Page 34 of Blossoms of the Heart
Chapter 8
Phoebe
* * *
Ipulled in a slow breath and observed the deadly handsome man walking towards me, oozing confidence.
Tai’s black spiky hair glistened against the light. It made the sharp cut of his faux hawk look more striking.
The definition in his face was enchanting to look at with the slight almond shape to his brown eyes. His tanned skin made him look all the more exotic.
He looked at Mitsuke and me as he stopped by our table, but then his eyes were trained on me.
The intensity of the look he gave me hardened my nipples and sent off a nest of butterflies in my stomach.
“Ladies, out for the night?” He smiled.
“We are indeed.” Mitsuke beamed. “You want to join us? Or are you here on a date?”
Tai chuckled, “I’m not on a date.”
“Plenty room to join us then.”
There was a space on Mitsuke’s side of the booth but he sat down next to me and continued to stare.
“I love this. Look at us together again.” Mitsuke beamed.
“Yeah. It’s nice,” I offered sounding a little off balance.
“It is, would have been nicer if Phoebe hadn’t abandoned her friends in Japan for over a decade.” Tai mused. His leg brushed against mine. “Then we’d have more to talk about.”
“I didn’t abandon anyone,” I defended.
“Nope, she definitely did not abandon anybody. Unlike you, Phoebe has been to Japan nearly every year. Not so much in the last few years but she passes the test,” Mitsuke chimed in.
“Never told me that.” Tai looked a little thrown to hear that.
Had he thought about me over the years? I doubted it. Maybe he did at first but I was certain I would have been forgotten as time drifted on.
“You never asked,” she threw back. “Plus you could have stayed in touch if you wanted.”
He could have,ifhe wanted to.
After the way mom spoke to him when we last saw each other I doubted that he would have wanted to. It hurt but I was over it. It wasn’t like in the space between my summer visits of the past that he kept contact anyway.
“I have a good excuse, the best.” He grinned.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Off in Iraq fighting a war.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Mitsuke on the other hand decided to continue. “Were your hands tied to your back? You could have written to her.”
“It’s the women who usually write to their men when they go to war. I never even got as much as a post-it note from Phoebe.”
Mitsuke looked at us both, a cunning expression forming on her face.
