by Toby Neal
“I’m here in Honolulu. Want to meet tonight at that noodle place you used to like?”
Sophie remembered the tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant near Waikiki. She used to eat there all the time; now it had been years. “Yes, of course. Momi will be down by seven, so I’ll meet you there at seven thirty.” She ended the call with a punch of her thumb—she had to keep the upper hand, somehow!
She glanced over at her sandy toddler. Momi had climbed up onto Ginger’s prone body, and now was dumping sand onto the Lab with her shovel. “Momi! No!”
As she hurried over to rescue the Lab, she was glad she’d be too busy to obsess on what he wanted to talk about until she finally got her daughter into bed.
Sophie dressed for dinner with Jake in her usual black work outfit after getting Momi down to sleep fifteen minutes early. She didn’t want to seem overeager, so she left makeup off, too, except for a bit of red lip stain.
“I’m off for my meeting. She’s down,” she told Armita as she passed through the living room, where her nanny was doing yoga while watching the news. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
“Take all the time you need.” Armita waved, and Sophie wiggled her fingers back as she shut the door of the apartment.
It wasn’t so much that Armita disapproved of Sophie dating; it was more that she didn’t understand Sophie’s desire to even try to have a relationship. Romantic entanglements were an irrelevant distraction, and men were overgrown children. “You already have a toddler, Sophie,” she’d said the last time Sophie went on a date. “Why would you want another?”
It was easier just to tell her nothing, and Armita didn’t expect anything more, anyway.
The Waikiki noodle house looked exactly the same as the last time Sophie had been there. She stepped inside the restaurant to the familiar rattle of the row of beads across the glass door. The deep single room with its long, battered wooden counter and barstools along one wall and row of booths on the other, filled her with a sense of homecoming—as did the rich scent of savory broth, the clash of utensils, and chatter in a plethora of languages.
Sophie was ensconced at a corner booth with her back against the wall, nursing a cup of green tea, when Jake walked in.
She vividly remembered the day she’d brought him here to meet her friend Marcella for the first time: the way he’d entered and so effortlessly dominated the room, the way he seemed to radiate heat and light, his own self-contained sun.
That sun was dimmed in the man walking toward her now.
His eyes were the color of ash. Dark shadows hung beneath them; his thick shoulders sagged in wrinkled clothing. Comb tracks in his short dark hair and the familiar smell of his lemony aftershave told her he’d cleaned up, likely from the gym if his pumped-up forearms were anything to go by.
Jake slid into the booth opposite her. “This place hasn’t changed a bit.”
“There’s something comforting in that. I get tired of everything changing all the time.” Sophie sipped her tea. “I ordered saimin with everything on it for you.”
“That sounds good.”
They stared at each other for a long moment. Jake rested his big hands on the table’s surface, flexing them restlessly. He dropped his eyes, and she missed seeing them.
“You asked for this meeting,” Sophie said.
“You look beautiful.” He shook his head. “But then, you always do.”
“And you look tired, Jake. What’s going on?”
He sighed. “California isn’t working. Felicia and I aren’t working.”
Sophie set the small, handleless teacup down so he wouldn’t see her hand tremble. “What do you mean?”
“She dumped me. Said I wasn’t . . . there for her.”
“I’m hardly the person to give you relationship advice.” The arrival of their large, steaming bowls of noodles provided a welcome distraction.
Silence reigned for a stretch of time, filled only with the sounds involved with eating a lot of slippery noodles in a fragrant broth redolent with meat and vegetables. Jake finished first, pushing his bowl away with a muffled belch, patting his belly. “That was just what the doctor ordered.”
Sophie smiled at him over the rim of her large plastic spoon. “You always did like noodles as a comfort food.” She poured more tea into her small cup, and picked it up to occupy her hands. “It’s time you came to the point about why you asked to talk with me.”
“Felicia thinks I’m still in love with you.” Jake’s eyes heated to the color of warm steel as they met hers. “She said she’s not wasting any more of her best reproductive years on a guy who can’t commit because he’s hung up on someone else.”
“Felicia is a smart woman. I always liked her.” Sophie’s heart beat with slow, heavy thuds that seemed to echo in her ears. “But how is this my problem? You dumped me two years ago.”
She set down the teacup, and Jake reached across the table and took one of her hands. “I’m sorry. For being such a total dick. I wouldn’t listen to you. I was wrong.”
“That you were.” A smile tugged at Sophie’s mouth. “A huge dick. With purple pustules on it, you big hairy son of a yak.”
“Hey. Keep the insults in English, please, so I can continue to grovel properly.”
“You dumped me, and you stole our office manager and ran off with her and started your own company and you . . . broke my heart.” Sophie’s eyes filled. “I was so alone.” She pulled her hand away, clutching a napkin, dabbing her eyes.
“No, not the crying. No fair.” He whisked a tear from her cheek with the ball of his thumb. “And you weren’t alone! In fact, I couldn’t get a minute of your time even before Momi was born. After you got her back, you had your baby, and that battle-axe ninja nanny of yours, and don’t forget Alika, whisking you all away to his mansion. I felt like . . . what did I have to give you? I was broken by what happened in the compound. I thought Connor was my friend . . . and I thought you were with him behind my back.” Jake shook his head. “It’s taken me all this time to realize it wasn’t all about me. Felicia was the one to help me see that.”
“Like I said. Felicia’s a smart woman. You should try to win her back.” The tears wouldn’t stop coming. “She’s good for you. I’m not.”
“Bullshit on that last part. Are you dating anyone?”
The part of her that was terrified of opening herself to more pain wanted to say yes, and Raveaux’s face flickered briefly across her mind’s eye. She’d have dated him if he’d asked . . . “No. Though I’m not without possibilities.”
“Of course, you have possibilities.” Jake picked up her hand again, and stroked his thumb across the callus at the base of her fingers. That zing that she’d been unable to spark with Connor zipped up her spine and back down, lighting her nerve endings along the way. “I suspect you always will have possibilities, and that I won’t always know what they are or who they are. I couldn’t live with that before.” He lifted her hand and kissed the tips of her fingers, then held it in both of his. His heat and strength warmed her. “I’ve . . . matured, I guess you could say. At least, I hope so.” He sighed, shook his head a little. “My sister Patty tried to tell me this years ago, and I wish I’d listened. Could have saved us all a world of hurt. Here’s the thing: sometimes, things are a mixed bag. Not all evasions are lies . . . and some lies are necessary. Like who Connor is.”
“He refuses to lie about himself anymore,” Sophie said. “He can never leave the shelter of the Yām Khûmkạn, now that you outed him to the authorities.”
“Then you two are in touch,” Jake said carefully.
“We met on Phi Ni for a week. I just got back.” Sophie tightened her grip on his hands as he tried to withdraw them. “Connor and I aren’t together. We’re just friends.” She met his gaze, and drew a breath for courage. “You’re not the only one still in love with someone else.”
The waiter returned to clear away their bowls. The moment the man was gone, Jake tugged on her hands. “Co
me here. Next to me.”
Sophie tightened her lips, shook her head. “No. I’m afraid . . .”
“Fine.” He stood up and maneuvered to her side of the booth, sliding in and looping an arm around her. He shifted her up onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her as if she were dainty and small, not a well-muscled woman of five foot nine.
“This.” He sighed against her nape, relaxing into her even as she sagged into him. “I’ve missed this. You.” He nuzzled her neck.
“I’ve missed you, too,” Sophie whispered. She shut her eyes to close out the embarrassment of such a public display in a booth not built to accommodate it, even as she smiled. This wasn’t the first time Jake had manhandled her onto his lap in a booth in a restaurant.
She hadn’t been this warm in more than two years.
It felt so good to be surrounded by his arms, his familiar strength, and to feel his breath stirring the hairs on her neck, his heart thumping against her back.
Jake felt like home.
Where did they go from here? How? What came next? Were they a couple now?
She didn’t need to know the answers. It was enough just to be in this moment with him, and that was the truth.
Turn the page for a sneak peek of book thirteen of the Paradise Crime Mysteries, Razor Rocks! Lei is back!
Sneak Peek
Razor Rocks, Paradise Crime Mystery #13, with Lei Texeira!
Detective Sergeant Leilani Texeira clutched the dashboard of her partner Pono’s jacked-up purple truck, affectionately nicknamed Stanley. “Can you slow down?”
Pono grabbed the chrome skull shifter, and changed gears. Stanley roared forward even faster. “No.” He whipped around a line of rental cars, the cop light on his dash strobing, as they zoomed down Highway 380 toward Ma`alaea Harbor.
Lei shut her eyes. “Bruddah. Getting killed on the way to the harbor won’t find your cousin any faster, and besides, if we get in a wreck, Tiare will kill us both.” Pono’s beautiful and formidably competent wife, Tiare, was not to be messed with.
Pono’s big brown hand tightened on Stanley’s shifter, but he eased up on the gas pedal.
Lei sat back in her seat. “I know this is hard—but whatever’s happened has already happened. You gotta stay objective about the case, or Captain Omura will pull you off of it.”
Pono scowled like an angry tiki god, his pidgin thickening. “It’s my cuz. Not jus’ any kine cuz—dis my uncle’s oldest boy Chaz Kaihale. We been close since small kid time.”
“I know. Chaz is good people.” Lei touched Pono’s tense bicep, her fingers lightly brushing the slash of a scar where a tribal tattoo of interlocking triangles had been torn by a meth dealer’s bullet. She still remembered how terrified she’d been when the man who was her brother in everything but name had been shot… “Tell me again what you know. Let’s get a plan before we meet with the Coast Guard.”
Pono blew out a breath and put both hands back on the wheel. The truck slowed to a reasonable rate at last. “Chaz called me from sea. You know how he’s a captain; goes out with a couple of guys to crew luxury yachts for that company, Deluxe Dream Vacations. Anyway, I wen’ get one call from him just yesterday; he stay yelling. “Pono! You gotta help us! Get pirates coming!” and then damn if the phone didn’t cut off.” Pono flexed his fingers on the wheel. “Ho, I was laughing. I thought Chaz was pranking me cuz was April first! But when I tried to call back, it nevah go through. So I’m thinking, eh, he pranked me but even with the sat phone, half the time his calls get cut off.” Pono glanced over at Lei. Even with his favorite Oakleys hiding his eyes, she felt his pain. “Turns out, the call was legit.”
“You couldn’t have known! I mean, it was April Fool’s Day!” Lei shook her head. Drifts of curls, whipping in the breeze from the partly-open window, hid her view of her partner, so she grabbed handfuls of her wayward hair and bundled it back with a rubber band from her pocket.
“I should have tried harder to check. Chaz, he one prankster, but I should have called the ship-to-shore radio at least…anyway, I did nothing. Then just now, I get a call from that Coast Guard guy we worked that Molokini case with—Aina Thomas? Remember him? He called my cell, telling me they found the yacht my cuz was captaining washing up on the reef off Lana`i. No one on board, but get bloodstains.” Pono speeded up again.
“No, Pono, no…” Lei’s stomach lurched under the sensible black polo shirt she wore with jeans and athletic shoes, and she rubbed it reflexively. “You didn’t tell me anything but ‘go get in the car, we got a case involving my cuz.’ This is big, if it’s pirates. If it’s murder.”
“I know.”
“Are you sure Thomas was calling you as an investigator? Maybe he was calling you as a witness, because you and Chaz are close. He found your name listed somewhere in Chaz’s phone or something.”
Pono’s mouth just tightened, and Lei had her answer—Pono wasn’t thinking, right now.
Lei needed to take charge. “I’ll call Omura and brief her with what we know. And let me take the lead when we talk to Thomas.” She dug a Maui Police Department ball cap out of the backpack, loaded with investigation paraphernalia, that she carried in lieu of a purse and duty belt. She tugged the cap down low and tight on her head, threading her thick ponytail through the back. “We got dis, partner.”
Lei hadn’t seen Petty Officer Aina Thomas in several years, not since they’d shared a gut-wrenching case involving the murder of a beautiful young marine biologist in the waters off of Molokini atoll. A lot had happened since she’d been briefly attracted to the handsome Coast Guardsman, including the birth of a daughter and the rescue of her husband, Michael Stevens, from foreign kidnappers.
Wind characteristic of the area whipped the palm trees as they pulled into the marina parking lot of Ma`alaea Harbor. Lei hopped down off the chrome step of the lifted truck, patting her weapon in its shoulder holster and straightening her jacket over it, checking that her badge was clipped onto her belt.
“We go!” Pono boomed, his usual mellow attitude gone as he slammed his door. Lei jogged to keep up as they moved along the waterfront, the ocean glimmering in the distance and the clang of wind-whipped rigging and squeak of boats at their moorings, a strange kind of music. Lei spotted the Coast Guard inflatable, and hurried to get in front of her partner.
Pono felt like a thundercloud at her back, pushing her forward, and a quiver of purely personal nervous tension sharpened Lei’s voice as she hurried toward the nattily-uniformed young man standing on the dock in front of the powerful, rigid-hulled Coast Guard Defender zodiac. “Petty Officer Thomas. What have we got?”
“Sergeant Lei Texeira and Detective Pono Kaihale.” Thomas’s voice was brusque; he put his hands on his hips. His crisp Coast Guard uniform still looked really good on his trim, athletic frame. “Long time. I see you came with your partner, but I only called Pono. As a witness, to be interviewed.”
“That may be what got this going, but Captain Omura has authorized us to investigate these missing persons and signs of foul play on behalf of the Maui Police Department. So, going forward, this is going to be a joint investigation.” Pono’s body heat shimmered just behind her; her partner was barely containing his anxiety, but even without seeing him, Lei knew he’d be looking as intimidating as hell with his arms crossed over his bulky chest and those inscrutable Oakleys hiding his worried eyes. “Why don’t we go to your conference room in the Coast Guard building where we can speak privately?”
Aina Thomas had a face much like her own: tawny, light brown skin, a few freckles across the nose, the tilted eyes of mixed Asian/Hawaiian and Portuguese descent, well-marked features, curling dark hair buzzed military-short. Other than his hair, looking at him was like looking at a male twin.
Thomas shook his head in negation. “We need to get back out to the wreck. We can brief on the way. Follow me.” He spun with precision and headed for the ladder leading up onto the deck of the craft.
Lei glanced around as she asce
nded the ladder onto the rigid-hulled inflatable twenty-five-foot Coast Guard Defender. Two huge Honda outboards idled harshly; as soon as she and Pono were on board, a crewman handed them life vests and Thomas ushered them into the cramped quarters of the small navigation cabin. “We can talk in here. It’s about thirty minutes to the site.”
“Wow, this thing really rips,” Lei said. “it’s usually an hour from Ma`alaea to Lana`i on the ferry.”
Thomas’s quick, triangular grin reminded her why she’d found him so attractive. “You have no idea. Grab onto something.”
Lei caught hold of a support stanchion on the inside wall just as the boat surged forward, spinning away from the dock and violating the usual inside-harbor speed limits. Pono jostled against her until they both found seats on a padded storage bench against one wall.
“Why don’t you tell us what you wanted to talk to Pono about?” Lei shouted over the noise of the engines. “It must be pretty urgent if we didn’t have time to talk about it somewhere quieter—and more private.” She indicated the Guardsman driving the boat with her head.
In answer, Thomas handed the man a set of earmuffs. “It’s ear protection and a comm unit,” Thomas told them. The Guardsman put them on, his eyes front and full attention on driving the speedy craft.
Thomas removed a touchscreen tablet from a drawer and sat in one of the two bolted-down captain’s chairs, swiveling to face them. “I called you because we suspect foul play. I called Pono because of his relationship with Chaz Kaihale, the captain. We think Kaihale may be involved with whatever went on.”
“Why you say that about my cousin?” Pono rumbled, fierce with defensiveness for his family member. “He’s a good man. Never been in any trouble.”
“Because Kaihale’s nowhere to be found, nor are the passengers…and the boat was robbed of valuables. Usually these kinds of hits are an inside job,” Thomas said. “Otherwise, we’re talking pirates, and that seldom happens in Hawaii for a number of reasons I won’t get into right now. Good thing the ship hung up on the rocks, or we’d have nothing to investigate at all; I saw a hole in the hull other than what the rocks made, and I think the perp tried to sink it.”