Andrés leaned back and gave Jas a narrow look. Jas braced himself. He didn’t think Andrés would start anything with Katrina at the table, but he’d learned long ago never to count on his grandfather doing the expected. “I showed Katrina the family photos in the living room. She enjoyed seeing them all.”
“She liked them, or you lectured her until she was bored into a stupor?” Bikram teased.
If Jas had teased his grandfather like that, he would have gotten a snarl, but Andrés only rolled his eyes at his step-grandson.
Katrina smiled. “I did enjoy it. I don’t have anything like that documenting my family.”
Daisy helped herself to more potatoes. She’d worked for the family for almost twenty years and had always eaten with them. “No photos, no records?”
Katrina shook her head. “No. I was an only child and my mom died when I was nine. I don’t know my extended family on her side.”
“And your father?”
Jas cleared his throat and tried to catch the housekeeper’s eye. This was smacking of a gentle interrogation, a motherly prying, possibly since his own meddling mother wasn’t in town and present at the table. Daisy purposefully ignored him.
Katrina lifted a shoulder. “No, we’re not close.”
“It happens that way sometimes,” Daisy said comfortingly. “Do you want some more rotis?”
“No, thank you.”
“Please, you barely ate.”
“I’m truly stuffed.”
“Welcome to my house,” Jas couldn’t help but say. “Daisy loves to make sure we eat until we burst.”
Katrina shot him a small grin, and it distracted him so much he almost missed the clatter of Daisy dropping her spoon on her plate. “Excuse me,” she said, and sniffed. Her eyes were bright. “I’m so glad you brought Katrina here, dear. To your house. Will you be bringing her to the parade as well?”
“No.”
Daisy’s face fell, and his grandpa scowled.
Great. It had been a peaceful dinner for as long as it lasted.
Katrina placed her napkin next to her plate. Daisy was right, she really hadn’t eaten much, just pushed her food around her plate to make it seem like she had. If she wasn’t careful, Daisy would grab her utensil and start making airplane noises. The woman was serious about making sure her charges were well-fed. “What parade?” Katrina asked.
Daisy leaned forward. “Every year we have a festival and parade here in town. It used to be a local event, but now tens of thousands of Sikhs come from all over the world. This year, Andrés is being honored for his charitable work and contributions to the community. It’s in a couple weeks. We would love for you to come.”
“Congratulations, Andrés. Unfortunately, I’ll probably be back home by then.”
“You are coming, at least,” Andrés said to Jas.
“I have to work.”
Bikram shot Katrina a speculative look, and Jas hastily corrected himself. Maybe he did use Katrina as an excuse far more than he realized. “I mean, I can’t come.”
Katrina’s brow creased. “You don’t need to work then. Go to the parade.”
He couldn’t. He simply couldn’t go to the parade. He stabbed a piece of cauliflower and ate it, though it tasted like ashes. “No.”
Andrés’s face tightened. “The whole community will be there. How will it look if my own grandson doesn’t attend?”
The knot in his stomach grew tighter. “Tell everyone I have to work.”
“Your boss gave you the night off.” Andrés pointed at Katrina. “You’re coming.”
Something in his brain always short-circuited when his grandfather used that tone. All he wanted was to do the opposite of what the man decreed. This time, though, he literally couldn’t comply with his grandpa’s orders. “I can’t.”
“You will.”
“No.”
Andrés slammed his fist on the table, rattling the dishes. “Damn it, Jasvinder, you will—”
“Okay,” Bikram interjected. “Let’s all calm down.”
“I will not.” Andrés threw his napkin on top of his plate. “I have given you everything you could have ever wanted. Every advantage. A company, land, business. And you have done nothing but throw it away, time and again.”
“Andrés,” Daisy implored. “Enough.”
His grandfather shot to his feet. “Don’t come to the parade. Embarrass me in front of everyone. But understand this: if you are not there, I will consider it a sign that you do not wish to be a part of this family.”
Chapter Nineteen
AFTER ANDRÉS STORMED off, Daisy corralled Katrina into the kitchen with the excuse of showing her some cookware she’d just bought. Jas suspected it was a ruse so he and his brother could be alone.
So it was no surprise when Bikram came outside, to where he was leaning against the car. His brother had always come to console him after a fight and plead their grandfather’s case.
Bikram’s words were blunt when he sidled up next to Jas. “You have to come to this ceremony.”
Jas rolled his lips in. “I can’t.”
“Listen, I know he’s stubborn, and you two are like hissing cats the second you get in the same room together.” Bikram leaned against the car as well. “Which I don’t get at all. Grandpa’s so easygoing with me and the staff and everyone else, and you keep your cool with everyone but him. Why can’t you two chill with each other? This has been going on for as long as I’ve been alive.”
Jas grunted. Their sniping had been going on for as long as Jas was alive. “You’re more his grandson than I’ll ever be.”
“Ah, but that’s not true, is it?” Bikram squinted at the trees that surrounded the paved driveway. “I’m not his grandson by blood. You are.”
Jas’s teeth almost cracked, he ground them so hard. There was no bitterness in Bikram’s tone—he was merely stating a fact. Grandpa adored Bikram, he mentored him, loved that the younger man appreciated the land as much as he did.
But Jas was the one who was supposed to have been the heir apparent to the peach throne. He was the one who had chosen to enlist, and, in doing so, betrayed their great peach legacy.
“Hey, it’s okay.” Bikram knocked his shoulder against Jas’s. “I’m fine with not being the heir. Relax.”
“Easier said than done,” he muttered.
Bikram sighed. “I’m scared he means what he says, Jas. That was harsh. Come to the parade.”
He rubbed his hand over his chest. It ached at the thought of his grandfather considering them to no longer be family. “I can’t come.”
“I don’t get this at all.” Bikram’s frustration was evident. “You were so willing to smooth things over with me when I was cranky with you. Why not him?”
Jas lowered his head. Because he didn’t know how to tell his grandfather why he couldn’t come to the big, noisy, crowded event. The words were there in his head, he simply didn’t know how to force them past his lips.