Blossoms of The Heart

by Khardine Gray

  “The emperor.”

  “The emperor.” Dad chuckled and nodded. “So, kid, do you think you’re up to translating the journal?”

  “Yes.” That was definitely the answer.

  “He’ll need you in Tokyo for at least six months. That okay?”

  “Yes.” I needed this. Absolutely needed this. It would be perfect. A minimum of six months away from here would be great for me.

  “Good, plus truth be told, I personally think you could do with the break. It’ll be just like summers of old for you with Akito, Mitsuke, and…Tai. He’s back.” A tentative expression washed over his face.

  I blinked several times and tried not to show any form of emotion in that revelation. But Dad knew me, so there was no point trying to mask anything.

  Tai. Akito’s nephew. I hadn’t seen him since I was eighteen and the last time that I did see him was not the best memory.

  “Tai? Wow, he’s… back.”

  “Yeah, I think he’s been back for a while but he’s been working with Akito for the last six months at the center. That should be interesting.”

  Interesting.

  I didn’t know if that was the right word, and I wasn’t sure what was.

  Tai used to be the highlight of my summer. That was probably clear to everyone.

  He was just the boy I wasn’t supposed to be with.

  He was the super-hot older guy everyone would crush on. Five years older than me. A complete rebel with his attitude and defiance of authority. He had a new tattoo every summer and it was guaranteed that he’d land himself in some kind of trouble before the summer was out.

  Although he and his family actually lived in LA, like me and mine, everyone would head to Japan in the first week of the summer break. Six whole weeks of fun and adventure.

  For me it was six whole weeks of seeing Tai.

  He went to the Marines and we never stayed in touch.

  I didn’t expect him to, not with the way my mother treated him that last time.

  It would be good to see him after so long.

  Eleven years. That was a really long time.

  But back to a time when everything was wonderful. I was eighteen. Young, ambitious and healthy.

  Nothing was wrong with me then.

  I couldn’t change the years that followed but it would definitely be nice to be in Japan.

  “Sounds exactly like summers of old,” I bubbled. “When do I leave?”

  “How does tomorrow sound?”

  Chapter 2

  Tai

  I ran my gaze along the shiny sword in the glass display unit.

  Had to be worth millions. Guaranteed. The sword looked old and of the priceless variety. The authenticator here had estimated it to be 8th century.

  I remembered seeing a standard katana once in an auction. Some lucky bastard purchased it for one and a half million dollars and thought he’d gotten a bargain.

  Must have been nice to have money to throw around like that.

  I had money behind me, but I wouldn’t be the one to spend it on priceless artifacts. I wasn’t rich. I would most likely say that I was comfortable. Comfortable enough to own a two- story beach house on Kamakura beach, a garage in Tokyo and a few fast cars. Couldn’t help myself when it came to a fast car. Especially the good kind like a solid American muscle. Give me a Mustang or a Buick any day. I was lucky enough to own both.

  My cars were the one thing I missed when I was in the Marines, and my bike.

  When I saw a little symbol near the hilt, I narrowed my eyes at the sword. The thing was still being verified but I felt it was a masamune sword, One said to embue its wielder with supernatural abilities.

  I may not have verged down the academic path most people here had, but I knew a thing or two of value. Plus I had the best teacher anyone could have.

  My uncle, Akito.

  There were two men that I’d always looked up to growing up. My dad and Akito. I may have given them hell, and even been a handful as a boy, but I looked up to them.

  Being a Marine was a given because my father was one. He’d been the kind that went on the crazy-assed missions you’d see in films and won medals for it.

  He’d inspired both myself and my younger brother, Neo, to join.

  Akito, on the other hand, inspired me in a different way. I came to Japan every summer to go on one adventure or another with him.

  That led me to this point where I’d decided that my heart was in Japan, and rather than be the free spirit I’d been for the last two years, I wanted to be here, helping with the family business, so to speak. While I accompanied Akito’s team on various locations for their excursions, he’d hired me as the business manager. It put my business degree to some use and allowed me to do something different with my life.

  I couldn’t have timed being here better for this discovery.

  This was going to be big for us .

  When I looked at the sword all I saw was money. The money its popularity would bring in to the center in all sorts of ways.

  The excursion assistant at Akiyoshido Cave may have found the hidden path, but we were the ones who ventured down the path and found the samurai with his sword and journal.

  I’d already planned out a number of things we could do and put to use for our advantage.

  I folded my arms and looked at the glass encasement holding the skeleton of the samurai still decked out in his armor.

  I didn’t like skeletons or mummies. This guy was a mix of both.

  “What’s the story, man?” I asked grimacing at its horrid appearance.

  Having him inside the center didn’t sit well with me. Finding a person like this was the worst. This man died in a cave. Alone. No proper burial equaled one sure way to become an evil yōkai—spirits and demons of the worst kind that were feared throughout Japan.

  I blamed my mother for that way of thinking. Her and Akito. She was his youngest sister. She got the superstition from him and passed it on to me, filling my head with ghost stories when I was younger.

  Stories aside, I was interested to see where this would take us. It was all the talk at the moment on the news and people were excited about watching our investigation unfold.

  The exhibition would be in four months’ time. August. Just in time for Obon, one of the biggest festivals of the summer.

  People would be coming from all over the world for the occasion anyway, but this discovery would be an added bonus we could bank on.

  I didn’t mean to be so fixated on the monetary benefits.

  The truth was, it was just a good distraction for me right now.

  A distraction from women… my other weakness.

  I sighed and leaned against the wall, my gaze between the samurai and the sword.

  Candace, my ex, had been back in town for over two weeks now. She blew back into my life on a whim, asking me to give her another chance.

  I was supposed to be thinking about that, weighing up all the pros and cons. I was solely supposed to be thinking about that and maybe this discovery of ours. That part was allowed.

  What I shouldn’t have been thinking about was Phoebe Walker.

  The girl –woman –I was supposed to forget and stay away from.

  I stayed away just like her mother demanded but I never forgot. That was the problem.

  All those long years I never forgot the precious pampered princess her mother didn’t want me to get my filthy hands on and mess up.

  She was coming back into my life too. Today at some point I was told.

  God… I didn’t need this shit.

  If I wasn’t working here I probably would have disappeared somewhere.

  Candace would be here in an hour or so, expecting me to have an answer for her or some sort of… I didn’t know. Hope.

  Hope that we could rekindle our relationship.

  I’d met her when I first came back to Japan, two months after I left the Marines. She was a travel journalist and at the time on assignment for one of the
exhibitions.

  We got on straight away, started dating, became serious.

  I became serious, and that never happened. Ever.

  I was usually the one in a relationship calling the shots because I didn’t want to be tied down. I was Mr. Fun, until I met her then she taught me to be very, very wary of love because it could blind you. Cover your eyes with wool so you couldn’t see straight and before you knew it, love could leave you flat on your face in the dirt wondering how the fuck you got there.

  Candace was possibly the only woman I’d ever given my heart to, but when it came to choosing, she chose her career. A full-time position with National Geographic in San Francisco.

  I would have tried to arrange something for us to stay together, but she broke it off with me and said long distance never worked for anyone and she’d rather remember us happy as we were than miserable trying to be together.

  We were together for over a year and it took me nearly that length of time to get over her.

  Now she wanted back in my life…

  My Samurai friend definitely couldn’t have come at a better time. He would be a most welcomed distraction because I didn’t have an answer for her.

  I pulled in a breath and checked my watch. The meeting would start in a few minutes.

  Akito called this meeting for their team to discuss the plans going forward. This recent discovery meant that we’d have to delegate responsibility across our four-man team and call on some of the research assistants.

  That was for the Samurai and the sword.

  The journal was Phoebe’s department. Even when I knew her, she was the only person I knew that could speak more than ten languages.

  I’d never seen language like what I saw in the journal. I spoke and read Japanese, mandarin and Cantonese. That was it for me.

  I made my way to the meeting room. Everyone I expected to be here was already there, but I was surprised to see some of our investors, as well as Izu Fusima, the minister of education. That man couldn’t stand me, and the feeling was mutual. He thought I was a reckless, lay about playboy who was always looking for a chance to make money.

  Okay, some of that might have been true to an extent and I couldn’t claim complete innocence, but he didn’t have to make his dislike for me so pronounced every single time he saw me.

  He gave me a crude look when I entered and scanned over my casual appearance with disdain. Although most of the team were dressed casually, Izu seemed to have taken a dislike to my white biker jacket and ripped jeans.

  To annoy him, I sat right next to him and gave him a phony as hell smile.

  “Kon'nichiwa?” I said to him.

  The asshole frowned and looked away, couldn’t even say hi back to me. Instead he decided to start up a conversation with the investor who sat next to him. I couldn’t remember the man’s name but knew he was a billionaire who always donated a substantial amount of money to the center.

  Akito looked up from the document he was looking through and acknowledged me with a nod. I nodded back and looked to Scott and Kenny. They were talking about the sword.

  I looked over to the door as it opened a few minutes later and a beautiful brunette popped her head inside.

  At first I thought she looked familiar, but within nanoseconds of me thinking that I realized why.

  I straightened up as Phoebe Walker came in, and my mind suddenly became void of thinking anything except that she was here.

  She was actually here in Japan.

  Eleven years, that was how long ago it was since I last saw her.

  Eleven years looked good on her.

  In her sleek black business dress that stopped just above her golden thighs, all I could see before me was a killer body that trapped my mind.

  I didn’t care too much for model thin women. I liked a woman to look like she took care of herself. Phoebe’s athletic build screamed that. Curves in all the right places with definition in her arms and legs. Large, fully rounded breasts that could make a man drool. Her bright blue eyes were striking against that dark mass of sleek, razor-sharp straight brown hair. She was the kind of woman that would always be able to harness beauty no matter how old she got.

  She looked amazing, definitely amazing, but I couldn’t help but think back to that last time I saw her.

  Some memories no matter how big or small burned into a person’s mind with a lasting effect. That was one of them.

  I was twenty three at the time.

  She was eighteen and temptation that a man of twenty three should have left well enough alone. She was completely off limits if only for the close relationship she and her family had with Akito, and she was too young for me to spoil up.

  But I tried to anyway.

  One kiss. That was all it took to send me over the edge. And that damn kiss left me dangling over that edge all these years, wondering what would have happened if her mother hadn’t caught us.

  Caught me.

  “I’m so sorry I’m late. I forgot how hard it can be to park here,” she babbled excitedly.

  Everyone looked on fondly, waiting to hear who she was.

  Akito gave her a massive emotional hug and the excitement at her presence was very evident.

  “You aren’t late.” Akito beamed. “Sit next to me.”

  She did as instructed and looked around the room, taking in all the faces of the people that sat around the table. When her gaze landed on me though… something familiar flickered in her eyes. I saw surprise and a hint of uncertainty, but there was that spark I used to look forward to every summer.

  It was still there. It still shimmered in her ocean blue eyes, and I was surprised to feel that rush of excitement ripple through me.

  Phoebe Walker at twenty-nine years old was a combustion of drop-dead gorgeous with the sort of fantasy body that could get a guy in trouble.

  Me, at thirty-four, who should be thinking about whether or not I was going to give my ex-girlfriend another shot.

  “Good, now that we’re all here we can begin,” Akito announced.

  “This lovely young lady is Dr. Phoebe Walker from The Smithsonian Institute.”

  Jesus, I didn’t realize she’d gone and gotten her doctorate. It was hardly surprising, though, with what I knew of her from the past.

  “Dr. Walker is a linguist with a specialty in reading dead languages. She’s agreed to join our team and translate the journal and help with our investigation.”

  Phoebe smiled at everyone.

  “Welcome, Phoebe, you’ll make a great addition to our team.” Scott said with a nod. Kenny followed suit.

  I just looked on, watching her.

  “I’ll cut to the chase and get to the point of this meeting,” Akito continued, clearing his throat. “This discovery is a very big deal for us. We have a lot of work to do in our investigation of our samurai and his sword. We’ll also have to get back in the cave to see if there’s anything else we can find. I believe that journal will assist us greatly in gathering the information we need, but there might be more inside that the earthquake unearthed. I’m excited about this.”

  Akito continued his speech, “I hope that you’ll all help make Phoebe feel welcome.”

  He looked at me when he said that. Specifically looked at me, as if I would be the one to cause trouble.

  “We have a good window of time that we can use to our advantage, but there’s a lot to be done. I suggest we use the rest of this week to plan out what we’re doing, get acquainted with our findings, and maybe we can spend a few days next week at the cave. Then we regroup next Friday with our findings.”

  Everyone agreed to that.

  Akito started talking about the budget, which was through the roof. Apparently, we had unlimited funds at our disposal for whatever we wanted. The government was funding this full force. I loved the sound of that, and so did the investors.

  I wanted to explore that cave fully, as in within an inch of its life. There was no telling what else we could find.

 
When the meeting drew to an end, the group gravitated towards Phoebe, asking her all manner of questions about herself and her work, which she gladly answered.

  I stayed where I was until the admirers left and then made my way over to them.

  “Tai,” she said with a curt nod.

  “Doctor Walker.” I nodded back and smiled.

  “Phoebe,” she corrected.

  “Guys.” Akito briefly placed his arms around both of us. “I know you two can work wonders on this project. You can work together, right?”

  Again Akito looked at me.

  “I have no qualms with that,” I replied.

  “Me neither.” She smiled.

  “Good.” Akito chuckled. “I remember you both at each other’s throats all the time as kids.”

  That would have been literally when we were kids. Past the kid stage, I spent the time watching her grow into her womanly curves.

  The only memory I had of her throat was what it tasted like.

  Sweet. Vanilla sweet with a hint of nervousness.

  Her cheeks colored against her pale skin. “We were kids, Akito,” she pointed out. “We’re adults now. Time’s moved on. I’m sure we’ll do just fine.”

  Akito smiled with intense pride. “I’m so proud of the two of you. This is going to be a very exciting time for all of us.”

  “And busy,” I offered.

  “And busy, we love busy. Gives us purpose.” He beamed. “Tai, why don’t you take Phoebe to the research room and the office so she can see everything?”

  I looked at Phoebe, took in the anxious look she had about her, and thought I’d take this as an opportunity to test the waters.

  Chapter 3

  Phoebe

  I didn’t think I would feel like this seeing him again.

  I just assumed time would dull my interest. Or, maybe it was just that I hoped it would.

  The minute I saw Tai that spark of interest and excitement I used to feel came rushing back to me. It clenched at my stomach and sent my nerves into a crazy frenzy.

  Getting all weak-kneed, hot and bothered about a guy was not in the cards for me. After all I was here on business.