Book 3 of the undone series. Kim Taehyung is the best , the best at his job at head of security for the Kim SongDae startup, best at seduction. But a forced vacation leaves him adrift and questioning his life choices and direction. Then he stumble...
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The next several days were a flurry of plans and meetings. The team decided immediately to hire a local company to clean and start the interior demo to prepare for the refinishing work.
Tae began to worry about the disruption to the café. They worked a plan where the major work would be scheduled about three weeks out.
Nev would finally have a vacation and the cafe's regulars would be curious about the changes. The real concern was that the upheaval would upset the girl. Tae had to see her.
He explained exactly that to Nev, and after a few hard words and the exchange of threats and promises Tae left late one night with the assurance that Nev would call him the next time she appeared.
Still anxious, Tae drove off into the night to do that which did not naturally come to him. He waited.
Several days later, as he was preparing to leave work, he got a call from Nev.
“She's here,” he said, “I just noticed her under the big willow tree.”
Tae thanked him and hurried in that direction. He missed her. It might be crazy, but he missed her.
Half an hour later Taehyung was strolling through the French doors of the café, out into the courtyard.
He had shed his coat as he exited the car, leaving it behind in his hurry to get there.
He paused, soaking in the late afternoon sun as it washed over the small outdoor area. It was, strange how deeply connected he had already become to this place.
He could tell the days were now growing shorter by the way the rays streamed across his feet on the steps leading away from the building. Last week they had danced across the patio at least another 30 minutes before being chased away.
Now he felt the chill of sunset already stalk him as he searched for her small figure.
He was distracted by the rumble of voices around him. A small family had packed up the remains of their meal and bubbled past him on their way back inside the restaurant.
His chest squeezed as the small girl in the middle of the group paused at the top of the stairs and turned back to him. Standing two stairs higher than he, she was almost eye level with him as she reached out a grubby hand and offered him a half-eaten cookie.
Tae was fascinated by the tiny figure in front of him. He accepted the cookie and watched her face turn radiant with a gap-toothed smile.
Something about this child caused his breath to catch. Her unraveling braids streaming around her, her cubby hands clapping at his smile were all oddly familiar to him.
As her onyx eyes sparkled up at him, she whispered with a lisp, “you’re pretty!! I love you,” before giggling and running to the woman standing at the door smiling at them.
Tae stood staring at the mess of a cookie in his hand, shaking his head. The child must be a fairy creature, he thought.
Then as her laughter faded away, a sensation of deep familiarity drifted over him. He was certain he had seen the child before, or would again. He shook his head, dismissing the recognition of those odd eyes and square smile in a girl child's face.
A few steps deeper into the garden and his gaze was drawn to a couple on the lawn. They had brought their coffee and pastries out here to enjoy. The man had taken off his jacket and his companion had settled gracefully on it. The thought flitted through Tae's mind that the scene would make the perfect painting as they sat and whispered and laughed at secrets only, they knew.
He drew himself away, once again to seek her presence in the garden. Had she left? Was that the reason he was so easily distracted?
Then he noticed the movement in the far corner of the yard. He moved toward the ancient willow, it’s long, weeping limbs dancing in the cooling air, creating a perfect curtain of privacy.
He drew a hard breath as he swept aside the branches and stepped inside. She was more fragile and beautiful than he remembered.
She sat cross legged on a small blanket. Once again, she was wrapped in a thick black coat with a deep hood. As he approached, she pushed the hood back and welcomed him with a smile.
His chest ached as he sank down beside her, noting the long single braid of hair that fell to her waist, no longer smooth but now tugged loose by the wind and a dozen other obstacles that had pushed and pulled her today.
His eyes found hers and somehow, he was not surprised by the onyx depths he found there. He was content to just stare at her, as he slipped into his habit of processing his feelings in his head, unmindful or uncaring that he was sitting in silence.
Sky watched him as he left the café and made his way across the yard. Her pulse began to race the minute she saw him, no matter how much she scolded it for doing so.
She watched in fascination as the rumpled and wild girl child approached him. She had watched her play for an hour. She knew she was grubby and disheveled.
Sky watched the scene unfolding like the pages in a story book.
The rowdy child turned to the man, taking no note of his hair perfectly falling across his forehead, the expensive logo of his dress shirt, the impeccable tailoring of his pants or the designer shoes he had broken down to wear as slippers. She looked into his face and saw the real beauty inside him and handed him a cookie.
And Sky watched as he simply reached out and took it. Something deep within lurched at that.
The hungry, dirty, lonely child in her sighed, finding exactly what she needed in that beautiful man.
She blinked hard, reminding herself that he was real, this was real. He had come looking for her. He was here with her now, smiling at her, telling her his secrets, if only inside his own head. She nodded at that, content to watch those thoughts swirl. .
Finally, Tae realized he had not greeted her. He shook his head at that and sank beside her.
“Hello. I'm Tae. Remember…..” he began, trying to find a common ground with her.
“I like to be called Sky,” she interrupted him, “ I have missed you!”
To this day Taehyung cannot entirely explain everything that happened after that.
He smiled and blushed in pleasure at her words.
“I have missed you too, “he responded honestly, his voice even deeper than normal, a slight husk coloring it in response to hearing her soft sweet voice for the first time.
“Sky….” He repeated, tasting her name, leaving it to linger in the air between them.
Only a moment of silence lasted between them before they were talking about any and everything.
Yes, he had seen the family. Yes, she had too. Words tumbled over each other as they shared laughter and concerns and impressions of what had happened.
Yes, he had truly taken the half-eaten cookie offered to him.
After their laughter trailed away over that fact, she truly shocked him as she asked quietly in the silence, “Do you want a family?”
Tae looked at her, and saw the anxiety written all over her. Her fingers twisted around themselves and she chewed her lower lip as she waited for his response.
Tae had never really thought about this question in depth, and had sure as hell never discussed it with a date.
But in perfect clarity he knew the answer, just as he knew that this was not a “date”, not in a way he had ever experienced before.
Before he could answer, the beautiful face of the little girl with her strangely familiar features came to mind.
He also recalled the woman at the door, then clearly something he had not noted before. There was a man standing behind her holding a fat, babbling baby who had a ball clutched in one chubby hand and a fist full of the man's shirt in the other.
His imagination raced as he saw the young family tumbling into their home. The man would sing to his lovely son as he bathed him and got him ready for bed.
The woman would gently brush the tangles from the girl's wild hair as she patiently answered endless questions about the day and helped her out of the bath and into clean pajamas.
And as chatter turned to yawns and tiny fists relaxed in sleep, the man and woman would reach for each other and rekindle the fire that forged them together.
He slowly blinked and refocused on her face. Her eyes were locked on his and she smiled.
For the first time Taehyung felt like someone had seen inside his thoughts without him having to explain them.
