She sighed and frowned in disappointment and Koichi looked at her and placed a light hand on her arm as he turned to go. “Ask me again another day. There may be another answer.” She smiled slightly at him and touched her hand to the top of his as he left her. Looking back at Jake, standing in the water, doing the kata he had learned, splashing water all over the place, she drew in a long and patient breath, hoping that her instinct had been right about him, and that with some focus and determination, he would be able to reach the incredible future that she could see ahead of him.
When the light began to grow pale, Koichi returned to the water garden and watched as Jake continued his kata, though much more slowly from soreness and weariness, and he stepped up to the water’s edge.
“Jake, you may stop for today.” He said quietly. “Come back at nine in the morning and begin again. Get some rest tonight.” He gave Jake a nod as the younger man looked back at him incredulously, and then Koichi walked away.
With slow and painful steps, Jake emerged from the water and gasped at the sight of his feet; his skin was pruned and shriveled from having stood in the water for the full day. He felt completely waterlogged, and he sighed heavily as he looked up and saw Lisa standing before him with a towel.
She looked like an angel of mercy to him just then, and as much as he wished that he could flirt with her and try to turn her on, he was far too exhausted to do it. He took the towel from her gratefully, and began to try to dry himself.
“Come to my office. I made hot tea for you.” She said with a kind smile.
He wasn’t sure what good hot tea would do, but anything hot sounded good, and he was starving from not having stopped to eat all day. He followed her silently, and sank onto the sofa in her office, feeling the pain and tenderness of every movement he had done that day as it burned through him.
He groaned as she handed him the hot cup of green tea. “Here, this will help,” she said sympathetically.
“You didn’t tell me I was going to have my ass handed to me on the first day,” he said grumpily as he lifted the cup to his mouth. “Thank you for the tea, though,” he added, as the steam from it curled around his nose and mouth.
He closed his eyes and breathed it in, and when he drank it, it seemed like the best thing that had ever crossed his lips and rolled down into his body. It began to warm him right away, from his core outward, and he felt better as it heated him.
“Oh… Jake. This is only the first day. You haven’t begun to have your ass handed to you.” She gave him a half-smile.
He looked up at her in shock and saw that she was serious. Lisa felt her stomach clench at the sight of his panicked blue eyes. She worried that he would give up, and that was the last thing that she wanted to see happen.
“Jake, you can’t get to be a champion competitor and fighter without going through every stage of training. Think of it as boot camp. Everyone starts on the bottom rung… everyone begins with the rudimentary basics and then grows from there. Like seeds… everything has a humble beginning. You must know that. You’re strong enough. I saw it in you the day that I met you. You have what it takes, and I know that, or I never would have brought you here. I’d have walked right out of that gym and gone to look for someone else, but you have it. I saw it.
I know I saw it, and no matter if you can see it right now or not, it’s there, and you will succeed as long as you don’t give up on yourself. Believe in yourself, Jake, just trust in yourself, and trust me. I wouldn’t waste my time or the Master’s time if I didn’t know without a doubt that you could be a great fighter.” She smiled at him encouragingly, and he gazed back at her in wonder.
For the first time in his life, he realized that someone was genuinely trying to help him because they saw potential in him, and he felt the unfamiliar strains of friendship budding inside him for Lisa. He had no other real friends besides Evan. There were people he knew; acquaintances and people who were friendly to him, but no real friends. No one who spoke to him the way that she just had, except for Muldoon, who was most often yelling at him and lecturing him. He guessed that they were saying the same thing in different ways, and he sipped his tea in thought about it.
When the cup was empty, Lisa reached toward the tea pot. “Would you like some more?”
He shook his head and handed the cup back to her. “No, I think all I want right now is a long hot shower and my bed.” He stood up slowly and stretched a little, giving her a real smile as he turned and headed for the door of her office. Looking back at her, he gave her a nod.
“Thank you for the tea, and for the talk… and most of all for believing in me and thinking that I can do this.”
She shook her head gently. “I know you can do this. You just have to make your mind up to do it,” she replied with a smile in return.
“Oh, I’m going to do it. I’m going to be one of the best this dojo has ever seen; even if it kills me in the meantime,” he answered quietly. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
He left and closed the door behind him, and she let the deep breath she had been holding in her chest leave her slowly. Something had changed between them, and it was subtle, but it was definitely real, she thought. There was something like an understanding between them; something true and genuine, and it felt, much to her surprise, almost like friendship. She laughed lightly, and turned to clean up the tea she had made for him.
There was a knock at the door, and after she called out a welcome, the screen slid open and she turned to see Masahiro coming into the office. He looked at her in concern, and she walked to the sofa and sat down on it, waiting for him as he sat down beside her.
“Lisa, I want to talk with you about Jake,” he began in a soft voice.
She looked at his old dark eyes and listened to him intently. “What is it?”
He looked around her office and then back to her. “I am taking a big chance on Jake, bringing him in to the dojo and using Koichi’s time to train him.”
She saw the line furrow in his forehead; the line that meant he was thinking deeply. She drew in a long slow breath and waited. She knew that there was more to come.
Masahiro held her gaze with his. “This dojo must have a champion who cannot be beat. We have a lot of competition, and we must have a winner. We must have someone who is as dedicated to this dojo as they are to themselves.”
She nodded and looked down at her hands, folding them in her lap before looking back up at him again. She knew just how vital it was for them to produce champions consistently. It was their livelihood. It was their success and their future, as well as the future of their fighters.
He breathed in and let the air out in a long slow sigh. “I wasn’t going to accept him. Not at first, but I saw how much you hoped for him to make it and be taken in here.” He narrowed his eyes and looked at her keenly. “That is the only reason that he is here, because it is what you wanted. Why did it mean so much to you?” he asked, peering at her as though he was able to look directly through her.
She looked straight back at him. “I believe in him, and I trust my intuition that he is going to be a success. He’s going to be a great champion, if he is given the chance to do it. I knew it when I saw him fighting at the old gym where I found him. I believe that he is going to be one of the best champions this dojo has ever seen, and that’s why I brought him here.
That’s why it means so much to me to see him succeed. He has what it takes, and it would mean everything to him to reach that, and that would mean a great success for us here, as well. Anyone with drive and determination like he has, coupled with skill and talent, is going to make a good match.” She knew her voice conveyed the confidence that she felt inside about the whole situation, and she hoped that the man before her was able to hear it and see it in her.
He pressed his lips together in a line until they disappeared behind his white moustache and beard. Giving a nod, he looked back at her and placed his hand on hers. “I do not see a success when I look at him. I believe
he lacks commitment. He has drive, and he has determination, but I do not see commitment. I see him walking away from his responsibilities, and giving up when he is most needed. That I see in him very clearly.” He sighed. “He has much anger in him; anger that stems from disappointment, and I believe that as a means of avoiding disappointment and pain, he does not commit.”
Masahiro gave his head a slow shake. “I hope I see that change in him, or he will not succeed here, and he will not succeed in his own life. He has potential, yes, but he has potential for both success and failure, and he is walking the narrow edge of that line right now. He could go either way, and I am concerned that your faith in him is misplaced, that it is only the hope that you have for what you think he could be, rather than insight into who he is.”
He stood up then and she rose up to stand beside him. “Time will tell,” he said in the same soft tone, looking at her tenderly.
She nodded and gave him a smile. “Thank you for taking a chance on him, Uncle. It is important to me.” She stepped toward him, and he wrapped his arms around her in a hug, holding her close to him.
Chapter4
Lisa met Bonnie for coffee at their favorite café the next morning, before each of them went their separate ways. She held her coffee mug in her hands, sipping at the frothy foam of steamed milk at the brim of it before setting it down and looking at Bonnie.
Her best friend was eyeing her with anticipation. “So? I want to hear what’s going on with the hot new guy at the dojo!” she bubbled effervescently.
Lisa couldn’t resist a smile and shrug of her shoulders as she looked down into her coffee cup before answering. “Listen, he’s only been there a couple of days. There’s nothing to tell. I found him fighting at this ratty old gym, he had good style and form, and I saw some potential-”
“Potential for what?” Bonnie giggled wickedly as she grinned and winked at Lisa.
Lisa rolled her eyes with a sigh. “Potential for a good champion for the dojo. That’s it.” She let out a little more breath and bit at her lower lip. “Though… he does make it really difficult,” she said, looking up at Bonnie through her eyelashes.
Bonnie pounced on possibility. “Difficult for what?” she drawled slowly with a grin.
Lisa bit her lip again and looked away before shifting her eyes back to Bonnie. “Difficult to keep us both focused on the training and the dojo. He’s a terrible flirt. Every time he’s around me, he gets so… close, and he’s so… forward. He already asked me to sleep with him on the very first night.”
Bonnie’s mouth fell open. “He did not!”
Lisa raised her eyebrows and nodded slightly. “Oh yes, he did. I drove him from the gym to the dojo the day I found him, and when he was done at the dojo, I drove him home. He asked me that very first night. God… he’s so hot, and he’s so persistent. He just flirts so… intensely, and I keep telling him that it’s just business, but he doesn’t care! It’s like he’s hell bent on getting…” she hesitated and eyed Bonnie meaningfully, “what he wants.”
Her best friend giggled gleefully. “Good! What about you? Are you into it? Do you like him at all?”
Shaking her head in frustration, Lisa knitted her brow. “No! I mean… it doesn’t matter, it’s not a possibility! I can’t like him! He… he flusters me, and he… he makes me… god, he makes me so nervous. I just… I can’t let him do that. We both have to concentrate on our purposes there, and nothing else! I just wish he wouldn’t make it so damn difficult!”
Bonnie raised an eyebrow. “Does he make it difficult?” she asked curiously.
Lisa groaned miserably. “You have no idea.”
“You like him!” Bonnie gasped excitedly.
Shaking her head and waving her hand dismissively in the air, Lisa sat up and looked right at Bonnie. “It doesn’t matter what I like, or what I think… or how he makes me… um… how I feel when I’m around him. It doesn’t matter. It’s just been a long time since anyone was interested in me, that’s all. It’s just… been a long time, and I am just going to have to ignore that and focus on my work and he has to focus on his training, and that’s all that there is to it.”
Bonnie pouted in disappointment. “Why? Why would you turn down something like that? A hot guy… right there under your nose, and he’s super interested in you… why would turn that down?”
Lisa sniffed as she lifted her coffee cup halfway to her mouth before answering. “Because he’s capable of causing trouble, and I want him to stay focused on being capable of success, and because I have a family to think of. It isn’t just about me. It isn’t just about going with hot hormones. There’s so much at stake here, Bonnie, and I have a duty to my family and to the dojo to think of them first. I also have to think of his future. He has to concentrate on training, not…” she felt her cheeks warm at the thought of what he concentrated on when he was around her. “Not anything else.”
Bonnie sighed in resignation. “That’s terrible. I haven’t seen you react to a guy in a long time. I wish you’d let yourself go on this one. Even just for a tangle in the sheets. I mean, seriously, what is it going to hurt if you two spend a night or two together? That’s not going to do any damage.”
Lisa pressed her lips together tightly and shook her head. “No. Absolutely not.” She answered. She was determined that it wasn’t going to happen at all.
Bonnie sighed and her shoulders slouched downward. “Okay. I know when to give in with you. I swear, sometimes you are so stubborn! I just… I wish that it could be different for you, that’s all.”
“I know, and I appreciate that, but this is not the right time, and he is not the right guy. Family first,” Lisa replied adamantly. Bonnie nodded in resignation.
When their visit over coffee was done, Bonnie and Lisa hugged one another goodbye, and Lisa drove to the dojo, positive that things were going the way that they should, and hoping with everything in her that Jake would be the champion that she believed he could be.
She was careful to stay out of his way every morning, and she silently watched him now and then throughout the days, every day, for a week as he stood in the water, doing his kata over and over again, relentlessly pushing forward when he struggled to stand, continuing to get back up every time he fell, and lifting his head high when his body trembled with pain and he forced himself to keep doing the kata.
Every evening after, Koichi, having watched him and meditated before him for the last part of the day, let him finally get out of the water, Lisa would be there waiting for him with a dry towel and hot tea in her office. Each one of those late afternoons, Jake would be too tired to flirt with her, and almost too tired to really think or talk, and he would speak only a little to her. They would smile at each other, and she would encourage him, telling him to keep going, that he would make it and that he was getting closer to his goal. Most of all she would tell him that she believed in him.
After a full week of his work had passed, he was sitting on the sofa in her office, sipping the afternoon tea with her, when he looked up at her in what she suspected was defeat.
“I know you think I can do this…” he said quietly, his hands trembling as he tried to hold the teacup still without spilling any tea, “but, Koichi is pushing me harder than I thought he would. I have done everything that I think I can do, and I’m not sure that I can go forward with this.”
She felt panic seize her stomach and she shook her head, sitting down beside him. “I know that you can do this. You can’t give up! You know, most often it’s when we are just about to give up on the hardest and most difficult things that they finally come through and work for us. Did you know that? I’ve seen it so many times. I’ve never seen anyone come as far as you have in as short a time as you have.
Most of the men who go through training similar to yours can’t even stand at the end of the first week, but there you were today, still standing, still moving and doing your kata, even though it’s so difficult for you. You’ve kept going. Jake, you have suc
h determination. Trust me when I tell you that you’re much closer than anyone else has been at this stage. At least, anyone that I’ve seen and I’ve seen this for years. You just have to keep pushing. Keep going at it. I know it feels like you might never see the light at the end of the tunnel, but you will. You’re so much closer than you were.”
He looked up at her and managed a smile through the burning pain that he felt in every part of his body. Somehow, her smile and faith in him helped to bolster him. “I don’t think I’d have stayed as long or tried as hard if you weren’t here helping me and encouraging me. You know, I look forward to seeing you bring that towel to me every afternoon, and to the tea you make for me. Seriously, it might be the only thing that’s really kept me going every day… just knowing that if I keep going a little bit more, it will be towel and tea time and I’ll get to see you. It really means a lot to me that you believe in me, Lisa. Thank you.” He carefully tipped the teacup back and swallowed the warm liquid.
Jake stood slowly, wincing from the soreness and pain that wracked him. He looked at her with humble gratitude as he reached out a little way to hand her the teacup. “You know, I haven’t had that many friends, and it feels like you are a friend. A real friend.” He smiled a little again. “Thank you.”
She felt her throat tighten and she tried to swallow the lump there and stop her eyes from stinging with tears as her dark eyes looked into his cool blue ones. “I’m going to be here every step of the way, making sure that you reach your goal, and that you prove to yourself and everyone else that you are the champion we both know you are inside.”
He gave his head a slight shake. “That’s what keeps me coming back every day. I’m not going to let you or myself down. I’ll see you in the morning, Lisa. I promise.” With that, he turned and walked slowly and carefully from her office, and she went to the doorway and watched him as he made his way past the courtyard and through the wide gate. She admired him deeply for the dedication he was giving to what he was doing.
Brooklyn's Baddest: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance Page 7
