by Imari Jade
Yori sighed. He’d tried. “Okay. We better get going. I’m in the mood for some smooth dancing with you.” He donned his dark glasses. Hopefully, the fans wouldn’t bother them.
****
Damien waved his Humanities test at Tricia.
Tricia gazed at the grade. “One hundred percent.” She blushed. Her future had just been set in stone.
“How about a little pre-marital smooch?”
Tricia gave him a friendly peck on the cheek.
Damien scowled at her. “I’ve gotten hotter kisses from my grandmother.”
“We’re in the middle of a hall in school, surrounded by hundreds of other students.”
“So?” Damien said. “We’re also adults.”
Tricia grabbed his hand and dragged him down the hall and outside.
“How did you do on your tests?” he asked.
“Awful,” she said, sitting down on one of the university’s benches. “I barely passed.” She huddled beneath her coat. “My mother is going to go ballistic. My grades have never been this horrible before.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have kept you out so late that night.” He sat down next to her.
“It’s not your fault. I didn’t have to go if I didn’t want to.” She leaned against him. “How did you do on your other tests?”
“Probably worse than you,” Damien said. “My dad will not only kill me, but he’ll probably get Masaaki to ground me.”
Tricia chuckled. Her mother had told her about Masaaki. “Can you imagine him doing that to grown men?”
“Nope,” Damien said.
“How come you made a hundred on your Humanities test and not on the other tests?”
“All the university is going to do is give me a piece of paper when I graduate. You’re going to love me and be the mother of my kids just because I passed this one subject.”
“You’re such a romantic,” Tricia told him. “And very delusional. I’m going to travel the world and win a Noble Peace Prize in Journalism for one of my articles while you’re at home with the kids.”
“I like kids,” Damien said.
“You need to graduate from this very expensive Master’s program first,” a deep male voice said.
Tricia looked up. “Oh, oh.”
“What are you doing here?” Damien asked his father, who glared down on them like a huge blond wrestler.
“I got summoned here by the Dean,” Harper told him.
“How are you doing, Mr. Kehoe?” Tricia asked politely. If they summoned Harper all the way from Japan, the Dean must be awfully upset. This meant her mother had been contacted too.
“I’m fine, Tricia.”
“How’s Mother?”
“She and the babies are fine.”
“Babies?”
“You mean you don’t know? She had the twins over a week ago.”
“What? And she never called? How are they? What do they look like?”
Harper pulled out his phone. “Here, see for yourself.”
Tricia looked down at the pictures and squealed. “They’re so adorable and they look just like Ichiro.”
“More than you know,” Harper said. “Both of them have his blue eyes too.”
“Mama should be pleased.” She continued to talk to him to keep the heat off Damien.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” Harper asked his oldest son as Tricia showed him the pictures of the babies.
“Cute,” Damien said.
“I mean about your grades?”
“What’s there to say, Father? I messed up.”
Harper sighed. “Why can’t you be serious about anything?”
“I’m serious about a lot of things,” Damien said in his own defense. “I got a hundred in Humanities.”
“That’s nice if you are going to work in a museum after graduation, but to work for me, you’ll need to pass Economics and English.”
“You’re forgetting that I already have a Bachelor’s degree.”
“It takes more than that to make it in this world,” Harper said. “Don’t you have any plans or ambitions for the future? I’m not always going to be around to bail you out of trouble.”
Damien rose. “Yes, I do. I have plans for the future.” He gazed down at her.
Tricia smiled at him and then she looked over at Harper.
Harper glared at her. “How are your grades?”
“That depends,” Tricia said.
“On what?” Harper asked.
“On what you’re going to tell my mother if I tell you.”
Harper groaned. “Shaundra is going to be so disappointed. She has high hopes for you.”
“Don’t worry about me. I don’t need help getting out of trouble. I’m going to be a journalist and turn the world over on its ear.”
“You’re so much like your mother it’s frightening,” Harper muttered. “What do you think she’s going to say when she finds out about your grades?”
“She’ll be too busy taking care of her two new babies to kill me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. She worries about all her kids and she misses you. She was so proud when she found out that you wanted to follow in her footsteps and become a journalist.”
“I didn’t know that,” Tricia said. Damn. She’d fucked up royally.
“Come on. I’ll take you kids to dinner after I meet with the Dean.”
“Do I have to wear a dress?” Tricia asked, rising from the bench.
“Yes,” both Harper and Damien answered. Father and son looked at each other and smiled.
Tricia mumbled and stormed off to her dorm room to shower and change.
****
By their second date, Cristal still couldn’t figure out what Tae was up to. This time, he took her dancing at a club in Shibuya. The place wasn’t like anything Aomori would be caught dead in. It catered to an older clientele who liked ballroom dancing. She had chosen to wear a lovely black dress, designed by none other than Amaya. It fit her to a tee, molding to her statuesque frame, but left enough room for her to move around in. The hem came down just above the knee. Since she and Tae were about the same height, she wore high heels instead of stilettos.
Tae also dressed in a nice black tailored suit with silver accessories. To everyone else, they looked like the perfect couple.
“What are you doing?” Satoshi asked her over the phone the next day.
“What are you talking about?”
“Why are you spending time with Tae?”
“How do you know about that?”
“Our life is a YouTube reality show,” he answered. “Someone posted a video of the two of you dancing at some fancy ballroom.”
Damn fan girls. She thought they had left her alone since she was no longer involved with Yi-jun. Apparently, she was wrong.
“He asked me out and I accepted.”
“I thought you didn’t like him.”
“I don’t,” Cristal answered. “But I was bored.”
“You should have come to me if you wanted to go out.”
“I always manage to go to jail when I do that,” Cristal replied. “Are you jealous?”
“No,” Satoshi answered. “Tae is only using you to get to me.”
“I know that,” Cristal said. “I’m not a total blonde.”
“You knew this, yet you still went out with him twice.”
Damn, he knew about the first time too. Weren’t there any secrets in Osaka? “Yes,” Cristal said. “Are you sure you aren’t jealous?”
“No, I’m not jealous. Maybe I would be if we were in a relationship. I’m just concerned because we are friends.”
Cristal rolled her eyes at the phone. Satoshi could be so exasperating. “I went out to dinner with him and we went dancing. Nothing else. I don’t know why he asked me, or what he’s up to, but he hasn’t even tried to kiss me. I think he’s just lonely.”
“I suppose,” Satoshi said. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
Satoshi sighed and then chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you right. I’ll talk to you later.” He hung up the phone before she could say goodbye.
Chapter Nine
Shaundra didn’t expect to see Takumijo along with Ichiro and Satoshi when she and babies were finally discharged from the hospital. She had already gotten dressed, packed her things, and sat atop the bed waiting for an orderly to bring a wheel chair.
The fellows were all dressed casually in jeans and t-shirts. Ichiro had tucked all his hair beneath a baseball cap and looked a bit nervous. Two nurses came in with the babies. Each little Yoshida wore a light blue knit cap and had an ID bracelet on their arms so everyone could tell them apart. The nurses had wrapped them in heavy blue blankets Shaundra had brought just for this special occasion. Both babies slept peacefully, oblivious to life around them.
The nurses gave the babies to Satoshi and Takumijo.
One of the nurses gave Shaundra her final instructions. “Doctor Sou wants to see you in his office in five weeks. You are to refrain from heavy lifting and sex until then.”
Shaundra heard a groan from one of the guys. Which one, she couldn’t be sure.
The nurse continued. “No strenuous exercise until the sutures heal and you’re still on a no salt diet. He sent prescriptions for your medications and wants you to take them as prescribed.”
“Thank you,” Shaundra said, trying to put the instructions in her memory.
The door opened and an orderly appeared with the wheel chair. The two nurses left. The orderly walked over to assist Shaundra off the bed.
She groaned. Her stomach felt like someone had kicked her in the gut.
“Easy now,” the orderly told her. “You have to re-learn how to use the lower half of your body.”
“Yeah, I know the drill,” she said as she sat down in the wheel chair.
Ichiro grabbed her suitcase. Thankfully, Kenshin had carted all the stuffed animals, flowers, and gifts home yesterday.
The orderly rolled her out of the room and past the nurse’s station where several nurses stood and said goodbye to her, the babies, and of course, the three handsome members of Aomori. Ichiro’s cell phone rang as soon as they all entered the elevator.
“Hello? Hey, Kenny. We’re on our way down.” There was a pause in the conversation. “What? How?”
“Is something wrong?” Satoshi asked. He held his blue blanketed namesake tightly in his arms.
“Fans,” Ichiro said. “Somehow they found out the babies were being discharged today. They have the front doors surrounded.”
“Great,” Shaundra said. They couldn’t even have this one private moment.
“The security guards are trying to clear the front,” Ichiro said. “We’ll have to exit by the back door.” He hung up the phone. “Kenshin will be waiting there for us.”
The elevator doors opened on the lobby floor. It looked like pandemonium. Ichiro had failed to mention that the press was also there.
Shaundra groaned. Everyone wanted a glimpse at Raiden and Ryoto. “Keep the babies’ faces covered,” she ordered. “No one is getting the first picture but KiNii.” And not even them if she could help it.
Fan girls were trying to take their pictures and trying to get around the police and security guards. Some of Aomori’s bodyguards appeared from out of nowhere.
One of them looked down at her. Shaundra gazed up at him. He must be a new one because she didn’t recognize him. She really couldn’t get a good look at his face behind the dark shades and hat.
“Let’s get my family out of here,” Ichiro told the guards.
“Yes, sir, Mr. Yoshida,” one of the guards said.
Everyone did an about face and headed toward the back entrance, including the orderly.
Kenshin waited with the doors to the limousine open. He helped Ichiro put the luggage inside.
One of the bodyguards lifted her from the seat and cradled her in his arms. Shaundra looked up at him and he smiled down at her. She recognized him this time. Her cougar growled deep inside of her. He passed her to Ichiro and the cougar quieted. Ichiro put her inside the limo while Satoshi and Takumijo strapped the babies into their matching car seats. They hopped in too and strapped themselves in. Kenshin maneuvered the limousine out of the emergency parking lane and headed toward the farmhouse.
“Whew, that was close,” Takumijo said. “I thought for a moment they’d be waiting at the back door too.” He sighed. “What are they doing here?”
“They all want a glimpse at the new royal princes of J-Pop,” Satoshi replied.
“They’re just babies,” Ichiro said. “And they’re not going to be idols.”
Shaundra nodded in agreement. She wasn’t going to let her babies go through what Aomori was going through if she could help it. Her heart still hadn’t calmed down.
“No, little Satoshi will be a scientist and discover cures to all the world’s diseases,” Satoshi said, getting comfortable in his seat.
“And little Takumijo will become a prime minister of Japan and marry some hot Japanese princess,” Takumijo said.
Shaundra cracked a smile, even though she was pretending that she wasn’t being waylaid by Ichiro’s cologne as he sat next to her.
“They will both be chefs,” he told everyone. “They will take over the restaurants after their mother and I retire.”
Shaundra sighed. Poor delusional fool. She would probably be dead before the boys turned twenty-one. But let Ichiro have his fantasy. She closed her eyes and listened to the music filtering out of the speakers. It was a beautiful ballad, one she’d never heard before. “I like this song.”
“Thank you,” Satoshi said. “It’s us.”
“When did you guys record it?”
“Before we left for Europe,” he told her. “Ichiro wrote the lyrics.”
“It’s very nice, especially the part about the cherry blossoms in the springtime.”
“How do you know that?” Ichiro asked. “We’re singing in Japanese.”
“I don’t know,” Shaundra lied. “I guess I’ve been in Japan long enough to pick up on some words.”
“And some bad ones too,” Satoshi teased.
“Shut up,” Ichiro told him.
Shaundra shook her head. She still didn’t remember what she supposedly had said to Ichiro in the delivery room and she really didn’t care. Her thoughts turned to the bodyguard. Dae-Hyun. What was he doing there dressed like one of Aomori’s guards? She sighed again. It had Harper written all over it. No wonder he didn’t have a problem flying off to the United States or hiring the handsome Korean as a nanny for the twins. Apparently, he had also hired Dae-Hyun as her bodyguard. Shaundra moved around in the leather seat. Did Harper think she needed protection from someone? Who?
A warm hand touched hers. She trembled and opened her eyes. Ichiro looked down into them.
“We’re home,” he told her.
Shaundra moved her hand from under his, still uncomfortable by his touch. How had they made it home so quickly? She’d probably dozed off a little on the way.
Ichiro got out first and then helped her out. He lifted her into his arms again.
“I can walk,” she told him.
“I know,” he said. “But I want to make sure you get inside safely.”
The others followed with the babies and the luggage.
Shaundra frowned. Ichiro acted like someone could be waiting inside the farmhouse to attack her when she entered. A stalker, if one was capable of getting past the guards at the gate and around the compound, was less of a threat at the moment than him.
Ichiro carried her up the stairs, into the house, and up to their bedroom. He gently placed her on the bed.
Uncles Satoshi and Takumijo carried the boys inside, removed their blankets, and placed them in the nursery.
“Get some sleep,” Ichiro told her as he led his
friends out of their bedroom. He closed the door.
Shaundra rolled her eyes at the door. “I’m tired of sleeping,” she muttered. After all she’d been through lately, she wanted real food and for some reason, a cigarette. She’d given smoking up about ten years ago, but right now, she could use some nicotine.
****
Ichiro poured sake for Satoshi, Takumijo, and himself and joined his friends in the den.
“I thought you gave this stuff up,” Satoshi said as he sipped the rice liquor.
“I have,” Ichiro said. “But I’m celebrating the birth of my sons.” He sipped and set the cup aside. He really didn’t want to start drinking sake again.
“What does it feel like?” Satoshi asked. “I mean being a father?”
“Frightening,” Ichiro answered. “Suddenly, I’m responsible for two more tiny little lives.”
“But they’re so cute,” Takumijo said. “Just like you.”
Ichiro chuckled. “It’s amazing. They don’t look like I expected them to look. I thought they would have Shaundra’s eyes and nose, or something, but all I can see is me.”
“Which is a good thing,” Satoshi said. “For everyone.”
Ichiro moaned. “I’m so sorry I doubted her. Sex with her is so wonderful and I guess I got all jealous and foolish.”
“I never doubted her,” Satoshi said. “She doesn’t look at anyone the way she looks at you. Not even Yori.”
“I am so stupid,” Ichiro said. “I never wanted to sleep with Eri. I could have if I wanted to, but I didn’t. I was just so confused when she kissed me. I’ve never kissed another woman but Shaundra. I guess I was curious, but not enough to break the sanctity of my marriage.”
“We’re not the ones you have to convince,” Takumijo said.
“I know, but I still haven’t figured out how to do it.”
“You can start by firing Eri,” Satoshi said.
“Done,” Ichiro said. “Daichi let her go yesterday. He told her we were cutting back on personnel.”
“Good,” Takumijo said. “She knew you were married when she kissed you.”
“Yes, but I still feel bad about it. She was a good waitress and I was grooming her as an apprentice baker.”