Chapter Twenty-Six
The following day Mika woke to a text from Thomas. I fell asleep thinking about you last night.
Mika rolled onto her back. Her head throbbed a little, but it was nothing compared to what Thomas’s words did to the rest of her body. Her phone chimed with another text from him. Did I really steal your friend’s card game?
She grinned. Yes. You also wore a beret.
I’m sure the beret enjoyed itself very much, Thomas said.
I am sure it did. She pictured Thomas putting it on, his easygoing smile. Mika dozed for a moment, wishing Thomas was beside her, until her phone chirped again.
I’m picking Penny up soon. Will you send me the address for your church?
Mika bolted upright. Church. Thomas meeting her parents. Penny would be there too. A simple event suddenly seemed very complicated. Would Penny be able to sense the shift in Thomas and Mika’s relationship? Her phone sounded again. A follow-up message from Thomas. You there? Penny is looking forward to it.
I’m here, Mika replied, picking clothes up off the floor, smelling and discarding them. She tapped out the address. C u soon.
* * *
Freshly showered, a cup of to-go coffee in hand, Mika pulled up outside her parents’ church and waved to Thomas and Penny standing out front.
“Hey,” she said, getting out of the car. The tips of her hair were still wet, and the coffee sloshed over the cup. Mika licked the rim.
“Hey,” Thomas said warmly. They leaned into each other as if to hug but stopped short. Penny stood by. Watching. Instead, Thomas put his arm around Penny, pulling her in close.
“Dad.” She rolled her eyes and sidestepped him. “I’m going to go see if Hiromi and Shige are inside.” She skipped in through the doors.
Mika and Thomas followed her at a slower pace. He looked fantastic in a dark blue suit and tie, and Mika couldn’t help but think what was under it. She thought back to the hotel elevator, the hallways. How his thick veined hands had gripped her hips. How he’d licked a pathway up the side of her neck. Speaking of her neck, she caught sight of herself in a glass door, a distinct red mark near her collarbone, a burn from Thomas’s scruff. She slapped a hand over it.
Thomas smirked. Smirked. “Sleep well?” he asked, totally unrepentant.
“Like a baby,” Mika retorted, rubbing the spot, then letting her hand fall away. “How about you?”
“Tossed and turned a little bit but managed to get some rest.”
“I found them.” Penny had breezed back. “They’re already sitting down but saved seats for us in the second pew. C’mon,” she said in a you’re-not-moving-fast-enough way. Mika didn’t tell Penny her parents always arrived early and sat in the same spot. “Now remember, Dad, they’re not really the touchy-feely type. If they bow, just parrot it back.”
“Got it,” Thomas said. A lock of hair fell over his forehead, a spill of ink that Mika wanted to brush away.
They came into the sanctuary, and Mika’s parents stood in the pew waiting. The first time Mika had attended services with her parents, the old pastor had invited them to a New Year’s potluck the following week. Hiromi had been quietly excited. After months of living in the United States, drifting in aloneness, their little family had found somewhere to belong.
The days before the New Year’s potluck, Hiromi had spent all her time preparing an osechi ryori to bring and share. Mika helped her mother pack food, the pieces—sweet-rolled omelet, fish cakes, pickled lotus root—slotted like tiny jewels into the lacquered boxes. The day of, she helped her mother dress in her finest kimono. Shige wore a suit. When they arrived, it was like a record scratch. None of the congregants wore kimonos. Still, they stayed the whole time. The congregants were friendly and warm, and welcoming. After, Mika helped her mother out of the kimono. Watched as Hiromi carefully folded it in at the sides, then over like a piece of origami, and put it away in a plastic tub in her closet. She never wore it again.
Thomas greeted Mika’s parents. “It’s so nice to meet you. Thank you for being so welcoming to Penny.”
“Of course, of course.” A polite smile touched Hiromi’s lips.
Shige stuck out his hand for Thomas to shake. If Thomas was surprised, he didn’t show it. He easily shook Mika’s father’s hand. Pastor Barbara stood at the pulpit, and they settled into their seats. Mika sat next to her mother. And Penny between Mika and Thomas. Mika had never brought anyone to church before with her. Never Leif. Or Hana. This was new, wild, uncharted territory.
“It’s so nice to see everyone today, including some new faces in the crowd,” Pastor Barbara said.
Hiromi nudged Mika. “He’s very tall,” she said under her breath in Japanese.
“Hai.” Yes, Mika answered.
“Too tall,” Hiromi said again in Japanese. “Too hard to look him in the eye when you speak. Ideal height for a man is less than six feet. Your father is five-seven.”
Mika didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing. The sermon went on, and they sang a couple of songs about friendship. Announcements were last. “Obon is fast approaching. Which we still need dancers for.”
Hiromi nudged Mika again. “You should do that,” she said in English, and it was on purpose. So Penny would hear. When Mika quit dance, it was the first time she’d defied her mother. She’d refused to get in the car and go to practice, scrunching up her face and twisting her arm from her mother’s hold. She’d stomped her foot and shouted no.
Now, Mika said quietly, “I don’t think so.”
Penny turned, her mouth open as if to say something, but stopped short as the pastor finished up. After the service, Penny and Mika gleefully gorged themselves on sweets. Pastor Barbara came to introduce herself. “Thank you for joining us today,” she said to Thomas. Thomas sipped some green tea. His stance was casual and relaxed, though he stuck out like a birch tree among bonsai. On the flip side, Penny was in her element; she couldn’t stop smiling.
Mrs. Ito, Hiromi’s arch-nemesis, approached them. She bowed to Hiromi. “Suzuki-san, how are you? I came to meet your guests.”
Mika scooted closer to Penny. “Mrs. Ito, this is my daughter, Penny, and her father, Thomas.”
Mrs. Ito’s mouth opened and closed. Then she smiled. “Oh, I see. It’s one of those big sister, little sister things.”
“Nope,” Mika spoke up. “I got pregnant when I was eighteen and placed the baby for adoption. Penny is my biological daughter.”
“My granddaughter,” Hiromi stated proudly, and Mika gave her the side-eye. Well, okay then.
“Thomas is her adoptive father,” Mika added.
“Well,” Mrs. Ito said, a gleam in her eye. What great gossip! How soon could she get away to tell the others? “Isn’t that wonderful? I should have known. You do resemble each other.” Mika used to hate it when people said she looked like Hiromi. All she could see was her mother’s flaws. “And it seems you both have the same healthy appetite.” Mrs. Ito’s eyes dropped noticeably to the plates in Penny’s and Mika’s hands.
Out of the corner of her eye, Mika saw Thomas tense and shift uncomfortably. She gave him a slight shake of her head. Better to not get involved.
“Penny is a runner,” Hiromi interjected. “She needs the energy. And Mika is still young. She can afford to eat what she wants a little longer. You know, she has a big job at Nike now.” Mika would not classify her job as big, but she knew better than to correct Hiromi when she was on a roll. “She walks around that campus all day. I worry she doesn’t eat enough with how hard she’s working. In fact, I wanted to bring her some butter cookies from last week’s service, but I noticed your son Kenji took them all home. I don’t know why he needed so many. He still lives alone, yes? Perhaps they were for his cats.”
Mrs. Ito’s eyes glinted. So did Hiromi’s. As the two petite Japanese women stared each other down, Mika had a sudden vision of the movie Gladiator. The part where Russell Crowe faces off with Joaquin Phoenix in the last scene. My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius . . .
“Will I see everyone at Obon?” Pastor Barbara blurted. Over the years, she’d had her hands full with Mrs. Ito and Mrs. Suzuki. Mika wondered if all mothers did this, tried to prove themselves for a job description they didn’t write.
“I don’t think—” Hiromi started with a frown. Penny hung her head. Mrs. Ito smiled, the grin of the victor.
“We’ll be there,” Mika chimed in boldly, Hiromi’s insecurities becoming her own. “And we’re going to dance.”
“We will?” Penny asked, surprised.
“Yes.” Mika nodded once. “I’ll teach you all the steps you need to know over the next two weeks in the evenings.” She nudged Penny. “Okay?”
“Okay.” Penny lit up from within. “Dad, you have to come back for it.”
Thomas lit up too. His eyes bore into Mika’s, and they shared a secret smile before he turned back to his daughter. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, kiddo.”