Page 1 of A Kickin' Karate Christmas
Chapter one
Jake
“Daddy,canIgopractice a little more before we go home?” my daughter, Emerson, asked as she tugged at my hand. Her round face was red from exertion and the yellow belt tied around her waist was loose, but she was brimming with excitement.
She’d only been taking karate at this dojo for six months and already there was a marked change in her personality. She was more outgoing, more confident, and it became more of a struggle to get her to go home after every class. I loved seeing it, loved watching her blossom and pushing through every new lesson—even when they were hard. How could I say no to her wanting to practice more on something she clearly loved?
“Check with Sensei Mat. He might need the other room for a private lesson,” I answered.
She dropped my hand and skipped through the crowd of parents and children getting ready to leave the dojo, weaving her way to the front desk where her teacher, Mateo Delgado, sat behind a computer. I walked behind her, apologizing as Ipassed the people she’d bumped into in all of her seven-year-old exuberance. I reached her just in time to hear her sensei give his approval. Then, she was off like a flash again, this time running back to another little girl in her class and dragging her into the small second practice room the dojo had set up.
I’d barely seen it used beyond the rare student practicing or stretching before class.
I watched through the window as my daughter and the other little girl bowed onto the mat and took their positions.
“She seems really focused.” I looked over to see her sensei watching beside me, the proud expression on his face matching the tone of his voice. “They both do.”
I smiled softly at him. “She loves it here.”
“I can tell.”
I turned my attention back to the display in front of me, watching as my daughter and the other little girl worked their way through the kata they’d been working on in class, correcting one another’s stances and moves. I watched as my daughter adjusted where her hand was before a punch at her friend’s suggestion and then as she fixed the way her friend was standing. It was amazing.
Six months ago, she’d been shyer. She would have been afraid to correct her friend, even if she knew she was right. When I signed her up for karate, I hadn’t expected to see that much of a change. I’d just hoped that she’d have some kind of physical activity. Maybe I’d secretly hoped that she’d come out of her shell a little, but I hadn’t expected the near one-eighty. In the dojo, she was quick to ask for help. She was quick to try new things, even when she didn’t master them immediately. She was even talking about entering some of the local karate tournaments advertised on posters hanging around the dojo.
As I observed her and her friend, I felt someone watching me. My eyes darted over to Mateo, and I noticed him studying mewith the same intensity that I was watching Emerson. Warmth blossomed in my gut, and I felt my cheeks warm. When I stole another glance, he was looking back at his computer. For a moment, I wondered if I’d imagined it.
His dark brows were furrowed as he studied the screen, concern etched into the lines of his face. “Is everything okay?” I asked, the words forming in the air between us before I even made the conscious choice to speak.
Maybe Emerson wasn’t the only one to change in this dojo. I felt more comfortable there than I had almost anywhere else in a long time.
“Just some boring business stuff.”
Boring business stuff? I sat down in one of the chairs by the desk, left positioned facing toward the window so parents could watch their children in the smaller room in comfort. They were much more comfortable than the chairs that lined the walls in the main practice space. “You realize I like boring business stuff, right?” I questioned, angling my body toward him slightly. Liked may have been too strong of a word for my views on boring business stuff, but he didn’t need to know that. I watched as the words washed over him. His brow unforrowed, and his dark eyes softened. “Do you need to talk about it?”
He looked over his shoulder. There were still a few people lingering: kids talking by the cubbies where they put their shoes during classes and their parents standing nearby, playing on their phones while they carried on a quiet conversation. Mateo leaned across the desk. “It’ll come out eventually.” His voice was quiet, but I could hear a whisper of defeat beneath his words. “The dojo isn’t doing as well as I’d like, and the building’s rent’s going up.”
“What does that mean?”
“Even with raising fees a little, I’m not sure it’ll be enough.”
Oh. That explained the defeat in his voice. I didn’t know how he’d come to own a dojo or become a teacher. I’d heard him talking to the students in the past, and I knew that he was barely thirty, and he’d had the dojo for a few years. I could imagine the way it might feel like failure, knowing that a business he cared about was circling the drain when he was so young. I had almost ten years on him, and it would still feel like a failure to me.
Not that I had a business to circle the drain. My professional endeavors were luckily tied to the success of a small marketing firm. If that went under, I’d be able to find another job. I wouldn’t be out anything, not the way Mateo would be if something happened to his business.
Then there were the children to think about. Specifically, my child. Emerson loved this dojo, loved it in a way I’d never seen her love anything in her life. I didn’t want to see her lose that. The idea of trying to find another karate school for her when she was so comfortable with this one didn’t sit right. She’d already had enough upheaval in her young life. She’d had to deal with my divorce from her mother, moving from her childhood home, leaving behind her friends in our old neighborhood. I didn’t want to see her go through more.
I had a vested interest in this place that I hadn’t even known existed six months before.
And I’d admit it; I had a vested interest in Mateo Delgado. The stolen glances I’d noticed earlier weren’t the first time I’d caught him looking my way. I would be lying if I said I never looked at him either. I’d been taken aback by how attractive he was the first time I saw him, and that hadn’t changed. Even if I didn’t have the selfish motivation of not wanting to upset my daughter’s life, I would still have the selfish motivation of wanting to have an excuse to look at him.
“What if I came up with some ideas?” I offered.
“What do you mean?”
“I work in marketing. I could look at your numbers, see what’s needed, and then come up with some kind of strategy to close the gap. Social media marketing, little specials, things like that. We could figure out a way to get the other parents involved,” I suggested. I’d heard the other parents talk. Emerson’s experience at this dojo wasn’t unique to her. Every single parent I’d talked to when we first started sang both the dojo and Mateo’s praises. They all had stories about the ways their children had changed by signing up for karate.
I had a feeling none of them would want to watch their children lose that either.
