So they did some necking on the beach, he thought. Big deal. A few kisses. A little heat generated between two healthy bodies. No reason to get all tied up in knots. Damn it. It was a big deal and he knew it. He'd been around the block enough times to recognize innocent desire when he saw it. She'd been as surprised by her own response as he'd been by the fact that he'd somehow managed to get so close to paradise. He'd felt like a million dollars with her in his arms and he wondered if he'd ever have that feeling again.
You'll see her tonight. He brightened at the thought. In less than two hours he'd pick her up for the drive to Waianae and some party she was going to. He wondered how she'd look when he first saw her. Would she duck her head shyly, the memory of their kisses still fresh in her mind, or would she flash him that dazzling smile of hers and turn on the charm?
Everything was different now. With the first kiss they shared, Rick found himself walking a tightrope without a net. He'd come too far to risk tossing it all aside because a girl's kisses were sweet. Forrester had already said he'd sponsor Rick as a candidate for officer's training. It was only a matter of time until Rick received his orders to report for school. If Forrester got even a hint of what had happened between Rick and Eden, Rick could kiss his plans goodbye.
The thought sobered him. You didn't take twenty-five years of ambition and toss them all aside because you couldn't keep your hands off an officer's daughter. There was no future for them. Hell, he didn't want a future with her or with any woman, not for a long, long time. Better to put an end to it now, before it went too far. Tonight when he picked her up to drive her to a party in Waianae, he'd make damn sure they were nothing more than employer and employee.
"Hey, Byrne. Lyin' down on the job again?"
Rick opened one eye to see Danny Watkins, driver #3, standing at the foot of the cot. "Tough day."
"She giving you a hard time?"
Rick swung his legs over the side of the bed and yawned. "Nothing I can't handle."
"'I want to go shopping. I want to go to the beach.'“ Danny's imitation of Eden's tone of voice was uncannily accurate--and nasty as hell. "Man, you can keep that bitch. I--"
Watkins never had the chance to finish his sentence. Rick sprang up from the cot with the fury of a lion on the scent of fresh blood. He pinned Watkins to the wooden floor then was about to land a left hook when the red mist of rage parted long enough for him to realize what he was doing.
"You gone crazy or something?” Watkins scooted across the floor on his butt. "What the hell's gotten into you, Byrne?"
Rick wanted to kill him. He really did. "Watch your mouth, Watkins," he growled, struggling to regain control.
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about.” Danny's voice was high-pitched with shock. "I say one word and the next thing I know you're all over me. What's with you, pal?"
"You say one word about her and you'll have your teeth for breakfast."
"The ice princess?"
"Eden," he corrected. "Miss Forrester.” Too much, his head cautioned. He was putting his emotions out there for everyone to see.
Danny scrambled to his feet. "I don't know what got into you, Byrne, but if you want to call her Joan of Arc, I'm with you.” Watkins wheeled and was about to leave when he paused in the doorway. "I came here to deliver a message. You're off-duty tonight.” He rubbed his jaw ruefully. "Enjoy yourself, pal."
Rick barely noticed Watkins leave. She'd cancelled tonight. She didn't want to see him again. Kisses on the beach were one thing; pretending they mattered was something else again. What better way to show him where he stood than to have him cooling his heels in the barracks while she pranced off to a party with some other guy.
Some other lucky guy.
Swearing to himself, he grabbed soap and a towel and stormed off to take a cold shower.
#
Admiral Owen Forrester lifted his glass of champagne in a toast. "To my son, the navy's latest prize. Here's to three generations of Forresters in service to our country."
Lilly arched a dark brow. "Three generations?"
"He means the baby," said Tony with a grin. "Dad's certain you're carrying a boy."
Eden, who had been watching the proceedings from a melancholy distance, noted the proud glow on both her father's and her brother's faces. What was there about sons that made men carry on so?
"I hope it's a girl," she said, sipping her champagne. "Girls are less trouble."
Her father started to laugh. "Spoken by the problem child of Pearl. Honey, if I had a dollar for every sleepless night you caused me, I'd retire from the navy tomorrow."
Owen and Tony launched into a barrage of reminiscences, all of which pointed out Eden's shortcomings. Proms and coming-out parties. The time she took the train from Boston to New York and somehow ended up in D.C. The water-skiing fiasco that resulted in her broken leg. Oh, there was no end to comical stories about her escapades. She used to laugh at these stories, happy to be the center of attention. Tonight, however, they only seemed to point out the rootlessness of her existence. The very thing her father had harped on earlier in the evening.
She sipped her champagne, her mind racing back to the hours spent on the beach with Rick. Was that how he saw her still, as the spoiled brat daughter of an admiral who cared only for herself? She'd bared more of her soul to him in that brief span of time than she'd bared to anyone in her entire life. Not even her best friend Melanie knew her deepest feelings. Melanie knew where Eden liked to shop, what she liked to eat, which music set her feet to dancing, but Melanie didn't know what made her cry. There was a part of Eden that had been locked behind a wall of glass and no one--and nothing--had been able to shatter that defense until today.
Until Rick.
Ridiculous, her common sense laughed. He's nothing to you...just a driver...a sailor, for heavens' sake....
But she longed for him. The notion stunned her more deeply into silence. She longed for the feel of his strong arms around her, for the sound of his heart beating against her ear, for the way his kisses reached deep into her soul and brought forth a joy she'd thought possible only in the fairy tales of her childhood.
He'd freely admitted he was ambitious, yet he didn't allow that ambition to overshadow his own self-respect. When she pushed too hard, he pushed right back. He was the first man to stand toe-to-toe with her and give as good as he got. She wondered if she'd been looking for that strength all of her life.
She remembered sitting up late with Melanie on the night before her friend's wedding. The two young women had helped themselves to a pitcher of rum and Coca Cola and were feeling giggly and terribly indiscreet. Eden, who had been more than a little jealous over the imminent loss of her best friend, leaned forward and looked Melanie right in the eye.
"Why him?" she had asked bluntly.
Melanie had smiled dreamily. "Oh, Eden," she said with a sigh. "He's so wonderful!"
"You've said lots of guys are so wonderful, Mel. What's different about Charley?"
Melanie extended her hand, admiring the play of light refracted in the diamond of her engagement ring. "It's not something you can put into words, Eden. You just...well, it's just something you know."
Eden sighed. "Like love at first sight?"
Melanie giggled. "Sort of. Even though Charley and I knew each other for months before it happened."
"Before what happened?" Eden persisted. Love seemed such a mystery to her, like sailing off into uncharted waters. If only someone could explain it to her in language she could understand.
Melanie's forehead wrinkled as she tried to put her feelings into words. "One day we were playing tennis and I tripped over my shoe laces. I landed on my knee and got one of those terrible gravel cuts, you know the kind I mean?"
Eden nodded, impatient to get to the heart of the matter. She hoped this wasn't going to be a story about tennis. "And then what?"
"Charley dropped his racket and came running over. He carried me over to the club house and, be
fore I knew what was happening, he bent down in front of me and started washing my cuts."
"That's it?” Where was the romance? The hearts and flowers? The glamour of it all?
"That's it," said Melanie with a sigh. "I'd been so busy worrying about my hair and my tennis outfit and laughing at his jokes, that I'd forgotten to be myself. There I was, all scruffy and with bloody knees and my eyes all red from crying, and he didn't turn away. He didn't hand me over to the first aid station and go back to his game. He took care of me."
Same as Rick had.
The interlude on the beach had been about more than physical chemistry, although she couldn't deny the way her body had responded to his nearness. There had been a sense of destiny about them that afternoon, as if everything that had ever happened to them in their entire lives had all been leading up to that moment in each other's arms.
She'd let down her guard and he hadn't turned away from her. She'd dared to be more than the admiral's spoiled little girl and Rick hadn't been disappointed. If possible, he seemed to like the lonely and uncertain woman beneath even more than the glamorous facade. Could it be? Could they--
"Eden.” Lilly touched her arm lightly. "Would you come with me to the ladies' lounge?"
Eden blinked, trying to bring herself back to the moment at hand. "Sure."
Tony and her father both rose to their feet as Eden collected her crutches then followed her sister-in-law into the bathroom at the far end of the restaurant.
"Is something wrong?" she asked Lilly as soon as the door closed behind them.
"I wanted to thank you for this afternoon."
Eden didn't feign ignorance. "Sarajane and Mitzi are cows," she said with a shrug. "Who wouldn't want to escape?"
"You didn't have to do it," Lilly persisted. "I appreciate it more than I can say."
Eden, who was seated before a mirror in the anteroom, met Lilly's eyes. "Good grief! This is the second thank you I've received. Am I such a witch that you're all so darned surprised I did something nice?"
Lilly's gaze was level, more direct than Eden was accustomed to from her soft-spoken sister-in-law. "I don't think you would have done it a few months ago."
Eden leaned forward and inspected her makeup. "Don't be ridiculous. I love any opportunity to make Sarajane Hanks uncomfortable."
Lilly lowered herself carefully onto a boudoir chair next to Eden. Her belly strained the silky folds of her dress and Eden winced as she imagined how the delicately built woman felt carrying such a burden.
"I know you don't think much of me," Lilly began, raising a slender hand to silence Eden's automatic protest. "I know I'm not at all the kind of woman your family expected Tony to marry."
"We never expected Tony to marry so soon," Eden said. "He'd never shown any interest in settling down."
"Be that as it may, I'm certain you weren't praying for a nisei to join your family."
"Nisei?" asked Eden.
"First-generation American of Japanese parents."
"Nisei," repeated Eden, the word strange on her tongue. She'd always thought of Lilly as simply Japanese. Somehow the American part always escaped her.
"I love your brother," Lilly said simply. "I never wanted to hurt him in any way."
Eden wanted to say that Lilly should have thought of that before they rushed into marriage but she bit back the words. Love is blind, the old saying went, and never more blind than when it brought people like her brother and Lilly Aoki together.
Or Eden and Rick Byrne?
She pushed that notion aside. Her brother's happiness was the issue right now, not her own.
"I know how your father feels about me," Lilly continued. "If I were anything but what I am, he would welcome me as a daughter, but there's a part of him that cannot see past the obstacle I present to his son's future."
"I think you're being too harsh," Eden said, although there was truth in Lilly's words. "Daddy thinks very highly of you."
"As a person, yes. As his son's wife, perhaps less so."
Eden couldn't deny that. They all knew that Tony was lucky he was a doctor already; having a Japanese wife wouldn't win him any points in the promotion sweepstakes in the navy. Not even if that wife was a born-and-bred American citizen and a doctor to boot.
"Why are you saying this to me?" Eden asked, giving up all pretense of fixing her lipstick. "What does it matter?"
"I'd like to think we could be friends some day."
"We're family," said Eden. "Isn't that enough?"
Lilly shook her head, her dark hair swaying with the movement. "Friendship seems a higher goal."
"A harder one, perhaps.” If Lilly wanted to speak freely, Eden wouldn't censor herself.
Lilly's graceful hands moved in widening circles across her belly. "With the baby coming I find myself wishing for things that may not be possible."
Eden sighed. "I know exactly what you mean."
Lilly's look was frankly curious. "You also wish for things beyond the possible?"
Eden thought of Rick and the absurdity of the whole situation. "I'm afraid so," she said after a moment, "not that I believe wishes come true."
"Maybe if we try hard enough, we can make some of them come true."
Eden closed her eyes against a wave of emotion. She felt as if her nerve endings were raw and exposed. First the interlude on the beach with Rick and now Lilly's plea for friendship. "This has been the strangest day...."
Lilly leaned forward and placed her hand on Eden's. Eden was surprised to note that her cool and collected sister-in-law's palm was damp with nerves. Twenty-four hours ago Eden would have pulled her hand away. "I want my son to know his father's family," she said, her voice low and urgent and so filled with naked longing that it almost hurt Eden to listen. "I want him to be accepted even if I'm not."
Eden's eyes filled with tears and she blinked quickly, then looked away. "It's Tony's child," she managed. "How could we not love him?"
Lilly removed her hand. "The ramblings of an expectant mother," she said, a bittersweet smile upon her face. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"You didn't," said Eden. So many conflicting thoughts vied for her attention. Family loyalty. Jealousy. The unpleasant notion that she'd somehow caused Lilly pain. "We'll love your baby," she said, her words spilling out from somewhere deep inside. "I promise you, Lilly, that I'll love your baby."
This time it was Lilly's dark eyes that brimmed with tears. "I know I sound foolish," her sister-in-law said, "but sometimes I have the feeling that something terrible is right around the corner."
#
Lilly’s words lingered with Eden long past dinner. No matter how she tried to coax sleep from its hiding place, she couldn’t push aside the unsettling notion that Lilly might be right. You couldn’t live in a place like Pearl and not hear the war whispers. They were everywhere these days and growing louder by the minute.
Finally, a little after two in the morning, she gave up on her search for sleep and wandered down to the kitchen for something to eat. In her experience there was nothing on earth that a bowl of chocolate ice cream couldn’t cure.
She started in surprise at the sight of her brother Tony at the kitchen table, digging into a hand-packed quart. His shirt was open, dog tags dangling around his neck. His hair was cropped close to his head. The shadow of a beard emphasized the strong line of his jaw. As always, her heart filled with a mix of love and pride. He was everything she had always wanted to be and more: smart and generous and sure of his place in the world. And now he was building a family of his own while she shopped for clothes and wondered when her life would begin.
“Guess I’m not the only Forrester having trouble sleeping tonight,” she said from the doorway.
“Grab a spoon,” he answered with an easy, sleepy smile. “Another five minutes and you would’ve been out of luck.”
“And you would have been in a lot of trouble! I had dibs on the chocolate.” Eden plucked a long iced teaspoon from the drawer,
then plunged it into the nearly empty carton.
“First come, first served. House rules.”
“You live on Lanai, remember? House rules are in my favor now.”
They were quiet for a few minutes as they polished off the ice cream.
“Thanks for coming to Lilly’s rescue this afternoon,” he said as she cleared away the dishes. “That meant a lot to her.” He paused a moment. “To both of us.”
She shrugged. “I made a phone call, that’s all.”
“You saw what those old battleaxes were up to and you put an end to it. Not always an easy thing to do around here.”
“They’re cows,” Eden said as she started washing up. “I enjoyed putting them in their place.”
He grabbed a dishtowel from the peg near the sink and waited while she rinsed the first bowl. “Lilly’s your family now,” he said, forcing her to meet his eyes. “You protected your own.”
“You don’t have to sound so surprised.” She couldn’t keep the hurt from her voice.
“I’m not,” he said simply, “but I have the feeling you surprised yourself.”
She shrugged, but said nothing.
“Changes are coming,” he said, ruffling her hair the way he used to do when they were children. “We’re going to have to pull together. When you look at what’s happening with Japan and Germany and --”
Eden barely suppressed a sigh. “Can’t we enjoy our ice cream without talking about war?”
“It’s coming, sis, like it or not. I guarantee that by this time next year, we’ll be fighting on all fronts.”
“You sound like Daddy,” she said. “That’s all he talks about.”
“You should listen,” Tony said. “Like I said, there will be a lot of changes when we join the fight.”
“This isn’t London,” she said with a forced laugh. “This is Hawaii. I think we’re safe here.”
Where or When: A Pearl Harbor Romance Page 12