“Lucas has some great friends I want to introduce you to,” Christy whispered in her ear before someone called her away. “Let’s get that Harris mess behind you.”
First her mother, now Christy! Was every person here determined to either gab about her being ditched or to fix her up with someone? It was embarrassing that everyone in the free world seemed to know about her breakup, and how that was apparently the best topic of conversation they could come up with. Right on cue, Erin’s mother approached.
“Thank heavens they gave you a manicure,” Bunny quipped, strangely focusing on Erin’s nails, which had been polished in a bright violet shade that was similar to her maid of honor gown. Her mother offered another vague insult. “This afternoon you looked like a wild child who climbed out of the Olympic Mountains.”
“Thank you, Mother. That’s a lovely image.”
“Now, where’s that Mr. Colder?” Bunny said as she looked for a man different from the one Erin searched to find. “A very interesting prospect for you to talk to.”
“After it went so well with Harris,” Erin chortled sarcastically, “we know your matchmaking skills are top-notch.”
“Don’t be rude, Erin. Had you been able to get Harris to settle down, you would have been perfectly stationed for life.”
“Oh, I see. It’s my fault I wasn’t able to turn his cheating, lying ways?”
She knew that she was being snippy when, in reality, she’d all but resigned herself to letting her parents make the match they wanted. One of the arranged Pacific Northwest society marriages that her father insisted made just as much sense now as they had throughout history. Left to her own devices, she’d die a spinster. She’d thought she’d once known what a true union was. What love was. But it stole her heart and flew far away, leaving only a hole that would never be filled.
Fine, she could procreate, carry on the family genes. As long as she didn’t have to fall in love. That would be a fate worse than death. The most she could hope for was that she’d end up with someone with whom she’d have some things in common and they could serve their offspring-producing callings with an amiable companionship.
“I forgot something in my room,” Erin lied. She followed the waiter with the fried oysters, just needing a break from her mother.
“I’ve got someone fabulous to introduce you to,” Christy sang as she skidded past Erin while she was being led across the room by her husband-to-be. “He coaches basketball with Lucas.” The groom was a big and tall man with a ruddy complexion, a high-ranking stockbroker at one of Seattle’s top firms. As was his father. As was his father’s father. Old money, as Bunny loved to point out.
Noticing two couples gesturing to her, Erin was getting dizzy from everyone’s attention. The room seemed to be closing in. How could she get everyone to just leave her be?
She was a dutiful daughter. Yet for all of her cynicism about not caring with whom she produced heirs, in the secret, most hidden recesses of her soul, she was screaming for something else. She was starving for adventure. For risk. For passion.
At that exact instant, the moon outside rose and cast a powerful beam down through the window toward the opposite end of the party room. It was white and tapered open like a spotlight positioned on an empty stage. Erin’s eyes followed it and she turned in its direction, wondering how moon glow could be streaming so intensely at that one spot and no other. She couldn’t see what was over there because too many people were in the way. Without telling them to do so, her feet began moving toward the direction of the light.
The closer she got, the more the clusters of guests moved to the left or to the right, opening a path for her. Her steps became faster. Until she froze when she reached the other side of the room, where a solitary figure stood at the arched entrance to the party. He was observing the scene, almost as if deciding whether to enter. And he was indeed bathed in a moonbeam, or at least that’s how it appeared to Erin.
The familiar handsomeness sent shivers racking through her. The high cheekbones, full lips and his imposing height reminding her, as they always had, of drawings of potent Japanese emperors with long swords from centuries gone by. Especially in the shadow profile of the light shining down on him, he commanded all he surveyed. His dark hair still fell in a thick, youthful tousle downward from his forehead, hinting at a rebelliousness despite the fine navy suit perfectly tailored to his lean muscular body.
As if knowing she’d be there, he turned his head. His gleaming almost-black eyes bored into hers the instant they made contact, causing her breath to shorten, and she went from a casual pose to standing at attention.
Slowly, the seriousness in his face melted to something gentler, where it lingered for a moment. Then the gaze quickly corrected itself, as if the previous move had been a swiftly caught error. He returned to his piercing stare. Kento Yamamoto bowed his head and said only, “It’s good to see you again, Erin.”
* * *
She was a real human. Flesh and blood. Not the almost otherworldly character that inhabited his midnights with snapshot remembrances of hopes long gone. After seven years, more than long enough to shed a skin, Erin Nancy Barclay was in front of him once again. The mixture of emotions Kento felt was like one of those cake beaters that whirled ingredients, wet and dry, salty and sweet, smooth and chewy, until they were too intermingled to separate. He wanted to reach out and hug her in almost equal measure to his desire to turn around and bolt away.
“Did you just get here?” she asked, the tones of her voice like an old song he hadn’t heard in ages.
“A couple of hours ago. I checked in on some work.”
“You skipped the welcome tea.”
“How was it?”
“I didn’t end up staying.”
“Why?”
“I got waylaid by my mother.”
The corner of his lip tipped up. Some things never changed. “Hmm.”
“It’s a really long flight for you from Tokyo, isn’t it?”
“And oh, yes, we’re getting some nice afternoons this time of year.”
She looked at him questioningly. “What does that mean?”
“That commenting on banalities is the best we can do after all this time?”
“What would you like to talk about?”
They were off to a rocky start. She was right—he couldn’t yet ask what he wanted to. About how she could have participated in the despicable forcing out of him that her parents had enacted. He’d come for those answers, but this wasn’t the time or place. Outwardly, they needed to be pleasant exes who were attentive to their best man and maid of honor duties. To lead the bridal party and serve the bride and groom with whatever they needed.
“Did you write your speech?” he asked.
“I drafted out some ideas. Wishing people a happily-ever-after ride into the sunset is a little hard to write when you’ve just been broken up with.”
Broken up with? His jaw locked. He’d heard from Lucas that Erin was living in Spokane with someone and that it was serious. He hadn’t talked to Lucas in a couple of weeks other than some emails, in which the groom hadn’t mentioned that Erin and her man split up. Kento had assumed that she’d have him in tow for the weekend. He guessed that the boyfriend was certainly someone Erin’s parents had sanctioned, as approval was always one of the key tenets in the Barclay family.
Did that mean that she was here on her own for the wedding weekend? Kento’s mind began to spin. He’d wanted to see her again, to finally emancipate himself from the shackles their past kept him in. But he needed to do that from a safe distance, with her unavailability serving as an impenetrable barrier that would prevent him from considering things that couldn’t be. Erin single and unbound was too risky.
“Someone recently broke up with you?” He decided to play it cool, to pretend like he didn’t even know she’d been in a relationship. Meanwhile, at seein
g her again, the hurt he’d brought along with him spilled out of his pockets, breathed out of his nose, blinked in his eyes. At the same time, she was so exquisitely beautiful a wail fought to make itself known.
“You mean you haven’t heard? It’s all anyone seems to be talking about this weekend.”
“Did your parents like him?” He couldn’t resist the dig. After all, if it weren’t for Bunny and Ingram, and Erin’s allegiance to the way her parents thought, the two of them might have had a future together. Who knew what could have happened? She could have moved to Japan with him. Or perhaps he wouldn’t have gone. They might be married. Have children. For that matter, they could be divorced. There were so many could-have-beens. He wondered if this ex-boyfriend suffered the same fate.
“Indeed. My parents fixed me up with Harris.”
Ah, so nothing at all like Kento. “He was the right sort, then?”
Erin blinked a few times. He realized he was being cruel. After not seeing her for so long, his emotions had had a chance to compound. He needed to take it slow. Watch what he said. She’d just been broken up with. Even though he didn’t know the circumstances, he was never one to kick someone when they were down. In spite of how many times that had been done to him.
“He looked great on paper, as they say. In reality, it didn’t work out that way.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Was he? Whether or not she was with someone should have no effect on him.
“It’s another cliché, but better to find out sooner rather than later.”
She didn’t look exactly the same as she did in the mental photo album he flipped through far too often. From a ponytailed girl with designer jeans and purses, her wealth something that had always been visible, she’d ripened into a striking woman who wore her wine-colored dress with style. The close fit outlined her slim body, the one he’d known every inch of in days gone by. His belly tightened at the recollection.
Her eyes were a little drawn, perhaps revealing her recent romantic failure. He found himself wondering about the details, why he’d broken up with her. But those unusually light brown eyes of hers were still her most arresting feature. He remembered peering into them for hours on end, trying to count the little gold flecks in her irises. He was glad that tonight her lips were covered in only a natural-looking gloss. It was easier that way to imagine...
They stood contemplating each other, perhaps melting into the same remembrances, perhaps opposite ones. Kento’s body was so alert and on edge that he wondered if his nerve endings could take much more. He felt almost out of control, something he wasn’t accustomed to.
“What about you?” Fortunately, Erin recircuited his brain. “Single, married, divorced, gay?”
“Married,” he tittered. Did something register in those eyes of hers in response to his answer? “To a billion-yen software development company.” Then, did he sense her relief after his explanation?
“I’ve heard. So, after graduation when you left...to work with your uncle in Tokyo, you never came back?”
“At first I’d come to see my parents now and then.” He’d never attempted to see Erin on those trips. Her parents had made their lack of welcome infinitely clear. And she’d proved that she wasn’t capable of defying them. “I moved them to Japan a couple of years ago, and I haven’t been back here since.”
Kento’s parents. Who couldn’t be more different from Erin’s. Who didn’t have money in the bank but labored so hard to pay for their two children to go to good schools and top universities. Because they wanted them to have options. His sister had become a lawyer. And Kento had found his niche in software.
Ultimately, what his parents wished for him proved to be a double-edged blade. The exclusive schools with the high academic reputations certainly taught him well. But being the charity case among the upper crust, one of the few who had to apply for every scholarship and dollar of financial assistance available, set him up for constant embarrassment and ridicule. Rich kids showed no mercy for the übersmart boy who received help with his tuition. Kento bore those scars silently for his parents, though, who were so proud of every good exam score and achievement of their son’s.
“How are they?” She’d only met them a few times, as they were always busy working at their small grocery store in the nearby city of Tacoma.
“I was so glad when I could give them the word a couple of years ago that they should retire because I could easily provide for them. Typical for them, they were too modest to let me buy them a spacious home. Instead, they chose an apartment in a retirement living community just big enough to suit their needs.” Unlike Erin’s parents, who wore their wealth on their sleeves, their cars and their mansions. And, most especially, with the people they surrounded themselves with, whom they picked and chose as if selecting only the shiniest unbruised apples from the farmer’s basket.
“Kento, Erin, will you kick off the evening with an impromptu toast?” Lucas yelled over to them from the gaggle he was standing with. The reminder of the reason they were there startled them both, with Kento lost in days past.
“I guess it’s showtime.” Kento shrugged. He gestured with an outstretched arm that they should enter the thick of the group.
After doing so, when they were surrounded by partygoers, a waiter appeared with a microphone. Erin took it and began. “It’s great to see everybody here. On behalf of Christy and Lucas and their parents, welcome to Locklear Lodge.”
Kento reached to tip the mic toward him, noting the tingly contact his fingers made with Erin’s. “Or to be known this weekend as the Forever Begins Now Inn,” he said, repeating the sentiment printed on the banner that had greeted guests getting off the ferry earlier. “We wish you all the health and joy in the world.”
“And children,” a male voice in the crowd added.
“And money,” another yelled, earning a laugh from everyone.
Erin finished with, “Let’s enjoy our dinner as we begin to celebrate the nuptials of these two very special people.”
Fortunately, that appeared to be sufficient for the moment, because people clapped and then began making their way to the dining area of long tables set up with a campfire theme.
The best man and maid of honor presided over the guests as they took seats.
“Kento!”
“Kento!”
“Kento!”
The three voices he’d already come to know charged toward him like a battle army. He caught Erin mashing her lips together as if to stifle a laugh.
“Hi, Erin.”
“Hi, MacKenzie, Amber and Divya,” she answered.
Ah, so she knew the three barracudas.
“Kento, we’re sitting together, aren’t we? You promised!”
“You did!”
He’d done nothing of the kind and might rather starve than have to endure dinner conversation that would no doubt pertain to his holdings in the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Thinking quickly to help him out, Erin broke in with, “I’m sorry. We’re obligated to sit with the bride and groom.”
The three mouths that again wore the most unfortunate bright shades of lipstick drooped into mopes.
“Okay...” Divya whined. “But you’d better at least dance with us this weekend.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
With that, the three clip-clopped away on their high heels.
Kento could have almost kissed Erin for getting him out of their clutches. Absolutely almost kissed her.
* * *
“Oh. Kento. Yes, hmm...how nice to see you again.” Erin’s mother was one of the last to enter the party. Bunny stumbled over her words. “I hear your company is doing fabulously.”
“Mrs. Barclay.” Kento bowed his head, the Japanese custom that must be second nature to him now. Without warmth or familiarity, he moved no closer to Erin’s mother than w
here he was standing. He certainly wasn’t going to give her a hug. Bunny and Ingram had made no attempt to hide their disapproval of him back when he and Erin were dating, and there was no reason to think they would warm up to each other now. It was far too late for that.
It hadn’t been of interest to her parents that Erin was her happiest when she was with Kento. They’d had a connection unlike anything she’d ever known. When they were alone together, the outside world disappeared. Her family’s wealth and his family’s lack of it meant nothing. What was important was smiling into each other’s eyes and the passionate kisses that fortified her like nutrition. Looking back, she knew it was a cocoon they’d existed in, university students excited to exchange ideas, share insights, make love. With him, she was alive. Inspired. Involved.
“I think you’re sitting over there.” Erin pointed to a few of Bunny’s contemporaries in an effort to get her away from Kento as quickly as possible. Her mother seized the opportunity and immediately joined her friends.
They made their way to the long, narrow table, where they sat opposite each other. Set chuck wagon–style in keeping with the woodsy lodge, it was a chic and expensive fantasy of roughing it, of course. Sterling silver utensils were styled flat and plain, looking like they were meant for campfire eating. The dinner plates were also metal, and the water glasses were short and solid. Colorful bandannas served as napkins at each setting. Instead of floral centerpieces, groupings of small logs and pine cones were stacked as if they were ready to be kindled.
Erin took her seat with her uncle, the father of the bride, Vernon, to her left and Christy on her right. On the other side of the table, Kento was seated between the bride’s and groom’s mothers. Servers brought baskets of warm sourdough bread and pots of soft butter wrapped in more bandannas. Private reserve wine was poured into tin cups as the first course, cioppino, was served in bowls with handles, continuing the homespun theme. The tomato broth was deep red, and the stew was packed with plump shellfish. Erin spooned a bite into her mouth. A guitar player in the corner of the room strummed country songs.
Wedding Date with the Billionaire Page 3
