“Can I offer you seconds?” Callie hovered behind Wonder’s shoulder.

“Yes, please. I’m stuffed to the brim, but this chicken piccata is so delicious I can’t help myself.” Wonder was so glad she’d chosen to wear stretchy pants and a loose blouse. With the amount of food she’d stuffed into her belly anything else would have started to feel tight by now.

Other than the other dinners she’d had at Callie’s, Wonder had never eaten such tasty stuff. The meals she used to prepare for herself had been simple, and since she’d arrived in the village she mostly ate sandwiches at the café.

“I hear that you’re training with Kri. So you don’t need to worry about gaining weight. Eat and enjoy.”

Careful not to splatter anything on Wonder’s silk blouse, Callie put a piece of chicken on her plate and then spooned more of the creamy spaghetti.

Wonder cut a piece of the chicken. “You should open a restaurant.”

“I’ve been thinking about it.” Callie put another piece on Anandur’s plate without asking if he wanted more. Apparently it was a given.

“You have?” Brundar asked. “You never said anything about it.”

Callie put another serving on Brundar’s plate and returned to her seat. “I’m not sure what I want to do. I always wanted to be a teacher, and I like studying the subject, but to actually teach I would have to work in the city because we don’t have any school-age kids here. So I was thinking that maybe I should turn my hobby into a business.” She winked at Wonder. “Give the café a little competition.”

Wonder put her fork down. “On the contrary. The café closes at six, but if we close it a little earlier, you can have the place all to yourself for dinners.”

Brundar shook his head. “I don’t like the idea at all. If you work evenings in the village, I won’t get to see much of you.”

Callie frowned. “Oh, so it’s okay for me to follow you to the club but not the other way around? You can quit Franco’s and come help me with my restaurant.”

“You don’t have a restaurant.”

Wonder felt terrible. If only she’d kept her mouth shut, they wouldn’t be arguing now. She glanced at Anandur and mouthed, “What have I done?”

He waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I’ll make you a deal,” Brundar said. “If you still want to open a restaurant after you get your degree, I’ll help you make it happen.”

“You will?” Callie’s tone softened.

“Of course. Don’t you know I’ll do anything to make you happy?”

The romantic exchange made Wonder’s eyes mist, and she quickly looked away only to see Anandur grinning from ear to ear.

He had such a beautiful smile.

He’d baffled her completely tonight, acting the exact opposite of what she’d expected. Instead of his attitude toward her cooling, he was back to the playful flirting she’d fallen for in the facility.

Heck, it was much more than that.

Anandur was touching her every chance he got. He’d had his arm around her shoulder on their walk over here, then on her knee during dinner, and she’d lost count of how many times he kissed her cheek or lifted her hand to his lips for a kiss.

He was acting like a devoted boyfriend, and she was loving every moment of it. It was like he’d been struck by lightning and his entire predisposition had been rewired.

Go figure that what finally drove him to take her seriously was her moaning another man’s name into his mouth. Was it because suddenly there was another challenger for her affections? Did Anandur fear she would become unavailable to him and felt like he had to win her back?

Men’s way of thinking was just too strange. It seemed as if nothing followed a straight, logical line. Or perhaps she couldn’t figure out the convoluted logic because she was missing some critical component that only other males knew about.

Pushing up to her feet, Callie walked over to Brundar, sat in his lap, and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you.” She dipped her head and kissed him.

Anandur leaned in and whispered in Wonder’s ear. “I think this is our cue to make a quick exit.”

Wonder glanced at her second piece of half-eaten chicken piccata. It was such a shame to leave it on the plate.

Anandur must’ve caught her longing expression. “You can finish your chicken first.”

By the time Wonder had finished chewing the last piece of her chicken, the kiss was over and Callie was resting her cheek on Brundar’s chest. “I have the best guy ever.”

Anandur got up and started collecting dishes. “Yes, you do.”

“Leave it.” Callie waved a hand. “Brundar and I can finish cleaning up later.”

“Later, you can get busy doing other things. If you want us to come for dinner, you have to leave the cleanup to Wonder and me.”

Getting the hint, Wonder rose to her feet and collected the rest.

“Fine. I’m not going to argue with you,” Callie said. “The last time I did that, you moved out the next day.”

“It wasn’t the next day, and it wasn’t because of the argument.” Anandur put his load in the sink and went back to the dining room to wipe the table clean. “A mated couple needs privacy, and I didn’t want to be the third wheel.”

Listening to their back and forth from the kitchen, Wonder rinsed out the plates and loaded the dishwasher.

“Yeah, that’s what you keep telling me, but I know it was because I insisted on you eating your veggies.”

“It wasn’t the veggies. It was watching the two of you making kissy faces at each other all day long.”

“We weren’t home all day to make kissy faces.”

And so it went on.

At some point Wonder stopped listening. It was just a little friendly banter. She hadn’t detected one disgruntled note in either of their voices.

Anandur got along splendidly with everyone because he was a real sweetheart. If he were hers, she was sure that all of her days would be filled with sunshine and happiness.

Wasn’t he worth forgetting any past love she might have felt for the mysterious Esag?

Naturally, she was well aware that endless days of happiness were not realistic, but with Anandur it would be as close as she could get to that fantasy.

“Are you done, Wonder?” Anandur asked.

She looked down at the sink where there were no more dishes. “I guess I am.”

“Then let’s go.” He leaned and kissed her cheek. “The lovebirds can’t wait for us to leave. Besides, I see some kissing in our very near future as well.”