I also thought he was a she, Stephen’s personal assistant, Maggie.
Now that I think about it, Maggie asked me to help plan Stephen’s bachelor party. “She” wanted it to be unforgettable, and we talked about what type of stripper to hire.
Maggie said Stephen would appreciate a classy stripper, one who had a well-toned body, but was not overly voluptuous.
“She” went on and on about how important it was to select the right stripper—one who would provide entertainment, but not embarrass Stephen.
Of course, I, as the prospective wife, didn’t want Stephen ogling a stripper at all, so when I suggested to Maggie that I should be the stripper, she heartily agreed.
Guess Jordan/Maggie’s no angel after all.
After Stephen called off our wedding, Jordan saw his chance. He went to Jade and suggested she send me on a cruise ship to “get over” Stephen.
He was all ready to step in and make me happy, but unfortunately, Stephen caught on. He probably suspected Jordan of having feelings for me and sabotaging his bachelor party, so he disguised himself as a crew member on board the S.S. Bird of Paradise to ruin Jordan’s plans.
At some point, Jordan recognized Stephen, but Stephen promised to pay off Jordan’s father’s debt if he would “test” my loyalty for him.
Jordan had no choice but to go along with it, hoping I would eventually understand. But Stephen was always one step ahead because he had access to our cabin.
The day Jordan and I agreed to run away on Maui was the day Stephen turned the screws. He had Jordan’s access pass revoked and got him kicked off the cruise ship.
Jordan, however, had one friend, the crew member who did the room service. That was how he was able to leave messages and gifts for me hidden inside the seashells.
When Jordan called Jade and realized Stephen had framed him with the spying and voice recording, he jumped first and risked everything.
He spent all the money that was supposed to pay off his father’s debt and rented a party yacht. He got permission from the cruise ship to give chopper rides as an extra New Year’s excursion, and he chased us down on the high seas.
He trusted me to believe that he was innocent, and he seized all of our tomorrows without knowing they would come.
Here we are, vagabonds and cruisers, with our home under the stars, living our happily forever in a love story that will never be recorded electronically, but etched in our hearts and memories and whispered in the sounds of the sea.
After our dip in the ocean, Jordan and I climb back onto our yacht. We catch fish for dinner and watch the sunset.
And we kiss, of course, under a starry night, strung across space like seashells on a faraway beach.
Happy New Year from Paradise.
Love, Chaos
~ The End ~
Author Bio
Rachelle Ayala is a USA Today bestselling author of dramatic romantic suspense and humorous contemporary romances. She is the winner of multiple awards, including the 2015 Angie Ovation Award for best Multicultural Romance with Knowing Vera, the 2015 Readers’ Favorite Gold Award for A Father for Christmas, the 2016 Readers’ Favorite Gold Award for Christmas Stray, the 2016 Readers’ Favorite Finalist for A Pet for Christmas, and the 2017 Readers’ Favorite Gold Award for Playing for the Save.
For updates and a surprise free book, sign up for Rachelle’s newsletter at:
http://smarturl.it/RachAyala
Check out her website for a list of books and readers’ guide: http://rachelleayala.net
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to my readers who make it a joy for me to write and share my stories. I hope you had an enjoyable cruise with Dani and Jordan as well as their newfound friends.
Thanks go to Raine English for organizing this connected series of Hawaiian Holiday romances and for designing the book covers.
As always, my beta readers are the best and they smoothed out some of the rough edges in this story. My gratitude to Amber McCallister, Audrey G., Chantel Rhondeau, CloudHuggers, Frances Hampton, Gina Johnson, Glenda Baker Hislop, Joelle K. Beebe, Johanna Mallozzi Owen, Kai Lee, Lucy Jones, Mary Lawson, Mary Tucker Fouraker, Michelle Dodge, Susan Delamare, and Therese Pauley.
Thanks also to my awesome editor, Kimberly Dawn, for her careful and meticulous work.
HAWAIIAN HOLIDAY THANK YOU
Thanks for reading Seashells & Mistletoe!
Cruising into Christmas is next.
You’ll find a Sneak Peek in the Excerpt.
Read all the Hawaiian Holiday books!
Christmas Charm by Raine English
Seashells & Mistletoe by Rachelle Ayala
Cruising into Christmas by Aileen Fish
Sunny Days Ahead by Julie Jarnagin
Aloha to Love by Josie Riviera
A Very Merry Christmas by Denise Devine
For more fun and romance, be sure to read the Perfect Match series. It’s about six women who receive invitations from a new online matchmaking travel agency for a free week-long vacation to the island of her choice.
Excerpt Copyright Information
Chapter One from
Cruising into Christmas (Hawaiian Holiday Series) by Aileen Fish
Copyright © 2018 Aileen Fish
Cruising into Christmas Excerpt
Cruising into Christmas
Hawaiian Holiday Series
By
Aileen Fish
Chapter One
“Mom, no way!” she’d said. But Mom always got her way. Lauren Dibenadetto hated the fact she was such a dutiful daughter. Just once she’d love to stand up and say, “I’m a grown woman. I can choose who I go out with.”
And then, after correcting her grammar, Mom would continue telling Lauren the plan and her part in it. It always went that way. To prove the point, Lauren sat in the nosebleed seats in the Staples Center in Los Angeles watching a hockey games four days before Christmas, when she should be having a hen party with her best friend, bride-to-be Nicole Clark.
Nicole’s wedding was the whole reason they were in Los Angeles. In two days they would board a cruise ship to Hawaii. Nicole’s fiancé, Trevor Frost, and his brother Ryan, would join them, of course, so the happy couple could have an exciting tropical wedding and honeymoon, all in one. Nicole’s being on the honeymoon with them sounded a bit strange, but there were going to be so many activities on board the ship to keep her busy, and the stops on the schedule were to die for.
“Lauren, did you see that shot? Amazing!” Bill Hill, her date, brought Lauren’s thoughts back to her surroundings. The Staples Center was packed with rowdy fans enjoying the sharp smack of sticks hitting the puck, and muffled thud of players colliding with players.
“Yeah, that was great.” All in all, she’s rather be in the dentist’s chair. Hockey was okay, but she didn’t care for sports much, outside of the Olympics.
Bill was the son of her mother’s sorority sister. Lauren didn’t know him well, having only seen him one week a year as they grew up when their parents vacationed together. He was terminally nice. Sadly, that was the best thing she could say about him. His hair was brown, neither dark nor light, and his complexion wasn’t as pasty as his desk job could have made it. He worked as a systems analyst, and his hobbies were video games and watching sports. Video games made her nauseous the way long car rides had when she was young, so they had no common interests.
A Kings player slammed against the glass and Lauren flinched. The crowd around her cheered. She had no idea why.
“Did I tell you how pretty you look tonight?” Bill asked, never taking his gaze away from the action on the ice.
“Thank you.” Normally, she wouldn’t mind hearing that three times in the hour since he’d picked her up, but his sweet words only made her feel guiltier for not enjoying herself.
“Mother said we should have dinner at The Palm afterward.” He spoke over his shoulder and Lauren felt she could be any woman at random for all the attention he paid her. Wait
, that was a good thing.
“I think you need a reservation.”
“Maybe there’ll be a cancellation. We’ll play it by ear.”
“I have plans early in the morning, so I should probably go straight home.” She sounded like a high schooler.
The noise of the crowd filled the stadium as Lauren tried to focus on the men on the ice. The grace in the way they maneuvered into the smallest crevice while controlling the puck and keeping the opposing players from stealing it was beautiful, but surely that wasn’t why everyone came. There had to be a reason so many people loved this sport, and she was determined by the end of the game to understand what drew them to it. To find that element that drew the passion of all these people. It couldn’t just be the violence, there had to be more to it—none of the people sitting nearby looked the type to celebrate physically beating the other team.
If they wanted violence they could watch MMA, or pro football. Any of the contact sports like rugby and Australian rules football. Those were crazy sports.
Bill cheered at something. Lauren wasn’t paying attention to uniforms, so she couldn’t cheer along. If you weren’t invested in the outcome—if you didn’t want to be there in the first place—did it matter which team you rooted for? Not in her mind, but Bill would likely be offended if she cheered for the wrong guys.
She heard the crowd clapping and catcalling when suddenly a chant arose. “Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!” There on the Megatron a couple sat framed by that familiar heart. They kissed. The girl’s cheeks were crimson, and the guy ducked his head after the quick peck. It was somewhere between touching and an invasion of their secure world making them kiss on camera.
Whose idea was this originally, to embarrass people like that? How many times had they chosen a father and daughter, or brother and sister? It was bad enough to be embarrassed in front of the stadium crowd, but knowing it was being broadcast on TV must make it a gazillion times worse.
Bill chattered at her side and she leaned closer to hear him over the noise around them. She owed him polite conversation at the very least.
Another crack of sticks meeting powerfully made her jump. Bill’s rambling continued uninterrupted regardless of the action on the ice. “My mother is very happy we’re able to get together like this. Now that we’re grown, we don’t go on the family vacations like we used to. Those were good times. I looked forward to them every year, being able to spend time with you. It was the highlight of my year.”
She opened her mouth to comment, but he went on. “I had a huge crush on you when I was thirteen and you were fifteen. You were so pretty. You still are, of course, but I was just beginning to notice girls, and I noticed you as a girl instead of just a friend. I really missed you the next year when you didn’t come with your parents to Aspen. That vacation was really dull in comparison. Lifeless. There was a big hole where you should have been. But you weren’t there.”
A bowling ball of guilt dropped in Lauren’s gut. She’d never paid that much attention to him on those vacations. He was that pesky little brother type guy who she spent most of her time trying to avoid. She’d been forced to sit down with him and play Sorry, or Pick Up Sticks, or Jenga even though she hated games. She hated board games even more. She’d be happy if she never had to play another game of Monopoly. Nothing could be duller than moving a tiny top hat around the board, paying money and collecting money. It was all so grown up, the droll life of an adult who went to work and came home every day, and on Friday picked up a paycheck and went to the bank. On Saturday morning they went grocery shopping, then came home to do chores.
Monopoly was just like that. Except for the going to jail part. She’d never experienced that, thank goodness.
Bill shifted in his seat as if he was extremely uncomfortable, his shoulder bumping into hers. She leaned away to give him room but realized she was shoving her head in the face of the guy next to her. She leaned her head back instead.
Bill rambled on and Lauren once more searched for artistic movement on the ice. Then she noticed Bill getting down on his knees.
“What’s wrong, did you lose something?” she asked.
“Yes. My heart. To you when I was thirteen.”
Lauren realized what was coming and she clutched her hands tightly in her lap. He wasn’t searching the floor for his wallet or anything. Closing her eyes, she prayed, No, please no. This can’t be real. Opening them again, she found Bill still on one knee, only this time he held up a box with a ring in it. A nice, shiny ring that caught glints of the lights and twinkled at her. She’d swear it winked. Waving her hands, she said, “Bill, no you can’t do this. We barely know each other. Bill—”
“Lauren, I feel like I’ve known you all my life. We may not have spent a lot of time together, but it was quality time. It was 24/7 and I got to know everything about you.”
“No, you didn’t,” she interrupted. “We were children. We weren’t even who we were going to become. I’m still not sure I’m who I’m going to become, and I’m twenty-five years old. Please, get up. Don’t do this. Don’t embarrass us like this. Don’t make this into something we both will regret.”
He paid no mind and carried on.
Lauren shook her head and pushed the box away, but he shoved it into her hand. She jerked back like it was a hot coal. Luckily, he still had a good grip on it so he didn’t lose it.
He did snap it shut, however. “Lauren, Mother said you would want this. She and your mother planned the whole thing when they heard you’d be in Los Angeles.”
“If you’re still being guided by your mother in life’s decisions, you aren’t ready to get married.”
“But I love you. I love you with all my heart. With all my being.”
Could this get any worse? Her guilt at putting him through this was huge, but that wouldn’t change her answer. She shook her head and waved her hands again. “Bill, stop. You can’t do this. People are watching. Don’t humiliate yourself any more. Please, put the ring away, get back in your seat and no one will remember anything about this tomorrow.”
He drew in a breath, meeting her eyes, a little crease between his eyebrows. He ducked his head. At that point, Lauren realized the crowd was chanting again. “Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss.”
She glanced up at the Megatron and there was that heart around two people—her and Bill. She had a stricken, panicked look on her pale face. His head was down and it was obvious he was kneeling beside her.
“Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!”
She looked down at Bill and up at the huge screen, then at the man to her left. He smirked, then shrugged.
Holy crow. The entire crowd had seen Bill propose. Had seen her say no—repeatedly. Holy crow, she had to get out of there. Jumping out of her seat, leaving Bill on his knees, she squeezed her way past the people sitting between her and the aisle.
She’d swear the aisle moved further and further, the row of people stretched longer and longer with each step she took. Finally she reached it and escape was within her grasp She ran down to the exit, ducked into the tunnel, and into the lobby beyond it.
Darting into a restroom she buried her face in her hands. She wished she could die. Or disappear. But of course, her luck didn’t allow that. She would forever relive the humiliation of this night. She only prayed no one had captured it on video, but that episode was probably already floating around social media. At least no one knew who she was, so she could continue her trip in anonymity.
The restroom door opened and a woman and a young girl entered. “Mommy, look. It’s the lady from the TV.”
The woman bit her lip and gave Lauren a weak smile. “Here’s an open stall, honey.” She guided the girl away.
So much for anonymous. What should she do now? She needed a ride to the hotel and wasn’t about to ask Bill. Thinking quickly, she opened her Uber app and requested a ride.
Ryan Frost sat on his brother’s couch, his feet crossed on the coffee table and a beer in his hand. The Kings game on TV was pretty
dull, but they’d had some good plays. It was almost the end of the second period. He was bored. He should be tired after a long day on the ranch. They had a few stray head of cattle who had strayed to the far end of the property, where a fence post had rotted at the base. It was easily knocked over, and the cattle wandered to find out what the grass was like on the other side of the fence. His brother Dylan brought the cattle down to the rest of the herd while Ryan repaired the fence.
He’d had plenty of exercise. The weather was brisk, clear, and winter was coming. The air was colder than recent years, but he didn’t mind the cold. He loved the look of the wild grass and chaparral when it was dusted with ice in the morning before the sun hit. The sun was bright on most days but its heat never made it to the ground. When he was a kid he used to say the sun was broken. It was doing its job as a light, but the heating element was broken.
Ryan chuckled and took another drink of his beer. Trevor returned from the kitchen with a bag of chips and an open jar of ranch dip, then shoved one in his mouth as he sat. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. Just reminiscing.”
“You’re too young to reminisce. You’ve got nothing to reminisce about. Give it another twenty years, then you’ll have memories to look back on.”
“Hey, I’m twenty-seven. I’ve got plenty to look back on, to smile over. And a few things I’d rather forget. But it doesn’t matter. I’m just waiting for commercials to end so they get back to the game.
After two more ads, the game returned. The camera focused on two players skating madly across the rink, each trying to force the puck in a different direction. The picture then cut to the audience, the heart-shaped frame capturing three people—an older man, a young woman, and a guy who looked like he was digging around on the floor for a lost set of keys. The word kiss appeared, and the crowd did their but to encourage the act. Which guy was she supposed to kiss? The man to her left looked like her dad, and the guy on the ground look barely old enough to shave.
Seashells & Mistletoe (Hawaiian Holiday Book 2) Page 15
