by Aubree Lane
Annie compared the two men. They each had a decidedly different look about them, one light and one dark, but she could see the family resemblance in their laughing green eyes. She looked back to Thomas. “I guess you let me off pretty easy with that nonsense about your native language.”
Thomas looked offended. “It’s not nonsense. Believe it or not, our dad is jammed packed full of Hawaiian blood.”
Daniel, still at his post guarding the beer, chuckled. “Yeah, after it was pumped into him after he drove his truck into a ditch and cracked open his skull.”
Annie laughed. Terence’s friends were a hoot.
The conversation shifted, and the group fell into some friendly banter about the area’s happenings. Annie learned that Thomas and Jason worked for the military in some sort of civilian capacity. Susan, the lone warrior, was in charge of organizing the live ammo training exercises at nearby Makua Military Reservation.
Mike wasn’t associated with the armed forces in any way. He worked in construction and business was booming, at least as much as possible on this less populated side of the island.
The hot topic for the evening was the poor infrastructure. The general consensus was they were all in favor of a new road being tunneled through the volcanic Waianae mountain range. The only hold out being Jason, who insisted the only way to travel was by four-wheeling it over the unpaved gravel roads. Better yet, pointing your compass in the direction you wanted to go and punching it.
After the sun had set and they had eaten their fill, the grill was pulled off, and logs were piled into the pit. Susan doused the wood with lighter fluid and flicked a match into the mix. Flames rushed high into the air. Annie felt the heat and jumped back, prepared to stop, drop and roll. Her clothes had not burst into flames, but she patted them down for good measure.
As the blaze settled down, she saw the men had dove for cover as well. They were gradually coming out of hiding and returning to their places around the pit.
Susan’s eyes were alight with laughter, “Sorry about that. I’m just a pyro at heart.”
Annie rubbed her singed eyebrows and agreed, “I see that.”
“Anyone need first aid?” Mike asked lightly.
They all laughed nervously, knowing how close they had come to spending the rest of the night in the burn ward. The only one unaffected by the near disaster was Susan, who was gazing intently at the flames.
Daniel pulled out his guitar and at Mike’s insistence strummed an old Hawaiian ballad. Mike began to sing but was cut short when Daniel placed his palm over the strings and stopped the tune.
“You’re welcome to join in,” he said to Annie. “You can fake it by making consecutive vowel sounds. That’s what my kids do.”
Before she had a chance to reply, Terence grabbed her hand. “Sorry guys. That’s it for us.” He pulled Annie to her feet. “Let’s go for a walk.” He waved goodbye to his friends. “Mahalo.”
Mike called after them as they walked down the beach. “Mahalo mui loa.”
Of all of Terence’s friends Mike stood out as Annie’s favorite, so she turned around and called back. “Whatever you said, right back at you. I had a great time.”
Mike waved. “Aloha kāua, Annie.”
When Annie caught up with Terence she asked, “What did he say?”
He took her hand, and they fell into step together. “He said may there be friendship between us.”
Annie’s heart melted. “That was nice.”
They walked side by side in the wet sand and let the surf lap across their feet. She picked up a palm frond and felt like Gidget walking on the beach with her Moondoggie.
Annie loved the old movies and recently spent an entire weekend watching a Gidget movie marathon. The girl midget movies were her favorite out of all the nineteen-sixties, beach party flicks. Mike would make a great Big Kahuna, not because he resembled Cliff Robertson but because he seemed to be the glue which held the group together. The others filled out the rest of the teenage entourage of Lover Boy, Hot Shot, Stinky and the petrifying but beautiful, Abby.
Annie looked up and saw Lena’s house in the distance. She knew she wasn’t either the Sandra Dee or Deborah Walley version of Frances Elizabeth Lawrence, the girl dubbed Gidget by her beach boy buddies, and that happy endings were not guaranteed in real life.
“You’re walking me home?”
Terence slipped his arms around her waist and nodded.
Annie looked away. She wasn’t ready for the evening to end, but just like The Gidg, she was destined to return to her lonely room without the hot, young James Darren. “I’m leaving the day after tomorrow,” she informed him.
His lips brushed across her hair. “I know.”
She looked into his eyes and knew this was goodbye. “Aloha kāua, Terence.”
“Aloha kāua.”
She closed her eyes, and he kissed her. A warm, sweet, tender kiss that seemed so final she doubted she would ever see her Moondoggie again. When the kiss ended, she turned and walked the rest of the way to Lena’s alone.
• • •
Terence watched her go. He forced himself to stay put and not go after her. Her words tore at him. As with a lot of Hawaiian phrases, aloha kāua had more than one meaning. It also meant, may there be love between us, and with all his heart, he knew that was the true meaning for them.
When he returned to the fire, only Mike remained. Terence picked up a few cans and tossed them in the trash. “I see they left you to clean up again.”
Mike gave a lazy yawn and shrugged. “They have families to get home to. I don’t mind.” He pitched the last beer to Terence. “So how bad is it? Am I about to lose my last single friend on the island?”
Terence popped the top and downed half the can, but the brew left a sour taste in his mouth. “Not likely. She’s going back to the mainland.”
Mike smiled. “That don’t mean nothing if it’s meant to be.”
Terence dropped the rest of the beer into the trash bag and began to clean up the area. “There are too many complications.”
“TJ boy, sit down and tell me your tale of woe.”
Terence shook his head. “Sorry, that’s one story I don’t want flying all over town. Now get off your butt and help pick up the garbage. I have a family I need to get home to. Come on, wikiwiki!”
Chapter 6
Annie hunched over a drawing table, which in her absence had been shoved up against the wall in her private workroom. The table was her favorite workspace. After months of fiddling with all its multitude of adjustments, she had it positioned at exactly the right height and angle, but she loathed its new location. Usually, it was smack dab in the middle of the room, where it felt open and spacious and she had room to move. Now every time she looked up, all she saw was a blank white wall. This was just one of the little ways her assistants were evening the score for her abandoning them.
On the upside, she was becoming acutely aware that this room needed help. The outer office had been decorated and dressed years ago, and even updated a few times, but this space had taken a backseat. It was unorganized chaos at its best and horribly blah, but like the roofer whose house leaked― Annie had been too busy taking care of other people’s needs to take care of her own.
The room had excellent acoustics, though, and it paired well with one of Annie’s favorite possessions, her high-end music player complete with a DAB/FM tuner, which was cranked up and dialed in to the hottest radio station in town.
To Marissa, who had been standing in the doorway trying to get Annie’s attention for the past several minutes, it was simply noise. Impatiently, she barged in and flipped it off. “How can you work with that?”
Annie finished sketching a downward wash of light illuminating from an inset pot light before she glanced over her shoulder. “We used to do our homework to it all the time. You liked it then.”
“Yeah well, the music was better back in the day.”
Marissa was beginning to sound like an old bi
ddy. Annie chuckled softly and laid down her pencil. “You sound like a grumpy old fuddy-duddy. Pretty soon you’ll be yelling at Jack and Sandy to turn down that infernal racket.” She swiveled around and faced her friend. “So what’s up?”
“Bad news, Alexander Turner suffered a heart attack last night. He’s in intensive care, and there is not much hope for his survival.”
Annie hadn’t seen Hannah’s father since high school, and even then, she hardly knew the man. The news didn’t have much effect on her, but she was concerned about how this was going to affect Terence and Erika. “What does that mean for the custody hearing?”
“Delayed. Terence is flying in, and I wanted to touch base with you about it.”
Annie’s heart did a happy little flip flop, and her cheeks grew hot at the prospect of seeing him again.
Marissa frowned and squared her shoulders. Annie could see a lecture coming on, so she tried to downplay it. “Don’t worry. We’re following your rules, only one phone conversation per week, no longer than thirty minutes at a time, and absolutely no emails or text messaging.”
Annie thought when she left Hawaii and slipped back into her routine that everything would return to normal, but Terence Javier consumed her every thought. The good thing was that he hadn’t forgotten her either. “To the outside world we’re just friends. Actually that’s all we are. The phone conversations are pleasant, and we are slowly getting to know each other.”
“Good, but I have to emphasize that it would not be in Erika’s best interest for the two of you to see each other while he’s in town. We can’t give the opposition anything to work with.” Then a smile crossed Marissa’s face. “Unless Alexander passes away, then you may go to his funeral. That’s something you would both be expected to attend.”
Annie frowned. “Am I supposed to hope he dies?”
“Why not? I am. If Alexander was out of the picture, then Hannah probably wouldn’t have much fight left in her, and that would make my job much easier.”
The ice in Marissa’s voice made the hair on the back of Annie’s neck stand on end. “What’s with you? I’ve never seen you like this before. Did something happen between you and Hannah I don’t know about?”
Marissa took a few steps towards the door and shrugged her shoulders. “Stuff happened, but I am not at liberty to talk about it.”
And that was that. Annie knew she wouldn’t get any more information out of Marissa today. “Wait,” she called out, hoping she was doing the right thing. “In one of our conversations, Terence mentioned that Hannah let Erika stay with him a little longer last summer because she was going up north to attend The Meat Market. Have David check it out.”
Marissa turned around with renewed interest. “What is The Meat Market?”
Annie smiled. “I don’t know. That’s what you have David for. He’s the detective.” She waved a dismissing hand at her friend. “I have work to catch up on, so get out of here and go sic your husband on Hannah.”
Marissa rubbed her hands together in smug satisfaction. “We might just have her. I’d like to see her weasel out of this.” She walked to the door, but before she exited, she turned back and issued Annie one last warning. “Stay away from Terence.”
Alexander Turner’s life came to an end three hours later.
• • •
A brisk wind came out of the north, making it clear and cold the morning of Alexander Turner’s funeral. Annie arrived at the church early, anxious for the chance to see Terence, but the only thing she accomplished for her trouble was to freeze her tail off. She paced up and down the front steps of the church, fruitlessly trying to work some warmth into her body while black suit after black suit arrived wrapped up in warm overcoats.
Not for the first time in her life, Annie cursed the fashion police that mandated women wear skirts and stockings as a sign of respect for the deceased. The fashion police being women like Mrs. Barrington and her cronies, also known as Annie’s livelihood.
Terence had been in town for almost a week, and they hadn’t exchanged so much as a single phone call. The anticipation was killing her. Her clients, many of which were already irritated with her recent behavior, were becoming quite vocal about her inability to concentrate. Annie was tempted, but not courageous enough, to tell them all to get a life and leave her the heck alone.
One thing she learned from her little excursion from reality was that work would always be there waiting for you when you returned. She hadn’t lost a single customer, and she knew, even if her clients didn’t, that each and every project would be completed to each and every specification. And as for her assistants, they worked for her, not the other way around, and it was time they started acting like it.
At least that was the way she wished she could feel, in reality she found herself fumbling along and waffling between indecisiveness and confusion. Even now, when she had all the time in the world to bask in the anticipation of seeing Terence again, all she could do was wonder why all the men had on such warm clothing? This was San Diego! Weather like this was practically unheard of, and the coat Annie had chosen to complement the rest of her mourning outfit was feeling excruciatingly thin.
The church was filling up, and Annie hoped she wouldn’t get stuck in the back or worse yet, forced to stand. A squeaky little voice called out her name. Annie turned and saw Erika bounding clumsily up the steps towards her. She bent down and awkwardly scooped her up, amazed at how much a kid could grow in such a short period of time.
“I’m sorry about your grandfather,” Annie whispered in her ear while glancing around for the young lady’s father.
A moment later, Erika stiffened and squirmed out of her arms. “Mom’s coming.”
Annie looked up and watched Hannah’s approach. She had forgotten how beautiful the woman was. Even the weather was working in Hannah’s favor. Her nipples were hard little pebbles beneath her extremely expensive, very revealing, slinky black dress, and she looked sexy as hell with the icy north wind blowing through her classic long blonde hair. The suits had stopped their idle chatter as Hannah sucked in their attention.
Annie’s inner child suddenly longed to be Hannah’s friend, to be one of the beautiful people, to stand next to the Goddess Hannah and bask in the warmth of her beauty.
“Annie Harper,” Hannah’s mocking voice rang out. “I heard you were still around. I also heard you showed up at Lena’s last summer. Find anything interesting?”
Annie’s inner child quickly grew up and came to her senses. Hannah’s beauty was bitter cold, not warm and fuzzy.
The world had turned silent around them. Annie glanced at all the ogling eyes and noticed that even the women were staring at Hannah, proving she wasn’t the only shallow person in attendance today.
Annie returned Hannah’s sarcastic tone. “I found a lot more than I bargained for. Sorry if it has made your life difficult.” Annie instantly wished she had held her tongue. This was not the time or the place to exchange barbs. Hannah had just lost her father, and Erika was only a few feet away. “But I’m here to pay my respects and to express my sympathy.”
“I bet,” Hannah smirked. “I heard you were only in Hawaii a few days. Obviously Terry wasn’t interested and sent you away.”
Terry? That was a new one. Annie made a mental note to ask Terence why everyone referred to him differently. She looked around for any excuse to get away and luckily spotted Larry Wright. “If you’ll excuse me, Marissa’s father is over there, and I need to speak with him.” She smiled down at Erika. “It was really good to see you again.”
Erika smiled brightly but didn’t reply.
Hannah grabbed her daughter’s hand and hauled her into the church, berating the child every inch of the way for not moving fast enough.
Annie watched them go, then hurried over to Larry while giving a silent prayer asking God to look out for Erika until Marissa could get her out of Hannah’s evil clutches, but even to Annie’s untrained religious ears, the request seemed far too
melodramatic to be taken seriously.
Larry Wright was deep in conversation with a gaggle of legal eagles, but the moment he saw her, he made his excuses and gave Annie his full attention. “My orders are that we enter the church together.” He took Annie by the arm and escorted her back to the church. “Marissa and David will arrive with Terence shortly.”
Annie fell into step alongside him. “Is all this necessary? I just spoke to Hannah, and she knows about my trip. All these precautions seem like overkill to me.”
Larry smiled and patted her hand sympathetically. “This is Hannah we’re dealing with. Nothing can be taken for granted. Marissa doesn’t want to add any more fuel to the fire. Don’t worry, it will be over soon, and you and Terence won’t have to look over your shoulders any longer.”
Annie turned and grabbed his lapel. “Speaking of fire,” Annie said tersely, “how come all you men have on warm overcoats while the women are out here freezing?”
He took the hint and dutifully shook off his coat and draped it over her shoulders. “It’s not my fault women are vain and refuse to adhere to the simple rules of common sense.”
Annie smelled the remains of a stogie he must have enjoyed earlier in the day. The cheap inexpensive cigars were reminiscent of the struggling young lawyer of yesteryear, not the high-powered attorney of today. Annie found any type of cigar or cigarette smoke repulsive, and the moment they entered the church, despite the fact her lower lip was still jumping up and down uncontrollably and had probably turned an unbecoming shade of blue, she handed the coat back.
As promised, a few minutes later Marissa, David, also in an overcoat, and Terence, not in an overcoat and looking just as cold as Annie, joined them.
Annie was amazed at the change in Terence’s appearance. His usually stubbled chin was bare as a baby’s behind, and his shaggy hair had been trimmed to look neat and professional. He wore black dress slacks, a white dress shirt, and he even sported a subdued reverent tie around his neck. Her beach boy was all grown up and had become respectable.
