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‘Doesn’t every small boy?’
She reached up and touched his hat. ‘I thought you said it was a family heirloom? Oops!’
He grabbed her arm as she fell backwards. She’d been so engrossed in quizzing Avery that she’d forgotten the escalator would reach the top quickly. But his timing wasn’t so good. As she fell back she pulled him with her and they both landed on the floor at the top of the elevator, Avery flat on top of her.
A teenage boy with wide eyes stepped over them as Avery rolled her to the side.
‘We’ve got to stop meeting like this,’ he groaned.
He was squished right up against her. She’d thought they’d been close on the subway. But now she could feel every one of his tight muscles pressed against her. She could actually feel the beat of his heart against her chest. She didn’t even want to think too hard about anything else she could feel.
She pushed back and scrambled to her feet. ‘Sorry, I should have been paying attention. I got distracted. It’s just that—’
He stood up next to her and shook his head. ‘We’re fine, Katsuko. You’re babbling.’
Her reaction was instant. She wrinkled her nose and put her hands on her hips. ‘I am not.’
Her cheeks started to flush. Maybe she had been babbling just a little. He grabbed her hand. ‘Come on. Let’s find the kids’ books. There has to be a caterpillar in here somewhere.’
She was trying not to focus on the fact that his hand was encircling hers. She was trying to completely ignore the tiny sparks that were shooting up her arm directly into her chest.
The kids’ section had huge signs hanging above it—some in Japanese and some in English. It didn’t take long to find the children’s picture books. They had a number of little sets and the caterpillar book was among them. Avery smiled as he picked it up. ‘She was right, you know. Mainly green and yellow with a red face and purple...things.’
Katsuko laughed. ‘That would be antennae, Captain Flynn.’
‘Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m a doctor, not a vet.’
She frowned for a second. ‘So how come you’re so good with kids? You said you don’t have any of your own—does someone in your family have kids? Are you really Avery, the fun uncle?’ She was curious.
He gave a visible shudder.
‘What?’
He gave his head a shake. ‘Thankfully, my sister doesn’t have kids.’ He put his hand on his chest. ‘I do however, have a number of good friends who have children. In fact, two of my friends seem to be having a competition of fitting in the most number of kids under the age of five.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘It’s currently a draw.’
‘How many kids do they actually have?’ She was leaving the sister comment, even though she was still curious. It was clear that was for another day.
‘Tess and Ray have four—a set of twins of eight months, a son of two and a son of four. Jamal and Aiysha have four too. They’re like stepping stones. Four, three, two and one.’
‘And what are you, chief babysitter?’
He gave her a beaming smile and nodded. ‘Of course I am. It helps that I’m a big kid myself. Letting any of them get a few hours for dinner, or an evening to themselves, is no big deal. It might take me a few days to recover but it’s worth it.’
He pulled some money from his pocket. ‘How are you going to get this to Abigail?’
She thought for a few seconds. ‘It should be easy enough. I’ll just take it out of the box and pretend I found it in the ER and wondered if it was hers. It’s almost true.’
He paid for the boxed set and they walked back to the escalators. He gave her a wicked smile and gestured towards the moving stairs. ‘After you. Don’t want to land on you again.’
She stepped onto the escalator and turned to face him again. ‘What if I like living dangerously?’ She leaned back a little and held her hands up as they travelled downwards. ‘Hey, look at me, I’m going to fall. Woo...!’ She gave him a cheeky wink. ‘Don’t worry, you’re safe. I knocked you down and now you did the same to me. I think we’re even.’ She spun around just as they reached the bottom and stepped off sharply.
‘I’m not sure we’re even,’ murmured Avery. ‘I’m sure both times it was your fault.’ He had a mischievous gleam in his eye that she’d no intention of falling for.
She planted her hands on her hips as they walked back out into the crowds. Darkness had fallen and Tokyo was lit up with a whole array of coloured lights. ‘What kind of gratitude is that? You drag me out after a busy shift to take you shopping and introduce you to life in Tokyo, then you hit me with the guilt trip?’
He kept going. ‘I’m just pointing out that you seem to like me flat on my back.’ For a second she was mesmerised. Those pale green eyes were quite startling under the brown fedora and bathed by neon lights. The noise and bustle around her seemed to dull. All she could feel right now was the electricity in the air between them. It didn’t matter that he was teasing. It didn’t matter that his blatant flirting was ridiculous.
She liked it. She could feel herself start to react it. To flirt back. She was comfortable around him. Already, in the space of two days.
She bit the inside of her cheek. She could tell that shopping wasn’t really his thing. But she wasn’t ready to go home yet. Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her pocket, glanced at the message and quickly pushed it back in her jeans. Her grandmother. Not what she needed right now. ‘How about I promise you somewhere really cool to go and eat genuine Japanese sushi?’
‘Now, that does sound tempting. Do you promise not to get me flat on my back again?’
‘Not unless you want me to.’ It came out before she thought about it. Like a lightning flash in her brain that reached her lips before the mute part of her brain started to function.
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Oh, touché, First Lieutenant Williams.’
‘Touché? What’s that?’
He waved his hand. ‘Never mind. Tell me more about where we’re going to get some food.’
She gave him a knowing smile. ‘Well, strangely enough, it’s right next to one of the main tourist attractions.’
‘Which one?’
‘The one you’re most excited about seeing. Come on, it’s just a quick jump on the subway.’
* * *
Ten minutes later Avery found himself in the middle of a film set. At least, that was what it looked like and felt like.
He’d never seen so many people before. The sun had set quickly and darkness had fallen across Tokyo. The whole street was lit up by the biggest array of neon lights he’d ever seen. It reminded him partly of Times Square and partly of a futuristic film.
But the thing that was most noticeable was the number of people in one area. He’d never seen a busier place in his life.
Yes, he’d realised that Tokyo was busy. It was the most populated place in the world—of course it would be busy.
But as they exited Shibuya station he had a sudden realisation that he’d never truly understood the definition of busy before. He spent every second step stopping to avoid crashing into someone.
Katsuko, on the other hand, moved nimbly and ably through the throngs of people. His eyes were repeatedly drawn to her neat bum in the bright red skinny jeans. She pointed to the crossing before them. ‘Watch out because when the lights turn red they turn red everywhere. People just surge forward onto the road. Keep close or you’ll get lost.’
He resisted the temptation to reach out and grab her hand. He’d made a few close moves around her and got the distinct impression she wasn’t quite sure what to make of them. Truth was, neithe
r was he.
It felt natural to touch Katsuko—even though he’d no right to, or had any invitation to. If he’d been challenged about it, he’d claim he touched all his female friends. It was casual. It was friendly. But the buzz that flooded his body every time he came into contact with her skin was telling him a whole other story.
Would it be fine to date the General’s daughter? Or would it be frowned upon? Because in the space of two days those thoughts were definitely starting to float around his mind.
She seemed fun. She was good at her job. And she knew the area like the back of her hand. She bordered on flirtatious without being forward.
It didn’t matter that he never settled anywhere. It didn’t matter that his longest relationship had only lasted the length of time of his posting.
His family was the best ever example of things not lasting for ever. With a father who’d married four times, and was about to move on to number five, a mother who latched onto the nearest guy with money until she’d spent it all, and a sister who was learning from her mother’s example, it was no wonder he didn’t do any kind of family gatherings.
His last stepmother had been a woman only a few years older than him and she had insisted on inviting him around at New Year. The last New Year’s dinner had been a complete disaster. His father had got horribly drunk, insulted just about everyone sitting around the dinner table, then passed out on the sofa.
Never. Ever. Again.
He hadn’t even told any of them his orders had changed and he was in Japan now. They probably wouldn’t care.
The only person he’d really respected in the family had been the owner of the fedora—his uncle Stu. He’d been a real life Indiana Jones, disappearing into parts of the continents that no one had heard of and coming back with artefacts for the museum he’d worked for and a whole host of fantastic stories.
Because he’d been a kid, Avery hadn’t really understood the politics of it all—or the danger. All he’d known was that Uncle Stu had been shot at a few times, been threatened on occasion and had had to run from a bunch of robbers in more than one set of circumstances.
