Hawaiian Medic to Rescue His Heart

by Annie O'Neil

  It had been a careless thing for a new chief to do and, more to the point, unkind and lacking in respect. The fact she’d agreed to come over to the house he’d unwittingly bought from under her and had been kind to his son and parents meant one thing and one thing only.

  He owed her an apology.

  He lifted up his hand and tucked his fingers into the sign. “Is this right?” He shook his hand back and forth, his eyes not leaving hers.

  “Bit stiff,” she said, trying and failing to keep a straight face. “You’ll get there.”

  “You think so?”

  She shrugged, then said in a sonorous voice, “Watch, and you will learn how to do it.”

  Zach frowned. “That’s exactly what I did.”

  Lulu rocked back on her bench seat and laughed. “No, bruh. That’s something my grandmother says. She’s got, like, a thousand ‘true Hawaiian’ sayings. Most of them are probably made up...but sometimes there’s a lot of sense in them.”

  “Oh, yeah? Like...” He opened his hands for her to continue then took another bite of his burger.

  Lulu eyed him for a minute, as if deciding exactly which of her grandmother’s sayings best suited the man and the moment.

  “‘You are a chief because of your people.’”

  The words hit him where they’d been aimed. Right in the solar plexus.

  “Good advice,” his dad said, when Zach failed to reply. He gave the picnic table a thump with one hand and lifted his burger with the other and then, before he took a bite, stopped himself and nodded at Lulu and at Zach. “You’re lucky to have this one on your team, son. You two make a good match.”

  They were a match, all right. Whether or not they were a good one only time would tell.

  And with that the sun dropped behind the horizon, preparing itself to reappear on the other side of the island tomorrow morning, when they would begin again. And this time Zach knew he’d be pouring his all into trying to get it right.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  WITH THE ALERT radio turned up to high volume, Lulu went outside to see if the inevitable storm clouds had gathered to break the day’s intense humidity. Though she’d grown up with it, even she was feeling the closeness of this final day in August.

  Today she was on dispatch duty, while the rest of the team performed what Zach referred to as “team building.” It was the type of team building she was pretty sure in any other parlance was called cleaning.

  Yesterday they’d team built the helicopter until it glinted in the sun. Today’s focus was nautical. The speedboat and the RIB needed a scrub-down. The equipment needed checking over. Ropes and harnesses needed to be examined and repaired if necessary. It was the same kind of stuff she imagined they did at the firehouses and EMT headquarters back in New York—not because it was nice when things were shiny and clean, but because lives depended on it.

  Her ear still tuned in to the radio, she wandered under a small clutch of palms, staying tucked mostly out of sight from the rest of the crew, who were farther down the stretch of grass just above the beach where they kept the boats. Laughing, talking, throwing jokes and good-natured insults back and forth, they were clearly having a good time.

  It was a nice change from when Clive had run the crew. He’d been... Well, she was sure he’d been nice enough back in the day, but she was also pretty sure that when he’d been assigned crew chief of their specialist search and rescue team he’d very clearly mistaken the modern world for the 1950s.

  Being treated like little more than a coatrack when her specialty was emergency rescue and medicine had been quite a blow. And she had to admit Casey hadn’t fared much better. But Casey was a whole lot better at doing the water-off-a-duck’s-back thing. She might look like a beauty queen, but she was shot through with a core of steel.

  Lulu gave her shoulders a shake, willing herself to literally and figuratively shake it off. Clive was gone now. Fishing, probably. Or napping. And, after a few heaven-sent weeks of proving to the guys that she had what it took to run the crew, she was “back in her place.”

  She silently chided herself for instantly going to the glass-half-empty scenario.

  She stared down at her hands, forcing a bit more honesty to surface.

  Zach wasn’t as bad as she’d initially thought. Quite the opposite, in fact.

  Divorced, his mother had whispered when she’d been over at their house the other day. Knocked him sideways, she’d managed, before Zach had come in to find them, no doubt trying to stem the passing of sensitive information.

  It had added another layer to what little she knew about him. A level of complexity she hadn’t gleaned from his opening Me Boss, You Employee maneuver.

  No, Zach Murphy was definitely more than what you saw at first glance.

  He liked things shipshape, but he didn’t delegate. He joined in. Expected as much from himself as he did from the others. And, despite the whole You’re grounded thing, he didn’t seem at all focused on keeping her away from the big-boy jobs like Clive had. He already had them on a roster that was as egalitarian as it came. Alphabetical.

  It could be tactical. In their small crew it didn’t take long to see who came after Lulu Kahale.

  That’s right. Mr. Zachary Murphy.

  Another huge burst of laughter came from the guys. Lulu looked across, felt her breath hitching at the base of her throat as her eyes landed on her new boss just as he was pulling his top off.

  Oh, my.

  It looked like a torso-of-the-week photo shoot.

  Her tooth snagged on her lower lip as Zach grabbed the hose, tipped back his head and ran the cool water over himself. Her eyes were jealously glued to the stream of splashing liquid as it poured down his toned body.

  Yum.

  The politically correct part of her brain that was in a fury anytime she was treated differently because she was a woman knew she shouldn’t be treating Zach’s team-building exercise as a chance to appreciate his physical attributes, but... Mmm... Her hormones were overriding all normal brain functions.

  It had been quite a while since she’d had a date, let alone a boyfriend, and Zach Murphy was exceedingly good-looking. Strong, but not bodybuilder bulky. His hair had gone from lightly wavy to extrawavy, thanks to the humidity. It was longer than a buzz cut, but not so long you’d mistake him for a transient surfer dude.

  Which made her wonder... Did he surf? Was that a thing out East? His fluidity of movement suggested he’d be strong in the water if they needed an extra rescue swimmer. He’d not gone on any of their rescues yet, claiming he wanted to get a grip on the paperwork, discover the lay of the land before he went out with them. Instead, he’d put Lulu in charge.

  Publicly, she’d said the decision was an obvious nod to the fact she’d been helming the team since his predecessor had officially retired to his hammock. Privately, she felt ridiculously proud that he had even an ounce of trust in her after their first very false start.

  He could have easily made an example of her. Suspended her back on Day Zero. He’d been right. She hadn’t been in regulation gear. She’d left the office open. The medicine cabinet and gear were obviously locked up...but sometimes thieves didn’t care about things like that. And, of course, there were the piles of undone paperwork that he was wordlessly plowing through, knowing damn straight she should’ve done it.

  So, yeah... Right now, she really wanted to put her best foot forward.

  It was a rare chance to be judged for her merits alone, rather than being mollycoddled and then ignored because of the “talking-to” her brothers had given Clive.

  Something told her that even if her brothers did get to Zach, he’d hear them out, because he was fair that way, but he wouldn’t be swayed by them.

  One of the guys cracked a joke, winning a rare but heartfelt guffaw from Zach. He wasn’t the most carefree of men...but his smiles could kno
ck your socks off. If you were into that sort of thing.

  In fact... Lulu scraped her teeth across her lip. If it weren’t for the fact his two front teeth were crooked, he’d almost be too good-looking. Which was one of the many things on her no-go list when it came to considering potential dates. That tiny “flaw,” such as it was, made him mortal. Which meant he was accessible to other mere mortals...like herself.

  Hmm... Perhaps she should recommend one of the island’s better orthodontists.

  “Here’s your shaved ice, girlfriend.” Casey appeared by her side and handed her a palm leaf bowl filled with her favorite flavor—coconut and mango. She’d been out filling up the crew jeep’s gas tank and obviously felt blasted by the weather as well. “What are we looking at?”

  Lulu feigned an indifference she definitely didn’t feel. “Just watching the boys doing some of the clean-up work for a change.”

  Casey snorted appreciatively. She leaned on the canoe Lulu had propped herself against, watched for a few moments, then shouted out, “Keep up the good work, boys!”

  They laughed, waved and offered invitations to join in.

  “Lunch break,” Lulu parried, raising her shaved ice.

  A volley of good-natured insults flew their way, melting in the heat before they landed. Lulu and Casey continued watching the guys at work the way they might watch a documentary on dolphins. Completely rapt.

  “He’s not as bad as we thought he was going to be, is he?” Casey nudged Lulu’s foot with her flip-flop.

  “Who?” Lulu asked, knowing exactly who Casey was talking about.

  Casey tipped her head down and looked at her over her sunglasses. “Don’t be stupid.”

  “I’m not!” Lulu protested hotly. Too hotly, judging from Casey’s cackled response.

  “You haven’t looked at anyone like that in the history of me knowing you,” she teased.

  “That’s not true! There was—” Lulu sought her memory for just one of her short-term boyfriends who had made goosebumps ripple up her arms in the middle of a summer’s day and came up blank. Rather than admitting as much she offered Zach a backhanded compliment. “He definitely knows how to keep the bosses back on the mainland happy. Does the paperwork as if his life depended on it.”

  Casey shrugged. “Maybe it does.”

  Lulu kicked off her flip-flops and dug her toes into the sand. Casey might’ve nailed it.

  As much as she’d wanted to find flaws in him after that first awful impression...she was struggling. When he’d invited her to his house—her house—she’d been prepared to play the happy islander right up until they were settled at the burger shack and then she was going to read him the riot act. Let him know how things really worked in Hawaii.

  And then she’d met Harry. Funny, kind, a brilliant dinosaur impersonator and quite clearly the keeper of the solitary key to Zach Murphy’s heart.

  His parents were great, too. They probably had spare keys... Warm-hearted. Friendly. Eager to learn more about Hawaii. His dad had a worrying cough, but she hadn’t felt it was appropriate to ask about it.

  There’d been no mention of Harry’s mother, and despite some rather epic earwigging over the past week she’d been unable to figure out why Zach’s marriage had failed. One thing she was sure about: he wasn’t much of a talker. Definitely an actions-speak-louder-than-words kind of guy. And, from what he’d done over the past week, also respectful, conscientious, hardworking. He was—as she’d admitted to herself late last night, when she might have been accidentally-on-purpose thinking about him—about a million times better than her initial impression.

  He turned, saw her watching him, and winked.

  A million and one times?

  She caught herself smiling in response. He returned the smile. A dimple appeared on his left cheek. It was cute. It ranked up there with that seemingly untamable cowlick at the back of his head. And, of course, those bright blue eyes of his.

  Then she felt something cold land on her collarbone.

  Ah. Her shaved ice.

  He hadn’t been winking at her—he’d been signaling to her that she was about to become a victim of her own ogling. Which, of course, hadn’t been ogling. It had been...critical observation.

  She frowned and turned away, trying to shake off the feelings as she swiped at the shaved ice. This wasn’t like her. Not even close. She wasn’t a flirter. And definitely not someone who dated. Well... She dated, but things never really moved beyond that. Either her brothers freaked the guys out by casually mentioning how much they could bench-press, or she nipped it in the bud before anything too close to feelings got involved.

  It didn’t take a psychiatrist to tell her that her idea of true love had been well and truly screwed up the day her father had grabbed his surfboard and paddled out to sea in the middle of storm to find their mother. His actions had declared one thing and one thing only: you should only marry someone you would risk your life for.

  Not so great if you were their little kid, standing on the beach, holding your big brother’s hand, wondering when Mommy and Daddy were going to come back, but hey... Whoever had named the Pacific Ocean for its peaceful nature had been having one hell of a laugh.

  When she turned around Zach’s back was to her and his fingers were hitched on his lean hips as one of the guys started pointing out something about the motor.

  It was one of her favorite Zach poses—Zach with his fingers hitched on his hips. There was also the thinking pose, of which there were variations. Thinking with a head scrub. Thinking with a chin rub. Thinking while looking out to the ocean. Then there was Zach at her—his—desk. With a pencil tucked behind his ear. With a pen tracing along that deliciously full mouth of his. With his mouth parted as if he were just on the brink of—

  Absolutely nothing.

  She took a big bite of shaved ice, instantly giving herself a full-on case of brain freeze. Just as well. She would not and could not let herself crush on the new chief from the mainland. Swooning over him was too close to actual feelings, and feelings always got you in trouble. Just when she properly fell for him he would leave. Or she would get fired for inappropriate behavior. Or worse. As if there was anything “worse” than being fired.

  A broken heart?

  Pffft. She’d consigned her heart to the walk-in freezer of lost opportunities long, long ago.

  As she sucked a few crystals of flavored ice off her knuckle their eyes met again. Something flared hot and bright between them, blurring out the rest of the world.

  A flash image of a pair of his ’n’ hers surfboards propped against the outdoor shower wall at Turtle Hideaway blinded her as the look intensified.

  She rubbed her eyes to make it go away.

  Insane fantasies like living with Zach were just that...fantasies. Mainlanders moved here convinced they wanted island life. But in the end all they actually needed was a monthlong vacation.

  A surge of something that felt an awful lot like disappointment swept through her.

  “Did you just sigh?” Casey asked.

  “Ha!” She scoffed. “No.”

  Had she?

  “OMG!” Casey cackled. “You totally did.”

  Lulu glared at her.

  “You have the hots for him, don’t you?” Casey asked, laughing as Lulu’s cheeks pinked up.

  “I totally do not.”

  Casey began laughing even harder. “You so completely do!” But as quickly as her laugh had begun, she went dead sober. “Don’t you date him. You know you’ve got a trail of broken hearts in your wake and he’s a good boss. We need to keep him here—and not just because he’s a tasty bit of eye candy.”

  Lulu made a gagging noise. “As you very well know, I have rules. I don’t date mainlanders. I don’t date haoles. Nor do I date colleagues. Especially not a haole mainlander boss who buys my dream house. Just because he�
�s sexy as a cake topper, it doesn’t mean I’m going to rip his pants off, tear his heart out of his chest and dine on it for supper.”

  “Good to know,” came a voice from behind her.

  A very male and impossible to interpret voice that could only belong to Zach Murphy.

  Awesome.

  She turned around, doing her best to make her expression appear casually indifferent rather than completely mortified.

  “I have high standards,” she answered, as loftily as she could. That and she was scared to death of ever finding out what it was actually like to love someone.

  “Hmm...” He hooked his fingers onto his hips. “Just as a matter of curiosity, is it a general Hawaiian thing not to date newcomers from the mainland, or something that’s specific to you?”

  His eyes didn’t leave hers even though Casey was standing right there.

  “Depends who’s asking,” she shot back.

  “Asking what?” Stewart asked, joining them under the shady palms.

  “Lulu here is giving Zach the rundown on her list of rules in order for her to date someone,” Casey said.

  “Oh, is she, now?” Stewart leaned against a palm, placing one food against it as a ballast. “I don’t think I’ve ever known our Lulu not to stomp all over some poor unsuspecting suitor’s heart.” He crossed his arms over his chest and grinned. “This I would very much like to hear.”

  “Hear what?” another one of the other guys from the crew asked.

  “Lulu’s dating rules,” Stewart said, pulling open a cool box and tossing cold bottles of water to everyone.

  Lulu felt streaks of red working their way up from her chest to her collarbones then her neck, virtually strangling her as they burned their way across her cheeks. How completely mortifying.