by Kayla Perrin
And Baden clearly conveyed that that is just what she wanted him to do: go away.
All righty then, Jesse thought. So this was not going quite the way he had anticipated it would.
But what else should he have expected? She hadn’t seen him since her wedding day, and that had not been a stellar occasion for any of them.
This was not a good idea, Jesse thought. As a matter of fact, it was a monumentally horrible idea.
The envelope in his pocket felt like a hot brand on his skin. He couldn’t do it. Not now.
Damn you, Sean, he thought. Damn you for leaving me to clean up your mess.
Jesse, who hadn’t been promoted to the rank of police detective sergeant for nothing, was used to thinking fast on his feet. Now, however, he scrambled to come up with a plausible reason for showing up at her door, a door that was more than a little farther away than the twenty-five-mile drive from his place to hers back in Cedar Springs, North Carolina.
He moved closer to her, all but invading her personal space.
“I wanted to apologize,” he said.
That seemed to take both of them by surprise.
She dropped her arms and regarded him.
“Well, that’s not what I was expecting,” she said.
“After Sean died, I thought about you,” he said. “Actually, I worried about you and wondered how you were doing. What you were doing. Then, when you didn’t come home for the funeral—” he looked a bit sheepish, but shrugged and continued “—more times than I can count, I headed over to your aunt and uncle’s, intending to ask for your address or contact info. If I did, I knew I’d get some ribbing from Mr. Calloway even under the circumstances, but I thought Miss Henrietta might take pity on me.”
Baden smiled at her aunt’s name.
The smile encouraged him. And now that he had actually started, the words came out as if part of an eruption from one of the island’s volcanoes he’d seen from the airplane heading into the airport.
They had been bottled up inside him for a long time. This isn’t what he’d specifically come to say to her, but it needed saying.
“But I couldn’t seem to do it,” he said. “I kept thinking that if I could just see you or talk to you...” He shrugged, the words momentarily failing him. Then he continued, “But eighteen months ago, when you deleted me from your friends list on Facebook and didn’t accept me on LinkedIn, I knew you were royally pissed and didn’t want anything to do with me.”
She reached a hand out and touched his arm.
“I deleted everybody when I left Carolina,” she said. “I just wanted and needed to disappear from the planet.”
When he glanced at her hand, she snatched it back, fluttering for a moment, before eventually clasping both of her hands in front of her. She twisted them together like a shy or uncertain schoolgirl. Jesse knew her to be neither.
That was why what she’d done to Sean confused and confounded him so much.
She had been ready to promise forever to his best friend. And then, then she’d just walked away. She had put Sean through hell, a hell that had ultimately killed him.
But that wasn’t something he would or could ever tell her.
Baden’s burden—and his own guilt over loving her and being jealous of his partner for having her—was great, and she didn’t need him dumping his own mess on top of her.
She studied him for a long moment, a moment that was starting to get really uncomfortable.
“You came five thousand miles to tell me you’re sorry.”
She didn’t sound angry or disbelieving. If Jesse weren’t mistaken, she sounded more mystified than anything else.
She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
The gesture stunned him.
“You’ve always been one of the good guys, Jesse Fremont,” she said as she stepped back and again put a bit of distance between them before perching on the edge of the chair. “You said you’re in Hawaii on vacation. Have you seen Maui yet?”
If surprised at the kiss, or at the abrupt change in her tone, from morose to upbeat, or even at the ultrasharp shift in conversation, Jesse didn’t show it. He was a cop and knew how to roll with the punches even as he assessed the lay of the land in the middle of a volatile situation.
Besides, he reasoned, other than reminding her of the past, she had no reason to be angry with him. Did she?
“Not really,” he answered her. “I checked into my hotel then decided to find you first before...”
He trailed off, catching himself before he accidentally revealed the true purpose of his visit to Hawaii.
He could hardly confess that to her. He had barely let himself think beyond what he’d do after seeing her. For the first time in his adult life, Jesse didn’t have a plan.
She must have read something into his silence that he clearly had not intended because Baden smiled.
Jesse had to smile right back. “What?”
“You’re in luck, Officer Fremont.”
“It’s sergeant now. I’m in the detective bureau.”
“Oh. Well, excuse me, Detective Sergeant Fremont,” she said lightheartedly, accenting his rank.
And then, more serious, as if the ghost of Sean were in the room with them, she added, “Congratulations, Jesse. You deserve it. Sean always said you’d go far up the ranks.”
He wanted to ask more about this, wanted to ask how she knew he deserved his promotions. But he didn’t want reminders of Sean to turn her back into the closed and distant woman she’d been when she’d opened the door a few minutes ago. So Jesse took the safe route for now, asking, “And why am I in luck?”
“My clients don’t come in until tomorrow and I have no appointments or showings booked so I am free for the rest of the day. That means that you have your own personal tour guide.”
He lifted a brow. “Tour guide?”
“You’re here on vacation, right?”
If you could call six weeks of involuntary leave a vacation, sure, he was on vacation. To Baden he just nodded.
“Well, welcome to Paradise,” she said. “Let me grab some flats and my bag, and I’ll show you a good time.”
Somehow, he doubted that the type of good time Baden referenced or was thinking of had any bearing to the kind of good time he wanted to have with her. But beggars would not be choosers, especially when offered with this gift. Jesse knew he would take the company of Baden Calloway any way he could get it.
“Be right back,” she said, getting up.
* * *
True to her word, she made it quick, returning with a cell phone at her ear.
“I’m going to be out for a while, Mama Melia. I’ll meet Mr. and Mrs. Li at the airport in the morning. Will you have Deato Kauhane pick up my car, please? I’ll leave the keys under the seat like last time.”
The cop in Jesse shuddered at that. Whatever she drove, leaving the keys in the vehicle was just an invitation for trouble. Hawaii might be known as Paradise to the thousands of tourists who flocked to the islands every year, but there was crime and a criminal element here just like everywhere else in the United States.
Let it go, he told himself. You’re a cop without authority right now, so just let it go.
He studied her as he listened to the one-sided conversation.
There was no doubt about it. His memory and the regret of what-could-have-been had not been lacking in a single detail when it came to this woman. Baden Calloway was simply stunning.
She’d done a complete presto chango on her clothes, and he wondered if she had a cadre of assistants back there who had whisked her out of one outfit and into another. He’d seen that magic in action once when he’d been roped into the role of backstage wrangler for a benefit fashion show his sister had put on.
Inst
ead of the sundress, she’d changed into a short flirty skirt in the same golden color and a filmy top that draped off her shoulders. That smooth dark honey-colored skin tempted him, and Jesse’s body responded to the off-limits temptation.
He forced himself to ignore it. But that was a hard task.
“No, that won’t be necessary, Mama Melia. Thank you for all your work,” she told the person on the phone. “Yes, he found me.”
Her gaze met Jesse’s, and she smiled as if letting him be a party to the conversation.
She turned to reach for something on the table behind the sofa, and Jesse got a great view of those long supple legs. She’d ditched the mules for even sexier open-toed sandals that had little seashells on front, but they were hardly what he’d call flats.
Jesse’s gut tightened when he noticed first the pink toenails and then a toe ring with a tiny seashell on it. Leave it to Baden to mark her own style even in Hawaii.
She motioned for him to follow, and she led him to a gourmet kitchen that had the perfectly put-together look of a set for a Food Network TV show.
“Yes, they were delicious. You’re just trying to fatten me up.” She laughed at whatever Melia said. “All right. I’ll be sure to share. You have a relaxing rest of the day. It’s showtime tomorrow. Mahalo.”
She ended the call and dropped the phone in her bag. After turning off the coffeemaker, she reached for a plate on the kitchen island.
“These are the best macadamia nut clusters you will ever eat in your life,” she said, extending to him the plate filled with cookies. “They’re like an orgasm in the mouth.”
Jesse’s mouth went dry and for a moment he thought it was going to be over for him right here standing in her kitchen.
Oblivious to his torment, Baden handed him a napkin and invited him to take one of the cookies and follow her.
The next thing Jesse knew, he was moaning and it had nothing to do with the woman who turned him on.
“Oh, my God,” he mumbled around chews.
She’d locked the door off the kitchen and was headed down a pathway toward a gleaming silver Jaguar XJL. But he was standing near the door chewing the last of the cookie and trying to figure out how to get back into the house and the kitchen without being brought up on B & E charges.
There were more of those cookies in there, and the fact that a law enforcement officer was willing to suffer charges of breaking and entering just to get at them spoke volumes. If his cop buddies back home ever tasted these, they’d swear off doughnuts for life.
“I want another one,” he said.
* * *
Baden’s laughter drifted back to him. “Come on, Jesse. Those aren’t going anywhere and will be there when we get back. There are, however, other sensual delights of Hawaii awaiting you.”
He shook his head.
The remnants of one sensual delight lingered in his mouth, and the other stood just a few feet away. This place truly was Paradise on earth.
With both of them buckled into the Jaguar, Baden spun out of the driveway as if she were trying to beat Jimmie Johnson’s or Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s qualifying time for the Daytona 500.
“Drive fast, do you?” Jesse said drily.
Baden grinned. “This baby was made for speed.”
She was telling the truth there. The car was one of the top-of-the-line models in an already top-of-the-line make.
But Jesse just said, “Hmm” and held on.
Then asked, “Did you make those cookies?”
That earned him an amused laugh from her.
“Any cookies I bake, you want to stay far, far away from,” she said. “Mama Melia—that’s Melia Olena Hookano on paper, but Mama Melia to anyone who knows her longer than five minutes—she made them. She makes a batch of something fattening every day. She’s the housekeeper slash chef slash caretaker of the Kapule Garden Estate, at least until someone buys the place.”
Despite his teasing, Baden handled the luxury car with skill. He watched her hands on the steering wheel and imagined them curved around...
Jesse cleared his throat, shifted in the passenger seat then tried to focus on what Baden was saying rather than what she was doing to him without even realizing it.
“She’s very distantly related to the original Kapule family who owned the land. And she’s worked for every owner for the last forty years. She claims she’s going to move to the mainland to visit California and New Mexico after I sell the estate. Personally, I give her a week before hopping the first plane, boat or raft back to Hawaii. But everyone has to have a plan, and that is the one she’s come up with.”
Jesse wondered what Baden’s plan was, especially now that he’d crashed into her life. Then he decided what the hell, in for an ounce, in for a pound.
“And what about your plan?”
She glanced over at him. “My plan is to show you a good time today.”
Chapter 2
Baden, like many women, had mastered the art of the surreptitious glance. Something had him riled up and turned on. She’d forgotten just how intimately cozy the confines of a vehicle could be—with the right person sitting next to you.
So she knew, and conveniently chose to ignore, the suggestive slip she’d made and how he might be responding to it.
Baden didn’t want to think about Sean Mathews. But Jesse’s presence made those thoughts spring forth, unwanted and unbidden. Jesse and Sean went hand in hand. She’d met them the same day at the same time so they would be forever linked in her head—and in her heart?
Sean had been a part of her life for a long time, but that was a lifetime ago. Because of Sean, she had found Hawaii, and for that she would forever and always be grateful. If a person could “get over” embarrassing herself and her family by walking out of the church on her wedding day—before the vows were even uttered, Baden thought she had succeeded.
She’d even dated a bit, but nothing serious. Just outings with a few safe guys, men she had no intention of falling for because, well, because she wasn’t really that into them in the first place.
As for Jesse Fremont? Well, he was another story, another category unto himself.
She’d always found him incredibly sexy. The type of man that a woman instinctively knew was a protector, a provider and probably one heck of a lover. In other words, the brother was the total package, tall, dark, fine as all get out and the topic of more than his share of speculation among her girlfriends back when she was just starting to date Sean.
Though she hadn’t seen Jesse since the day she was supposed to marry his partner, nothing about him had changed.
He was still the quintessential tall, dark and handsome law enforcement officer that he’d always been. If there were recruiting ads for cops, Jesse could be the poster boy. He stood just over six feet tall and had a body that wasn’t earned by sitting at a desk or playing video games all day. She remembered that he did mixed martial arts as a part of his workout routine and ran several miles every morning.
The work he put in translated into high-octane eye candy.
He looked like a man who could make a woman glad she was a woman. And when he smiled... Glory!
Baden tried to keep those thoughts at bay. Hadn’t just that line of thought already caused enough problems for her?
She could let Jesse’s sudden appearance in her life and the apology that he’d brought from the past drag her back to that horrific period of isolation, abandonment and despair, or she could, like the islands she now called home, continue to grow and flourish from the remnants of devastation.
Her decision was an easy one.
“What’s your schedule like?” she asked him.
Jesse shrugged. “When I landed at the airport, they said the islands were on aloha time. When I went to change my watch, the guy laughed and tappe
d his head. He said ‘aloha time’ was a state of mind, not a time on a clock. Once here, I was supposed to put aside all the calendars and schedules I use in the States...”
Baden glanced at him. “This is the States.”
“I mean, what did you call it? The mainland?”
She nodded. “But I knew what you meant,” she said flashing him an easy grin. “Hawaii is the closest thing Americans can get to feeling like they are in a foreign country while still on American soil right at home.”
“As well as parts of Miami, and most of New Orleans,” he said.
“What about Miami and New Orleans?”
Jesse glanced out the window admiring the Maui streetscape as it passed by outside. Palm trees and pedestrians marked the street with shops and houses no more than two or three stories high lining one side of the street. The ocean on the other made him smile.
“New Orleans has that ‘other place’ vibe to it,” he said by way of explanation. “It’s like you left America and went to some other country. And Miami, well, depending on where you are within that city, you might swear you were in Cuba or the Caribbean.”
“I’ve never been to either of those places,” Baden said. “So I’ll have to take your word for it. I know Louisiana has a mix of cultures, French, African and Native American.”
“Among others.”
“Here in Hawaii, we’re quite diverse. We have Native Hawaiians with a capital N, like Mama Melia Hookano, who are descended from the old Polynesians who settled the islands, and native Hawaiians like President Barack Obama who was born here.”
She stopped at a light and waved at some people, clearly tourists with their cameras and white socks worn with sandals, waiting to cross to the beach side of the street.
“There are, of course,” she continued as they waited, “a lot of Pacific Islanders. About forty percent of the population is Asian, Asian American or of some Asian descent. Whites are about twenty-five percent.”
“I take it not a lot of black and brown folks live here.”
Baden glanced over at him and laughed. “You’d be surprised,” she said. “There are fairly sizable black and Hispanic populations across the islands. Even though several islands comprise the state, most of the density is in Honolulu.”