Tiger's Voyage (14 page)

He walked up to me and wrapped his arms around the fabric of my dress. I laid my head on his silk shirt.

“You may accept this now, Kelsey, but in the end you might choose differently. You will want to have a family, children. If I can’t get over this, we could never be together that way.”

“What about you?” I mumbled against his chest. “You could be with another woman and have those things. Don’t you want that?”

He was quiet for a long minute. “I know that I want to be with you. Kishan was right when he said that you are the perfect girl for me. The truth is we can wish all we want to,
strimani
, but there are no guarantees in this life. I don’t want you to sacrifice all those things, to sacrifice happiness, to stay with me.”

“I would be sacrificing happiness if I
left
you. Let’s not talk about it tonight.”

“It’s something we’re going to have to talk about eventually.”

“But you don’t know what will happen. You could get your memory back when we find the next object or complete the four tasks. I’m willing to wait that long. Aren’t you?”

“It’s not about me. It’s about you and what’s best for you.”

“You’re what’s best for me.”

“Maybe I was once.”

“You still are.”

Ren sighed and stepped away. “Shall we head back?”

“No. You promised me a dance.”

“So I did.” He held out a hand and asked gallantly, “May I?”

I nodded, and he wrapped both his hands around my waist and kissed the top of my head. I cuddled against him, and we swayed to the music.

When the fireworks began, we sat on the bench and watched the brilliant colors spark against the dark sky. Ren kept an arm around me but was careful not to touch my skin. At the end, I said, “Thank you for the tree and the flowers.”

Ren nodded and lightly touched one of the blooms in my hair. “They’re lilacs. When a man gives a woman a lilac, he’s asking her a question: Do you still love me?”

“You already know the answer to that.”

“I’d like to hear you say it.”

“Yes. I still love you.” I plucked a lilac from the sprig he’d given me and gave it back to him.

He took it and twirled it thoughtfully in his fingers. “As for me … I don’t think I ever stopped.” He touched my cheek and trailed his fingers down to my jaw. “Yes, I love you, Kelsey. I’m glad we found each other again.”

“That’s all I need to know.”

He looked at me and smiled sadly. “Come on, Kells. Let’s go home.”

“Wait. I’m taking some of your wishes.”

Ren nodded as I pulled five papers from the tree and took his arm. When we drove home, we were both quiet. He helped me out of the car, escorted me to my bedroom door, and pressed a warm kiss on the top of my head before saying goodnight.

After I changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed, I turned on my lamp and read Ren’s five wishes.

I want to give her the best of everything.
I want to make her happy.
I want to remember her.
I want to touch her.
I want to love her.

Mr. Kadam announced that we’d be leaving for Mumbai early the next morning, so we should enjoy our last day relaxing on solid ground before we got down to business again. We all slept late. When I finally opened my bedroom door, I found Ren waiting on the other side.

He smiled and said, “I thought you might like to eat together. Want to grab breakfast?”

“Sure.” I smiled back shyly. “Chocolate chip, peanut butter, banana pancakes it is.”

He blinked. “Do I like those?”

“We’ve had lengthy discussions on your pancake preferences. Come on, Tiger.”

We made a thorough mess of the kitchen, but it was worth it to see the look of ecstasy on Ren’s face when he took his first bite.

“If I didn’t love you before, this would have shot me over the edge,” he mumbled with his mouth full. “What can I do for you to equal this? Surely there must be something.”

“They
are
pretty good. Definitely worth a trade. Hmm, you know what I miss? Your massages. You give the best back rubs on the planet, but it would hurt you too much now. Maybe I’ll ask Kishan. He’s pretty good at it too. I think I slept on my neck wrong last night.”

Ren set his fork down and frowned at me. “I don’t want Kishan putting his hands on you. I’ll suffer through it.”

“You don’t need to. He’s perfectly capable.”

“Kishan is capable of a great many things, and girlfriend stealing is at the top of his list of skills.”

“So is that what I am? Your girlfriend?”

Ren searched my face with his blue eyes. “Don’t you want to be?”

“I didn’t think you were ready to define us yet.”

“Labels aren’t as important to me as knowing how I feel. I know I want to be with you, and the farther away Kishan is, the better I feel.”

“Are you jumping the gun with this because Kishan is interested? Leap on the deer before the other tiger does? That sort of thing?”

“That may be a part of it,” he confessed. “But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong to move ahead in this relationship. You just
feel
right. In
every
way possible.” He grinned. “So?
Will
you be my girlfriend again?”

“I never really stopped being your girlfriend. I’ve always belonged to you.”

Ren gave me one of his heart-stopping smiles and said, “That’s exactly what I needed to hear.” He took my hand, kissed it, and then happily dug into his pancakes again.

I frowned and swirled my fork in the syrup. “I’ll have to talk with Kishan.”

“When are you going to tell him?”

“I think the sooner the better. He’s probably still mad about me ditching him last night.”

“Right. Okay, meet me back here in an hour or so. I’ll clean up. You go talk.”

“Why? What are we doing in an hour?”

“I have plans to spend the day with you … as a tiger. The benefit is I can spend hours with you with no side effects. And if you feel the urge to stroke my back, scratch my ears, and kiss me? All the better.”

I laughed. “Okay, it’ll be just like old times. I’ll see you later.”

Kissing the top of his head, I set out to find Kishan.

I had to use my phone’s
GPS
tracker to locate him. He was in the woods behind the house using the
chakram
to level a tree. I heard the
thwang
of the returning disc and ducked in automatic response. He spoke without turning.

“What brings you out here? Isn’t Ren keeping you entertained enough?”

“You’re mad at me.”

He sighed. “It’s not that I’m mad. I’m just … I’m unsettled.”

“Can we talk?”

He finally turned around and looked at me. He was unhappy, but he nodded and held out his hand. I took it, and he led me to a log where we sat down, resting our backs against it.

“First, I’m sorry I ditched you last night. Ren planned this big thing, and he worked really hard at it.”

Kishan threw a rock against a tree which thumped before falling to the soft ground. “I’m pretty sure I can figure out why.”

“Right,” I went on. “But I really enjoyed the time I spent with
you
.”

“Kells, stop. You don’t have to explain anything. You wanted to be with him, so you went. End of story. You haven’t made any promises to me, and you don’t have to feel guilty about it. If I got my hopes up, it was my own fault, not yours. I read too much into your actions.”

“What do you mean? What actions?”

“When you threw your lantern into the fire and smiled at me, I thought maybe, just maybe, it meant you were considering me.”

“That’s true, sort of. I didn’t float my lantern on the water because I know that the man I’m going to end up with is here.”

“Right, Ren.”

“I
hope
it will be. We talked last night, and he says he loves me. He wants to try to be with me again.”

“So you’re back together?”

“As much as we
can
be. And I
was
thinking about him when I threw the lantern. But I was also thinking of you.”

“Thinking of me how?”

I sighed and drew my knees up. “I guess I thought of you because I know that if, for some reason, I can’t be with Ren that I would choose you.”

“So I’m your runner-up? Your backup plan?”

“I wasn’t thinking of it like that. You’re not a second choice, or a lesser choice, or a wrong choice. You’re a different choice. I guess it’s not so much that I felt as sure of the man as I felt sure of this family. I belong here. I’m a part of you.”

He grunted. “That much is true. If Ren lets you go, I sure as hell wouldn’t let you walk away.”

I nodded. “I guess I just felt a strong conviction that I belong with the tigers.”

“You belong
to
the tigers.” Kishan put his arm around me and pulled me closer.

“I don’t know how all this is going to play out. I promised you a happy ending once, and I’m still hoping we all get one.”

“I don’t think that’s possible, but thanks for not dashing all my hope.”

“I’m not sure I did you any favors.”

“You did. You committed yourself to us. No matter what happens, you belong to Ren and me. I’ll always have you around, and that’s nice to know.”

“And I know I’ll always have you two.”

I nestled my head on his chest, winced, and rubbed my neck.

“I slept wrong last night.”

“I can massage it for you.”

“Ren will be mad. He wants you to keep your hands off.”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Turn around.”

After a thorough neck massage, I wandered back to the house to find Ren waiting for me in the library. True to his word, he morphed to a tiger and made himself comfortable on my lap. I’d made him promise no tiger kisses, but he still licked my arm anyway. I stroked his back and read poetry to him while he dozed on and off.

He stayed a tiger, even following Kishan and me into the theater room to watch a movie later that evening. I sat on the floor next to him and fed him popcorn, letting him lick the buttery snack from my palm. Then I rested my head on Kishan’s knee and fell asleep.

When I woke in the middle of the night, I was lying on my bed covered with my grandma’s quilt. I kicked off the blanket in the pitchblack room and swung my legs over the side of the bed. My feet struck a furry body on the floor.

“Ren? Is that you?”

The tiger purred in response.
Ren.

I smiled and kissed the top of his head on my way to the bathroom. After brushing my teeth and putting on proper pajamas, I headed to bed and saw a pair of golden eyes staring at me from the veranda. Opening the door, I petted the black tiger.

“Thanks for carrying me to bed. Goodnight.” I kissed the top of his head too and went back to sleep.

The next morning, I heard a knock on my door and muffled words. I promptly fell back asleep until I felt Ren’s light touch on my forehead.

“Time to wake up, sleepy girl. We’re going to the yacht.”

I rolled over and mumbled into my pillow, “Five more minutes. Okay?”

“I’d love to give you five more minutes, but Kadam is ready.”

I groaned and shook my head as Ren smoothed the tangled hair away from my face. “You’re so cute when you’re whiny. Come on,
iadala
. We need to be on our way.”

“Ren? You never call me
iadala
anymore, which proves I’m still dreaming. Let me sleep.”

“Okay,
strimani
, then.”

“Nuh-uh. I like
iadala
better.”

“Okay, meet you downstairs.”

By the time I’d showered, dressed, and grabbed my bag, everyone was already packed into the car. Mr. Kadam was behind the wheel next to Kishan, and Ren was in the back. When I threw Kishan a puzzled expression, he smiled sadly, indicating I should sit in the back. Ren was all grins as I hopped in. He pressed a quick kiss on the top of my head, morphed into a tiger, and put his head in my lap.

Mr. Kadam looked back to check on us. “Is everything alright, Miss Kelsey?”

“Sure. Did you happen to bring breakfast to go?”

“I have the Golden Fruit in my bag,” Kishan said. “Wish for whatever you like.”

I made a blueberry smoothie for myself. Ren looked at my smoothie, interested.

“No way, Tiger. Last time was a sticky, tiger-saliva mess. Is there something else you’d like?”

He huffed and lowered his head again.

“Fine. If you get hungry later, let me know.”

Mr. Kadam, Kishan, and I talked about the prophecy the entire way, and I was so engrossed in the conversation, I was surprised when we merged into Mumbai traffic. Ren softly purred and slept on my lap. It was nice to be able to touch him even if it was just his tiger half. I stroked his head and buried my fingers in the soft fur at his neck, massaging lightly, which put him into a kind of tiger trance.

I rolled down my window and smelled the ocean and the spicy scent of Mumbai. Mr. Kadam navigated his way through a fisherman’s market, and I rolled up the window quickly as several vendors started making their way to our slow-moving vehicle.

“Keep your head down, Ren.”

His reply rumbled through his chest and into my thigh. We drove through the market to the dock, passing pier after pier and several large boats. I asked Mr. Kadam which one was ours.

“None of them, Miss Kelsey. Ours is farther out.”

“Oh.”

The boats got bigger and bigger the farther we went.
Surely we’d
come to ours soon. We were running out of dock.

Finally, Mr. Kadam slowed near a gated area, so Kishan could flash a card at the security box. The gate swung open, and we drove past a sleek building with uniformed workers tending the extensive grounds.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s a yacht club. Our boat isn’t too far now.”

We followed the circular drive around the building toward the ocean and onto a road built on the water. It was designed like a cul-de-sac and branched off into radiating docks, each with its own huge ship.

My mouth dropped. “You own a cruise ship?”

Mr. Kadam laughed. “Technically, it’s called a mega yacht.”

“You mean it’s bigger than the average yacht?”