I Just Can't Stop Loving You (20 page)

Yori could care less if his career ended tomorrow. He was tired and he bet the others were too, but too afraid to admit it. He groaned, rose, and got back in place.

Takumijo introduced them to the new dance routine for one of their new fast songs. After the rehearsal ended, both he and Satoshi laid down on the stage exhausted while the others trotted off to the showers.

“I think he is trying to kill us,” Yori said. “All of a sudden, he’s a changed man.”

Satoshi sat up. “I think he’s in love.”

Yori sat up quickly. “You mean with Amaterasu?”

Satoshi shook his head. “No.”

“Spill it.”

“I think he met someone back in Osaka before we came here.”

“And you didn’t question him about it?”

“Of course I did, but all he would tell me was this someone looked like Ichiro right down to the blue eyes.”

“Are you sure it isn’t Ichiro? You know Tak’s been hot behind him for years.”

Satoshi chuckled. “No. It’s not Ichiro. It was someone he met a Honsu’s.”

“A pretty Japanese woman who looks like Ichiro? Are you sure it’s not one of Ichiro’s sisters?”

“Ichiro’s sisters do not hang out in clubs,” Satoshi reminded him. “And neither of them have blue eyes.”

“Normally, he likes to brag about his conquests,” Yori said. “We have to find out who it is.”

Satoshi nodded.

“And I thought he and Amaterasu were hitting it off so well.”

“I did too,” Satoshi said. “He’s hung out with her a couple of evenings since we returned, but he’s always back in his room early and alone.”

Yori struggled to his feet and walked over to his gym bag.

Satoshi followed.

“I guess we won’t find out anything until he is ready to tell us.”

“Let’s go change,” Satoshi suggested. “I’m hungry.”

They walked slowly toward the showers, holding their backs.

“Have you talked to Shaundra lately?” Yori asked Satoshi.

“No, not since we left home. I’ve been meaning to call her, but Mr. Niigata has kept us so busy with promotions and rehearsals.”

“I wonder if Cristal has spoken to her.”

Satoshi shrugged. “Probably.”

“Would you ask her? I’ve spoken to Amaya, but she says she hasn’t heard from Shaundra.”

“That does not surprise me,” Satoshi said. “They’re not exactly the best of friends.  Shaundra probably doesn’t have time to talk on the telephone. She’s has her hands full with the twins.”

“Do you think Ichiro has heard from her?” Yori asked as they entered the locker room.

Satoshi shrugged. “I doubt it.”

“Stupid fool,” Yori said. “Luckily, we only have about another month and then we’ll fly back home again.” He tossed his gym bag into a locker and stepped into one of the vacant shower stalls.

****

The elevator opened and Damien stepped out of the door after his father and into the administrative office of KiNii Publishing.

“Welcome back, Mr. Kehoe,” a young woman behind a big secretarial desk said.

“Thanks, Barbara,” Harper said. “It’s good to be back.”

“How was New York?”

“Cold and crowded.” He nudged Damien forward. “Barbara, this is my son, Damien. He’s going to be working here part-time.”

Barbara rose from her seat and walked around to meet him. She appeared to be in her early twenties and an America, which Damien thought odd in a basically Japanese company. Barbara extended her hand to him. “Nice to meet you, Damien.”

She was pretty with short red hair and hazel eyes. Damien accepted the hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Barbara works part-time too,” Harper explained. “She’s a student at the university you’ll be attending. She’s journalism major.”

“What will you be taking?” Barbara asked Damien.

“Damien is getting his Master’s degree in Business,” Harper answered for him. “He just needs to finish up a couple of classes and then he’ll be working here full-time. But for now, he’ll be Mrs. Gentry’s assistant.”

Barbara smirked. “Does she know that?”

“Yes,” Harper answered. “She’s been crying for an assistant for months now. I’ll introduce them when she returns from Europe in a couple of weeks. But right now, he’ll be working with the junior editors getting to know the business from the floor up.”

“What my father is trying to explain is that I’m the company’s new go-fer.”

Barbara smiled a wicked little
I have a father who gets on my nerves too
smile. “Good, you have a sense of humor. You’re going to need one around here.”

Damien raised an eyebrow at her. “Huh?”

“And you’re cute, which means I’m going to love working here.”

Damien smirked.
Definitely an American female
. “Thanks again.”

Harper chuckled and led him through the administrative office while Barbara went back to work. He introduced him to most of the personnel. The office environment was pretty much what he expected…huge and elaborate like his father's office back in New York. There was a mixture of Japanese and Korean with a couple of Americans sprinkled here and there. And everyone seemed happy like back at Kehoe Publishing in New York.

“What’s this Ms. Gentry like?” Damien asked after he and his father stopped at the snack room for coffee and pastries.

“Who, Cristal? Oh, you’ll like her. The two of you have a lot in common. She’s about twenty-six, tall, pretty, and is a very good publicist.”

A twenty-six-year-old female supervisor
? She wasn’t much older than him.

“You’ll get to meet her when she returns with Aomori,” Harper told him.

“She works for them?”

“Yes, in an administrative capacity. Cristal handles their publicity.”

“Oh,” Damien said. He didn’t think he’d have to deal with the competition so soon.

“You’ll get to meet Aomori too since she has a close relationship with them.”

“And I would want to meet them why?” Damien asked sarcastically.

“Because they are the hottest pop group in Asia.”

“And because the love of your life is married to one of them,” Damien said.

Harper scowled at him. “Mrs. Yoshida and I are just friends.”

“Um hmm. Tell that to someone who hasn’t seen that living shrine you have in our New York condo.”

“You don’t have a New York condo,” Harper said sarcastically. “She’s my best friend and my best client.”

“And my best friend’s mother.”

Harper nodded. “Yes, well, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. You two seem to be getting pretty serious.”

He knew this was bound to come up. “Tricia is a nice young woman,” Damien said. “And we’ve been friends since we were kids.”

“Are you’re in love with her?”

“Yes,” Damien answered, hesitating.

Harper chuckled. “Then be prepared for many sleepless nights, frantic phone calls, and a lot of cold showers.”

“Been there,” Damien said. “She wants to wait until we get married.”

“Smart girl,” Harper replied. “That would make your life much easier if the two of you would just remain friends until you both graduate and get married.”

Damien shook his head.
Pathetic
. His father still hadn’t given up the hope of getting with Shaundra. “How is Shaundra doing?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to her since I left for America. I suppose she’s still recovering from childbirth.”

Damien sipped his coffee. “Any chances that they’re yours?”

Harper shook his head. “Not a snowball’s chance in hell. I’m still taking a lot of cold showers too.”

Damien smirked. “I guess it must be hard on her with her husband always on the road.”

“I guess,” Harper said. “But Shaundra is a trooper and very capable of taking care of herself, despite what others think of her. She raised Tricia after her first husband died, and she didn’t turn out too bad.”

No, in fact, his future bride was damn near perfect. “Is she still pretty?”

“What’s with all the questions?” Harper asked.

Damien shrugged. “I’m just making conversation.”

Harper nodded. “Yes, she’s still the prettiest woman on earth. Tricia comes from a good gene pool.”

“So what’s Aomori like? I’ve seen pictures of them and heard a couple of their songs, but what are they really like?”

“Idiots,” Harper said. “They’re the hottest singing group in Asia, but they have a lot of issues. One being their penchant for getting into trouble. You should get along splendidly with them.”

Damien curled his lip in snarl. “I don’t always get in trouble.”

Harper nodded without hesitating. “But don’t go drinking with them unless you’re prepared to one, get into a fight, and two, go to jail.”

Sounded like his type of friends. “Yeah, I’ve seen them on YouTube. Shaundra too. She packs a mean right punch.”

Harper straightened his suit jacket. “Well, let’s hope motherhood has mellowed her. I don’t think she’ll be doing much clubbing with twins at home.”

Damien smirked. “Well, let’s hope not.”

“Would you like to see my office and yours?”

“I have an office?” Damien asked. “I thought you were going to lock me away in a mail room or something.”

Harper nodded. “Of course you have an office. It’s one of the perks of being the boss’s son.” He rose and Damien followed him out of the snack room.

****

“This is very good,” Shaundra told Dae-Hyun, sampling the food he had prepared for her. The babies were asleep and she was famished. “What’s it called?”

Dae-Hyun had prepared her Hanjoengsik, a full course meal with an array of side dishes.

“It’s called Kongguksu. It’s a cold noodle dish with a broth made from ground soy beans.”

“Umm,” Shaundra replied after sampling again. “I can grow to love this. Komawoyo. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, and you’re picking up Korean really well,” Dae-Hyun said as he ate his meal while seated across from her.

“That’s because you are a great teacher and don’t make me feel like an idiot like some people I know.”

“Japanese was hard for me to learn too. It just takes practice. And from what I’ve heard, you speak Japanese well too.”

Shaundra put her hand to her lip. “It’s a secret. I’ve been practicing so I can speak to my babies.”

“They are going to be the most sought after boys at parties since they’ll be able not only to speak Japanese, but Korean and English as well.”

Shaundra went back to her food. “I’ll just be glad if they stay out of trouble, find nice young women to marry, and stay off the stage.”

Dae-Hyun smiled. A rare and beautiful thing to see. In the short time they’d been together, she’d gotten to know him pretty well. He rose early in the morning and went to bed early too. He didn’t like chocolate and he knew how to handle babies. He was a bit shy around her at first, but had learned to relax. He took care of the boys during the day while she handled them at night. Then he’d retire to his little house on the property after he made sure she ate dinner with him. In between diapering babies, he taught her Korean and martial arts to help her get back into pre-baby shape. Unfortunately, she was growing very dependent on him. He saw to her every need made sure she ate three meals a day and took her medicine.

“Do you regret moving out of the compound?” he asked.

Shaundra shrugged. She had a pretty sweet setup now. The house wasn’t quite as large as the farmhouse, but it had plenty of land with cherry blossom trees and a smaller house on the property. And it was hidden away from the highway so there wouldn’t be much traffic. Dae- Hyun had also installed a state-of-the-art security system just in case they got any unwanted guests. “Sometimes you have to do what you have to for peace of mind. The farmhouse belongs to Aomori and I’ve never felt comfortable living there and taking it over from them.”

“Won’t your husband be angry when you’re not there when he returns?”

Shaundra nodded. “But he’ll get over it. I couldn’t continue living there, seeing him day after day after what he did.” She’d told Dae-Hyun everything, including the argument they had when Ichiro called her a whore.

“Won’t he want to see the babies?”

“Oh yeah. Probably more than he’ll want to see me,” Shaundra replied. “I have no intentions of keeping them from him. I’m just making myself unavailable.”

“Are you afraid he might get violent? I mean, are you afraid he might hit you?”

Shaundra stopped eating. “Ich? Hit me? No. He’d rather cut off his own arm.” She paused. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because Mr. Kehoe seems to think that Mr. Yoshida could be a threat since he’s a martial artist.”

“Is that why Harper hired you? To protect me from Ichiro?”

Dae-Hyun nodded. “And to protect you from over-zealous fans.”