“Not really, you’re kicking off against the rock wall, not standing on it,” Alfredo explained. “I take it you haven’t rappelled before.”
“Uh, no, walking off cliffs isn’t my thing.” Ken darted a glance at Jolie. He wanted to be her hero, and she’d be disappointed if she knew what a wuss he was around heights.
Ken swallowed hard and he could barely keep his heart in his chest. Maybe he could do it if he didn’t panic. All he had to do was close his eyes and kick off the wall. Not look down.
He went through the motions of taking instruction from the guides. He was strapped in a harness around his waist and legs. There was something about letting the ropes go and leaning back perpendicular to the wall to keep from falling.
“Let’s go to a small wall to practice,” Alfredo said. “I’ll help Jolie, and Keoni will work with you. Once we’re ready, we’ll hike to the top of the first waterfall. There’s a sixty foot drop, followed by a fifty-footer, and for the grand finale, one hundred feet all the way down to the bottom of the canyon.”
“Come on, Ken, you can do it,” Jolie said, smiling sweetly, as the ropes were passed through her clips.
He hung back as they hiked to the edge of an outcrop. It wasn’t too high. He could do it. He just wouldn’t look down. He’d keep his eyes on the sky. He was in control of the descent. He would go slow.
Jolie disappeared off the edge of the cliff first. How could she trust the anchor? This was crazy. The ropes could break, or the carabiners could slip. The rock wall could crumble, and any tree could be uprooted.
“What’s wrong?” Keoni asked Ken when it was his turn.
“I can’t do this,” he admitted. “I’m afraid of heights.”
The other man rubbed his jaw and shook his head. “The things guys do for their honeymoon. Let me give you a hint.”
“It doesn’t matter. I can’t do it. She’ll be disappointed, but you guys go ahead. She seems to be enjoying it.”
“The hint wasn’t for rappelling,” the other man said. “You and your wife are young, and you think these differences don’t matter, but if you’re afraid of heights and she loves climbing, hiking, and high places, you’ve got some rough roads ahead. They say opposites attract, but opposites don’t live together for long.”
“Thanks for the advice. I guess I better call a friend and see if they could come get me. I’m assuming you have a car at the bottom of the falls to bring Jolie back up.”
“You sure you don’t want to go down?” Keoni checked the ropes at the anchor point. “This is just the practice cliff.”
“I can’t do it.” Ken waved him off.
“Sure, let me clean up the ropes then,” Keoni said, leaving Ken to his disappointment.
He felt like shit, chickening out, and Jolie would never look at him, all admiring, the way she had on the surfboard.
It had fallen apart last night with the scavenger hunt. She’d left everything, the chocolate, earrings, and spa basket.
She also hadn’t texted ‘yes.’
It was probably that last poem that had turned her off.
It wasn’t his fault that ‘wed’ rhymed with ‘head.’ Maybe he should have left the original. Do your part and let’s go to bed.
She would have liked that better. He shouldn’t have gone romantic and carried his groom roleplaying so far. Stupid. Stupid. As if a put together business woman would marry a beach bum doing odd jobs.
He called Carol to see if she and Nikki could pick him up.
“What happened?” Carol asked. “Why did she take you rappelling? I thought I told her you were afraid of heights.”
“You told her that?” Ken could strangle his sister sometimes. “Why’d you do that for?”
“To avoid exactly this situation. I can’t believe you didn’t tell her,” Carol said. “After all, she gave you a long list of stipulations and limitations.”
“I can’t believe she knew full well before setting this up.” Fury boiled deep in Ken’s belly.
“Pretty much. She asked me for ideas, and I told her no zip lining, hiking steep cliffs, and balloon rides.”
“Why did she do this?” Ken paced back and forth in the small parking area. “Is she trying to get rid of me?”
“I don’t know,” Carol replied. “Maybe she is, or she’s not considerate like you are.”
“I think it was deliberate,” Ken said, recalling how overly joyous Jolie had acted when she went over the cliff. “Tell Nikki this gig is over. I’ll pay her back for your plane ticket.”
A deep nausea overwhelmed his body and he sat on a lava rock with his head between his legs. Dizziness and cold sweat poured over his head.
Jolie knew he was afraid of heights.
What did it say about her feelings for him?
Twenty-One
“Woohoo, that was awesome.” Jolie kicked herself off the last drop and eased the rope, landing next to her guide, Alfredo.
The practice cliff had been a piece of cake, and as long as she looked skyward and trusted the equipment, she was fine. Usually, she worried about every detail, but for some strange reason, the exhilaration of the controlled fall got her blood flowing and heart pumping in a way that made her feel alive—not restricted by what she couldn’t eat or couldn’t do.
“Where’s Ken?” She peered up at the lip of the cliff. “I don’t see him setting up.”
“Since he hasn’t done this before, Keoni’s probably explaining things,” Alfredo said. “Shall we go to the next cliff? It has a waterfall and you’ll get to see a rainbow.”
“Let’s wait for Ken to come down. I want to get a picture with him.” Jolie unscrewed her water bottle and took a drink.
If Ken truly cared about her, he’d at least do the practice cliff. After all, she’d taken a chance and had gone surfing with him. But if he were only playacting the groom and had no true feelings for her, he would find an excuse and back out.
Just like Warren had backed out of the marriage. There was a reason why Nikki kept guys hanging without letting them know her true feelings. She was testing them to see if they were worthy of her. She’d always told Jolie she had to be bitchier to get a truly devoted guy, instead of one who came and went as he pleased and ended up ditching her on the most important day of her life.
Jolie straightened her spine and put her hand over her eyebrows to shade the sun from her eyes. There didn’t appear to be any movement up above.
“He’s not coming down, is he?” she asked Alfredo.
“Let me text Keoni and see what the holdup is.” Alfredo pulled out his phone.
A minute later, he said, “You’re right. Keoni says Ken’s waiting for his sister and friend to pick him up. Lucky they were sightseeing in the vicinity.”
“Why didn’t he text me?” Jolie pressed her lips together, now thoroughly pissed. “He ditched me without even telling me?”
She took her phone from her backpack and texted him. We’re waiting for you. What happened?
Couldn’t he see how easy this first drop was? Well, actually, he hadn’t even peered over the cliff and waved at her. Wouldn’t a guy who cared about a woman at least want to see how she was doing?
Alfredo was also texting. “Keoni says your husband’s afraid of heights. How come you didn’t know?”
“He’s not really my husband.” Jolie bunched her fists and stomped her foot. “I was ditched at my wedding, stood up and humiliated, and Ken was hired by my friends to pretend to be my husband so I can have fun on my honeymoon.”
Alfredo tossed his head back and blew a long whistle. “I thought I’d heard it all. This one’s a doozer. What do you want to do now?”
“Can we go back up? I’m not feeling like doing the rest of the rappelling. I wanted Ken to enjoy something I enjoy, but this isn’t fun anymore.”
Not to mention she felt like bursting into tears, although why should she care? It wasn’t as if he were really her boyfriend, fiancé, groom, or husband.
He was onl
y a Bad Boy for Hire.
Except when he held her in his arms, when he looked at her with those gorgeous blue eyes, when he kissed her and swept her hair from her face, when he made love to her and snuggled with her, it hadn’t felt like an act.
It had felt so real and right.
But then, she’d always been a fool—a fool in love, inventing romantic moments with Warren when all he’d rather do was play video games. She’d set out candles and put on romantic music, dimmed the lights, and served him dinner wearing only lingerie.
Had he appreciated any of it? Or was it all a prelude to the few minutes of mounting her before rolling off and snoring?
“Hey, I hate to break it to you,” Alfredo said, cutting into her misery. “But if you want to go up, we have a long hike. There’s no clear trail from here. We should at least go to the next level down and catch a loop that leads us close to the road. Then we’d have to walk up the switchbacks to the parking lot, or, we might as well finish all the waterfalls and get to where Keoni and I left the car. Your choice.”
Jolie wiped her eyes with her forearm. “I’m already sweating too much. Let’s keep going down. Doesn’t look like my fake groom cared enough to return my text message.”
She put her cell phone back in the plastic bag and slipped it inside her zippered pouch.
“You don’t need him to have a good time,” Alfredo said. “If you’d like to have lunch with me after all this is over, I know a shrimp truck on the North Shore. It’s world famous and we can write our names on the panel.”
Jolie peered at the tan Hawaiian man who was easy on the eyes. His dark brown eyes held mischief and his smile was crooked with a dimple on one side.
“Sure, why not? You only live once.”
She neglected to mention her allergies. She hated ruining everyone’s fun with her limitations. Besides, she’d gotten a refilled EpiPen at the ER.
What could go wrong?
“I don’t feel like talking,” Ken said to Nikki and Carol when they pulled into the parking area. “But thanks for coming to get me.”
“Are you okay?” Carol reached from the backseat and patted his shoulder as he got into the car. “Any dizzy spells or headaches?”
“I was dizzy walking so close to the edge. They called it a practice cliff, but, anyway, I’m fine.” He flashed his sister a weak smile. How could he blame her for caring?
“I can’t believe she did this,” Nikki, said. “She’s not even into rock climbing as much as I am. Last time I had to drag her up Half Dome.”
“You two went up Half Dome?” Carol’s voice held newfound respect. “I did that climb last year.”
“How did you two turn out so different?” Nikki asked. She backed out of the parking area and started down the switchbacks.
“My stepdad’s afraid of heights, and he took Ken surfing while my mother took me hiking. She loved the clean air up on top of the mountain, but hated the beach.”
“They used to fight all the time about vacations and trips,” Ken recalled. Now that he thought about it, maybe it was better that Jolie had done this trick on him. It showed that she didn’t care about him one bit.
But then, she didn’t owe him anything. It had been his idea to play honeymoon honey with her. His heart flailed in his chest and a giant lump blocked his throat.
Had he allowed his feelings to get ahead of the playacting? Sure, he’d thought about Jolie through the years, but it wasn’t as if he’d made any effort to find her. Then when he saw her at the reception, he’d made himself a bet.
Now that he wasn’t Ken Dog anymore, but reasonably attractive to women, at least from what he could tell of the women who came on to him, he was going to see if he could get Jolie to fall for him.
But they weren’t in elementary school anymore, and maybe he’d been wrong to try and horn in on her at such a vulnerable time.
“I don’t know what was going on in Jolie’s mind,” Nikki said. “She’s usually so considerate of people. It must be all the stress of the wedding and the non-honeymoon.”
“Maybe,” Ken conceded. “I want to go home.”
“We still have one more day,” Carol said. “Nikki and I are going on a jeep tour tomorrow. Do you want to come with us?”
Ken wiped his face with both hands and took a long, deep breath. “I can wait another day, as long as we don’t go with Jolie. Maybe she’s getting back together with Warren.”
“He did like to climb and hike,” Nikki said. “That man’s fearless. He even went base jumping. Of course, Jolie worried the entire time he was gone.”
There. More evidence Jolie wasn’t over Warren yet.
He checked his phone and saw a message from Jolie. We’re waiting for you. What happened?
It sounded so demanding, like he was her servant.
No more.
He turned to Nikki. “You didn’t tell Jolie about our arrangement, did you? That you paid for Carol’s ticket?”
“No, of course not. She asked if I’d hired you and I said I hadn’t.”
“Then I’ll pay you back for the ticket.” He deleted Jolie’s message and contact information. “I’m not obligated to spend the last day of her honeymoon with her.”
“Why, Ken,” Carol said. “You sound hurt. This is more than helping her be happy on her honeymoon, isn’t it?”
“It’s nothing …” He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.
“You sure?” His sister was always more perceptive than he gave her credit for. “You’re looking brokenhearted, sighing and pawing your hair.”
He glanced at Nikki, but she kept her eyes on the road. Was Carol really going to go into this with Jolie’s best friend present?
“Look, we had a few good days, but it’s over. Now that Jolie’s not around, we can finally eat all the good food this island has to offer.” He held up his hand to high five his sister.
She returned the slap. “I’ve been hankering to try some of that delicious garlic shrimp they have at Big John’s Shrimp Truck.”
“Me, too,” Ken agreed. “I can’t wait.”
Twenty-Two
The last waterfall was over one hundred feet of beauty—white mist over slippery black rock, surrounded by the greenest hanging plants growing out of the crevices. Jolie was soaked but she didn’t mind at all. Walking backwards, totally trusting the rope and the anchor up top, while surrounded by the roar of water and the bright blue sky above was like being in another world.
True, she shouldn’t have sprung this surprise on Ken, knowing that he was afraid of heights, but then, he never said a word, even when she asked if he was okay. Hadn’t she admitted her fears to him about being dragged out to sea?
Why hadn’t he trusted her?
Duh. He was nothing to her—the hired help. When she returned to Honolulu, she was going to strangle Nikki. She’d bald-faced lied about not hiring Ken.
As for Ken, her heart twinged and she missed a step. Crap. She slipped and her body smashed into the rock wall. Water showered over her.
“Push away and walk up the wall,” Alfredo yelled. “You got it.”
The dangling was the pits, but Jolie took a deep breath and swung out, then caught the wall with her feet, leaning back. Her heart was pounding, and she shivered from the chill, but this trip was worth it.
Out here, with only the water, the rocks, the jungle, and the sky, she didn’t need Ken or Warren or any other man to do the things she wanted.
No more playing second fiddle and waiting for a man to plan her vacation, honeymoon, or life.
Soon, she dropped into the pool right into Alfredo’s arms.
“You scared me up there. You okay?” He removed her helmet and examined it. “I have to ask this. Did you hit your head?”
“No, I didn’t. My shoulder slammed into the wall.”
“Which side?” He rubbed her back.
“Left side, but I’m fine. I didn’t pack any dry clothes.”
“Hey, this is Hawaii, it doesn’t mat
ter.” His white teeth gleamed into a broad grin. “Let me get these ropes and harness off you, then we can take off our clothes and dry them on the rocks while we skinny-dip.”
“Seriously?” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Yolo!” He flashed her the shaka or “hang loose” sign.
“Sure, why not?” This wasn’t on her list of things to do, but who needed lists when life was full of surprises?
Ken salivated over all the food he could pack in during his last days in paradise. He and Carol had made a list while Nikki drove, starting with garlic shrimp. Once he was back in Honolulu, he was going to hit another luau-type buffet without the entertainment, so he could pig out on all the goodies he missed.
They drove down Kamehameha Highway, watching the surf pounding the North Shore. The waves were bigger and more brutal than the gentle ones of Waikiki. They called to him with each roaring boom. Out here, at the edge of the sea, was life, energy, meaning, everything.
As soon as the doctor okayed it, Ken was going back to the big waves. Nothing beat the rush of dropping down the face of a fifty-footer. The crashing of the waves and the salt spray combined with speed put him into a trance—the pinpoint of each moment where all that mattered was the surfboard carving through the water.
No wonder he’d never been too interested in the women, booze, and parties that others lived for. His life had always been compressed fully into the present moment—nothing more—no fear and no judgment.
It was him and the wave, not against the wave, but with the wave—never worrying about wiping out and getting hurt.
So why was he so nervous about heights? It, too, should be one step at a time. Except looking down was the worst, dizzying and heart-catching. Yet, Jolie enjoyed it. She’d whooped happily while going down the rock wall. One step at a time. She loved it, and it meant she wasn’t for him.
Food trucks were lined up along the roadway, and Nikki rolled around the parking area until she found Big John’s Shrimp Truck. The aroma of garlic wafted in the air, and the line wound around the truck. Sure enough, the formerly white truck was covered with writing.
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