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‘It means we have a date.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘And it starts in five hours.’
CHAPTER FOUR
SHE APPEARED AT his door within an hour of them finishing their shifts. She wrinkled her nose as she walked inside. ‘What did you do?’
He shook his head. ‘What didn’t I do? I’ve used every air freshener on the base, I’ve tried industrial-strength cleaner... This place was borderline cold last night because of the amount of windows I had to open.’
He lifted his T-shirt from his chest and smelled it. ‘I’m just worried that the smell will start to permeate me. If I start to smell like this place you need to tell me.’
She laughed. ‘Believe me, if you start to smell like this place I’ll be nowhere near you.’
He picked up his fedora and stuck it on his head. ‘Well, we can’t have that, can we?’
‘Are you really going to wear that?’
‘I told you. It’s a family heirloom. Can’t leave home without it.’
She’d thought he’d been joking before, but now it seemed he was serious.
‘There has to be a story there.’
He shrugged. ‘There might be.’
He opened his front door and picked up his keys. ‘This will be my first time off base. My first time in Japan—my first experience of Tokyo. What do you have planned for me?’
She felt a mild sense of panic. She hadn’t even thought about anything like that. Normally, if she had friends visiting from abroad she’d plan a whole host of things for them to do. When new people started at the base she’d sometimes take them on a city tour, or at least sit down with them and make some recommendations.
‘I’d only planned on taking you to a book store. What do you have in mind?’ She walked out the door ahead of him.
He closed the door behind them and fell into step beside her. She was conscious of the fact that anyone who saw them would realise they were going off base together. It was no big deal. None. So why did it bother her?
‘How about you try some sushi this time? Or some karaoke?’ She let out a laugh. ‘Or maybe I’ll introduce you to a sento or an onsen.’
He looked at her curiously. ‘What do you mean?’
She waved her hand. ‘No. I’ll save that for another day.’ A breeze swept by them, giving her another dose of his aftershave.
She stopped walking. ‘That’s what we’ll do.’
‘What?’
‘We’ll go somewhere you can find some new aftershave. You smell like all the teenage boys around here when they’ve stolen some of their father’s aftershave for the first time.’
He lifted an eyebrow at her. ‘That bad, eh?’ She almost laughed out loud. The move, and the line delivery was almost like something from a movie.
There was something about this guy that was so infectious. Most of the staff had been talking about him today. They were impressed by his quick actions the day before and his clinical skills. There had been the inevitable discussion about his good looks and whether he was attached or not. Then there had been a few comments about the fact that he seemed to have homed in on the Major General’s daughter already.
Those comments had made her distinctly uncomfortable. She was almost sure that he hadn’t known initially—no one did. But by the time he’d asked her to show him where to eat he had known.
Part of that made her skin prickle. She’d like to think that who her father was didn’t matter to him, but she really didn’t know him that well yet.
It didn’t help that the first thing she’d noticed had been how well his dark blue jeans fitted around his backside, or that the thin designer T-shirt showed the definition of his pecs.
She almost jumped when he slung his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. ‘Hey? Where are you?’
She stopped walking. ‘What?’
‘You looked a million miles away. You had a strange expression on your face. Everything okay?’
She stepped out from under his arm. He’d already got too close.
‘I’m fine.’ She gave herself a shake as they approached the base exit and held out her arm. ‘Here we are, the prefecture of Tokyo.’
‘Don’t you mean city?’
She shook her head. ‘Tokyo isn’t a city. It’s a prefecture. It has twenty-three wards, twenty-six cities, five towns and eight villages. Not to mention the two island chains. It’s the most populous metropolis in the world.’ She laughed and said, ‘We could stand here all day and argue about the size of the population.’
His eyes widened. ‘Wow.’
She nodded as they left the base. ‘Let’s head to the subway. It’s the quickest way to get to where we want to go.’
‘You’ve still not told me where we’re going or what we’re doing.’
She gave a little shudder. ‘Feel free to pile the pressure on. There’s a million things to do in Tokyo. But most of them have to be planned. I could take you to Shibuya’s shopping district and the famous Hachiko crossing.’
This time he gave a shudder. ‘Not tonight.’
She smiled as they bought tickets for the subway. ‘What about the Imperial Palace? Or the Meiji Shrine? Do you like the outdoors? We could visit the Japanese Gardens. Or plan for another day and go on the bullet train or visit Mount Fuji.’
The subway was fast and efficient and only took a few minutes to appear. ‘Sounds like there’s too much to do in Tokyo.’
She nodded. ‘There is. Whatever it is you want to find, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to find it. You just need to plan. Tokyo and its districts are a big place. It would take around two and a half hours to get to Mount Fuji from here.’
Avery fixed his eyes on the snow-topped peak in the distance. ‘It looks fantastic. I’d love to go there one day.’ He met her gaze and smiled as the subway rolled along. The shudder of the subway echoed the shudder in her body. The smile seemed genuine. He seemed a warm and friendly guy. But did she really want to get involved with someone she worked with?
Wow. Where had that thought come from?
He reached up and put his hand on her shoulder. Touch. He seemed to be big on touch.
‘But from the list you gave me there’s a whole lot of Tokyo out there. Seems like I’ll be spending most of my time off exploring the place.’
Someone jostled her from behind and she stumbled forward a little, pressing right up against Avery’s chest. She looked up. ‘Sorry.’
He put his hand on her hip. ‘It’s fine. It seems really busy around here. I guess we should just get used to being up close and personal.’
It was the way he’d said it. Half joking, half serious. She wasn’t quite sure which. And she wasn’t quite sure which one she wanted.
She pressed her lips together and gave him a nudge. ‘Get ready to wrestle your way out of here. The next stop is ours.’
Three minutes later they were standing in front of the multi-storey bookshop. ‘I thought these places had gone out of fashion. Doesn’t everyone read on phones these days?’
She gave him a shocked glance. ‘Shame on you. There’s nothing nicer than the smell of a brand-new book. Don’t you just love the way they feel in your hands? Can’t you remember the excitement of being a kid and been taken to a bookstore and told to pick what you wanted?’
He had an amused expression on his face, with tiny crinkles around his eyes. He glanced upwards at the huge store, which had windows lined with books. ‘I can’t say that I did. I was more a racing-track and cars kind of kid.’
They walked through the main entrance and she shot him a curious glance. ‘You mean you didn’t have a mini-stethoscope and medical kit?’
He shook his head as she pointed at the escalator towards the kids’ books. ‘No way. I didn’t want to be a doctor then.’
She
turned to face him as they rode up the escalator. ‘Really? What did you want to be?’
He tipped his hat at her. ‘Can’t you tell?’
‘No way. You wanted to be Indiana Jones?’
