Page 66 of Reasons We Break

Rajan doesn’t need math skills to add it up.Thisis the guy who stood her up. The one she’sinto. Rajan side-eyes him as he comes closer, his dismay growing. Not only is this guy jacked, but he looks like aVogue Indiamodel.

“I was on my way out and saw you,” the guy says. “What’s up?”

Simran twirls her kara around her wrist. “I’m actually volunteering right now. This is my mentee at Hillway House.” She nods to Rajan. “Rajan, this is Jassa Singh. A friend...from school.” Her smile is big and wavering and...dammit, she so desperately wants this to go well.

Rajan pastes a bullshit smile on his mouth. Simran owes him big-time for this. “Hey.”

Jassa nods at him. “Nice to meet you.”

The dude has said his hello. It’s time for him to get lost, but he doesn’t. Instead, Simran strikes up a conversation with him about some school thing. Feigning boredom, Rajan flips through the book in his hands without reading a word. From the conversation, he gathers several things: Jassa’s involved in all kinds of committees, like her, and goes to the gurdwara, like her, and apparently plays a mean tabla, and is also really smart. They start talking biochemistry at one point and his brain melts—Is this the kind of talk Simran actuallyenjoys? Does she consider her conversations with Rajan mind-numbing in comparison?

Finally, Jassa says, “I should probably get going.”

“Where to?” Why does shecare?

“My martial arts club.”

“Martial arts?” Pause. “That explains a lot.”

Jassa laughs lowly. “Does it?”

Rajan’sthisclose to banging his head against the bookshelf. Simran mutters, “I’ve only ever seen that stuff on TV.”

“You could come watch, if you want. Fridays are fight nights. We could have another crack at your cousin’s code, too.”

What code?Anothercrack at it? Rajan turns just in time to see Simran stiffen. She never told him she met up with Jassa again. And...Jassa couldn’t be talking about the Ace code. Surely Simran’s not going around giving randos information out of a gang ledger.Surely.

Simran doesn’t return Rajan’s pointed stare, which confirms she is. “Maybe. I’ll text you later.” She speaks to Rajan without looking at him. “We should go wrap up.”

Rajan snaps the book shut. “Yeah, you reallyshouldwrap this shit up.”

Jassa glances at him again, this time somewhat warily, but doesn’t comment.

He accompanies them down the stairs, even hanging around while Simran hands in the darts basket to Neetu and signs them out. It’s only at the exit doors that he nods at Rajan again. “Nice to meet you. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

Preferably when Rajan’s bludgeoning him with a baseball bat. “Maybe.”

He disappears, and Simran looks ready to escape to the parking lot. Rajan catches up. “He knows about the Ace code.”

She doesn’t deny it. “I thought he’d be able to help.”

“What if he figured it out? What if the message was creepy and illegal?”

“I would’ve come up with an explanation.”

He stares at her as they enter the parking garage. Coming from a person whose logic he once implicitly trusted, this is really something. “Dude, you’re obsessed. You have to stop before you get hurt.” He definitely needs to get the Lions their new accountant. Fast.

Simran’s lips flatten, a telltale sign of her annoyance. “Are you upset I told him or upset I met with him?”

Oh, she went there. “Both. Didn’t he stand you up?”

“He had a family emergency.”

“So? He could’ve at least answered his fucking phone.”

She unlocks her truck as they approach it. “Rajan, it’s fine. You don’t need to act like some kind of overprotective relative. I have enough of those already.”

A relative?Relative?Rajan actually stops walking for a second. Isthathow she sees him now? Evidently even Simran thinks she went too far, because she stops, too. “That’s not what I meant.”