Nicholas (Members From Money Book 10)

by Katie Dowe

  He glanced at the figures on his desk with a frown and made a call. “Tell my son I need a meeting with him sometime today,” he murmured briefly to his secretary.

  *****

  “I am sure she is going to be okay, Mrs. Mitchell. Have you taken her to see the vet?” The poor woman was almost beside herself with worry. She had several cats and they were her only companions since her husband had passed away ten years ago, and whenever she was going to do her shopping or go to play bridge with her friends, she always left them at the daycare.

  “He said it’s just colic, but my poor baby is not eating. How was she today?”

  “She ate a little bit and had some water and slept most of the time,” Kimberly advised her. It was past closing time, but she never rushed her customers, preferring to hear whatever they had to say before they left, no matter the hour.

  “Do you think I should take her back?”

  “Why don’t you watch her for a day or two and then if she does not improve then you take her back?” Kimberly suggested.

  “All right, dear, I will do so.” Mrs. Mitchell folded a twenty dollar note in her palm as she was leaving. No matter how much Kimberly protested that she was paid enough, the woman always left a tip for her whenever she was leaving along with her check. “You are such a beautiful young lady and so kind and thoughtful, just buy yourself something nice with it.”

  Brian had already gone home, so she checked that the dogs left there were okay and spent a little time with Cassie before locking up and securing the place.

  She slide on her helmet and loosened the chain around her bike in readiness to go home. The weather had gotten milder now that it was coming down to the end of August and there was a slight breeze fanning her skin as she made her way home. She always took the scenic route and sometimes stopped at the park to feed the ducks. School was still out for the summer and she saw children with their parents sitting on the benches enjoying a late picnic or feeding the ducks. She was in no hurry to get home and sometimes she stopped to buy pizza or Italian food at the restaurant a few blocks from where she lived.

  “The usual?” Leonardo, the owner, asked her with a smile on his ruddy and jovial face.

  “You know me so well, Leo,” she told him with a grin as he passed her the delicious smelling pasta and meat balls already packaged.

  *****

  She took a shower and pulled an old t-shirt over her head before unwrapping her thick black hair and braiding it and putting the braids together to secure them with a rubber band before padding into the kitchen with bare feet to sit at the counter and enjoy her meal with a glass of red wine. She loved living alone and her friends could not understand how she could stand to be in the tiny apartment all by herself most of the time. “That’s because I enjoy my own company,” she had told them firmly. “You should try it sometimes.”

  Her phone rang just as she was about to wash out her glass. “I hope you are not about to tell me you were in bed, unless it’s with a perfectly hot and muscular body beside you,” her friend from college, Simone Bailey, said in amusement. She, Deidre, and Simone got together at least one time a week to chat about what was happening in their lives. Simone was a teacher as well and had been away to Tuscany for the holiday.

  “You are back?” Kimberly said with a delighted squeal.

  “I got back yesterday to get ready for school and you would never believe it! I met someone there. Lord, Kimmie! I cannot believe that I had to go so many thousands of miles to meet a guy.”

  “You left him there?” Kimberly asked in amusement.

  “He is a wine grower and has a small farm. I spent the entire six weeks helping him and making love from dusk till dawn. It was orgasmic,” Simone said with a blissful sigh. They had been called the three musketeers in college and were as different as night and day. Deidre was tall and skinny with short cropped black spiky hair and eyes too large for her face while Kimberly was petite and curvaceous and stunningly beautiful. Simone, on the other hand, was a redhead with startling green eyes and very white skin that she tried to tan without success over the years. They had the ability to turn heads wherever they went.

  “So what now?”

  “He is coming here in December and we are going to take it from there,” Simone told her. “I could hardly bear to tear myself out of his arms when I had to leave.”

  “You should have stayed.”

  “I thought about that myself, but I have to be sure. Kimmie, you are the one who is always telling me to make sure it’s right before I make a total commitment,” she reminded her.

  “Who am I to give relationship advice?” Kimberly said with a little laugh, pouring herself another glass of wine and taking it into the living room. “Deidre is mad at me right now because I told her to dump the loser she is living with.”

  “Oh jeez, Kimmie, way to be diplomatic,” Simone said in exasperation. “You cannot tell a woman who fancies herself in love to just go cold turkey like that. Telling her to dump him will only fuel her desire to want him more.”

  “That’s why I am not in a relationship. Too many rules,” Kimberly said wryly. “Now about the Italian hottie…”

  *****

  That night she pondered the conversation she had with her friend and wondered about her lack of a relationship. She had ventured into one while she had been in college and it had turned out that he had been seeing several other women on campus as well. It had been no great loss because her heart had not been in it. She had sworn from then that she had to be totally and completely in love with the man to give him her body and she was not going to accept anything less.

  Her mother and father had been in love with each other until the day he died and she had always admired how they managed to laugh with each other and be happy together and had decided that she wanted something like what they had shared.

  *****

  Her name was Natsuko, and of course Peter wanted to get to know her better before they joined together as man and wife. He had told her that they should go out to dinner without their parents being there and she had looked at him as if he had asked her to strip naked and dance on top of the table. “We can’t,” she had muttered in a whisper, holding her head down in case she had offended him. She was very pretty with soft doe-like eyes and raven hair that hung down to her waist. She was always just in a kimono the few times he had seen her and he wondered if that was all that was in her wardrobe. She had been born in America just like him but had obviously not adopted the lifestyle the way he had.

  He stifled his impatience. They were sitting in the living room while their parents enjoyed after-dinner drinks in the dining room. His father had suggested that they go into the room and try to get to know each other better. “I just want to get to know you, Natsuko, after all we are going to be married soon.”

  “As you wish,” she bowed her head formally and that was the end of the conversation. It was going to be a long hard marriage!

  Chapter 2

  It was raining and hard too! An end-of-summer shower the weather guy had put it when she listened to the report this morning. She always rode her bike whether rain or shine, sunshine or snow because she considered herself helping the environment and it was good exercise as well. She put on a knee-length raincoat over her denims and blue dress shirt and donned a pair of matching rain boots as well. She had put her regular shoes in her backpack and headed towards the door.

  It happened when she was near to work. Trying to race the cab that was about to douse her with water, she did not see him crossing the street and crashed right into him taking both of them to the hard pavement. She fell on top of him and heard his groan before rolling off quickly and getting to her feet. “Jeez, I am so sorry.” She looked down at him and reached out her hand to help him up hoping he was not very hurt. “Are you okay?”

  He stood up and brushed off his very nice and expensive looking suit, giving her a narrowed look. “Do you always ride like that?” His voice was deep and very cultur
ed and judging from the black hair plastered to his skull and his slanted eyes, she knew he was of Asian descent.

  “I was trying to beat the cab and stop it from drowning me with the water,” she said, apologizing again. “My store is right over there, how about you get cleaned up?”

  He hesitated briefly and then nodded, walking beside her as they made their way to Pets Haven. She had taken off her helmet and looped it around the handle of her bike and fished her keys out of her backpack, quickly opening the door. She hesitated briefly as she realized that she was going to let a perfect stranger inside and she was going to be alone for a couple of hours. It did not excuse the fact that he was well dressed. Serial killers and rapists came in all forms and shapes and expensive wear.

  Ah well the damage was done already, she thought as she gestured for him to come inside while she opened the shutters and the windows. “I’ll go get a towel,” she said hurrying off into the bathroom, coming out quickly in case he had followed her. She handed him the towel and took off her dripping raincoat, hanging it on the coat hanger. “Quite a weather we are having, huh?” she asked more for something to say. He looked like he did not talk much.

  He nodded and handed her back the towel.

  “Would you like a cup of coffee?” she asked him quickly.

  Once again the hesitation, and then he nodded.

  What a talker, she thought sarcastically as she went to put the coffee pot on.

  “What is this place?” he asked her, looking around.

  “It’s a day care center for pets,” she told him, pulling off her rain boots and taking out her flats from her bag and putting them on. “We also have stray animals in case you were thinking of adopting.”

  He looked at her with a trickle of amusement. “No, thank you. I am not much of an animal person.”

  “I am.” She hurried into the little alcove to pour the coffee into two ceramic cups. “How do you take it?”

  “Black without sugar.”

  “Very brave of you. I love tons of heavy cream and a little sugar and cinnamon.” She came back with the coffee and handed him his. “My name is Kimberly Gayle and I am the owner of this fine establishment.”

  “Peter Kamato,” he said with a brief nod.

  “Is that Japanese?” she asked him curiously.

  “Yes. I was born here, but my parents are from Japan,” he said briefly. “Do you actually make a living doing this?”

  “What you think I just open the place up because I have nothing else to do?” she asked him mildly.

  He looked at her in surprise as if he was not accustomed to being talked to that way. “No, I am sorry. It just seems to be a strange way to make a living.”

  “And what do you do, Mr. Peter Kamato? Work in some executive office and tell people where to go and what to do?” she asked him coolly, looking him over.

  “Something like that.” He was fascinated by her boldness and her frank manner; no one had ever had such a total disregard of him before.

  “I make a very good living from this and moreover I enjoy animals better than people so it’s perfect.” She put her cup on the table. “Are you sure you are okay?”

  “I am sure. I will require your number if I go home later and start feeling pain or the need to go to the hospital,” he told her mock seriously.

  “Not a chance,” she said with a careless smile. “You can always send one of your minions to get me.”

  “I will come and get you myself,” he assured her, standing up and stretching out a hand. “Very nice bumping into you, Ms. Gayle.”

  “It’s Kimberly,” she told him with a smile, taking his hand in hers. He held on a little longer than necessary before letting go.

  “Well, I will be going. Thanks for the coffee.” With a brief nod, he headed for the door.

  “If you change your mind about the dog, please let me know,” she called out to him as he reached the door.

  He stopped and turned to look at her, his dark eyes unreadable as he stared at her. “I doubt it,” he said with a slow smile before leaving.

  *****

  “I almost drowned out there!” Brian rushed inside and closed his oversized umbrella, shaking his spiky brown hair much like a dog shaking water off his fur. “I cannot believe this weather. I need a strong cup of coffee and a doughnut before I can start working. I definitely need a sugar rush this morning.” He took off his raincoat and hung it on the coat hanger next to hers and went straight to the still hot coffee pot. “You had company?” he asked her, curiously eyeing the two coffee mugs.

  She told him about the incident this morning.

  “How did he look?” Brian asked filling his cup to the brim and pouring milk inside it while reaching for a sugary doughnut.

  “What?” Kimberly looked at him with a little frown.

  “Was he handsome or one of those run-of-the-mill Asian guys with broad face and little else?”

  “You are unbelievable,” Kimberly said in disgust, heading towards the cages to feed the dogs. Even though it was pouring down rain, people still had to get to work so there would still be people coming in.

  The rain eased up within the next hour, and they were kept busy with the animals for the next three hours. Their best customer, Millie, wanted them to groom and take her pooches out for a walk for an hour to get their regular exercise. The large bottled-blonde woman was married to a millionaire and fancied herself one of the elites of society and tried to behave as such. At one point, Brian had baulked at her ridiculous request, but Kimberly had told him that she was a customer and whatever she wanted done, as long as it was nothing out of the way, then they were going to be doing it.

  So she took them out for a walk in the park and sat on one of the benches while they frolicked around before taking them back.

  Her job was very interesting.

  *****

  Peter took off the slightly wet jacket and hung it up on the hanger inside his office. He still felt slightly sore from the fall but otherwise he felt his mood lighten. He had not been looking because he had been glancing at his watch as he was running late for a meeting. He had been about to reprimand the person, but she had taken off her helmet and he had gotten a good look at her. Instead of looking bedraggled and the worse for wear, she looked like a water nymph or a sea sprite. Then they had gone inside her little store and she had taken off her rain jacket and he had gotten a good look at her. He sat behind his desk and pictured her handing him his cup of coffee and telling him about adopting a pet. She had made him forget where he was and who he was for just that time and he realized that he wanted to see her again!

  *****

  He went into the store the day after. He had a meeting across town, near to where the store was, and when the meeting had ended, he had sent the driver along and told him he had another stop to make so he would give him a call. It was the first day of September and the rain had abated somewhat and the place looked new and washed clean. He stood across the street and looked at the building. It was a quaint little place and he was surprised he had not noticed it before. The mid morning traffic had slowed down and he crossed the street, remembering her running into him just two days ago.

  He pushed the door open and went inside. He did not see her at first and then he did. She was crouched beside a basket that had a small dog inside it and she was saying something to the animal. A young man came over to him and asked him politely if he could be of help. “I am here to see, Ms. Gayle.”

  She looked up as soon as she heard her name and came towards him. “It’s okay, Brian, I will take it from here.”

  “So, you came,” she said with an engaging smile leading him towards her small office, knowing that Brian’s inquisitive gaze would be on them. “Either you are here to adopt an animal or you found out you have internal bleeding and you here to tap me for some cash.”

  “How much do you have?” he asked her teasingly, surprising himself by asking.

  She gestured for him to take a seat on one
of the chairs in front of her desk. “Let’s see?” She pretended to think about it. “Considering that your suit costs more than I make in one year, I would say not enough.”

  He looked at her for a spell. She was truly beautiful. Her hair was twisted into an elaborate style at the side of her neck and she was wearing some sort of green sparkling earrings that almost touched her shoulders. It matched the blouse she was wearing and her faded denim hugged her curves like a glove. “In that case, I would have to let it go.” His lips curved into a smile. “I was just in the neighborhood and decided to stop by and say hello.”

  “Were you really in the neighborhood?” she asked him curiously. “People usually say that, but it is far from being the truth.”

  “I was,” he told her and then told her the name of the company.

  “So you are really telling the truth,” she teased him.

  “I am.” He hesitated briefly. “Would you like to have dinner with me?” he asked, surprising them both.

  “Dinner.” She sat back and looked at him curiously. “Actually, my mother told me never to go out with strangers, but considering I almost killed you with my bike, I supposed we are well acquainted.” Her eyes were laughing at him.

  “So, the answer is yes?” he asked with bated breath.

  “I suppose it is. I never turn down a meal because I hate to cook,” she told him unabashedly.

  “Is that so?” He looked at her in amusement.

  “Absolutely,” she answered. Just then her phone rang. “Excuse me,” she said and answered the call. “Yes, Mrs. Mitchell, of course I understand. Don’t worry about it, your babies will be quite okay and I will make sure to give them the medicine. Of course. No thanks necessary.”

  He had been watching her as she spoke on the phone and noticed her small hands drumming on the desk as she spoke to the person.