Akira jerked, the stray memory startling her. She so rarely recalled discreet conversations with her grandmother any longer.
She had been fourteen, but already taller than the older woman, her knees brushing against the underside of the dining table in her grandmother’s home. Mei was a dutiful daughter who offered her mother money time and again, but Hana wasn’t ready to leave her comfortable row house.
Akira had discovered later her grandmother had placed the funds her daughter had given her into a trust fund for Akira. When Akira had turned twenty-five, that money had enabled her to buy her first bar.
“What do you mean?” fourteen-year-old Akira had asked her grandmother.
The smaller woman had looked up from her salad and smiled, but it had been tinged with sadness. “Some people will just let you be, even when you’re with them.”
“Like, leave you alone?”
“No. And stop using the wordlikein every sentence.” Born and raised in New York, a faint hint of Long Island clung to her speech.
Akira had ducked her head. She used words way worse thanlike, but never around her grandmother. “Sorry.”
“I mean you can be with the person, but still be yourself. You can be happy to be yourself. It’s very…nice,” her grandmother had said quietly. “When you’re with a person who is content to let you be. It’s the most peaceful thing in the world.”
Akira licked her lips and clutched the box closer to her chest. Such a silly memory. She’d barely understood what her grandma had been saying then, and she still wasn’t quite certain what it meant.
Jacob wasn’t the kind of person Hana had been talking about. Up to a week ago, Akira would have declared he didn’t even like her.
It’s the most peaceful thing in the world.
She rested her head against the silk fabric of the chair. So why did this feel so damn peaceful?
His head popped up suddenly, his eyes focusing on her. “Oh, damn. How long have I been ignoring you?”
“Not long,” she lied. She should care about that too, since she wasn’t accustomed to being ignored. Funny how she didn’t. “Did you get your notes down?”
He ducked his head, and she had to steel herself against his cuteness. “Yeah. I planned out some research I’ll need to do too.”
“Maybe I should tell you more things wrong with your books. It seems to really get your juices flowing.”
He gave her a thoughtful look. “I’m not averse to constructive criticism.” He closed the laptop and set it on the table, picking up his abandoned sandwich and swallowing a huge bite. He nodded at the box in her hands and spoke when he finished chewing. “Sorry. I almost forgot why I came here.”
Her fingers clenched around the wood. That was right. This was why he had come here. Their stupid agreement.
With a bit more force than necessary, she pushed the box across the table. “It’s all yours.”
Akira held the beer he had brought between two fingers. Dressed in jeans and a white button-down, her shiny black hair piled on top of her head, she was about as casual as he had ever seen her.
He would have to do some research on women’s clothes. Lidia would have garments of the highest quality, though she had been in hiding for the last decade. His fingers itched to grab his laptop and write the thought down, but he had already played the eccentric author once tonight.
Jacob would, of course, have to finish the James Talent book he was contracted for, but then he’d have the unpleasant conversation with his agent about putting the man on hiatus. Akira was right. A spin-off was smart and would take advantage of the momentum he had built.
It would also let him do something fun and new for a change, let him flex his creative wings. He hadn’t realized until he had verbalized his discontent, but the reason this book was so difficult was probably in large part because he was utterly bored. Being in one man’s head for this long was exhausting.
With Lidia, everything was wide open. New backstory, new intrigue, new mysteries, new stakes.
A new love interest. Many new love interests.
He almost gasped aloud and cast a longing glance at his messenger bag before he mentally shook his head. Not now.
Jacob cleared his throat and wiped his fingers on a napkin before picking up the box. “I wish I had had a few of these puzzles around when my brothers were younger,” Jacob murmured, turning it in his hands. “Anything to keep them out of trouble.”
“Ah.” Akira shifted in her chair, drawing her legs up. Her feet were bare and small, each dainty toenail painted a deep, vibrant,glossy red. He wanted to nibble on them.
He had never particularly paid much attention to a woman’s feet before. But then, he had never seen Akira’s feet before.
