Chapter 3
Jo
With the girls chattering behind us, Hiroki and I climb a wide stairway up to the final level of the terraced hillside, a fenced-in, newly resurfaced tennis court. The net is down, and the lights are so bright I have to squint.
I scan the perimeter. Shadows and crickets. “What should we do if there is a coyote?”
“Not sure,” Hiroki says. “Act like a roadrunner?”
The girls get their skates on in a flash, but I remind them to put on their helmets and pads too, which they do, groaning.
Hiroki and I walk to the seating area under a shade structure.
There is a couch, a low table and an outdoor refrigerator stocked with more mineral water, although in all the time Rowena has lived in this house, I have yet to see anyone play tennis.
“Auntie Jo, watch me!” Lily yells. She skates around the tennis court in a wide oval, crouching down and gathering speed like she’s in roller derby.
“No, Auntie Jo, watch me instead!” Rose zooms after her, laughing. They breeze around each bend, overtaking each other with loud squeals. They practice skating backwards. They practice falling down. Lily eats it with a loud thud, and both Hiroki and I stand up.
“You okay?” I call after her.
“I’m fine!”
We sit back down. “Just fix your helmet, babe,” I say. “It’s crooked.”
“Okay!”
As soon as Lily is back in business, Rose grabs her hand and they’re speeding off again.
Rose takes after her mother and me, with black hair and dark eyes.
Lily has light brown eyes and sandy brown hair like her father.
They’re both gangly and already taller than Rowena and me.
With my whole heart, I love every version of them, babies to toddlers to little kids to teenagers and one day, adults.
They’re going to be spectacular adults. I can feel it.
I’m watching the girls with an enormous smile on my face when I feel Hiroki looking at me. His lips are pursed and his eyes are soft and kind.
“What?” I touch my mouth. Stray chocolate? Smeared marshmallow?
“You’re a good aunt.”
A breeze catches the hem of my dress. I smooth it down. “They’re good kids,” I say, waving my hand. “That’s all.”
“Both statements are true,” he says, gently dismissing my dismissal. “Rowena said the girls are having a birthday at a roller-skating rink tomorrow. Will you skate with them?”
“Yes, but I haven’t been on skates since high school. I hope it’s something I can automatically remember how to do, like riding a bicycle.”
“Do you ride a bicycle?”
“Uh.” I pause. “No. Do you?”
“Sometimes. And I still skateboard, every now and then. When no one’s looking.”
My teenage self sits up straighter. A grown-up skater boy. Whew.
“Do you have kids?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No. But I have one nephew. He lives in New York with my older brother. They visit three or four times a year to see our mom, so I get to hang out with them pretty often.”
“That’s good,” I say. “Rowena and Thomas lived in San Francisco for a while. I missed the girls so much. We talked all the time, but it isn’t the same.
” I pause, remembering. Money was particularly tight for me then.
My heart ached at being apart from my nieces, but I couldn’t afford even the cheap ticket to fly out to see them.
I couldn’t admit this to Rowena then, and I sure as hell won’t admit it to a stranger now, especially one who seems as perceptive as Hiroki.
“Listen, I want to apologize for that weird exchange between me and my brother-in-law. He has a strong personality, and we sometimes don’t understand each other.”
Hiroki says nothing, just watches me with those deep brown eyes. He’s next to me again on the couch, close but not touching. He smells like woodsmoke from the firepit and fresh cement from his work—the faint scent of sun-warmed pavement just before rain.
His physical presence makes me feel off-kilter, so I keep babbling.
“Thomas and my ex were—are—close friends. Thomas and I make an effort to get along for Rowena and the girls, but I suppose it’s inevitable that we won’t ever see eye to eye. He’s always going to feel protective of his friend. They have a long history together.”
“But he’s rude to you,” Hiroki says simply.
I blink. “What?”
“He’s rude to you,” Hiroki says again.
“That’s just how he is. He’s been the big boss at his company for a long time. He’s used to being blunt.”
“Why are you defending him?”
I sit up straight, confused. “What do you mean?”
“I’m just an observer. You don’t have to defend him. I saw what I saw.” Hiroki leans forward and looks me in the eye. “Your brother-in-law is rude to you because he sees you as a threat.”
Mentally, Hiroki has me wobbling on my feet as if I were on roller skates like the girls. “A threat? Me?” I snort. “What’s threatening about me? I have—maybe?—sixty-three dollars in my savings account and a pickup truck that’s slightly older than E.T.”
“E.T.?”
“The alien? The movie?” Oh, no—did I just alienate him with my old-ass reference?
“Oh, oh, oh. Yes. I understand. ‘E.T. phone home.’”
“That’s it.” Relief.
“I saw your truck when I went outside to change,” Hiroki says. “It’s really cool. I’m jealous.”
“You’re not jealous of Dottie,” I say, smiling. “Don’t lie.” I try not to imagine him taking off his clothes in the street. I try not to imagine myself watching him from the hedges like a coyote.
“You named your truck Dottie?” He treats me to a wide grin. “Dottie is beautiful. She has personality. Like you.”
I make a silly face at him, but I am warm and tingling with pleasure.
It’s been a long time since anyone has looked at me the way this man is looking at me.
Another summer breeze runs across the tennis court and fills the cabana, blowing back the strands of hair that have worked their way loose from his ponytail.
“Do you still see your ex?” he asks.
“No, we make the effort to avoid each other. He’s a finance guy just like Thomas, so it’s easy to stay out of each other’s circles.”
Hiroki doesn’t say anything. Like the bundle of nerves I am, I keep yammering. My heart is beating hard.
“We were never married. He wanted me to quit my job and stay home, so I did. Not smart on my part.” I sigh at the thought of all those years I poured down the drain.
“After we broke up, I tried finding work in fashion merchandising again, but the industry had moved on without me, and I wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be. After that, I did all kinds of things.”
“Like what?”
“Let’s see.” Starting over at thirty-five was lesson after lesson in being humble. “Seasonal retail jobs. Tutoring. I volunteered at an art museum and a hospital. I worked as a nanny. An EMT, if you can believe that.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Can you imagine? Me, as a first responder?”
“I bet you were good.”
“You’d lose that bet.” I snort. “When my wallet was really hurting, I sold off old designer clothing I had collected when I was a fancy rich lady.”
“Is that how you started your business?”
“It was simple enough even for me to understand. Buy low, clean up, sell high. Well, high-ish. My shop is not in the wealthiest neighborhood, so I try to keep the prices reasonable,” I say. “And I know how to spot a fake.”
“How long has your shop been open?”
“It will be seven years on Labor Day.”
“It’s very hard to run a business,” Hiroki says. “It’s demanding. Seven years is a long time. You should be proud of what you’ve done.”
His praise causes delight to ripple through me. The breeze kicks up again, cooling my face. I glance at the girls. They’re sitting on the far end of the court, chatting and watching a video on one of their phones. I turn back to Hiroki.
Do I dare?
I train my eyes on his cheek because making eye contact feels too powerful. With a deliberate movement, I reach up and touch the loose strands of his hair. He doesn’t move. I tuck them gently behind his ear.
“Jo,” he says quietly. “Are you single?”
He’s blunt. It’s refreshing but a little frightening. “Yes,” I say.
“Me too.” He pauses. “Would you consider—?”
The sudden roar startles both of us. Scraping their wheels and spinning into coordinated toe stops in front of us, Rose and Lily march into the shade structure, panting and red-cheeked.
Lily squeezes herself between Hiroki and me and, oblivious to our flirting and pheromones, starts unlacing her skates. “We’re going back to the house to plan our outfits for tomorrow.”
Quickly, I shift my attention back to auntie mode. “Your mom said the theme is disco, is that right?”
“Yes!” Lily grins. “Disco everything!”
Behind me, Rose gives me a big hug. She’s warm and sweating and smells a little like Juicy Fruit gum. “Auntie Jo-o-o,” she says sweetly, “did you bring us stuff?”
I hug her back and start unfastening her elbow pads. “I sure did. There is a giant bag of clothes and costume jewelry in the guest bedroom. Go get them. Wear whatever you want.”
Lily screams and does a little dance. “Auntie Jo is the BEST!”
Rose takes off her skates. “What size shoe are you, Auntie Jo?”
We discover that both girls already have slightly bigger feet than me. Rose hands me a clean pair of socks from her gym bag. “Here. These are thick. You can practice with my skates. That way you’ll be ready to boogie tomorrow.”
“Yeah, we want to see your moves.” Lily puts on her slides and grabs water from the fridge. She and Rose do the YMCA for us before racing down the steps back to the house, endless wells of energy.
I put on the socks and skates. Hiroki gives me the pads. I hesitate.
“My muumuu is too long.”
“That’s a problem.” He smirks. “Can you tie it up?”
“I can, but”—I grab handfuls of the vintage fabric and pull gently on the weave—“it’s delicate. I don’t want to snag it.”
Hiroki leans back on his elbow and studies me. “I have an idea, but I don’t want to tell you what to do.”
We exchange a look. I am 95% sure it’s a dare. From this angle, his T-shirt stretches across his broad shoulders. He shifts his weight, and his biceps pulls against the soft cotton of his sleeve.
“Fine,” I mutter.
I don’t behave like this. Or I haven’t, for a long time.
Before I can change my mind, I pull the long dress over my head and drape it on the back of the couch. Cool night air washes over me, licking every inch of bare skin. Exhilarated, I skate to the middle of the tennis court in my bikini while Hiroki sits back and watches.