From Glowing Embers

by Emilie Richards

Chapter 9

  “So you’ll come, too?” Gray snapped the lock on his suitcase and straightened to face Dillon.

  “Might as well watch two storms gather force as one.”

  Gray knew the other man was referring to his relationship with Julianna. He wanted to refute the analogy, but unfortunately it was too true. He wondered which storm would unleash its full power first.

  The door opened, and Julianna came into the suite. She avoided his eyes, stepping around him to go into the bedroom to join Jody. Gray wondered what she had been thinking as she finished her breakfast alone. Her tormented expression was a clue. He thrust his suitcase in the corner by the door and wondered if facing their past was going to be worth the pain for either of them.

  Everyone was ready when the phone rang to announce the arrival of the van. Gray had tipped their driver well the day before and asked him to return for them this morning. Now the man stood with his umbrella poised over the side door as, one by one, they ran under the hotel archway and climbed into the van.

  “Deja vu.” Julianna checked Jody’s seat belt to be sure it was tight enough before she sat beside her. “Do you really think he’s going to be able to get through?” She leaned forward to get Gray’s attention, speaking to him for the first time since breakfast.

  “I asked him. He said, ‘Little rain, little wind, no big deal.’“ He smiled reassuringly.

  “Is it far?”

  “Apparently not.”

  She was curious why he didn’t seem to know for sure. “You’ve never been there?”

  “This is my first trip to the islands.”

  The driver got in and slammed the door behind him. In a moment they were moving slowly through the rain-deluged streets.

  Gray knew that Julianna wouldn’t ask any more questions, but he also knew she must be wondering about the woman she might soon be meeting. “Paige’s father owns property all over the world. She acts as manager for him. The house we’re going to is just one of his holdings. She’s coming here to assess it for possible sale.”

  “Paige?”

  He was surprised by her tone of voice. She sounded startled. “Paige Duvall. I’ve known her for years.”

  “I know.”

  Now he was startled. During the brief time they had lived as husband and wife he had never introduced Julie Ann to Paige. All his friendships had fallen by the wayside. There had been too much to concentrate on: his studies; his failing marriage; his growing sense of frustration. “How do you know about Paige?” he asked. “I don’t think the two of you ever met.”

  She smiled without warmth. “Your father made sure I knew about her.”

  Gray wanted to question Julianna further, but he knew he had to wait for a better time. He started to turn away, but she stopped him. “Is Paige the woman you might marry?”

  He nodded briefly, perplexed by the deepening of her humorless smile.

  “I’ll bet the judge is overjoyed.”

  “Paige may not even be there. She’s been in Europe, but last time I spoke to her, she was supposed to arrive this morning. Unless she took an earlier flight, she probably won’t be able to get here until the hurr—storm blows over.”

  Now Julianna thought she understood Gray’s generosity in inviting her to come along. Apparently there wasn’t much chance that his wife and his lover would meet. “Do you have a key?”

  “I can get us in.”

  The van stalled twice, once at a traffic light that had short-circuited into a permanent red and once in the middle of an intersection. There was little traffic on the roads. An occasional police car or delivery truck braved the rain, but the rest of the island’s occupants seemed content to hole up in whatever niche they had found.

  The van inched along Kalakaua Avenue past Kapiolani Park and on to Diamond Head Road. Julianna had traveled this way often enough to know the views that would have awaited them if the rain hadn’t washed away all color and form. She pictured the turquoise ocean with its purple coves, disturbed now by the constant harassment of the wind. She thought of her own cottage on Kauai and wondered how it would fare.

  “We get there soon,” the driver told Gray.

  Gray stared through the opaque veil of rain, willing his eyes to distinguish the shapes of houses. The road they were on hugged what seemed to be the edge of a cliff. He said a silent prayer that Paige’s house was down a side road away from the ocean. If it wasn’t, the wind would be an overwhelming force if Eve struck the island.

  To his relief, the driver crept to a halt, then made a left turn and followed another road away from the coast. He stopped a minute later. “Here.”

  Gray got a glimpse of blond brick and dark wood. And glass—much more glass than he had hoped to see. Trees were bending in the wind, along with a confusion of shrubs and vines that seemed barely able to hold their own in the torrential downpour. Over the moaning of the wind he could hear the maniacal clanging of wind chimes beating against the side of the house.

  “I’m going to see if I can get us inside,” Gray told the others.

  “Care for some help?” Dillon asked.

  Gray shot him a reluctant grin. “Know how to pick a lock?”

  Both men refused the driver’s umbrella; they were wearing casual clothes and knew they were destined to be soaked in seconds with or without any “protection.” By the time they got to the front porch, their prediction had come true.

  Gray listened to the peals of the doorbell echo through the silent house. “No one’s home,” he told Dillon. He slipped a credit card out of his wallet and inserted it along the side of the ornately carved wooden door. With a minimal amount of coaxing, the knob turned and the door swung open. “Remind me to talk to Paige about security if she ever gets here.”

  They found an umbrella in a stand by the front door and unfurled it for the trip back to the van. Gray took Jody, while the driver wrestled with their luggage. Julianna was last to make the trip. It wasn’t until they were halfway down the path that Gray looked up to see the familiar figure of a woman standing on the front porch.

  “Gray!”

  He watched the slim woman launch herself into the rain, her short dark hair and thin dress instantly plastered to her olive skin. Paige was in his arms in a second. “I was in the back of the house. I thought I was going to have to ride this out alone!” She clasped her hands around his waist.

  Gray put one arm around Paige and held her still. He felt rather than saw Julianna leave the shelter of the umbrella and make her own way to the house.