The mood in the car shifted as though the sun had gone behind a cloud. He glanced across at her but she was looking away, her hands twisting in her lap, making him worry.
‘Malie?’
Her lashes fluttered and she looked back at him, her smile not quite reaching the green of her eyes. ‘EJ should keep his mouth shut.’
‘I think it was meant as a compliment.’
She looked away again. ‘Yeah, well, they know I’m not going to do it so they should just drop it.’
He wanted to ask why, wanted to press, but there was something so sad in her demeanour that not even her smile could reassure him enough to go there.
‘At least they’re not sexist about your skills.’
‘No, that’s true.’
‘I have to say, though, I think you’re all slightly insane.’ He grinned as he said it, relieved to see her smile turning real.
‘Insane?’
‘Yes, you guys can keep your triple overheads, in fact, you can keep any kind of overheads, I’m quite happy on the baby waves.’
She laughed. ‘I think you’d nail daddy size with a bit of practice, you were pretty awesome yesterday… in fact so awesome, I’m actually beginning to think you were telling me a porky and that you have been on a board before.’
‘Oh, I’ve been on a board, just not the surf variety.’
‘Ah, snowboarding?’
‘Nope. Skate.’ He looked to her and caught her raised brow, her choked laugh. ‘What?’
She shook her head, her eyes dancing. ‘I figured with your entrepreneurial lifestyle, snowboarding would fit, but skateboarding…?’ She laughed openly now. ‘I just can’t see it.’
He laughed too, but only at the idea she conjured up. Of him. Now. On a skateboard. Never. ‘Call it a wasted youth, I’ve not been on one in almost twenty years.’
‘It sure came back to you on the water.’
‘Some skills you never quite lose, I guess.’
‘You must have been good. What was it? Stunt parks at the weekend? Racing down the streets with your mates?’
He scoffed. ‘I wish. It was work. Fun too at times, but mostly work.’
‘Right, rewind, what kind of work involves the use of a skateboard?’
‘Running errands, delivering parcels, being a paperboy… whatever I could get and handle with my board. I was too young to drive.’
‘On a skateboard? I get the whole bicycle thing but…’
‘A skateboard could travel with me, back and forth between foster homes, a bike wasn’t so easy to transport, plus they’d only get nicked. At least I could keep the skateboard with me at all times.’
‘Wow – how old were you?’
‘I don’t know, eight, maybe a little older. It got me out of the house too, and who could argue if I was bringing money in? I had a nice little enterprise running by the time I could drive and managed to buy my first car. It was a clapped-out banger, but I paid for it outright. There weren’t many in our neighbourhood who could claim the same.’
‘And the businessman was born.’
She said it jokingly, but he could hear the open admiration in her tone. He didn’t have many nice memories from that time but what he had gained was a determination to succeed.
‘Something like that.’
‘I’m impressed. I can’t think of many children who would have skateboarded their way around the streets to earn their pocket money. Well, save for one guy, Finn, he’d have been right out there with you.’
‘Finn?’
‘He worked with Zoe at our local Crab Shack when we were teenagers, a walking advert he was, attracting all the local girls to spend money there, much like you—’
She cut herself off short, her eyes snapping away.
‘Much like me…?’
‘Na-ah, I wasn’t saying anything.’
‘You sure? Sounded to me like you were about to pay me a compliment.’
‘Maybe.’ Her shoulders eased as she looked back to him and he felt his body warm over the admission. ‘OK, I was, but not just because of your looks, what I was trying to say is that I’m impressed since most kids I knew would have freaked at a paper run on a bike.’
‘Well, I can’t say it was fun in winter but…’ He shrugged. He’d done what he’d had to. He’d craved freedom, control over his own life, and knew to gain it he needed to make himself financially independent. For all she may have joked, he knew his upbringing was the reason he was the man he was now, a man beholden to no one with more money than he knew what to do with. But that’s why he was giving back too, trying to help people like he’d once been, to inspire them into wanting more and taking control of their dreams.
He felt her eyes still on him and he looked to her. ‘What?’
She shook her head, a smile slow to form.
‘What?’
‘I wish my friends could meet you, they’d never believe me.’
‘Haven’t I already met your friends?’
‘No, I mean my friends from Hawke’s Cove.’
‘What wouldn’t they believe?’
‘That a man that looks like you, talks like you—’
‘Don’t be going all Jungle Book on me.’
She laughed. ‘You had time to read when you were younger with all that running around?’
‘I watched movies occasionally, it wasn’t all work.’
She was quiet for a moment and he could practically feel the cogs turning in her brain.
‘Well, if you have some time next week, my friend Zoe is visiting. She’s stopping off on her way to another resort somewhere, not that I can remember where, she travels so much with work.’
‘What does she do?’
‘She’s a travel writer, she gets to stay in loads of fancy-schmancy places reviewing them for accessibility.’
‘Has she visited you before?’
‘No, none of my friends from the Cove have, but Zoe coming out…’ her voice had turned soft, wistful, ‘it’ll be amazing.’
He wondered at the look in her eye, the tone to her voice. ‘What do you have planned?’
She took a long breath, ‘We’re going to surf… it’ll be her first time back on a board since… well, you know.’ She turned to face the window; her eyes unseeing on the passing world. ‘Zoe was my surfer pal, after Koa, she helped fill that void, she was my sanity, my partner on the waves, and after the accident… well, it wasn’t possible anymore.’
He could hear the weight of it in her voice. ‘You shouldn’t feel guilty, you know.’
She gave him a sharp look. ‘I didn’t say…’
‘You didn’t have to, it was the way you described the accident to me, how you compared yours and Lils’ injuries to those of V and Zoe, how you look when you talk about it.’
Her lips quirked a little. ‘Well, I don’t need to worry about V anymore, she has her man who loves her regardless, just as he ought to.’ She gave a soft sigh. ‘They got engaged at Christmas and it was so perfect, so lovely, and they’re happy, really happy.’
He couldn’t help wondering from her dreamlike tone whether for all she acted like she didn’t want that for herself, deep down it was there, a need she couldn’t completely quash. He shook off the thought, he had no business probing there, and turned his mind to Zoe’s visit instead.
‘And Zoe, getting her on a board again, surely that will show you it doesn’t matter what has gone before, that it’s the future you should be focusing on.’
He could feel her eyes on him, feel his words sinking in.
‘It’ll be nice to share the waves again with her, for sure.’
‘And you can let go of the guilt.’
‘I—’
She was cut off by the in-car system ringing. He scanned the screen and cut the call. He didn’t want work to interfere with this. He could sense a potential turnaround for her, if he could just keep her talking about it, get her to acknowledge that the guilt should no longer be a burden, then what a difference it
would make.
‘What were you—’
It started up again, cutting off his question.
‘They’re persistent,’ Malie commented, looking at the caller ID. ‘Who’s Rachel Mann?’
‘She heads up my Asian operations.’
Her eyes widened as she pulled a downturned smile and nodded. He didn’t know whether she was secretly laughing or impressed.
He was going to have to take the call, Rachel wouldn’t call again unless it was urgent.
‘Do you mind if I get it?’
She shook her head and raised her hands. ‘Not at all.’
He flicked the call to answer. ‘What’s up, Rachel?’
‘Good lord, where are you, Todd? It sounds like you’re in a wind tunnel.’
‘I’m driving with the roof down.’
‘Really? How nice! Well, in that case, I’ll keep it brief…’ He nodded, even though she couldn’t see him, and sneaked a look at Malie. She was watching the world go by, her hair blowing back off her face, her skin glowing from the morning’s exertions in the sea. Did she ever not have that glow? Would she look the same in London, miles away from the ocean, with grey skies overhead and rain beating down? What would it be like to show her where he lived, to show her his HQ and take her out to dinner? To wine and dine—
‘Todd?’
Malie turned to look at him as his name came through the speaker and he realized Rachel was waiting on him to say something. ‘Sorry, Rach, say again?’
He put his effort into the call this time, so much so that Malie had to tap his leg to get his attention to take the next left turn. The fleeting contact sent a shock-like current along his thigh, that had him hitting the indicator far more aggressively than it needed and he swallowed before he could nod to her and respond to Rachel.
Smooth, real smooth, Todd.
Malie did the same again minutes later, a light brush of her fingers and a nod to the exit. He started to hope for more turns, but he was out of luck. Ten minutes later, he’d finished with Rachel, called his PA to set some reminders for him to action when he got back to the house, and Malie was telling him to turn into what he could only describe as Hell. On. Earth.
‘Here?’
‘Yup.’
He eyed her but did as she asked, pulling into a car park as crowded as the Underground in rush hour. Probably not helped by the three buses full of tourists just offloading and meandering around the car park like lost sheep. ‘What is it about being a tourist that means you lose all common sense?’
‘Hey, easy, tiger, they’re just taking in the beauty.’
‘The beauty?’ He narrowly missed a woman stepping into the road, her phone outstretched before her as she sought the best selfie. ‘I can’t see anything but people right now. You sure you meant to come here?’
‘Believe me, when you get your mouth around a whip, you’ll be begging me to come back again.’
He gave a disbelieving chuckle as he swung the car into an empty space. He’d never been so glad to be stationary for fear of running someone over.
He looked across at her as he cut the engine. ‘A whip?’
‘A Dole Whip to be precise, pineapple ice cream heaven…’ She’d gone all dreamy-eyed and licked her lips…
OK, definitely time to get out of the car and get moving. He opened his door, realizing even as he did that if she did that again, with the actual whip, he wasn’t so sure he’d fare any better, if he could cope at all. ‘We best get moving else there’ll be nothing left by the time these lot get served.’
She laughed. ‘Do you always do everything at a million miles an hour?’
‘I’d say that was more your way of living.’ He stepped out of the car, not bothering to put up the roof.
‘Only when I’m on the waves… things like this, you just need to chill out and go with the flow.’
‘Go with the flow?’
‘Something tells me you haven’t queued for anything in a while.’
‘No.’ It was the truth. ‘You want me to put your bag in the boot?’
She reached into the back and picked it up, swinging it over her shoulder. ‘Nah it’s OK, I’ll keep it with me, but you probably want to put the roof up else these seats will be toasty warm when we get back.’
She had a point so he ducked back in and set the engine going, the roof next. His phone started to ring through the speakers, and he checked the display before cutting the call.
‘You’re a man in demand, Todd Masters.’
He shook his head at her teasing tone and locked the roof into place before joining her in the car park.
‘Ready to tickle your taste buds?’
He eyed the masses and gave her a wary, ‘So long as you know what you’re doing…’
‘It’s a historic landmark visit and a culinary delight in one. What more could you want?’
Fine dining for two on a deserted beach, just him and Malie, that would be perfect… and again, not the answer she would want to hear, or one he should want to give.
‘Not a lot, apparently.’
She grinned and surprised him by lacing her fingers through his to pull him along. He eyed their entwined hands as he fell into step behind her and suddenly he was willing to take any amount of queuing, crushing, tourist-trap-hell-ing.
It was a bad, bad sign… only it didn’t feel bad.
‘Right, close your eyes.’
Malie grinned up at him, her pot with its swirling, whirling yellow creaminess poised mid-air in one hand, her spoon in the other.
‘Close my eyes…?’ Todd looked from the ice cream to her, his hands deep inside his pockets. ‘Why?’
‘Because it’ll taste even better – I promise.’
His eyes flitted over the swarm of tourists surrounding them. ‘Are you crazy?’
‘No, I just want to make your first time the best.’
Laughter sparkled in his gaze, his closed-mouth grin trapping the sound inside. ‘You seriously are crazy.’
She shrugged. ‘And you need to trust people more.’
He cocked his head to the side, frowning slightly. Had her choice of words hit a chord? But then his expression lifted, and he was straightening up, rounding his shoulders.
‘OK.’ He gave a nod. ‘Ready.’
He closed his eyes, his lashes fanning his cheeks and Malie was transported back to that first night on the beach when she’d been struck still by his appeal. She felt it even more now, with all that she knew of him and his Good Samaritan act. Only it wasn’t an act, it was all him.
Could he be any more perfect for her? Was she a fool to keep putting distance between them? What if it didn’t jeopardize her work at the surf school at all? What if she could find happiness without guilt, without fear—
‘Err, Malie, I’m starting to feel a little foolish.’
She refocused on his face, his eyes still obediently closed, adorably so, and gave a soft laugh. ‘You’re too impatient.’
‘We just queued half an hour for this thing, I’m practically saint-like.’
She shook her head, her body warming through as she scooped up a generous portion and licked her own lips.
‘Open up,’ she commanded, her eyes lifting to watch his lips dutifully part and the warmth combusted, an excited ripple swelling into a throbbing ache low in her belly. She wanted to kiss him, so much she had to hold herself rigid, forcing her fingers to lift instead and slip the spoon inside his mouth, watching as he closed his lips around it.
Slowly she pulled it away clean, his low hum filling her ears, the sight of his perfectly kissable mouth moving it around inside, the gentle bob of his clean-shaven throat as he swallowed it down… oh, God, she was in heaven just watching.
‘Nice?’ It came out high-pitched, her elevated state shining through and she scooped up another healthy spoonful, stuffing it in her own mouth and chilling her body down before he could open his eyes and see it all.
‘Delicious.’ His lashes lifted, his eyes locked
with hers, soft and lazy. ‘You’re right, that is heaven.’
Her lips parted on a nod, her eyes wide, her brain still screaming: You can’t kiss him. Not after everything you’ve said, your good intentions. You’re friend-zoned for good reason.
Someone knocked her bag behind her as they brushed past and she turned with them, feeling Todd’s arm snake around her middle to bring her closer. Oh, God. She could smell his cologne, the heat of his arm against her bare midriff, his breath caressing her hair.
‘What do you say we find somewhere to sit with this before we get run over?’
‘I have a better idea…’ No way could she sit still without doing something stupid. ‘Fancy getting lost with me?’
‘Lost?’
‘Yup,’ she blurted, eager to enact her plan. ‘The world’s biggest maze is here, or at least it used to be the biggest, it’s probably not anymore, but still…’
He was about to answer when his phone piped up. He gave a grimace and released her to reach in his pocket and take it out. She eyed the device and did a mental recap of the number of calls he’d taken already and the likelihood of it continuing. He cut the call and looked back to her. ‘Let’s do it.’
‘On one condition…’
He chuckled. ‘OK.’
‘Take this off me a sec…’ She gave him the ice cream to hold and then before she could chicken out, she held his eye and slid her hand inside his pocket. She didn’t miss how his entire body tensed and the way his eyes flared, his breath caught, but nothing would deter her from this. She located the offending device and pulled it out. ‘This, goes off…’
His brow creased but she held her ground, her finger hovering over the off button.
‘You are the boss, right?’
He nodded.
‘Well, you need to trust your employees to survive without you. The world won’t end if you turn this off and relax, just for a few hours.’
His lip quirked to one side. ‘A few hours, that’s how long you’re planning on getting us lost for?’
‘Maybe…’
He laughed. ‘OK, deal, turn it off.’
She felt her entire body lift, happiness at his agreement making her almost dizzy. She turned the phone off and looked back up at him. ‘A few hours won’t cut it, though, Todd, you need to learn to take holidays. Actual, real chill-the-hell-out time.’
Meet Me in Hawaii Page 12
