant outside of wedlock, the reality was that they hadn’t liked Steven because he was selfish and didn’t really have her best interests at heart. They loved her, and so had ultimately gone along with her decision, but a distance had crept between them. She missed that closeness and was working to get it back.

Problem was, her parents were pushing for her to get married. Like, soon, before she could make another mistake.

Her teenage brother, Nilay, was out on the driveway playing basketball with his friends. They were dressed in shorts and muscle shirts, seemingly oblivious to the October chill. They stopped playing as she drove up, and Nilay ran to her car.

She parked in the street, and before she was fully out the door, her brother had grabbed her in a sweaty bear hug.

“My sister’s home!”

“Ugh, Nilay, you stink!” Annika squirmed to get out of his grasp, but it was really nice to be hugged by him.

“You missed me, Didi. Admit it.”