No waited to see if Ruby would respond sullenly or even show the tiniest bit of curiosity. She seemed to be on the fence about it. Shifting in her formal kneel, as if trying to decide which way to go.
But in the end, she said, “Tell me about these strange traditions…” Then remembering herself, she bowed and added an “onegaishimasu.”
With a small bow of acknowledgement for her last-minute “please,” No continued. “My mother’s clan goes back many centuries, and her family name is still well known throughout the prefecture as one that gave rise to several great warriors. These warriors were called upon to fight and protect others on numerous occasions. This meant their wives were often left alone, sometimes even while pregnant. Do you know how the warriors dealt with the problem of leaving their pregnant wives exposed to their enemies?”
“No…how?” the girl asked, leaning forward and no longer pretending to be anything less than enraptured by his story.
No smiled to himself and continued, “All of the young daughters in my mother’s clan were trained in the way of the samurai so they could protect their homes, even when their fathers and brothers were away. And this is where you come in, Ruby-chan. As you know, the special leg you so desire is very costly. More costly than what the people who clean my tatami mats could afford.”
“But—” she started.
“Ruby-chan. Would you like to learn the easy or most difficult way not to interrupt adults when they are speaking?” he asked her, his voice as sharp as the swords on his weapons wall. “You may choose to continue with your questions and lose the opportunity to earn your leg, or you may remain quiet until you are invited to speak.”
No gave her a long hard look. And after a moment’s hesitation, Ruby clamped her lips tightly closed and waited to hear what he would say next.
No bowed again in acknowledgement of her decision to practice reserve before continuing.
“I will eventually leave this house to your aunt. If you wish to earn a leg beyond the one your aunt is most kindly providing you, I can offer you the job of house samurai. If you choose to accept this job, you are agreeing to protect our house and those within it at all costs when I am not here. You will be trained by me in the way of the samurai, and if and when a threat comes to this house, you will offer up your life in exchange if it means protecting anyone under this roof who is pregnant with child.”
He waited.
And so did she. Good girl.
“You may speak,” he said, with another inclination of his head.
“May I ask questions?”
“Hai.”
“Does being a house samurai mean I could die? Like my parents?”
“Most likely no, but death is always a possibility.”
“Is Aunt Ana pregnant?”
A personal question, but not an impertinent or unintelligent one, he decided. “She is not,” he answered.
“Are you planning to make her pregnant?”
He gave her question some consideration before once again choosing candor on this particular subject. “Hai,” he answered with a sharp nod.
Now Ruby thought for a long moment before asking him quietly, “If I become house samurai, does that mean you won’t send me away when the new baby comes?”
He was instantly reminded of his hafu brother who’d been barely tolerated after his Chinese mother’s death, and then completely disowned after divorcing the Japanese wife their father had hand-picked for him.
“No. You will not be sent away,” he answered the girl, with perhaps more emphasis than necessary. “You and your aunt will always be together if that is what you wish. I can promise you that.”
“But that is not true. You cannot promise me that,” she answered, her tone bitter. “No one can make such promises.”
He inclined his head in acknowledgement, realizing the truth of her words. “You are correct. A promise like this cannot be made. I, like you, watched my mother die in front of me.”
“Ehh?” Ruby answered, with the blunt surprise of a young Japanese teen. “How?”
“She was poisoned by our enemies,” he answered, matching her straightforward tone. “My brother, Hayato, and I watched her die at the breakfast table. There was nothing we could do to save her.”
A shadow crossed the girl’s face as she digested his story. Then she admitted, “I didn’t see my mother die. She went to the hospital and never came out. But my dad…we were in the car together. And I had to wait for help to come while he…while he…”
Ruby was a very strong girl in many ways, but not strong enough to tell him what he already knew. That by the time help arrived, her father was already dead.
What she didn’t know was that No’s own father had most likely ordered her father’s death. Just as No had briefly thought of ordering Miyuki’s death, only to find upon his return from the ancestral house with Ana that this decision had already been taken out of his hands.
“I can promise if you and your aunt part ways, it will not be by my hand,” he told the girl. “You need her, and I am aware of that, even if you are not.”
Ruby frowned. Seemed to want to argue, but at the last moment she pressed her lips together before deciding to say, “What you are asking me to do—it is a deadly job. If I agree to do it, I want more than my leg. I want all my gymnastics lessons paid for. And a private coach.”
No tilted his head, a grudging respect for the girl forming in his chest. “You are smart to negotiate for more, but in this case, you will accept my offer of the new leg and the weekly lessons to start. Once you have progressed in your samurai studies, you may petition me for a new gymnastics sensei. Are we in agreement?”
Ruby nodded, a wide smile spreading across her face, transforming her immediately from a sullen teen to a happy and radiant girl. “Hai, we are in agreement,” she answered him.
“And do you accept this position?” he asked, feeling an answering smile tugging at his lips
“Hai!”
No bowed his head.
“Good, your first lesson begins…now.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Lilli was seated in the back of a car, weaving its way up a Japanese mountain. Wait, that wasn’t right. Lilli blinked her eyes open to find herself under a fur blanket, but not in Japan. And she was lying on a soft couch, not her Japanese client. Drooling into a throw pillow instead of No’s shoulder.
She was blissfully comfortable. So why did her heart ache with the memory of being sick as a dog in the back of No’s car? And why did the image linger in her bones, even as she sat up and stretched her now well-rested body?
Bathroom, then coffee, she thought, pushing the memory away.
But her mind remained fuzzy as she made her way up the stairs. Her heart caught between the present and the past as she entered the guest room…her room from now on…and really more like a suite since it connected to a nursery next door and came with a bathroom that Lilli made a beeline toward. Only to stop short and laugh when she saw what was on top of the bathroom counter.
Apparently remembering how out of it Morning Lilli could be, Evening Lilli had thoughtfully placed the ovulation kit, open and with all its pieces laid out, on the bathroom’s long stone counter. Smart.
Still, getting her pee in the cup, dunking in the tester stick, then inserting the pee stick in the tab felt like an awful lot of work. And to think she’d have to do this every day until she started ovu—
Her thoughts cut short when she saw the happy face on the stick.
Okay. So now the plan was to find No, tell him I’m ovulating. Then coffee? Lilli bounced the thoughts around and around in her still-tired brain. Also, she’d need to move it in order to get Ruby into her leg before it was time for school. Maybe Mrs. Santos could make her a bowl of cereal or something? So many things to do…and Morning Lilli was feeling overwhelmed.
Lilli wished she’d thought to ask Uta some follow up questions about what to expect after the happy face showed up. Would she need to rush off t
o wherever the concierge practice was located with her ovulating ovaries and a cup of No’s sperm? Or maybe she’d be expected to wait for the blood tests to come back? What exactly was the plan?
Lilli walked back down the stairs. Only to stop again when she rounded the corner to find…
Ruby and No, talking at the kitchen table.
Whoa, she thought, wondering if she’d stumbled into an episode of the Twilight Zone. She’d never known her niece to need anything less than four hard shakes and a couple of threats to get out of bed this early. Usually, Lilli had to put Ruby’s leg on for her, attaching it to her niece’s prone body while telling the thirteen-year-old she really, really had to get up or they were definitely going to be late. But here was Ruby, leg already on, having a rather animated conversation with No. Too bad it was in Japanese.
Japanese that abruptly cut off as soon as Lilli arrived at the kitchen door.
“Oh, hey, Aunt Ana,” Ruby said. Voice dull as the bowl of white rice in front of her.
She and No were eating a traditional Japanese breakfast, Lilli noted, her eyes traveling over the salted salmon, rice, miso soup, and tamagoyaki—a rolled Japanese omelet sitting in plates and bowls between them.
“Hey, Ruby,” she replied, her eyes shifting from her niece to the man whose face had gone equally sour upon her entrance. But whatever, the dream lingered...
“Ohayo!” she greeted No, deciding to try with him even if he hated her now.
And maybe things were getting better between them because he answered with a super slight bow of his head, before turning to say something else to Ruby in Japanese.
“What?” Ruby answered in English. “But she not Japanese.”
“She is your aunt,” he answered Ruby, also in English. “An older, respected, member of your family. Whenever she enters the room, you will stand and bow.”
“Oh, she doesn’t need to—” Lilli started.
But Ruby was already climbing down from the chair and saying, “Ohayo!” while giving her a pretty respectful bow with her hands clasped in front of her.
“Okay…thank you,” Lilli said, because her niece had literally never bowed to her in her entire life, much less greeted her with an Ohayo—an naturally super upspoken Japanese word that even Ruby couldn’t make it sound surly. “Am I supposed to bow, too? Because I never quite got that down…”
“It is not necessary,” he answered. Then he said to Ruby, “Your car will be here in less than twenty minutes. It is your responsibility to be dressed and ready to go by then and to say goodbye to your aunt before you leave.”
Nobody was more shocked than Lilli when, instead of throwing a fit or protesting, Ruby simply bowed to them both and disappeared around the corner that connected the kitchen to the stairs. Lilli listened to her climb the stairs, then turned back to No with a, “Who the hell was that alien disguised at my niece?” comment poised and ready to go on her lips.
Yet when she looked toward No, he was already making moves to leave the table.
“Wait,” she said, holding a hand out towards him but not daring to actually touch him. “Can we talk before you go?”
No turned to face her with a hard hawk-like blink, clearly resigning himself to granting her request.
“I, um…got a happy face,” she told him.
“A happy face,” he repeated.
“Yes. Uta, the nurse, gave me an ovulation kit—do you know that word, ovulation?”
He shook his head, his face pursing into a heavy frown.
Of course he didn’t. Because that might have made this situation a little less awkward…
“Ovulation is, um, the fertile window for my cycle. When I’m most likely to get pregnant. The happy face lets me know when that time is happening. So…yeah. I guess you’ll need to, um…you know…” Lilli made a jerking off motion with her hand, “…into a cup. I’m not sure if Uta gave you a kit, too.”
“She did,” No finally answered after a long moment of incredibly awkward silence. “However, this is earlier than expected. I have many meetings today in Portland.”
“I know, bad timing, right?” she agreed. “And I’m pretty sure they probably wanted me to start taking something before we did the procedure. Maybe we should call the office and tell Uta to hold off until my next ovulation cycle? You know, give ourselves some time before we move ahead…a month to clear our schedules so it’s easier for both of us to drop everything when I…ah, get another happy face.”
No considered her words, his jaw ticking as he looked to the side. Then he said, “You do not have work today.” A statement, not a question.
“No. But you do, and I like I said…I don’t want to rush you.”
“Sensei?”
They both looked up to see Ruby in the doorway, dressed in jeans, sneakers, and an athletic tee with a Korean boy band on the front of it. “I’m leaving now.”
She bowed to them both, but Lilli couldn’t stand the formality. “Let me walk you out, sweetie,” Lilli said, wrapping an arm around Ruby’s shoulders.
As it turned out, they were actually a little early and had to wait for Dallas to arrive with the car. “I’m off today, so I’ll be here when you get home. Maybe we can watch some anime after you’re done with your homework? I bet if we can get one of those TV remotes to work, we’ll have access to some pretty cool channels. And if not, I’ll make sure to ask Mrs. Santos for the wi-fi password, so we can get online.”
“I can’t,” Ruby answered, from underneath Lilli’s arm. “I have to do exercises Nakamura-sensei give me after school.”
“Oh, okay,” Lilli answered, more than a little perplexed. “What exactly did you two do this morning again?” And did it involve some kind of brainwashing? she wondered silently
But before Ruby could respond, Dallas pulled up with the car.
“Hey, Dallas,” Lilli said when he rolled down the passenger window.
“Hey,” he answered as Ruby scrambled into the back seat. The two seemed to have already established that it wasn’t in Dallas’s job description to get out and open doors for kids.
“Say, Lilli…I was just wondering if Nurse Uta gave you her number,” Dallas said, leaning over in the front seat. “And if so, can I get it off you?”
“You want Uta’s number?” Lilli asked. “But why?”
Dallas’ eyes cut to the Cadillac Escalade’s back seat which, unlike the Japanese town cars, didn’t come with a partition. “You really want me to explain this in front of the kid?”
“Oh,” Lilli answered, her eyes going wide. Then remembering the rules at her job she said, “Um, I really can’t give you her number. That would be a violation of her privacy. But the next time I see her, I’ll mention you want it.”
“Yeah, do that for me…” Dallas smiled, half-cocked, as if he were already imagining all the things he’d be doing with the stout German. Then he reached into his back pocket, “And if she don’t give you her number, make sure you give her mine.”
He extended his business card towards her. “Tell her I’m not so bad once you get past the tats, okay?”
“Okay,” Lilli agreed. Though, she was seriously wondering if she’d entered some other dimension. First Ruby was being polite, and now the man who’d yanked her off of No’s electric fence was asking her to give Uta his number and put in a good word for him?
What the hell was going on here?
Still, Lilli waved as the dark SUV ferried Ruby away down the long driveway, figuring she might as well go with it.
However, she had quite a few questions prepared for No by the time the Escalade disappeared from view. She headed back inside—only to nearly run into Mrs. Santos who was coming out the front door in her coat and with a big black purse tucked beneath her arm.
“Hey!” Lilli said, “What’s going on?”
The housekeeper shook her head. “Mr. Nakamura said I wouldn’t be needed today, that you and he had made alternative plans. I was going to go visit my daughter and new grandbaby up
in Mt. Vernon for the day, but if you need me to stay…”
Lilli was unprepared for the housekeeper’s offer. It never occurred to her that she had enough power in the house to tell No’s staff what to do. Especially after he’d already issued a command.
Feeling uncomfortable, she shook her head. “No, no! Of course, you should go visit your grandchild, Mrs. Santos! We ah…we have an…appointment, and I can easily order something to eat tonight.”
“Good, but if you need anything, here is my number. Just text or call.”
And that was how Lilli found herself in possession of not one, but two business cards as she went back into the house…only to find No was no longer in the kitchen.
Okay, well shit, she thought to herself, not sure what to do now. Should she wait down here for No to do his business? Go upstairs and twiddle her thumbs? Would he be coming with her to the doctor’s appointment? Or maybe the doctor was coming here?
Lilli needed to know what the hell was going on. She liked having a plan. So she decided to go find him. But he wasn’t in the living room, his office, or the home gym-dojo hybrid. Finally she decided to go back upstairs and knock on his bedroom door.
Her knock didn’t get an answer.
She knocked again. And…nothing.
Finally and against her better judgement, Lilli risked a quick peek into the room, calling out his name, “No—I mean, Norio? Or Nakamura-san? Whatever you want me to call you. Are you in here?”
As it turned out, it didn’t really matter how she addressed him because he didn’t answer. And yes, this is where Lilli should have definitely closed the door and walked away. But she couldn’t stop herself from wandering in a little further. Because the room was a beautiful example of modern Japanese design. Monochromatic and minimalistic—it was done up in a soothing blend of browns, grays, and blacks, and featured a wide Japanese-style platform bed, along with a narrow gray couch beneath the wide lake-facing window. The room, like No’s office, was crisp and tasteful, and Lilli was drawn deeper into the room, wanting to see more. She rounded the half wall behind the bed and entered the bathroom.
His Revenge Baby: 50 Loving States, Washington Page 20
