that possible?”
“Destiny, I believe.” He opened the passenger-side door for her and waited until she was settled to get behind the wheel.
“Where are we headed?” she asked, setting her gold clutch in her lap.
“Do you like Japanese food?”
“I love it.”
“Then perfect. I think you’ll like the place I picked out.”
They didn’t talk much in the car, on account of it being a balmy evening that allowed them to drive with the top down. Diane didn’t seem to mind the silence, though. She hung her hand out of the car, her palm riding the breeze.
For Kai, the silence was nice. Just having her near made him smile.
The restaurant in the Dumbo neighborhood had valet parking, so they were able to get out at the front door and walk right inside. In another stroke of luck—or maybe it was destiny—their table in the candlelit dining room was ready for them, even though they were a few minutes early.
“Have you ever been here?” Kai asked while they browsed the menu.
“No, but I’ll eat anything, so I know I’ll love it.”
“Good to know,” he said with a wink.
Dinner and drinks ordered, he folded his hands on the table and gazed at her.
“Is it off-putting if I tell you I spent the last three days thinking endlessly about you?”
She bit into her smile. “Not at all.”
“I was really hoping to snag a peek of you at work today, but I barely left my office. I even had lunch there.”
“It was the same for me, but we’re here now.”
“Yes, we are.”
Diane tucked hair behind her ear, revealing a row of little gold hoops. Like everything else about her, he found them wonderfully cute.
From in Kai’s breast pocket, his phone started ringing. “Sorry,” he said.
Diane waved her hand. “It’s okay. Do you need to answer it?”
He already knew the answer, but he glanced at the screen anyway before declining the call. “No. It’s my mom. I’ll call her back tomorrow.”
“That’s nice. What do you think she’s calling about?”
“Just to say hi and give me the update on her life, most likely.” He unfolded his cloth napkin and spread it across his lap.
“You talk much with her?”
“Yeah. At least a few times a week.”
Her eyes softened, a sweet smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “She’s lucky to have a son who engages so much.”
“I want to. My parents are amazing.”
“Oh?” Chin propped in her hand, she gazed at him. “Tell me about them.”
Kai took a deep breath. Where to begin?
“They’ve always supported me. They taught me that I could be anything I wanted to. They showed me that everyone is valuable. Even though they told me to shoot for the stars, they also taught me to respect every job and every person.”
“They do sound really special. What do they do?”
“They’re retired now, but my mom was an elementary school teacher and my dad sold car parts. They moved to a beach house outside of Santa Barbara a few years ago, and now they spend a lot of their time volunteering and organizing projects in their community.”
“And you’re their only kid?”
“That’s right.” He chuckled and nodded. “Lucky me. What about you?”
She dropped her hand to her lap. “I’m an only child, too. It’s just me and my parents. They live a few blocks from me, actually.”
“Really?” He felt his eyebrows shoot up. Now this was an interesting piece of information.
“Mm-hmm. They’re still in the home I grew up in. I’ve moved around the city some, but the place I have now…” Her gaze became unfocused as she stared into space. “It’s right for me. For us.”
A hidden story, perhaps a whole saga, rested in her eyes. Though Kai was intensely curious, he didn’t want to prod.
As it turned out, he didn’t need to.
“My mom has a neurological condition,” Diane said. “It’s pretty rare, but the symptoms are similar to what you might expect from…” Her throat rolled with a swallow. “Dementia.”
His inhale stung. “I’m sorry.”
She smiled, but it was clearly strained. “Thank you. The last few years have been pretty intense. She can never be alone because there’s the chance of her going outside and forgetting how to get home…even forgetting her name. We hired someone to help part-time, but my dad and I are still doing most of it.”
Her shoulders rose then dropped with a big inhale and even bigger exhale. “Which is complicated, given our work. And that’s not even the worst of it. Watching my best friend, my mom, slip away…” Tears appeared in