Before, it was easy to ignore her feelings and tell herself that there would always be time and that he’d always be available. His refusal to be taken for granted forced her hand. It was time to either admit to herself that she wanted to be with him or be willing to lose him forever.
She inhaled with a deep, shuddering sound, overwhelmed with emotion. “I can’t stand not seeing you. I’ve missed you so much.” Tears threatened to spill over her lashes, and she cleared her throat.
“You’re the one who walked out.” Ben said softly, but not unkindly.
“I was wrong, so wrong, and I’m sorry. I took you for granted, and I’ve never regretted anything more in my life. I want you back. I need you.” She pleaded with him, so afraid that he would get up and walk away. She put her hand on his leg and looked into his eyes. Her future, her home, was sitting right beside her, and he had been there all along. She’d just been too scared to admit it to herself. “I love you, Ben. I just got scared and ran away, but I won’t run again. I’m here now, and if you’ll have me, I’ll stay.”
“So, are you saying that you’re ready to take a real chance on us?” Ben’s expression was cautiously optimistic, and it gave her courage to continue.
“If it’s not too late, yes,” she paused, waiting for a reaction. “Besides, Richard Morgan is apparently taken.”
He smiled at that, tentatively, but it was there and inwardly she sighed with relief. “I think I might have mentioned that.”
“Yeah, well I was stupid,” she smile sheepishly, then grew more serious. “Ben, I was really stupid. When I think of all the time I wasted…” she trailed off, shaking her head. “I think that the reason I haven’t found “The One” yet is because he’s been in front of me all along. Nobody else could ever be better for me than you. I want to be with you, because I’m in love with you.”
“Are you certain?”
She had never been surer of anything in her life. “Yes. One hundred percent.”
He smiled then, a real, genuine, deep smile. The kind that crinkled the corners of his eyes and lit up his face. “I love you too. I always have, and I always will.”
Ben took Rebecca’s face in his hands and she stared into his gorgeous blue eyes. She should have seen it years ago, but maybe it was best this way. Maybe she hadn’t been ready until right now. A few years ago she would’ve found a reason to push him away, would’ve sabotaged a good thing. She nearly had now. It was years in the making, but it was right. She knew it for sure.
She lifted her face to his and pressed a kiss to his mouth. Ben pulled her into his arms, embracing her tightly as he deepened the kiss. Rebecca’s heart sang out with pleasure. This is where she belonged, in the arms of the man she loved. Ben pulled back and took a small, beautifully wrapped gift from his jacket pocket. The telltale gold wrapping paper was the same as each holiday gift she’d received.
Rebecca read the tag aloud. “'Love, Your Secret Santa.' I knew it was you.”
Ben pressed another kiss to her lips. “It was me all along.”
About the Author
Monica Tillery has been a social worker and a massage therapist, but is now living her dream as a romance novelist. She loves nothing more than to get lost in a beautiful love story, holding her breath as the hero and heroine fight their way through obstacles to get to their happily ever after. Monica lives in Texas with her own real-life romance hero, her husband of over a dozen years, and two wonderful sons. When she’s not reading and writing romance, Monica loves playing bunco and bingo, hanging out with friends, and wasting time online. She loves hearing from and connecting with readers. Follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/monicatilleryauthor, on Twitter @monicatillery, or visit her website: www.monicatillery.com.
His Hawaiian Christmas
Diana Jean
For my Aunt Janet.
Chapter One
It was entirely the air conditioner’s fault.
Clara O’Fallen rubbed her afternoon sunscreen on her left arm. Wrinkling her nose, she felt a bit of shame as the smell of coconuts filled the hotel’s management office.
Better shame than sunburn, though.
It might be December, but this was Kona, and it was a balmy seventy degrees outside. And, unfortunately, the air conditioner only seemed to function on prime-numbered days, or… well, whenever the hell it felt like it. So, she was forced to open her office window for the warm ocean wind and, inevitably, her near-translucent Irish-Swedish complexion would be bright pink within hours.
It was a far cry from her hometown in northern Wisconsin, a place with just two seasons: winter and two months of not-winter.
“Clara, I have the copies of the—Are you putting on sunscreen?”
Her co-worker, Jane, walked into the room and directly to Clara’s desk. Incredibly, the woman was wearing thick leggings and a long-sleeved dress shirt, Native islanders, her fellow employees at the Laraten Resort Hotel actually seemed to think Hawaii experienced the season of winter—and dressed accordingly. Never mind that the weather report said it would be mid-seventies all day.
Hawaiian winter was bullshit.
“Why on earth is the window open?” Jane asked, dropping the files she held to the desk and reaching over to tug it closed.
Clara sighed and rubbed the sunscreen in with more purpose, then stood to open the window again. “You don’t understand. I don’t tan like you islanders. I freckle and then I burn.”
Jane snorted. “You just need to get in the sun more often. Become one of us.”
She sat on the desk’s edge, sweeping up the folders she had dropped there and reorganizing them. “So, do you have any plans for the holidays?”
Clara sat back in her chair, absently twisting her ponytail into a knot. “No, not really. You?”
“I’m heading to Honolulu to be with my family. Won’t you go home?”
Clara looked out her window to the view of the palm tree-dotted walkway to the resort’s beachfront. It was paradise. She knew she should be excited, but ever since the hotel chain had promoted her to Director of Guest Relations and Activities at the Laraten, and shipped her out here a few weeks ago to the Big Island of Hawaii, all she felt was overworked and hot. She had expected the resort in Hawaii to have higher traffic than the one in Wisconsin. But it was one thing to expect the larger scale, and another to work it. “My home is a little farther than just an island away.”
“Oh, yeah. Wisconsin, right? Well, it’s probably for the best. Isn’t it forty below there or something?” Jane shivered dramatically. “I once went to San Francisco and it was sixty there. I thought I was going to die. Ever since I’ve sworn off the mainland. I don’t know how you people can live with that!”
Clara rolled her eyes, flicking through some documents on her computer. She got these kinds of comments a lot, at least three times a day, it seemed. She wanted to reply that she actually missed the cold. Or that she missed the fresh snow just before Christmas, multicolored lights on pine trees, and everyone bundled up like walking down comforters for a reason.
Seventy-degree days, bright and strong sunshine, and white sand beaches were nice. But it just wasn’t Christmas.
Yet no matter how many times she tried to describe that to one of her coworkers, they couldn’t understand how anyone would actually want a foot of snow to slog through.
“I’m needed here during the holidays anyway. It seems everyone on the mainland had the same idea as you, and booked their Christmas vacation here.”
“Don’t remind me. Even though I get Christmas off, I have to be come back for New Year’s,” Jane sighed. “But hey, if you’re here, at least you get one more reason to talk to Kai.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. “I can’t tell you how many women decided to stay for Christmas just because he was going to be here.”
Clara groaned. Kai Schmitt was the head lifeguard and seemed to think himself the head of Guest Activities, with regards to anything near the pool deck. He was a tall, sun-tanned, very well-b
uilt Hawaiian surfer with a wide, friendly face reflecting his Japanese-American heritage.
Upon arriving at her job, Clara instantly spotted him leading a poolside limbo game, and simultaneously catching the eye of every female employee at the resort. She hadn’t thought much of him, at the time, just having flown in from the mainland. She had still been trying to learn the ropes of the resort, after all.
But not two days into her new position, she learned that he wasn’t just some eye candy she could peek at through her window. He had shown up in her office, unexpected, and just started rattling off ideas for activities, changes he wanted to make, and generally anything that was on his mind. It wouldn’t have been that bad if everything wasn’t so outrageously crazy, and against the standards of the resort, and his attitude so condescending, as if trying to school Clara, the newbie, to the island.
Obviously, Kai had been with the resort for years before Clara came, but she knew how to do her job. It was the first time they’d met and Clara had barely gotten a word in edgewise to Kai’s obnoxious rambling. It had seriously rubbed her the wrong way, and her impression of him was set. As beautiful as he was, she still couldn’t stand being in the same room as him for more than five minutes.
That first meeting set a standard. Kai constantly barged into her office with his own version of the events schedule, and it irked Clara to no end. He had gradually lost the superior attitude, but he was still cocky and seemed to think shamelessly flirting would get him his way. Then, when Clara rejected his input, he whined about it for days, complaining to any other employee who would listen. Clara wasn’t trying to be some narc, but Kai’s idea of guest entertainment was late-night pool parties when sixty percent of their clients had small children. Or using the guest mattresses to have a beachfront overnight, which was just ridiculous and could leave them open to lawsuits if something went wrong.
“Don’t get your hopes up, Jane. He might take a break this year and not single-handedly plan every poolside activity from now until New Year’s.”
Jane sighed dreamily. “I don’t understand you. You are so lucky to have Kai constantly coming around.”
“Who’s lucky?”
Jane practically jumped as the devil himself suddenly walked into the office.
He’d obviously heard what she had said, judging by the smirk already present on his face. Kai had a little more strut today than usual, and Clara was positive he was about to ask for something that would give her a migraine.
He also wasn’t wearing a shirt.
“Afternoon ladies,” he greeted.
Suddenly, Jane transformed into a fourteen-year-old girl. She giggled helplessly, even though there was nothing really funny about what he’d said. Of course, she could be giggling about the fact that Kai was currently wearing only his lifeguard sweatpants.
“Heya, Kai.” She smiled sweetly.
Clara rubbed her forehead. “Did you walk around the guests like that, Kai?”
He grinned and pushed his jet-black hair from his face. It was really far too long, Clara thought, if he had to constantly push it from his eyes. “I was on duty and this happens to be the uniform.”
“Yes, your uniform when you are on duty at the pool. Not when you are walking to my office to bother me with today’s latest brain fart.”
He pretended to look hurt and shot an appealing gaze to Jane. “Do you think I’m improperly dressed?”
Jane giggled again and Clara resisted the urge to slap her for it. “No, I think you look great, Kai.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.” He turned to Clara. “See? Jane likes it.”
Clara glared at both of them. “Jane, go back to your office. Kai, stop picking fights like a four-year-old.”
“You started it.”
Clara didn’t reply to that and focused on the spreadsheets laid out on her computer. Jane pouted, but quickly left. Unfazed by the rebuke, Kai just folded his arms across his chest, obviously trying to covertly flex his admittedly impressive muscles.
“Do you need something?” she asked briskly.
“Oh, nothing in particular. Though I’m open to suggestions.”
Clara rolled her eyes. “What does that even mean? Wait, don’t answer that. Just tell me why you’re here and let’s get this over with.”
Kai frowned, a new expression from his usually unflappable features. “Hey, what’s your problem today?”
Clara realized she was being sharper than usual, but couldn’t will herself to apologize. “Just tell me what you came here for, Kai,” she exhaled.
He unfolded his arms and braced them against her desk, leaning over. “Why is your window open?”
The question threw her. “What?”
“Come on, it’s way too cold out to have the window open. That’s why I’m over here, no one is in the pool. Even the guests think it’s too cold.”
Clara closed her eyes and massaged her forehead. “It is not cold. It is seventy-four and sunny. Is that all you really came here for?”
“Aw, come on, Clara,” he pouted. “That’s not the only reason I came by. I have a great idea for Christmas Eve.”
She knew he would whine, drag his feet and never leave if she refused to listen, so Clara resigned herself, folded her arms and leaned back. “Alright, shoot.”
He smiled. “Okay, so I think we need to throw an awesome party for Christmas Eve. Like, I know the restaurant usually has some fancy dinner for Christmas Day, so how about something more dressed down for the pool for Christmas Eve? Just a cool buffet, a DJ, and some party games for the kids.”
“On Christmas Eve?”
“Yeah! Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Who wants to go to some beach-y party on Christmas Eve? But what you forget, most impressive mainlander, is that tourists come here at Christmas because they want to party for Christmas, instead of the usual stuffy family dinner stuff.”
Clara stared at him silently for a minute. His face was all lit up like some over-excited puppy. If it was anyone else, Clara would find it amusing, but since it was attached to the ever-annoying, Kai, it didn’t have the same effect. Still, it wasn’t a bad idea, for once, and Clara didn’t have anything planned yet for Christmas Eve. “You really want to plan this?” It would take a little burden off her in the holiday rush if Kai could take care of entertainment for the guests.
He nodded enthusiastically. “I met Martha on the way here and ran it by her. She sounded really excited about it too.”
Martha was the General Manager of Laraten. And even if she was practically seventy years old, apparently even she wasn’t able to resist a shirtless Kai romping around the front lobby.
“Of course she did,” Clara muttered under her breath, glaring at her computer screen.
“Is that a yes, mistress of thine master budget?” Kai was leaning even farther forward, so when Clara looked up they were practically within kissing distance. A thought that disturbed her slightly, but she wasn’t about to show weakness by backing away.
She tried to make her expression as steely as possible. “Give me the contact and references of the DJ you had in mind, as well as a list for party activities, food, and other props you require. And then, I’ll give you the status of ‘thine master budget.’”
Kai was smiling so widely, Clara thought she might have misspoken and somehow had complimented him. Suddenly, he darted forward and gave her a quick kiss on her nose. “I knew you would like it!” Then Kai was practically prancing from her office, loudly humming off-key.
Clara felt herself flush with a mixture of indignation and, well, certainly not pleasure. Even if Kai had a rather splendidly built body, he still had the attitude of a twelve-year-old. She rubbed her nose, glaring at Kai’s retreating bare back. “And I better not catch you again dressed so inappropriately in front of the guests!” she shouted, doubting that he was listening at all. Leaning back in her chair, she heard a faint giggle coming from just outside her office. “Jane! You better need something very important to be eavesdropping l
ike that!” she barked.
Jane’s head appeared in the doorway. “Just passing by, mistress!” And she disappeared again.
Clara let her head fall to her desk with a soft thump.
Chapter Two
Clara pulled her feet up, bracing her knees against the steering wheel of her car. She rested her cheek against the cell-phone, waiting, as she fiddled with the air-conditioning. She wished she could have made this call in her office, where at least it was less stuffy than the car. But on Christmas Eve, her office was no longer a private space. With the resort bursting thanks to a fully booked guest list and extra hired help, it was Clara that everyone came running to when there was a problem. And everyone was having problems. Clara just knew it would only get crazier as the night went on.
For her lunch hour, Clara had to make an escape to the parking lot to make a quick call. They should just be sitting down to Christmas Eve dinner at home about now.
“Clara?” her mother’s soft voice answered.
She sighed in relief and cradled the phone almost lovingly. With the move and her packed schedule, it had been weeks since she could last call home. “Hi, Mom. How’s it going over there?”
“Oh, it’s fine, fine.” She was distracted and suddenly covered the phone as she shouted, “Richard, go answer the door! It’s probably Martha and the kids!”
Tidings of Love Page 16