“To tell you the truth, I’m not really sure.”
She knew. Trouble. That’s what she would call this attraction that seemed to seethe and eddy around them like the frothy waves on the sand.
“I think I’ll go back in the water while I have the chance,” she said, escaping the currents tugging between them to head to her own boogie board. “Do you still want to take off about noon?”
“What is that, about an hour and a half? Will that give you enough time?”
“Yes. I’ll swim for a minute and then take the girls over to their hula lesson. We’ll meet you at our cabana after we clean off.”
“Deal.”
He grabbed his own board and headed for deeper waters while she waded toward the others.
* * *
“EVERY TIME YOU turn a bend in the road, the view becomes more breathtaking. How is that even possible?”
Shane shifted his gaze from driving for just an instant, enjoying Megan’s wide-eyed excitement immensely. The craggy, raw green mountains and stunning blue sea seemed even more spectacular when viewed from her perspective.
“I’d forgotten how beautiful it was,” he said. “It’s the Garden Island. I’ve been to Oahu, Maui and Hawaii, and I think I’d have to say I still like Kauai best. If I had to picture the Garden of Eden, this would be the place.”
“I love the flowers most,” Sarah announced.
“I liked the waterfall. It was huge,” Grace said. In the rearview mirror, he saw her hide a yawn after she spoke.
Both girls looked tired, probably still struggling a little with the time change.
“Chicago in January seems like another planet right now. It’s tough to think about returning to below-zero temperatures and bitter winds.”
He had enjoyed the last few hours with them and hated thinking this magical time had to end.
“Hey, Shane, is that a geyser?”
He looked down where water shot high through huge lava rocks. “No. That’s called a puhi, or blowhole, like what whales have. Water comes up through a lava tube then shoots out. Pretty cool, isn’t it? This one is called Spouting Horn.”
He pulled into an overlook and they watched it for a while. Okay, if he were honest with himself, Megan and her daughters watched the blowhole. He mostly watched them.
They, not the beauty of the island, were the real reason he didn’t want to return to Chicago. He would treasure the memory of their few hours together always. He loved being with them—Grace with her quiet courage and strength, Sarah with her energy and her inquisitive mind, and Megan, who drew him to her like the moon directing the tides.
All of them were entwining their way around his heart.
“I came here when I was a kid and heard a story about this place. I guess there’s some Hawaiian legend about a giant lizard that used to patrol this area and was trapped in the lava tube. According to the legend, that’s her breath coming out, and that noise you hear as the water rushes through is her roar.”
He wasn’t sure where that memory came from, but the girls seemed fascinated by it.
“How old were you when you came here before?” Megan asked, while Sarah and Grace were busy listening for the giant lizard.
“Around eleven or twelve, I think. Cara would have been eight, maybe. Our dad and his third wife brought us here.”
“You must have had fun,” she said cautiously.
His laugh was rough as memories he’d submerged a long time ago shot to the surface like water through that blowhole. “Not really. They didn’t want us along.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
“It was another of the endless custody battles in the war my parents waged after their divorce. Dad and Gina had already made arrangements to come here by themselves over the holidays. Then Mom reminded him a few weeks before Christmas break that this was his year to have us for Christmas. She’d already made her own plans that didn’t include us, and she wasn’t going to change them.”
He’d really wanted to like Gina, but it had been tough when she’d made snide comments throughout the trip about having to bring them along.
He could hear her and his father fighting about it every night of the trip. At least they waited until they thought he and Cara were asleep.
“It wasn’t the most pleasant vacation of my life. I was old enough to feel the tension between them and to know we weren’t wanted.”
Her features softened with sympathy. “How terrible for you.”
“Yeah. Let’s just say I didn’t handle it well. I spent the whole week acting like a little shi— Er, jerk, which didn’t make the situation any easier for anyone. Not one of my prouder moments. I think Gina walked out about two months later. I always felt like that one was a little bit my fault.”
“That sounds awful. You poor things.”
He hadn’t wanted her sympathy. Really, he couldn’t imagine why he had told her all that in the first place. Something about her warm expression and gentle compassion managed to draw out things he had no intention of telling anyone.
“With that sort of history here, I wonder why Cara wanted to have her own wedding on Kauai.”
“She was a few years younger,” Shane said. “I’m not sure she understood all the nuances, you know?”
“That makes sense.” Megan paused for a moment.
“I gather your parents have been around the wedding block a few times.”
“An understatement. Five for my dad, four for my mom. I’ve got enough ex-stepmoms and -stepdads to make a basketball team, complete with manager and a couple bench warmers. What about you?”
She gave a wistful sigh. “I was really blessed. My parents had more than two happy decades together. They were older when they had me—my mom was nearly forty and my dad a few years older. I was an only child. All I remember from growing up was how much we laughed together. Our house was always filled with joy. We loved each other.”
He noted her use of the past tense. “What happened to them?”
She focused her gaze on her daughters, who weren’t paying any attention to them. “On their twenty-fifth anniversary, they were driving home from dinner when they were T-boned by a drunk driver. Both of them died instantly.”
“I’m sorry.” On impulse, he reached for her hand and squeezed her fingers.
She looked down at their joined hands and then up at him with a tremulous smile. “That was about a year before I met Nick. My parents would have been crazy about the girls and I know they would have been fantastic grandparents. I still get sad when I think my daughters will never have the chance to know how wonderful their grandparents were.”
“They know. I’m sure you tell them. They’ll know your parents through the memories you share with them.”
Her smile deepened and she squeezed his fingers. “Thank you. You’re right. I think I needed that reminder.”
“Can we see another waterfall?”
He shifted his gaze to the girls. “I think that can be arranged. Or if you want, we can visit a cookie factory right here on the island.”
“Cookies!” Grace said promptly.
“Yay! Cookies!” Sarah added her vote.
“I guess that settles it,” he answered, smiling at Megan before he backed out of the viewpoint and they continued on their way.
CHAPTER SIX
SPENDING THE DAY with Shane had been a huge mistake.
That evening, as she dressed carefully for the wedding rehearsal and dinner, Megan wanted to kick herself for ever agreeing to let him give them the tour in the first place.
The afternoon had been filled with priceless moments. Eating delicious coconut shrimp at picnic tables beside a roadside truck with a million-dollar view of the surf. Having her breath snatched away by the sheer wonder of the steep
jagged cliffs of the Na Pali Coast. Watching him tenderly carry Grace on his back down a secluded beach to show the girls a sea turtle—a honu—that had come out of the water to bask in the sun.
She was falling hard for him.
She pressed a hand to her chest, already aching at the impending loss. Except for when he’d held her hand for a brief time, he’d been careful to keep things between them casual and light. She sensed invisible barriers and had no idea how to breach them—if she even dared.
This was ridiculous, she told herself. What did it matter if he maintained distance between them? She couldn’t be falling in love with the man. She barely knew him. She was letting her heart get carried away by the excitement of an exotic location and the break from her usual life. Vacation crazies. That’s what this was.
She only had to make it through tonight and the sunset wedding the next day. In less than forty-eight hours, she would climb back on an airplane that would take her and her girls home, back to their carefully organized life. She’d be able to clear her head once she was away from the trade winds and the palm trees and the endless, seductive murmur of the sea.
She hurried to the other room, where the girls were sitting in the new flowered sundresses she’d bought them that afternoon at a little shop in Princeville. They were entranced with a show on TV, which meant they hadn’t had the chance to mess up their clothes yet.
“I’m finally ready,” she told them. “Sorry about the wait. Should we go?”
“Yep,” Grace said. “The show got over right this minute.”
Both of her daughters smiled at her, looking bright and cheerful, and her heart ached with love for them. They were the most important people in her life, she reminded herself. Not a gorgeous police detective with a sweet smile and shoulders big enough for the weight of the world.
She grabbed a couple of delicately scented plumeria blooms from the bouquet on the table and stuck one behind each girl’s ear. “There. Now you look like proper Hawaiian princesses.”
“You need a flower, Mommy,” Grace insisted.
On impulse, she picked another flower from the bouquet and stuck it behind her ear.
Sarah pushed her sister’s wheelchair as they took the walkway between the cabanas that led to the area of the beach where the wedding would take place the next evening.
When she arrived, Jean and her daughter, Nick’s sister, immediately seized on the girls, asking them all about their day and the things they’d seen.
She was aware of him there, speaking with Cara and a handsome, rather distinguished-looking older man she hadn’t met yet. Hanging on the man’s arm was an exquisitely dressed woman who didn’t look much older than Shane.
She recognized enough similarities between the older man’s features and Shane and Cara to realize this must be their father and his new wife.
She thought of the pain she’d heard in Shane’s voice that afternoon as he talked about his father’s behavior. Even though it happened many years ago, she had to fight the urge to head over to give him a piece of her mind.
She controlled herself, forcing her attention back to the conversation between the twins’ grandmother and aunt.
An older woman she also hadn’t met yet approached the wedding party, greeting a few of Cara and Shane’s other relatives. She was heavily made up and appeared to have had recent Botox injections, judging by her falsely placid expression.
Out of the corner of her eye, Megan watched the woman approach the other group and give Cara a big, overly dramatic hug. Megan didn’t miss the scathing look she sent Shane’s father and the younger woman with him.
This must be the mother of the bride, she guessed. For Cara’s and Nick’s sake, she really hoped their parents could manage to keep the peace until the wedding was over.
As she didn’t have a direct role in the wedding—of course—during the rehearsal Megan mostly sat on the sidelines and did her best to prompt Grace and Sarah in their responsibilities as flower girls. Grace used her walker and moved with her somewhat labored gait, though she seemed to relish her role, pretending to toss flower petals with abandon.
Megan made a mental note to advise her to pace herself during the real ceremony and not empty her whole basket in the first few feet.
After the rehearsal, the wedding party moved to a small reception room inside the hotel for the catered dinner. Nick’s sister and mother took charge of the girls, leaving Megan feeling a little at loose ends.
She was contemplating taking the girls after dinner and returning to their cabana when the mother of the bride approached her, drink in hand.
“I understand you’re Nick’s first wife,” she said without preamble.
She wasn’t quite sure what to say or why she’d been singled out for the woman’s scrutiny. “Yes,” she answered carefully. “I’m Megan McNeil.”
The woman’s forehead furrowed as much as she could manage and she took a healthy drink.
“I’m Donna Porter, Cara’s mother. I have to say, I was stunned—just stunned—when my son told me who you were. I can’t believe you actually flew to Hawaii for your ex-husband’s wedding to my daughter.”
She blinked a little at the woman’s temerity. What business was it of hers why Megan was there? She didn’t have to explain herself to anyone, especially not the half-drunk mother of the bride.
As much as she wanted to bluntly tell the other woman off, Megan decided starting a confrontation would only complicate an already sticky social situation.
“My daughters wanted to see their father get married,” she answered. “As you can probably see, one of my twins has special needs. I couldn’t just send her to Hawaii on her own.”
Donna appeared to digest that, glancing at the girls and then back at her. “Wow, you’re a bigger woman than I am. I never would have dragged my kids to one of their father’s many weddings. Of course, I would have gone broke trying to make it to all of them. He’s on, what, his fifth?”
“I don’t know,” Megan answered.
“He is. That’s him, over there. My delightful first husband, Hal. Have you seen that little tramp he married this time? Ridiculous. She’s half his age! Doesn’t he know he’s making a complete ass of himself?”
Again, Megan didn’t quite know how to respond and settled for making a noncommittal sound.
“I’ve half a mind to go tell him so.” Donna picked up her drink and started to slide her chair back. Megan shot a quick look at Cara, busy talking to a couple of other wedding guests. Donna had obviously had a little too much to drink. The last thing the bride needed right now was the stress of her mother causing a scene at the rehearsal dinner.
Megan looked around for someone to help her rescue the situation, but Shane was busy talking to Nick and a couple of Nick’s friends, and Cara was distracted with her father and his new wife.
She would have to take things into her own hands, she realized. She quickly placed a hand on Donna’s arm. “I love your earrings. Where did you get them?”
“Oh, these? I made them. I took a beading class at the community center in my condo development. Aren’t they beautiful?”
“Yes. I’d love to know how to do that.”
“It’s not hard.” Donna launched into an explanation that was mostly over Megan’s head. From there, Megan moved on to asking about the Florida community where she lived, what books she liked to read, and interesting people she’d met, all while trying to substitute Donna’s drinks for water.
Forty minutes later, Megan’s eyes were gritty and sore with fatigue, as if somebody had tossed a handful of beach at her.
She couldn’t blame her sudden tiredness on lingering jet lag. Keeping the mother of the bride distracted and happy was more exhausting than dealing with the twins on a sugar high.
People were beginning to leave, and Megan decided
she should take the twins back to their lodgings to get some rest. She was just about to make her excuses to Donna when Shane approached them.
As soon as Donna spied him, she jumped up and slipped an arm through his.
“Megan, this is my son, Shane,” she said, her voice only slurring a little. “Isn’t he a gorgeous one?”
Despite her exhaustion, she had to hide a smile at the embarrassed look in his eyes.
“Absolutely,” she answered with total truth.
“Girls started calling him at home when he was twelve years old. Can you believe that? And they haven’t stopped for a minute since. He ought to be the one getting married, don’t you think?”
This time her smile broke free. “I think that’s for Shane to decide.”
“Mom, can I walk you back to your cabana?”
She pouted a little. “Already? I was thinking I would hang out at the bar for a while.”
“Are you sure?” he pressed. “Tomorrow will be a big day. You don’t want to be off your game for Cara’s wedding. You know you’ll want to look your very best in the pictures. And aren’t you spending the day helping her get ready?”
“I guess you’re right. It was lovely talking to you, Megan.” She gave Megan a rather sloppy hug and kiss on the cheek. Apparently they’d bonded over talk of beads and books.
“You know what my son needs?” Donna said suddenly. “A nice girl like you!”
Shane looked horrified—by his mother’s behavior or her words, Megan wasn’t sure. She tried not to be hurt by the possibility that he was horrified at the idea of needing someone like her. Still, she couldn’t help being annoyed that he obviously didn’t appreciate the energy she’d just expended on his and Cara’s behalf.
“Come on, Mom. Let’s get you home.”
“If I have to,” Donna huffed, gathering up her purse.
After a long look at Megan—one she couldn’t quite analyze—Shane gripped his mother’s arm and led her away from the reception room.
Megan sighed and went to gather her daughters, wondering if she would turn out like Donna someday, alone and unhappy.
Island Promises: Hawaiian HolidayHawaiian ReunionHawaiian Retreat Page 5