He nodded.
“I can’t decide if the timing for all of this is fate handing me a gift to get rid of Graham and stop my mother meddling once and for all, or if fate’s laughing in my face at one more relationship fiasco.”
“I don’t know that fiasco is the right word.” He resisted the urge to massage the tension from her shoulders. “Which means it has to be an opportunity.”
“My father is going to be devastated.” The sadness that took root in her eyes jabbed at him.
His hands lifted and began swirling motions on her shoulder before he could remind himself touching in private was not a good idea. “I’m sorry.”
“Thanks.” Her head fell back against his shoulder. “Mother had complications after I was born. She couldn’t have more children. Mother wanted me to go to finishing school in Switzerland. Heaven forbid I hadn’t learned at home how to serve from the left or properly introduce a duke. I wanted to go to college. Daddy backed me up. Mother finally agreed if I went someplace close to home.” Her eyes crinkled with amusement. “I wanted to go to Columbia in New York. Daddy backed me up on that as well.”
“Always had your back.”
“Yeah. Before I left for New York I was going through the attic, looking for some things I could use to furnish an apartment and found an old trunk.”
He felt her stiffen slightly and slid his hands down her arms and back until she relaxed again.
“It was filled with baby boy clothes and toys. Even had a baseball bat and mitt. A football. Some pennants from Dad’s alma mater. He’d wanted a boy.”
“Most men do, at least a little.”
“He never let on. Never made me feel like I’d been a disappointment. He was the perfect dad. Taught me to swim long before mother thought I should. Sat through tea parties. Bought me a puppy for my tenth birthday when Mother insisted it would be too much trouble. And let me dance on his feet until I finally developed a sense of rhythm.”
“Sounds like he was a great dad.”
“The best. I don’t want to hurt him.”
“I don’t know what to say to that.”
“I always told him someday he’d get to walk me down the aisle. I don’t know if he’ll understand.”
“He’ll get a chance some day. When it’s for real.”
“I know.”
For a few more minutes everything seemed perfect. Right. The night, the air, the woman. Having Lexie here with him, talking, sharing, felt like the most natural thing in the world. And then a fleeting image of the woman he’d made a promise to came to mind.
His fingers slowed and Lexie straightened, pulling away. “I think I’m going to call it an early night. It’s been one hell of a day.”
He barely nodded. “Can’t argue with you there.” Except for one glaring flaw with her plan. Bed.
Chapter Eight
Oh shit. Early to bed had seemed like a great idea after the day she’d had. Until she walked into her room and spotted the bed. This part she hadn’t quite worked out in her mind.
How stupid would she look if she built a wall of pillows between them? Hanging a blanket like in that old Clarke Gable movie wasn’t practical. She could ask him to sleep on the floor like that movie set in Napa Valley during WWII. But all of that was ridiculous. They were sensible grown adults and there was no reason they couldn’t share her spacious queen size bed.
Though now that she looked at Mr. Thirty-four Inch Inseam, her nice big bed didn’t look all that big any more. She should have gone for the king size.
“I’ll take the floor.” Once again he’d crept silently beside her.
“That won’t be necessary.”
From the neat side of the bed he grabbed a pillow. “Believe me when I tell you I have slept in some very odd places in my naval career. Your floor will seem palatial compared to some of them.
“I don’t know.”
“Trust me. It will be fine.”
“If you’re sure?”
“I’m sure.”
From her bathroom linen closet, Lexie pulled out a spare blanket and sheet and comforter then carried them back to the center of the bedroom. Apparently the WWII movie was going to win. Dropping the stack of bed linens on the corner of the bed, she pulled out the comforter and folded it in half.
“What are you doing?” Jim kicked his shoes off and walked to her side.
“Using this for a little padding.”
He lifted one brow
“I know it’s not much.” She shrugged. “But it’s all I’ve got.”
Stretching out his arm, he retrieved the puffy blanket. “Thank you. I’ll take care of it.”
Now the only thing she had to do was change and climb into bed. Which meant she had to come up with something other than her normal summer nightgowns. From the shelf in her closet she pulled out a pair of thin flannel pants and an almost matching t-shirt. Then decided the not nearly matching heavier cotton top would be better. It was that or sleep with a bra and she really didn’t want to do that.
“You want to go first?” Jim stood over his makeshift bed.
“Excuse me?”
“The bathroom.” He pointed behind her.
“Oh. Yes, I’ll only be a minute.”
And for whatever reason she felt the need to be literal. Hurrying, she tossed her clothes into the hamper, slid into her nightclothes, brushed her teeth and almost breathlessly, scurried into the bedroom and slammed to a halt at the sight of Jim in a t-shirt and running shorts.
Swallowing hard, she resisted the urge to wipe her lips and check she wasn’t drooling. “It’s all yours. The bathroom.”
Without a word, he walked past her, into the bathroom and closed the door. Did it make her a complete and total dork to listen for the lock to latch? And what did it mean that he didn’t lock the door?
The water from the sink turned off and she bolted onto the bed and scrambled under the covers before he could come out and see her standing staring at the door and think he’d married an original dumb blonde. Instead of the door opening as expected, the next sound was the toilet flushing. Drat! Now she had to go too.
Fumbling about the unkempt sheets in search of the remote, she finally located the missing control just in time to turn the TV on when he emerged from the bathroom. “You don’t mind do you? I wanted to catch the replay of the nightly news.”
“Not at all. I could sleep through a wailing burglar alarm if necessary.” Propping the extra pillow behind him, he leaned against the foot of the bed to watch TV.
By the time the news anchor wrapped up the broadcast, Lexie’s eyelids had grown heavy. The stress of the day was catching up with her. Or maybe it was just her life.
* * *
“Alexandra, honey.” A faint tapping accompanied the whispered voice in Lexie’s head. “Alexandra Louise. It’s almost time to get your father. Can I come in?” Through the last threads of a fitful sleep, Lexie recognized her mother’s voice over the knocking at the door.
And why the hell was she knocking anyway? Rolling onto her back, Lexie draped her elbow over her eyes to block the streaming sunlight and mumbled, “Come in.”
The soft clack of high heels drifted slowly across the room. Was her mother tiptoeing? Lifting her arm just far enough to glimpse her mom from one eye, she could see her mother casting short quick glances from the bed to the bathroom door and back as she eased further into the room.
Running water sounded from her bathroom. Crap—a leak. Only it sounded more like she’d left the shower on than a running stream. Placing a hand on the mattress at either side of her she shoved into an upright position prepared to swing her legs about and check out the source of the sound when her mind, and memory, kicked into gear. Jim!
“Your father missed the last commercial flight so he’s using the company jet. He’ll be here in an hour.” Her mother kept casting furtive glances toward the bathroom, but not the bedroom floor.
Wouldn’t she be more concerned with why her daughter’s husb
and slept on the floor than his taking a shower? Linking her hands and raising her arms over her head, turning her neck from side to side and leaning forward and back, she hoped to mask her attempt at recognizance with simple morning stretches. The reason for her mother’s lack of questions on her daughter’s marital sleeping arrangements were explained when Lexie glimpsed the floor by the foot of the bed. The blanket missing, the extra pillow now in its proper place beside her, and the bed sheet on the other side of her bed sloppily turned back.
The side no one supposedly slept in. Unless…
“Alexandra,” her mother’s reproving tone reminded Lexie of the GPS announcing with irritation that it was re-calculating. “Did you hear anything I said?”
No. She was more concerned with where her sort-of husband had slept last night. And if it was in her bed, why the hell hadn’t she noticed? And even more importantly, who did he think he was climbing into her bed in the middle of the night?
“Alexandra!”
“Sorry, Mother. What did you say?”
“Honest to God, child. Ever since you’ve moved to Hawaii you’ve developed the attention span of a two-year-old. We need to pick your father up at the airport. Unless you want me to have Graham—”
“No!” Breathe. In. Out. “No,” Lexie repeated more calmly. “I’ll get dressed and be ready in twenty minutes.”
With a curt dip of her chin and sideways glance at the bathroom as she spun about, Lillian Hale walked out of Lexie’s room as unaware of the charade as she’d been last night.
The moment the bedroom door closed behind her mother, the bathroom door opened and Jim emerged. “That was close.”
“Close?”
Hair still wet from the shower, a hand towel hugging his neck, and one of the newly purchased t-shirts stretching across his expansive chest, Jim leaned against the fully open doorway and crossed his arms. “It’s hard to tiptoe in high heels.”
Behind him Lexie could see the pile of bedding on the bathroom floor.
“I’m trained to hear any movement around me. In a non combat situation, I can ignore a great deal of my surroundings, but when I’m half asleep and hear someone trying to sneak up on me, they might as well shoot off a cannon.”
“So you slept on the floor?”
Jim’s brow buckled at the question and then slowly relaxed as he untangled her meaning. “As soon as I heard your mother moving I began gathering the bedding. When I realized her destination was your room, I rumpled the other side of your bed, tossed the extra linens in the bathroom, and hopped in the shower to avoid any morning awkwardness.”
“Thank you.” It shouldn’t have occurred to her that he would take advantage of her being asleep to crawl into her bed. The man was as honorable as they came. She already knew this from when he gave up his time and risked his relationship with his fiancée to protect people he didn’t know. And now he could have phoned Lexie about their current predicament. Even emailed. But he’d come to Kona to inform her about the marriage mistake in person.
On top of all that, respectful of her and the woman he still expected to marry, he’d easily agreed to sleep on the floor like an actor in censored fifties sitcom. She felt two inches tall. A stellar example of why one should never jump to conclusions. And thanks to her mother’s unexpected morning visit, she also accepted the fruitlessness of their efforts. “This is rather foolish of us.”
“You’re going to tell your folks the truth about why you broke it off with Mr. Sleazebag?” “No. I don’t mean that.”
“If you don’t want your parents to know our marriage is only temporary due to the mother of all clerical mistakes, then the only other way to chill your mother’s enthusiasm for reuniting with Graham is to tell her the truth about why you walked out on the cheating ex.”
Though she knew in her head Graham’s cheating wasn’t a reflection on her, that didn’t stop her from wondering anyway. From doubting herself. And maybe taking on just a little bit of blame. But the possibility of having to reveal the details of the distasteful situation with anyone, especially her parents, was unthinkable. “I don’t want to tell her or my father what happened. I meant the sleeping arrangements.”
He bobbed his head for her to continue.
“You’re only going to be here for a few days while Kara looks into our next step and we hopefully dispatch Graham or at least scare him into keeping his distance.” The more she spoke her thoughts out loud, the more sense they made. She’d behaved like a timid teen last night. “I can’t have you running like a scared rabbit every time one of my parents walks past my door. We’re level headed grown ups. This isn’t an old Clarke Gable movie. There’s no reason we can’t share the bed. Is there?”
* * *
Jim almost shook his head to clear his hearing. This was not the unexpectedly nervous woman he’d found himself behind closed doors with last night. The gal sitting on the bed in front of him sounded more like the self-assured shop manager he’d come to know during his previous stay on the island.
Keeping her eyes on him, a small smile teased at one corner of her mouth. “Unless you’re a blanket hog. Are you?”
“No. And I did not run like a scared rabbit.” Jim smiled back. The woman had one hell of a smile. The kind of smile a man could get lost in. Which was why the size of the mattress concerned him more than the blanket. Sharing a bed with a woman you had no intention of making love to was never a good idea. Especially when he already knew how she felt in his arms.
He needed to focus on something else. Not allow himself to think of Lexie’s smile or sense of humor or the cute way her eyes sparked whenever she was surprised. What he needed to do was think of Bridget and his promise to give them another chance. He could do this. The sleeping arrangements would only be for a few nights, and any man who had trained with SEALs could certainly find the self-discipline to ignore one beautiful blonde. He nodded. “No more floor.”
“Good.” She pushed to her feet and opened the closet door. “Then it’s settled. We won’t have to worry about my mother accidentally finding us out.”
He nodded again, but didn’t move from his place holding up the wall. Somehow it seemed safer to remain in place.
Lexie took a sleeveless powder blue dress off the hanger and slung it over her arm, then twisted around and opened a dresser drawer. “My father’s plane is due in soon.”
Turning his wrist, he looked down at his watch then up to Lexie. The short time he’d been stationed in Honolulu had been long enough to learn no flights originating from the mainland arrive on the islands before noon. “Isn’t he coming from Boston?”
“Yes, but he’s flying in on the company jet.”
Of course. Considering her mother’s obvious breeding, a private jet wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. Another reason why Lexie Hale was such an anomaly, nothing like anyone he knew. In or out of the Navy. Such incongruity between the suntanned, fun loving dive shop manager and the daughter of one of Boston’s most prominent families. Jim didn’t need to have met Graham to confirm the guy was a complete fool and an idiot. “I’ll change into slacks.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“You don’t expect me to greet a man who travels on a private jet to meet his daughter’s new husband wearing gym shorts?”
“Actually.” Her arms dropped, resting her clothes on the dresser top. “I hadn’t thought you would come at all.”
Her intent shouldn’t have come as a surprise. He knew this entire situation was uncomfortable for Lexie, especially how it affected her relationship with her father. And he had been out of line putting her in this position without discussing it first. But just thinking about Lexie subjected to her mother’s matchmaking with the cheating ex triggered every protective instinct nature had spent centuries developing in modern man. After meeting the lowlife sleaze, he knew he’d made the right choice even if Lexie still wasn’t sure. “It’s your call, but if the plan is to make your father and mother support you and abandon the notion
of having Graham for a son-in-law, my staying home is not going to make much of an impression.”
Lexie’s head barely moved from side to side. He could see her mind processing the pros and cons of the situation and recognized the moment she’d come to grips with the truth behind his words. With a gentle shift of her head to up and down, she gathered the clothes she’d allowed to fall onto the dresser. “We’ll leave as soon as I’m dressed.”
Chapter Nine
Both private and commercial jets used the single runway at the Kona airport. A throw back to every old news clip or black and white travel film, passengers deplaned on the portable stairs and strolled across the breezy tarmac. Designed with a tropical open air layout, the arrival area housed a gift shop in one corner, an eating establishment in the opposite corner, and multiple kiosks overloaded with last minute souvenirs to take home for the forgotten Aunt Peggy or Cousin Ned. After all, didn’t everyone need a coconut hula bra?
The rumble in Lexie’s stomach announced to anyone within hearing distance that neither she nor Jim had taken the time to eat before hopping in the car with Lillian Hale. Since her mom was a tea drinker, Lexie hadn’t even indulged in her morning wake-up cup of coffee. Something she might have regretted had her mother not had little to say in the drive to the airport. Jim had performed his son-in-law duties admirably. He’d politely greeted her mother good morning, complimented her on how lovely the simple sundress looked on her, implying she made the dress look good and not the other way around, and then he held the house and car doors open for both the new women in his life.
Even if Lexie was only going to be the woman in his life for a brief time, and Lillian Hale for even less, Jim put on a stellar performance. “Relax,” he whispered from behind her. And like the night before with Graham at the door, Jim’s hands settled on her shoulders and began soothing away the tension.
A girl could so get used to this.
In the distance, the whirl of a smaller private jet grew closer and Lexie’s already racing heart kicked into overdrive. How did she let this happen? Why did she get tangled in this absurd plan? She should simply tell her mom the marriage was a mistake and she did not want to marry Graham no matter how good a catch the man appeared to be. Oh wait. She had said that. At least the part about not wanting to marry Graham. She wanted to stomp her feet and shout at her mother. I do not want dinner with Graham, I do not want to date Graham, I do not want to marry Graham. Damn it, I do not like green eggs or Graham!
Mai Tai Marriage Page 7