by Aubree Lane
Hannah was messing up her life this time. She had picked on Marissa endlessly in school, but Annie had been practically invisible and virtually ignored by the beautiful girl with a vicious tongue. When Marissa suggested the two of them stop spending so much time with Hannah and the other girls, Annie jumped at it. She didn’t like feeling like a nonentity, she had enough of that at home.
Up until the acquisition of a beat up Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, Annie’s life had not been ideal. With her new mobility, she became a permanent fixture in Marissa’s home and a second daughter to her father, Larry Wright.
Larry was incredible to her. It was the first time Annie could remember feeling loved and wanted. When Larry helped Marissa fill out college applications, he helped Annie, too. When they shopped for prom dresses, and Annie didn’t have enough money to pay for the dress she truly wanted, he insisted on making up the difference.
He spoiled them rotten, not just with things but with his time.
It was far more than she received at home where she felt more like an intruder than a beloved family member, but with Larry and Marissa she was always welcome. So much so that she moved into their house the summer before heading off to college.
Annie won a scholarship that paid for her tuition and books, but she had to work several part-time jobs to keep up with her living expenses.
Larry offered financial aid, but she refused. She was an adult now and felt the need to be self-sufficient. Despite his protests, Annie suspected Larry was proud that she had enough self-respect to turn down his offer.
Their majors put the girls at opposite ends of the country, and they had to rely on their cell phones to stay in touch. Larry’s graduation gift to the girls was about a gazillion pre-paid minutes. A gift Annie and Marissa put to good use, until one day it became almost impossible for Annie to reach Marissa. She would leave message after message before Marissa would call her back.
Marissa had met David Crandall, and they had fallen madly in love.
From the very first moment Annie and David met, they rubbed each other the wrong way. Early on they agreed to be civil for Marissa’s sake, but that just meant they would try to avoid each other as much as possible. Even after their elopement when Marissa was only a sophomore majoring in prelaw, he and Annie kept their meetings to a bare minimum, an easy feat being hundreds of miles apart.
After Annie graduated from design school and returned to San Diego, she worked as an assistant to The Danielle Campbell of the renowned Danielle Campbell Design Corporation while Marissa went on to give birth to two beautiful children, earn her law degree, and graduate in the top third of her class.
Annie stayed with DCDC just long enough to learn as much as possible about being a real world designer before striking out on her own.
Larry Wright was her first client. He hired her to update his office building from top to bottom. He gave her free rein and an immense budget. He wanted the building to showcase her talent and serve as a three-dimensional portfolio for her future clients to view. He insisted she take over a couple of empty offices on the main floor while the work was being completed. The only thing he asked was that she keep it simple and not clutter up the place.
The arrangement worked out well, and when the massive overhaul was finished, Larry was so impressed he made a point of dropping her name to every client that came into his office. Within a year, she had so much work she had to hire an assistant of her own.
Annie had only meant to keep the office on site for the duration of Larry’s project, but here it was almost six years later, and she was still mooching off him. It wasn’t entirely her fault, every time she talked about moving Larry would object. He would ask her to consider how disruptive it would be and would convince her to put it off a little while longer, at least until business slacked off a bit.
His reasoning didn’t make much sense. If business dropped off so drastically that a move wouldn’t be disruptive, then moving would be unwise. In her heart, she knew Larry just wanted her close by, and since she rather liked being right where she was, she decided to stick around a while longer.
After Marissa passed the bar and joined the firm, she followed her father’s lead and recommended Annie to anyone who would listen. Annie wasn’t sure if Marissa’s word held more weight because she was a woman or because she was so relentless, but with Marissa in her corner, her reputation grew rapidly among San Diego’s wealthiest families. It wasn’t long before Annie was competing with her old boss for the best jobs and fairly consistently walking away with the contract.
The Wright family meant the world to Annie. She loved and respected them. She would never do anything to jeopardize one of their cases. It was time to leave Hawaii.
Lena walked up and snatched the trophy off the sand before the waves reclaimed it. “I came down to apologize.” She handed Annie the trophy. “Your friends stopped by, wanting to take us all out to dinner. I told them Terence was cooking for you and that Erika was staying with friends.”
Deciding she was apparently stuck with the dang thing, Annie accepted the trophy. “I was wondering how she found out, but for Terence and Erika’s sake, it’s good that you did. You don’t have anything to apologize for.”
Lena looked at her sideways. “What was good for them, wasn’t exactly good for you.”
Annie chuckled. “I’ve waited this long. I don’t think waiting a little while longer will kill me. Besides, Terence and I probably just got caught up in the moment and in a few weeks it won’t mean a thing.”
Lena nodded, but looked unconvinced. “Then why do you look as if you have the weight of the world riding on your shoulders?”
Because that was exactly how she felt. “This is the first time I’ve been away from work in a long time. I don’t want to go home, but it wouldn’t be wise for me to stay.”
Lena smiled and grabbed her arm. “Then work for me. I’m not offering you a job. It’s more like a trade. You can stay at my place, free of charge, in exchange for giving me a few ideas on how to whip this place into shape. I want to turn it into an inn or small hotel. You’ll have an excuse to stay and a legitimate reason to get to know us better.”
Annie hesitated, and Lena shook her arm. “C’mon, you just got here. You know you want to. Just do it.”
It was tempting. She didn’t want to leave, but her body railed against turning her time in Hawaii into a working vacation. Annie needed a break. She didn’t want to think about work, but Lena hadn’t asked for anything complicated. There were already a couple dozen ideas floating around in her head. She knew she could bang something out in no time.
“I’ll stay, but not for free,” Annie agreed. “I seriously need a vacation, but before I go, I’ll put something together for you. Nothing big, just something to get you started.” She put her arm around Lena and squeezed her shoulders. “Thanks for putting up with me and not thinking I’m a total whack job.”
Lena let out her famous laugh. “I never said that! You are a whack job, but I like you anyway.”
• • •
Funny how there are times when the thing you dread the most turns out to be a joy. Annie spent the next few days rummaging through every nook and cranny of Lena’s house. Then she’d sit cross legged in the middle of the floor, plug her mp3 player into a speaker, crank up the volume, and start sketching. The ideas poured out of her. She couldn’t stop if she tried.
As large as Lena’s house was, it was still too small to be considered a hotel and having to work private baths into each room would cost a fortune, but it was perfect for a B&B. Lena would be able to run it by herself, and the only meal she would have to prepare was that all important first meal of the day. Annie knew from experience that Lena was terrific at breakfast. Her plan offered Lena a little down time in the afternoon when Annie noticed she tended to get a bit grumpy.
Turning the place into a B&B worked perfectly with Lena’s personality and Annie couldn’t wait to help her get started. She hadn’t had an opportunity to
design a business since overhauling Larry’s building. Faced with this new challenge, she saw how tired she was of redesigning residential spaces. Although residential in spirit, Lena’s B&B would be operated as a business, and that added a whole new element to the mix.
Business or residential, storage was always an issue, but in this instance, not in the bedrooms where guests would only have enough to get them through a week or two. Here, Annie could be much more creative and cater to the guests’ creature comforts rather than functionality.
To keep costs down, Annie dove into Lena’s possessions, hoping to incorporate as many preexisting items as possible into her designs.
The more she worked on this aspect, the more she realized she needed the help of one of her assistants. Phoebe was the queen of remix. But how to get Phoebe to Oahu proposed a quandary. Annie H. Designs was booked solid for at least a year out, and with Annie’s reputation on the line, she didn’t dare push her backlog of clients any further just to squeeze in one more project.
The prospect was tempting, but no matter how much Annie enjoyed this break from reality, she couldn’t risk destroying everything she worked so hard to attain. All she really had to do to fulfill her obligation to Lena was suggest getting a new roof and aid her in the selection of new exterior paint. She wanted to do more, but time was not her friend. No matter how many hours she put into her sketches, she knew she couldn’t possibly see them through to completion.
Phoebe could, though. When Annie returned home, she was determined to push her little chick out of the nest and get her flying on her own.
• • •
Annie’s choice of music was driving Lena up the wall, and after listening to it nonstop for two days, she took off for the other side of the island to visit some relatives, leaving Annie alone to do her thing.
Without having to worry about disturbing anyone, Annie cranked the volume up a little louder and grabbed her sketchpad. Comfortably positioned on the couch, she propped her bare feet up on the coffee table and bopped along with the music before getting to work.
Hours must have passed because the room was growing dim when she finally set her sketches down. She loved it when she slipped into the zone and was swept away from the world.
“About time you took a break,” Terence said somewhere off to the right.
Annie jumped. It wasn’t the first time he’d come over unannounced the last few days. She knew she shouldn’t like it so much, but she was tickled pink that he was here.
He sat in the side chair next to the sofa with his feet propped up on the same coffee table, barely a centimeter away from her toes. He was wearing a pair of brightly colored board shorts decorated in a palm tree motif and a simple gray muscle shirt. With his windblown hair, he reminded her of the beach boy she dreamed of back in high school.
“How long have you been watching me?”
“About half an hour.”
“Lena isn’t here,” Annie warned. “We are not supposed to be alone. Where’s Erika?”
He got up and repositioned himself next to her. “Do you realize you ask me that same question every time we see each other?” He gently brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers. “I take pretty decent care of her. You don’t have to worry.”
She closed her eyes and resisted the urge to wrap herself around his body. “I’m not worried.” Her voice came out deep and raspy, and entirely too bedroomy for their current situation. She cleared her throat and inched away. “I’m just curious.”
He mirrored her move and ended up closer than before. “She’s with Lena,” his voice was barely audible, and he was so close she could feel his breath on her skin.
“Lena is on the other side of the island with her in-laws.”
“Exactly.”
Blood rushed to her head, and her lusting body tried to overrule her good judgment.
He pressed his lips lightly upon her forehead.
Every nerve ending in her body ached with desire. Annie broke away and headed for the front door. “Okay,” she gasped, trying to catch her breath, “we need to get somewhere public, fast.”
Terence grabbed her hand. “Annie, it’s all right.”
He obviously didn’t know Marissa. “No, it’s not. Marissa would kill me.” She pulled Terence towards the door and tried to disregard the way he stroked her arm and caressed her fingertips.
“I don’t have to take my lawyer’s advice. I can make up my own mind.”
Annie flung open the door and jerked him outside. “It wasn’t advice. It was a direct order. Now stop this and let’s get out of here.” She plucked his hand off her arm and dropped it.
Terence reached for her again but pulled up short. He stared at her for a moment, then abruptly turned and clamored down the front steps, swinging his arms in an exaggerated fashion. “All right,” he said lightly, “but you don’t know what you’re missing.”
She watched him bound out to the car. He flung open the passenger side door, swept his arm into a deep bow, and waited for her to get in.
She obliged and followed him out, mimicking his over-the-top gait as she went. “You gave up pretty easily,” she complained as she ducked inside his vehicle.
Terence slammed the door. “You told me to stop. I stopped. You can’t have it both ways.” Then he put his head through her open window and smiled. “Why, have you changed your mind?”
Every fiber of her body begged for her to relent, but she gave him a sad sympathetic smile and powered the tinted glass up in his face.
A second later she powered the window back down. “Terence?”
“Yes?” he grinned expectantly.
“I forgot my shoes.”
His jaw slammed shut and with a little shake of his head said, “Don’t worry. You won’t need them where we’re going.”
Annie eyed him suspiciously. “We’re not going to your place, are we?”
Terence opened the driver’s side door and got in. “No, that might upset Queen Marissa,” he answered sarcastically. “How about an impromptu fish fry instead? I saw some friends heading down to the beach a while ago. With any luck, they’ll be pulling the first fish off the grill any minute.”
• • •
“Hey, TJ, glad you could make it,” yelled a hulking, dark skinned, teddy-bear of a man when he saw Terence and Annie walking towards the group.
“Aloha,” Terence called back. “This is Annie, from the mainland. She’s staying at Lena’s. May we join you?”
The dark skinned teddy bear stood up, brushed the sand off his pants, and came to greet them. “Sure, malihinis are always welcome.” He wrapped Terence up in his big bear arms and hugged him. “Nani’ae.”
Terence returned the big man’s embrace and patted his back. “Yeah, nani.”
Mike opened his arms to Annie, and she stepped into his friendly hug without hesitation. “What’s a malihini?”
The only other woman of the group answered for him. “Malihini is a visitor or a tourist. Mike is trying to get us to speak more Hawaiian, so he throws out words every once in a while to keep us on our toes.” The woman’s hair was cropped short, and she had more muscles on her body than all the men combined. She crushed Annie’s hand in her firm grip. “Hi, I’m Susan, and the rest of this sorry group is Jason, Thomas, and Daniel. Come join us.”
Annie and Terence joined the group and settled around a pit in the sand.
“So what did those other words mean?” Annie asked.
The snide snickers and knowing glances among the troop made Annie feel self-conscious.
Daniel sat on an ancient rusty-red Coleman ice chest. He leaned back, taking the lid with him, and reached in to the slushy ice. He pulled out a beer, twisted off the cap, and handed it to Annie. “Mike gave you a compliment. He said you were very beautiful, and TJ agreed.”
Annie sat up a little straighter, liking Mike a little more than she already did. “Thank you.”
“No, no, no,” Mike said, shaking a finger at her. “That�
��s mahalo nui lo.”
Terence waved Mike off. “Enough of the Hawaiian lesson. What’s cooking?” He rubbed his stomach and poked around the grill with a long fork. “Pololi.”
Jason leaned in on Annie’s left. His breath reeked of beer, his pupils were dilated, and his eyelids drooped. Jason had clearly been here a while. He pointed his beer bottle at Terence. “He said―”
Annie leaned back, mostly to get out of the line of fire of Jason’s breath, and laughed. “That he’s hungry. I may not know Hawaiian but rubbing one’s belly is pretty universal. Me pololi too.”
“Oh Lord,” Thomas cut in with a sardonic chuckle. With his flaming red hair and the bridge of his nose full of freckles, the Irish practically poured out of him. “The little haole girl is butchering our native language. What’s next?”
Annie leveled a glare at him. He wasn’t anymore a native than she was, and she didn’t care for his tone. “Isn’t haole a derogatory term for a white person?”
Thomas glanced around the group and smiled. “Not today.” His mood instantly changed from curt to almost joyful. He picked up the long-handled fork Terence had just set aside and offered her a fish fillet. “What would you like, Annie? Snapper or Whitefish? It’s all good.”
She turned questioningly to Terence, wondering more about what Thomas’ story was than what type of fish to choose.
Terence wrapped a reassuring arm around her shoulders. “Thomas has been pulling that crap on people since the third grade. He likes to see how long he can needle someone before they’ll call him on it.”
Big Mike pulled his hand back in a fist. “Ten minutes after I met him he was on the ground. I was ready to smash his face in, and he’s laughing his fool head off.”
“I kicked him in the nards,” added Susan with disdain.
Annie turned to Jason. “What happened with you?”
“He’s my little brother. He’s been irritating me my whole life,” Jason slurred in inebriated bliss.