by Pamela Aares
“Stacy’s father sent her away from me.” Kaz riveted his eyes on her face.
She fought to keep her features composed, but her racing heart made it nearly impossible. Kaz stepped back from her. She’d seen him angry, she’d seen him aroused, she’d seen him struggling with the weight of his responsibilities—but she’d never seen him as distraught as she was seeing him now. But she had to know the truth. So she waited, even though she wanted to wrap her arms around him and ease his pain.
He hauled in a ragged breath, his shoulders braced and tensed. “Stacy’s father sent her away because he didn’t want her falling for a Jap.”
Sabrina opened her mouth to protest such a ridiculous, racist prejudice, but Kaz held up his hand, stopping her.
“That’s what I am to him. He lost grandfathers in World War Two. The Tokugawas—all of the Japanese families in the Valley—in his eyes we’ll always be the enemy. And maybe what was even harder to swallow was that he didn’t want her linking her life to a peach farmer’s son with no prospects.”
“But, Kaz, your family—”
“No, Sabrina, hear me out. When I realized I loved you, all the shame my own family tried to shelter me from fought its way into me. Until I made the team last week, I couldn’t even pay the bills for the farm—none of us could. Now, maybe now, there’s a future.”
He loved her. She heard the rest of the words, the explanations, but her heart held on to those precious words. He raised a hand and cupped her shoulder. She nearly melted under his touch. But the hard look in his eyes had her stepping back.
“There’s more,” he said. He stroked his hand down her arm as if he were memorizing her.
He told her about his grandfather’s deathbed requests. About his vow to marry a Japanese woman.
The revelation hit her like a blow. Kaz had made a vow.
A vow that meant the world to him, to his family. She knew what a vow meant to a samurai—he’d told her its importance. It was all part of the code, part of what made a warrior what he was.
How could she stand against all of that? Against any of that?
“And how has that changed in three weeks?” She didn’t mean to sound strident, but her heart was breaking all over again.
“My grandmother took the bus all the way to Arizona to tell me what an ass I’d been. To tell me that walls and prejudice had cut our family off from our destinies long enough.”
Sweat beaded on his brow. He looked uncomfortable, miserable.
“She told me to aim for love,” he added, his eyes searching hers.
He rested his palms on her shoulders. “I almost lost the most precious person in my life due to those walls, to that vow, not to mention my shame and pride. I love you, Sabrina. I can’t offer you the world you’re accustomed to. Not yet, and maybe never. But I can offer myself. And I can promise that I will love you with all that I am, all that I have.”
He loved her. She let the words sink in again. The man she loved, loved her. But the words didn’t immediately seam up the wound in her heart or do away with the defenses her mind wasn’t ready to drop.
“Pinch me,” she said, “because this feels more like a movie than the scene that just played out on the set.”
“This is no fiction, Sabrina. It’s not make-believe or pretend. This is me telling you that I love you. No artifice, nothing for the cameras, though I’ll announce it to the world if you want me to.”
“Kaz…”
“And I’ll do more than pinch you if that will help.”
As his lips met hers, words and thoughts faded until they no longer mattered. Her body convinced her she was home.
A food truck pulled up right in front of them, heedless of their locked embrace.
She leaned away. “I tried not to love you. You were my teacher, my healer. It wasn’t supposed to happen. We crossed a line, Kaz.”
He tugged her back to him. And she liked it, liked being surrounded by his body.
“We sure did. More than you knew.” Then he kissed her so deeply that the noises and commotion around them disappeared. It took the applause and cheers of the film crew to draw her back to reality.
“Bring that energy to the set,” one of the grips teased with a friendly grin.
“Isn’t it time for you to tell me something?” Kaz asked. “I might be able to read body language, but I rather think I’m going to need the words.” He trailed his thumb across her bottom lip. “I want to hear the words.”
Sabrina’s face heated and she lowered her head, butting it against Kaz’s chest. He wanted her to say it in front of the cast and crew? In front of men and women who were strangers to him?
Well, why not? She wasn’t ashamed. Not of him and not of her love. She lifted her head. Their careers were both very public, and she had no intention of reserving expressions of love to moments when they were alone. Yes, that love was private, not part of their public personas. But the love she felt for Kaz was very much a part of her. And if others were embarrassed by an honest expression of emotion, then they needed to get—
“So you don’t have something to tell me?”
“What?” She stared at his face, saw his laughing eyes. And she smiled back at him. “I do have something to say. Something I hope you never get tired of hearing. I love you, Kaz Tokugawa. And I will love you until the day I die. This is my vow to you.”
He went completely still. Not even his chest moved, as if she’d stolen his breath.
Had she said something wrong?
“Sabrina, I…” He shook his head.
She was shocked when he hauled her close and then lifted her to twirl her around and around. The crew once again broke into cheers and whistles, and Kaz was grinning when he put her gently on the ground.
“Forever love,” he said. “I accept your vow and I offer it back to you. Forever, Sabrina.”
He stepped away from her, and she let her arms fall. He took another step back. She bit her lip, unsure what he wanted her to do. The intensity in his eyes would not let her look away.
He brought one hand to his heart, and then did the same with the second. When her gaze lifted from the hands at his chest, he offered a slight smile. Then, one arm at a time, he reached wide to each side with a sweeping motion of those very long arms. And then he continued the movement, reaching behind her and wrapping his arms around her back and pulling her close again.
“I accept your heart, Sabrina Tavonesi. And give mine into your care. I call the power of our love to us, to always be the center of our relationship.”
She hugged him tightly, her nails digging into his shirt, while her tears fell freely.
“Sabrina, do you remember when I told you to put your soul into the katana, that that’s what a samurai does?”
She nodded without letting go.
“I’ve discovered that giving my soul to a piece of steel isn’t enough. I won’t turn my back on tradition, on passing part of myself to future warriors and to Bushido, but my soul, like my heart, is yours.”
How could she not want this man?
Her stomach growled. And then it growled again.
“L–lunch?” Sabrina said, breaking their embrace as embarrassment flooded her. “I have to work this afternoon and I can’t work on an empty stomach.” She put her hands to her hips. “And judging from your reaction to the pre-lovemaking scene, I think you’d better not watch the full monty. You might do mortal harm to my co-star.”
“You haven’t answered my question,” Kaz said, ignoring the gawking crew.
She lifted up on her toes and kissed him lightly on the lips. “Yes, I have, although you never actually asked me a question,” she said as she pulled away and wiped the lipstick from his lips and cheek with her thumb. “Weren’t you the one who told me that the body knows before the mind?” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m going to think very, very carefully about your proposal as we get to know each other better, but I think”—she ran a hand in front of her body—“no, I know just about all I need
to.” She put her hand over her heart. “In here.”
He smiled. A smile she could read. A smile that spoke straight to the quick of her. He leaned in to kiss her again.
She put out a hand to hold him at arm’s length. “You should know something about me before you decide you want to marry me. I’m not leaving the business—I’ve discovered it suits me.” She looked up at him from under her lashes. “Well, I should say that thanks to you and your grandmother helping me clear my head, I’ve discovered this business of acting suits me. Not to say I’ll never need another of her tune-ups.” She dropped her hands to her sides. “I took a part in another film—it starts shooting in October.”
He hauled in a breath and narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t worry, it’s a romantic comedy.” She held out a hand and led him around to the group of curious crewmembers waiting in line for the food truck, each of them watching her and Kaz’s every move. “No dark forces other than the usual drama that apparently comes with falling in love.”
“Comedy,” he repeated almost blankly.
“I realize people have to laugh or they’ll never make it through the hard times.”
“Comedy,” he said again. Then he smiled. “Maybe your dreams will improve.”
She squeezed his hand and couldn’t ignore the flutter in her heart. “With you beside me,” she said with a wink, “I’m sure they will.”
Epilogue
On opening day two weeks later, Sabrina sat in the stadium with Jackie, Kaz’s grandmother and his sister in seats that Alex had reserved four rows up from first base. It was an exquisite April afternoon, although there was a nip in the air. But after a week of early fog, the blue skies added to the sizzle of excitement as the pre-game ceremonies wound up and the teams were introduced. After a touching rendition of the National Anthem by a group of local fifth-graders, the Giants took the field.
Kaz walked to the mound without looking their way. The Giants’ scheduled starter had injured himself roughhousing with his son the day before, and just that morning Kaz had been tapped for the honor of pitching the opening game.
Alex turned from where he stood on first base and shot Jackie a dazzling smile and then tipped his hat to Sabrina. Sabrina had a pretty good idea that Alex had had a hand in Kaz being on the mound today, but her rascal brother would never admit it. He was so happy that Derrick Ainsley was out of her personal life that he probably would let Kaz name his and Jackie’s firstborn if and when they had one. And though no one talked about it, he’d had a hand in tracking down and putting the paparazzo who’d attacked her behind bars. The guy had a record and accosted one star too many.
Kaz’s grandmother pointed to left field. “See that young man, over there? He’s from Tokyo. I read about him in the paper. He’s a good boy, but he doesn’t speak a word of English.”
“Then it’s a good thing baseball signs are an international language,” Sabrina said with a light laugh. But her attention was glued to Kaz as he stepped onto the mound. She’d been to a zillion baseball games, but Kaz on the mound made this one so very different.
He didn’t look into the stands. He threw a couple of warm-up pitches to Aderro, the Giants’ catcher, and then the first Dodger batter stepped up to the plate.
“Kaz looks nervous,” Sabrina said to Jackie, who sat beside her. “Almost as nervous as me.”
“Nervous is good,” Jackie said as she signaled for a beer from a vendor in the aisle. “Very good. Alex says it means a player brings everything he’s got to the game.”
To Sabrina’s dismay, Kaz walked the first batter. The runner stole second and then reached third on the next hitter’s single to right. She was sweating, even though there was a chill in the air.
“Kazi likes a good show,” Obaa said. She squeezed Sabrina’s sweaty palm. “You’ll see.”
Kaz walked off the mound and took a breath. Sabrina recognized the hitch of tension in his body. Since meeting him she could read bodies so much better, see things that just months ago would’ve escaped her notice.
The stadium quieted and it seemed as if the fans were breathing for him. He picked up the rosin bag, gave it a toss and then stepped back on the mound.
The Dodger batter connected to his next pitch and smacked a shot over Matt Darrington’s head. But Matt jumped, snared the ball and fired to third, catching the base runner before he could get back to the bag. There weren’t many men in the game who could outrun Matt’s arm at short range.
The next Dodger batter stood ready. Maybe Sabrina imagined it, but as Kaz drew himself up and began his windup, the batter’s shoulders slumped. The ball whizzed past him, and the umpire grunted out the called strike. The player, Johnson, got a piece of the second pitch, and it sailed foul.
Kaz’s third throw went in so fast that Sabrina wasn’t even sure she saw it cross the plate. The crowd cheered as the umpire called the strike and ended the inning.
As he left the mound, Kaz looked over his shoulder at her and the slightest smile crossed over his face.
Kaz’s grandmother chuckled. “I saw that. He should be concentrating on his game, not flirting with his number one fan.”
A tingle of pride mixed with delight rippled through Sabrina as Kaz stepped down into the dugout and was met with congratulatory pats on the back and nods from his teammates.
Obaa peered at Sabrina and patted her hand. “Are you sleeping well?”
Sabrina blushed, even though she knew Obaa was asking about her nightmares. At least she hoped she was only asking about the nightmares. “Gone,” she said.
Obaa chuckled again. “I might start one of those Internet exorcism services. I saw one online. I’d be good at it.”
“Obaa-chan online could disrupt the entire universe,” Nariko said from her seat on the other side of Sabrina. “But you’d have to improve your computer skills, Obaa-chan. You can’t keep on having the new marketing guy help you surf the web. We need him to sell peaches.”
Obaa raised a brow. “I might just stick to family matchmaking. You’re next, Nariko.”
“No way.” Nariko shook out her mane of dark hair and turned back to the field.
Sabrina didn’t mind that Obaa took credit for bringing Kaz and her together. Maybe she had cast a love spell on them that afternoon beside the stream. Whatever she’d done, it had worked.
But the game wasn’t the only challenge on Kaz’s plate that day. Tonight, after the game, was their engagement party up at Trovare. It’d be the first time that Kaz would meet the full-on extended Tavonesi family. That morning, in her apartment up at Trovare, she’d teased him as he’d dressed to head to the stadium and told him there was still time to back out. He’d answered by throwing her on the bed and kissing her senseless.
“Maybe we’ll have ripe peaches for your wedding,” Obaa said to Sabrina, dragging her back from her memories of his blazing kiss.
Before Sabrina could answer, her cellphone vibrated in her pocket. She hurried into the aisle and then into the concourse so she could hear her mother.
“You’re late,” her mother said, not hiding her anxiety. “We have one hundred and fifty guests arriving in four hours, Sabrina. I need you up here.”
“If you’d kept the party small, you wouldn’t need me.”
“Darling, this is small. You have no idea how many excuses I had to make to friends I couldn’t invite. It’s a good thing the wedding will be in Grace Cathedral—I had to promise I’d invite them all.”
Her mother’s idea of a small, intimate engagement party included the core of her social circle, the entire extended Tavonesi clan and Kaz’s whole team. The timing was all wrong, but once they’d looked at the team’s schedule, tonight was the only night open for a month.
Since the tabloids had wasted no time in announcing her engagement to Kaz—and with the wedding coming up in October—her mother had insisted that they simply couldn’t wait until later in the summer. Sabrina had wanted to at least wait until Kaz’s brother and parents returned fro
m Japan, but Kaz had suggested they have another party down in Valley Cross when his parents got back. Sabrina suspected that the castle, the hordes of guests and the raucous energy of her family would’ve overwhelmed his reserved parents.
“Where’s Parker?” Sabrina asked her mother, referring to her cousin who was a wizard at planning and executing parties and who had promised his expertise.
“He’s part of what’s driving me mad—with all his last-minute changes, we’ll never be ready in time. I need you up here, Sabrina,” she repeated.
At her mother’s tone, her heart broke just a little bit. Since her dad died, even though it’d been nearly seven years, her mother had thrown herself into the social whirl to cover her deep loneliness. Sabrina hadn’t given up hope that her mother would one day find love again.
“Okay, okay, I’ll be there in an hour. I had to stay long enough to see Kaz pitch one inning, for goodness’ sake.”
“Darling, you have years to watch him pitch. And they have videos of all those games. I have the photographer coming in ten minutes and you need to dress.”
The only concession concerning the engagement party Sabrina had gotten from her mother was no press. None. It had nearly undone her socially conscious mother, but she’d finally agreed.
When Sabrina arrived at Trovare, she discovered that her mother was right—there were scores of details still to be handled before the guests arrived.
“Why I let you talk your mother into using a local caterer is beyond me,” Parker moaned when Sabrina entered the lavishly decorated great hall. Bowers of flowers ran down the table that had been extended to run the entire length of the room. Normally the table sat forty, but tonight it was long enough to accommodate every guest.
“Think globally, hire locally,” Sabrina quipped.
“There are limits,” Parker said as he flipped through the seating chart. “Where’s Kaz?”
“Doesn’t anyone in this family realize that he has a job? He’s pitching the opening game. In fact, I need to head into the kitchen and turn on the radio. When I parked my car, the game was tied three to three.”
