‘Oh no…’ Sky shook her head as she looked to the guys in the water and started backing up.
‘What are—?’ Malie didn’t bother finishing the question as she registered what had set her off. Todd and Jonny were heading for them with a look in their eye that spelled trouble.
‘Behave,’ Malie warned them, backing up too.
‘What?’ they both said in wide-eyed innocence, their slow stride unhalting.
‘You know what…’
Both Malie and Sky turned to flee, Louis and Tara backed out of the way laughing, but it was no use, Todd’s arm snaked around Malie’s waist as Jonny’s did the same with Sky and they were both being taken back to the water. They squealed, trying to wriggle free.
‘Don’t you dare, Todd Masters.’ Malie pulled at the arm around her but it was locked tight, his strength surrounding her and sending a surprising surge of warmth through her lower belly.
She sucked in a breath but it was filled with his cologne, spice and sea, and it only made the tingling heat spread. This was crazy. She was about to get a dunking; she shouldn’t be enjoying the threat.
‘Todd!’
The male call came from up the beach and Todd stilled. She looked up to see a couple approaching from the surf school and recognized them immediately: Tara’s parents. Oh God.
‘Anne-Marie, Charles! Great to see you!’ Todd quickly straightened, propping Malie up before she fell and giving her an apologetic look. ‘These are Tara’s parents.’
‘Yes, I met them briefly this afternoon,’ she mumbled, brushing her hair out of her face and cursing the burn in her cheeks. She felt flustered, like they’d been caught out doing something they shouldn’t even though they were just having fun.
‘We’ve come to collect Tara,’ said Charles Davidson.
Both parents paused halfway towards them and coming no further. They looked edgy, her mother’s hands wringing together as she looked to her daughter briefly and then gave a tentative smile to Todd.
He brushed his hands down his top and she could have sworn his cheeks flushed too. Granted, it could have been the pink bouncing off his top… yes, definitely the pink, because they hadn’t been doing anything bad. Nothing at all.
Though they had been messing around when they should have been teaching… and it had been more than just giggles erupting in her belly…
At least only she knew that, though, not even Jonny’s hormonally charged brain could spy it surely. Not that she was going to spare him a glance.
Preoccupied, she almost missed Tara’s ‘So unfair’ muttered under her breath.
She looked across at her and frowned. The girl was already folding in on herself, her arms wrapped tight around her, her head bowed. Malie was transported back in time, over a decade, to Koa’s bedroom, his body so slight in the bed that looked so big, their mother fussing, their father standing back, withdrawn, closed in, and her – she’d been in the corner in that exact same position. Hunched in on herself, blending into the background, not wanting to be noticed.
She shook herself out of it, the past was the past, it had no place in the now. They’d both lost a brother, though, both lived through the grief of their parents, and for Tara… she was still locked in that life.
She headed over to her, leaving Todd to speak to her parents.
‘What’s up?’ she asked, bending forward to lift the girl’s board for her.
Tara sent her parents a death stare. ‘I don’t see why they can’t leave me to travel back with everyone else.’
‘Hey, it’s nice that they have come.’
‘They treat me like I’m a baby.’
‘I don’t think—’
‘No one else has their parents on this trip.’
‘I don’t think that’s quite true.’ Malie could hear Todd chatting to her parents behind them, far enough away that they wouldn’t overhear their daughter’s outburst. ‘I’m sure there are a couple of others here.’
‘Not many.’
‘I think it shows they care.’
She harrumphed and refused to meet Malie’s eye.
‘Don’t you want to show them what you’ve learned today?’
Her shoulders lowered just a little, her eyes coming back to Malie briefly. ‘Maybe.’
‘There should be no maybe about it, come on, let’s go see if they want to watch.’
Tara chewed her lip, her dubious gaze now on her parents.
‘Come on, let’s go ask them to watch and if they love it – which they will – maybe we can ask them about you travelling on the bus with the others.’ Malie offered out her hand and was relieved when Tara finally took it, a small smile lifting the corners of her mouth.
‘So long as you make them say yes… to both!’
Malie laughed and ducked her head low to speak in Tara’s ear. ‘I’ll do my very best, and if I fail, I owe you a trip to the ice cream parlour, my treat!’
‘Just me and you.’
‘Just me and you.’
‘They’d never let you.’
Malie frowned at the girl’s surprisingly sad and fatalistic outlook. ‘I think Mr Masters could charm a yes out of them if I fail…’
She looked up at Todd and realized just how true that was. Already she could see Tara’s parents relaxing into their conversation with him. Was there anyone he couldn’t charm at the drop of a hat?
Well, so long as he doesn’t charm his way into your pants, you’re all good…
Oh. My. God. Why are you even thinking that?
She squeezed Tara’s hand in encouragement. ‘We got this, right?’
‘Right.’
Pants are off limits!
Chapter Seven
‘DO YOU THINK THEY were happy?’
He could hear the concern in Malie’s question as they stood watching the Davidsons climb into their small blue hire car that they’d parked at the edge of the beach. Around them people bustled, kids leaving the beach to grab some dinner, the adults arriving after a day’s work looking to chill in the last hour of sun. Tara turned and gave a little wave which they both returned, their smiles momentarily genuine.
‘Of course they were, they would never have left her with you in the first place if they weren’t.’ He turned to face her. ‘And the joy in Tara’s face when she caught that last wave with Nalu – no parent could fail to feel her happiness too.’
‘But they hardly stayed long.’ She met his eye, her disappointment dampening his own pleasure.
‘They stayed long enough to witness her new-found skills and congratulate her,’ he said, ‘and let’s face it, the minibus came and took the others, so they probably felt they were encroaching.’
‘Encroaching on what?’
He almost said our time, but he’d learned his lesson there. Instead he grinned. ‘My lesson, for starters.’
She didn’t smile, though. She was too busy watching their car drive away.
‘Don’t you think they seemed… I don’t know… deflated about it all. I mean, she stood up on a wave, twice! And all they did was pat her on the back and say well done. There was no excitement, no thrill.’
‘Hey, just because everyone’s not bursting with the buzz of surfing the way you are, doesn’t mean they’re not impressed, and it’s a big deal for them, seeing their daughter conquer a sport that’s far from safe.’
‘This is totally safe – you want unsafe then you should see the surfing up strip!’
‘But they’re risk-averse. Nothing’s safe. You’ve read Tara’s file, you know what happened…’
‘You mean the fire?’ Her words were weighted with sadness.
‘Exactly. I only met them a year ago when things had got to a point that they knew they needed help. I can’t comment on how they were before the fire, maybe they’ve always been this protective but…’
‘But you don’t think it likely?’
‘I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a son – hell, my father… it crippled him when my mother died, but
a son… and to almost lose their daughter too.’
Her eyes glistened as she looked to him. ‘It was the same for my parents. I was much older than Tara when we lost Koa, but they stifled me, all the more so after the car accident, and I knew they only wanted what was best, what was safe…’
She shuddered and wrapped her arms around her middle. He had to fight the urge to reach for her, to offer her comfort like he had the previous night, knowing the trouble it had led to, the kiss, crossing a line that neither of them wanted to go beyond.
‘I just couldn’t live that way,’ she said quietly.
‘Did you tell them how you felt?’
She scoffed gently. ‘I tried, but it never came out right, we always ended up arguing instead.’
‘And so, you chose to avoid it?’
‘Yes… They weren’t going to change, and I couldn’t live their way, so I left.’ She looked back to the car in the distance, her mind clearly switching to Tara now. ‘I wish we could help them, though, as a family, not just Tara.’
‘I do too.’
She gave him a small smile. ‘Why doesn’t that surprise me?’
He gave her a hint of a smile in return, but it fell away as he went back to watching the car disappear on the horizon. ‘It’s hard. It’s not just about protecting Tara and keeping her safe for them, it’s the fact they suffer under the weight of their own guilt too.’
‘Guilt? Over the fire?’
He nodded. ‘From what I’ve gleaned, the fire alarms in the house weren’t working, and the fire was caused by a set of hair curlers left plugged in.’
‘So, they blame themselves for the fire, for their son’s death and their daughter’s injuries?’
‘Exactly.’ He turned back to her. ‘Their marriage is under a lot of strain and the fact they focus so much on Tara, suffocating her in the process…’ he shook his head, ‘it’s an impossible situation, but they need to loosen the reins a little and they need to spend some time together as a couple.’
Her brow lifted, her eyes bright with realization. ‘And you’re hoping this trip is going to help them do that, don’t you?’
‘If it makes them realize that their daughter needs her space just as much as she needs their love, it’ll be a start. And if in the process they can use the time she’s busy to actually have some time alone together all the better.’
‘Clever.’
He smiled. ‘I like to think so.’
She smiled with him, her frown from moments ago easing with it.
‘Malie, Todd!’
They turned to see Kalani standing in the entrance to the surf school, waving at them, Nalu at his feet. ‘You good to lock up when you’re done? Everything is tidy, there’s just your boards to hose down and put away.’
‘Sure,’ Malie said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’
‘Cheers, Kalani!’ Todd looked back to her. ‘Lesson time?’
‘You’re on… but no more messing around, no dunking!’
‘Hey, that was all Jonny’s idea.’
She laughed, shaking her head. ‘Whatever.’
She started off towards the shore, to where their surfboards lay side by side in the sand. She scooped hers up and looked over at him, her grin loaded with teasing. ‘Although judging by your performance on the sand earlier, I think you’re going to experience plenty of dunking.’
‘I wouldn’t be so sure.’ He bent and lifted his own board. ‘You know I was doing that for the kids’ benefit, right?’
She giggled, and threw her hair over her shoulder. ‘We’ll see.’
He would have had some cheeky retort if not for the fact that he was momentarily stunned again at the sight of her. Board under her arm, her face looking out to sea, all golden in the sun as her hair fell wild down her back. His stomach felt tightened by a spasm of heat and his mouth turned as dry as the sand beneath his feet.
‘You ready to—’ She turned to him and her words trailed off. ‘What?’
He swallowed. The idea of putting some water between him and her sounded mighty sensible right about now. With any luck it’d be cool enough to come to his aid too.
‘Ladies first…’
It had been his intention to get her eyes off him and give him the chance to recover, instead he had her perfect rear to follow into the water, the trace of coconut in the air, the trail of her curls over clinging pink, her slim waist and the perfect swell of her hips… none of it helping.
He ducked to waist level in the water as soon as possible, thankfully, before she turned to him.
‘We’ll practise paddling first, get you to catch a wave, then we’ll see how you fare popping up.’
She was enjoying this, he could tell. The twinkle was back in the green of her eyes. What he couldn’t work out was whether it was the teacher in her excited about getting him to catch his first wave, or the idea of him losing his cool when he failed to pop?
He’d play along for now, but he was pretty sure his skateboarding days were going to work in his favour…
‘Whatever you say, Boss.’
She laughed. ‘I love how Jonny calls you that.’
‘I tell them to call me Todd, but none of them will have it, the whole Mr thing wasn’t for him though.’
‘No, I can imagine.’ She slid up onto her board and he followed suit, grateful their conversation had distracted his body enough to calm him in more ways than one.
He followed her direction, paddling out to sea.
‘Slip back a little on the board, your nose is digging water.’
He shuffled back and the nose lifted, his paddle becoming more efficient.
She nodded. ‘Better.’
When she turned, he turned with her, her eyes scanning the water behind and coming back to him as the first promising wave approached.
‘Now check the wave, the speed… and paddle.’
He threw a look over his shoulder, paddled and assessed, changed his pace to suit.
‘That’s it…’
He felt his board lift, felt the wave take him and went with it, the urge to pop burning through him. He had this… he drew his hands below his chest and pushed up, only this time he did what felt natural, launching his right foot forward. He adopted the stance he’d used as a kid with his skateboard and the adrenalin rush was instant.
For a second the world fell away; he was a child again, weaving through the streets on errand after errand, forgetting his troubles at home… and he was forgetting everything now, save for the rush in his bloodstream, the power of the ride as he weaved his board this way and that, testing, adapting, controlling…
The wave was running out of steam, the shore fast approaching, and he jumped off into the water, already buzzing with the need to go bigger, faster, longer.
He emerged from the water, flicked his hair out of his eyes and scoured the waves for Malie. She was sitting on her board out where he’d left her, mouth agape, her eyes pinned on him.
‘How was that, Boss?!’ He waded towards her, the board under his palm as he pushed it with him.
She shook her head, her grin building. ‘You could have told me you were goofy!’
Goofy?
There were so many compliments she could have given and instead she was giving him goofy. As the water level rose, he hopped up onto the board to paddle the remaining distance.
‘Goofy, that’s the best you got?’
Her eyes danced at him. ‘It means you lead with your right foot.’
‘And that makes me goofy?’
She shrugged. ‘Afraid so… what I want to know is why you were popping with your left foot forward back on the beach?’
‘Isn’t it obvious?’
She looked at him for so long he thought she wasn’t going to answer, not verbally at any rate, but her eyes were ablaze with what he wanted to see, appreciation, respect, want – or was it because he wanted to see all that, he thought it was there?
‘You were putting on a performance for the kids?’
She turned her smile to the sun rather than him. ‘You’re an intriguing guy, Todd.’
‘I’ll take intriguing over goofy any day. Now, how about a bigger wave?’
She came back to him, her smile lifting to one side. ‘You sure you’re ready for one?’
‘I was born ready.’
‘Oh yeah, that was incredible!’
Todd shook the hair out of his face with his exclamation and Malie made herself look away. Every time he did it, his fringe would flick back, his eyes would land on her, so alive and blue against the white of his skin, and she would feel her entire body pulse, the heat swamping her and taking out any rational thought she might try and cling to.
The problem was Todd Masters wasn’t just some deliciously hot and charismatic millionaire, he was a total philanthropist, his heart as big as his wallet. And seeing him interact with his kids, hearing him talk about his Foundation, the things that mattered to him, it was getting harder and harder to ignore the way he made her feel, to forget the heat of his kiss, the power of it.
No matter how many times she tried to tell herself that her type was definitely the hunky Adonis kind, her body was all for the hot-vamp do-gooder.
‘Having fun?’ she asked.
He pulled himself up to sitting on the board. ‘Hell, yeah!’
She smiled. ‘I can tell, but we should head back, the sun’s getting low.’
He looked towards the horizon, his face glowing now as the sun’s rays stretched warm and orange across the sky. ‘It’s beautiful out here.’
She followed his gaze, shared in his appreciation. ‘It’s my favourite place to be.’
‘I can see why.’
‘When you’re out here, you can forget everything,’ she said softly, feeling the view work its unique magic. ‘Leave your troubles on the shore, so to speak.’
He hummed his agreement. The low sound strummed through the heart of her and she took a deep breath then swivelled her board around. ‘We should get back.’
Meet Me in Hawaii Page 9
