by DW Cee
Bubbling over with exuberance, we rolled into the hotel, and I was blown away! Gorgeous was an understatement. Our family has stayed in some nice places before, but this was “champagne wishes and caviar dreams,” nice. My mom was fond of Paris, so we stayed at The Ritz every spring for a while, and I’ve been to many parts of the world in my short twenty-seven years of life. And, we’ve even stayed at “nice” places on the Big Island in the past, but it was never this nice!
“How did you work this miracle?” I waved my hand to the beauty around us, while posing Donovan this question. “I can’t believe I’m here to work.”
“I didn’t do a thing. Our clients picked the location, and they are paying for everything. Wait till you see Kate’s room.”
We took a long walk around the property and eventually got to the Presidential Villa. This place was as big as Jake’s house and only one story, so it seemed even bigger. Who can afford a place like this?
“Our clients are paying for this?” Once again, I waved my hand to the entire villa. “Now I feel gypped!”
Donovan laughed. “The hotel upgraded her as soon as I showed them her hotel membership card. She must belong to some vacationer / hotel group. I don’t know. I’ll ask her when she gets here.”
“Hey!” My brother called us from outside. “Can we come in and visit the palace?”
“The door’s wide open. Come on in.” Donovan called out to the three waiting outside.
“WOW‼!” The three Reids were as amazed as I was with this “room.”
Nick joked, “Not that I’m complaining but...it seems hardly fair that you and Kate are in a three bedroom—especially since you’ll only use one bed—while the three of us are crammed in one room.”
“One of you want to stay here with us?”
Nick and Doug immediately answered, “Yes!” Laney stayed silent.
After a leisurely stroll through all the pools, we found my brother and Emily lounging on the beach sipping pineapple-infused water, while being sprayed by the hotel staff with Evian misters. What a crack up! Who goes around with Evian misters spraying hotel guests? Before this was over, I’d have to find out how much these guests were paying per night to stay in such luxury. I, for one, was grateful I was not paying for this trip.
“Is that Laney who just finished the ocean swim?” Donovan asked.
Doug replied, “I think she just did the beach run and the swim. She’s a nut sometimes when it comes to exercise.”
While Donovan and Doug were checking out Laney, I had to check out Donovan’s beach attire. He was in a pair of your classic Burberry check swim trunks with a white polo shirt with the Burberry check-lined placket. From the way he filled out the outfit, Donovan took good care of his body. He was well built, with no misplaced bulges, and muscular by the looks of his arms and legs. I’ve never seen Donovan with his top off so I kept staring at him in hopes that he’d take off the shirt. I felt like one of those women in a department store commercial who kept blinking her hands begging for the store to “open, open, open!”
I was brought back to sanity with Laney’s jubilant voice. “Oh my gosh, that was so wonderful!” She said as she came out of the ocean bouncing from all the extra energy.
Since I’ve been checking out everyone else’s swim attire, I did the same with Laney. She had on a really cute teal swim bottom and matching rash guard. I don’t know where I’ve been all these years, but Laney had grown into quite a woman. She filled the rash guard generously, she had long lean legs, and I just realized that this girl was at least a couple of inches taller than I was. I wasn’t the only one appreciating her figure. Doug didn’t look too happy with her attire, Nick grinned at Doug’s chagrin, and the rest of the men who were not related, appreciated her gorgeous self.
“Don’t you think your outfit is a little skimpy for a run and swim on the beach?” Doug was really irritated.
“I’m wearing a swim bottom and a rash guard. What do you mean skimpy? What else am I supposed to wear on the beach?”
“How about board shorts and a rash guard…no, make it long board shorts.”
“Yeah?” Now Laney was the one who was irritated. Next thing you knew, she took off her rash guard somehow, without spilling out of her bikini top, threw the rash guard at her brother and said, “Why don’t you go buy me a pair of long board shorts while I’m paddle boarding with Nolan.”
“Who the hell is Nolan, and I want you to put this top back on, Laney! I’m not kidding!!”
Laney could care less what her brother said as she ran off to meet her new friend. We all laughed at his plight.
“Doug, leave her alone. I think she looks adorable. If you can’t show off your figure when you’re twenty-two years old, when can you show off your figure?” Emily was always Laney’s champion.
“I didn’t realize your sister was so athletic in water sports.” Donovan also admired my cousin’s physique.
“She is not at all what she looks. She is athletic in just about every sport she picks up.” Now my brother was championing Laney. “I bet she can beat you in golf, Donovan.”
Donovan gave my brother the rolling of the condescending eye. “You do know I have a 2 handicap? There’s no way that little squirt can beat me.”
“Do I hear a bet coming on?”
I said, “You can’t bet for Laney when she’s not here.”
“Hey Laney,” my brothers yelled over to my cousin who was about to go paddle boarding. “Come here for a sec.”
“Yeah, Jake? What did you need?” She ran over with her Hawaiian friend trailing behind.
“I told Donovan over here that you could whip his ass in golf. You want to challenge him?”
Laney let out a devious laugh. “You want to challenge me, Mr. Taylor? You think you can beat me?”
“I have a 2 handicap, little girl. You think you can beat me?”
“I have yet to lose to any of the Reid men. Bring it on if you’re not too afraid.”
“Trash talking already...okay you’re on!” Donovan was smiling, but he should’ve been really scared. Laney was an excellent golfer. “What are we betting on?”
“If you lose, you need to take me on the three-hour hike to go see the lava flow at the volcanoes in Kilauea. Nobody will go with me, and Doug says I can’t go by myself.”
“Deal. And if you lose, Miss Delaney Reid, you need to stop calling me Mr. Taylor. You will call me Donovan from the moment you lose till the day you die.”
“Not likely…because I won’t lose!”
This good-looking Hawaiian guy finally caught up with Laney. “You ready to go paddle boarding?” He had a sexy, lazy smile.
“Hey, my name is Doug, I’m Laney’s brother, and you are...?” Doug was a bit more hostile than he needed to be. This guy seemed like a perfectly nice guy.
“Aloha! My name is Nolan. I’m Laney’s paddle boarding partner. Would you like to join us?”
“No! He’s not welcome to join us.” Laney glared at her brother, then turned to Donovan. “You going to get the tee time for us?”
“Laney, you want to golf...you know how to golf?” This Nolan looked even more impressed with our Laney. In fact, he looked quite smitten with her.
Laney smiled and nodded her head yes to him. They looked super cute together.
“Can I join you two if you are planning to golf tomorrow? I’m the head golf pro here and I’d be happy to get you a tee time if I’m included.”
“Sure! The more the merrier. See you at the crack of dawn, Mr. Taylor!” Laney teased Donovan one last time before heading off into the sunset in her skimpy teal bikini with her handsome Hawaiian golf pro.
“When did our Delaney grow up?” Donovan asked with a funny smile on his face, while appreciating her backside.
“What’s with you calling her Delaney? She hasn’t allowed any of us to call her Delaney since she was like ten years old. Why does she let you call her Delaney?” Doug sounded irritated again.
“I have no idea.
She seems to play games with my mind where names are concerned. Look at how she refuses to call me Donovan. I feel like an old man whenever she calls me Mr. Taylor. As of tomorrow, Mr. Taylor will be no more!”
Jake laughed in the background. “I wouldn’t be so cocky if I were you, Donovan. She wasn’t lying when she said none of us have beaten her.”
“Yeah, but can any of you boast a 2 handicap?” Donovan laughed at his own cockiness.
It turned out that our two Taiwanese clients wanted to golf as well, so the five of them were set to golf at 5:00am! I, for one, was glad not to be golfing. I’d be able to sleep in and lounge around until our meeting began in the afternoon. Although in reality, I’d have to get all the documents ready before the start of the meeting, which meant there was no lounging around for me. At such a luxurious resort, it was hard to make myself understand that this was not a vacation.
But, reality did set in and I wrapped up my (gigantic) share of the work before meeting my family, Kate, Donovan, Mr. Hong and Mr. Wang for lunch at the beautiful hotel restaurant. I saw a very happy Taiwanese twosome, a bubbly Laney and a surly Donovan walking in to join the rest of us.
Jake, Nick and Doug started cracking up the moment they got a glimpse of Donovan.
“I think she beat him,” Nick announced.
“Of course she beat him. Look at his pout.” Jake was loving it. “What was the score, Laney? I assume you won?”
“Did you ever doubt?” She giggled.
“Nope...” Jake walked over and kissed her on the cheek, then greeted Donovan. “Hey there buddy!”
“Yeah, yeah, get your laugh in now. For the record, Delaney cheated.” I had to say Donovan made an extremely cute surly man as well.
“I did not cheat! You are such a sore loser!”
“How did my cousin cheat?” Jake inquired.
“That golf pro of hers kept giving her pointers on every hole. He knew the golf course like the back of his hand.”
We all laughed at Donovan’s tantrum.
“So what was the final score?” Nick asked.
Our Taiwanese guests told the story from here on out. “It was a great match. At every hole, the lead kept changing. Donovan would be up at one hole then Laney was up the next hole. I’ve never seen such a good female golfer. They were tied at the last hole, and we went to sudden-death three times. Finally, Miss Reid shot one under and won the hole.”
Our entire table clapped for her. The Taiwanese men clapped most enthusiastically.
Donovan argued, “The golf pro whispers something in her ear, then next thing you know, she sinks an 18-footer. It was ridiculous how good that putt was.” Donovan pleaded his case, but by the smile on his face, he was proud of my cousin.
Laney’s happy expression all of a sudden changed. She suddenly conceded, “All right, Mr. Taylor. You win. You don’t have to take me to the volcano. I’ll see it next time.” After that dramatic show, she just walked away.
“Laney...” Everyone (is it mean that I was not a part of this everyone?) called out her name with some form of an empathetic tone.
She turned around and said, “Enjoy your lunch. I’m going to shower and change before my lunch date.”
She ignored all the calling out, and walked away. Emily stopped Donovan from chasing after her and once we started lunch, the whole Laney incident was forgotten.
I noticed that all this time Kate had not said a word during lunch. She and Donovan were cool to one another. Was there trouble in paradise? Once again, was it mean of me to enjoy the fact that Donovan and Kate were not getting along? Yeah, okay...it’s mean, but oh well…
“Laney, you are back.” Both our clients stood up to talk to her.
Laney, once again, looked stunning. I don’t know how I never realized that she was a pretty girl. She was wearing one of those Hawaiian one-piece sarongs that turned into a dress or a skirt depending upon how you shaped it. She had put it on in such a way where she looked like she was wearing a flowy Grecian dress. Her brother did not look too happy with her again. With an easy flick of the wrist, her dress would fall apart if unknotted from her right shoulder.
“You will join us on our hike tomorrow morning to the volcano? Donovan said he would get us a driver and a guide. We are going to finish all our business today so that we can spend the day with you again tomorrow. Please don’t say no.”
Laney quickly glanced over at Donovan, and then smiled at our clients and said, “I would love to spend the day with you as well. Thank you for the invitation.”
“Laney, after your lunch date, you want to go shopping with me and Jake?”
“Sure Emily. See you later,” she whispered, and walked over to her table and her date.
“Is he her boyfriend?” Kate whispered to me, while giving Laney a piercing look-over.
“No. He’s just somebody she met on the island today.”
“Men seem to be silly putty in her hands.” Was this Sea-foam goddess kidding me in her Chanel dress and Valentino slip-ons? She thought our little Laney was alluring? Did she actually find Laney a threat?
Hmmm...something weird but interesting was going on. Shall I coin it The Young and the Restless? The Bold and the Beautiful? Whatever it was, I couldn’t help thinking that Kate was threatened by the wrong person. It wasn’t Laney who was making Donovan doubt his relationship with Kate. I know, I know, I have a great boyfriend in Max. I’m just saying…the threat is sitting right next to you, not the table over. What’s the old saying? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Well, your enemy can’t get much closer than where I’m sitting. He He He!
April 8, 2013 Aloha (and coitus) Interruptus
I kept myself hidden from view when I saw Max’s plane touch down. I was so excited to see him. I purposely avoided all of his calls and only texted back saying I was super busy and that I would get to him as soon as I could. By now of course, he knew he was coming to see me. Could it be that he was upset that I cut his week short with Hannah? Nah!!! What a ridiculous thought!
“Surprise,” I whispered in Max’s ears, sneaking up from behind while he was picking up his luggage from the one conveyor belt baggage claim.
“Gem.” He crooned in the sweetest voice while dropping his suitcase and holding me closer than close. We immediately gave his brothers a show.
“Geez! Get a room. You’re going to be arrested for indecency.” Josh said with a chuckle.
“Hi Josh! Hi Garret!” I hugged both Davises simultaneously. “Isn’t this island amazing? You been here before?”
“No,” Garret laughed. “And thank you for including us in your work, vacation, whatever this is. That was really cool of you. Josh and I decided you’ve replaced Emily as our favorite girlfriend.”
“Fanfreakin’tastic! I’ve never usurped Emily’s reign in any category. That’s all it took, huh? A free ticket to Hawaii? Wait till you get to the hotel. Once you get a load of our lodging, I will forever be your favorite.”
“We’ll see. We can be fickle.” Josh and Garret had such an easy going charm about them. They were going to charm the panties off of some unsuspecting women if they weren’t careful.
