by Annie O'Neil
“Dad, look!”
Lulu and Zach followed Harry’s finger, which was pointing out to the ocean. There, in the center of the sea of surfers, was Lulu’s brother, holding Chantal up with one hand as she arced into a variety of circus-style poses while he effortlessly surfed the pair of them onto the shore, before setting her down as if she were made of fairy dust.
Lulu looked back at Zach and deadpanned, “I’m not sure I have the upper body strength to achieve quite that level of finesse if we were to do the same.”
Their eyes locked. The wattage between them ramped up to something that hadn’t been invented yet. And there it was again. That magnetic hunger to find out exactly what she felt like. To see how the soft, honeyed surface of her skin would respond to the rough whorls on his fingertips. To his lips.
Standing this close to her, he felt their differences keenly. He was all steel and cement and honking horns, while she was golden sand, soft breezes and rivulets of water shifting along a deep green palm frond. And yet something told him that right at the very center of her heart, of her mind—where it mattered—they were made from the same mold. With strong moral compasses. A built-in, unshakable conviction to serve their communities. A belief that everyone should be treated fairly and with kindness, no matter what package they came in.
“Dad?” Harry grabbed his hand and gave him a pleading look. “Can we do this again, please? Tomorrow?”
“Oh...” He faltered. “I think Lulu said it was only once a month...”
“I’ll take you out, squirt,” Lulu said over him. “If your dad’s cool with it, we could practice at Turtle Hideaway.”
“That’d be great.”
Zach thanked her, trying to give Harry’s head a scrub but missing, because his son was too busy jumping up and down. Lulu joined him for his happy dance—which was just as well, because he was finding it hard not to betray the sucker punch of emotion the offer had elicited in him.
She wouldn’t know about the number of times Harry had asked his mother to go to the zoo, the park, the playground, only to receive a cringe and a paltry excuse as to why they couldn’t go.
Christina’s response to having a disabled son had been gutting. It was as if she’d expected her child to be an accessory to her almost unnatural beauty. But when two years of tests had revealed that their son definitely had cerebral palsy, a coldness had fallen in her—like a sheet of ice between her world and theirs.
It had been impossible to believe that she would reject both her son and then, as part of the fallout, him. But the lure of her career, world travel and being surrounded by nothing but beauty had trumped the vows they’d taken, the life they’d promised to share together, the son they’d sworn to protect. So when they’d separated three years ago and then divorced he had dragged about a hundred chains around his heart and locked it up tight. That sort of risk was never worth taking again.
“I do have one condition,” Lulu said, aiming her comment at Zach.
“Name it,” he said.
“You and me.” She pointed at him, then at herself. “We train. Hard. And then we kick ass at the games.” She winced an apology at Harry. “Sorry, bud. I wasn’t meant to say ass.”
Harry giggled.
Zach waved the apology away. Harry had heard worse. Much worse. Funny how he’d never realized how cruel children and parents could be until he’d started taking Harry to school. He’d caught the tag end of taunts and teasing from the kids, the sidelong glances from the parents and the distance they tried to keep between their children and his, as if Harry’s condition was infectious.
Lulu pulled Harry in for a hug. “So? What do you think? Surfing lessons for this little dude in exchange for a bit of hardcore training?”
“Sounds reasonable. But why do you want to win the games so much? We’re small fry compared to the teams we’re going up against.”
From her change of expression and the instant rush of cool air sweeping between them Zach knew he’d done a massive open mouth, insert foot.
“Oh? Is that what you think?” Lulu was tapping her bare foot on the sand the way an interrogator might slap a leather baton in their hand. With barely controlled rage. “That we’re small fry? That there’s no point in trying?”
“No!” he protested. And honestly he didn’t. “I don’t. It’s just that it’s our first year in the games, and we’ve been chosen for optics more than ability—”
“Hold up!” she cut in, holding her hand out to stop him, as if she needed a moment to digest what he’d just said. She turned to Harry and pointed him a bit farther down the beach, to a couple of enormous cool boxes being manned by volunteers. “Hey, bud. Why don’t you go grab some bottles of water, yeah? I think your father here is getting a bit of heatstroke.” When he’d gone, she turned back to Zach and with barely concealed disgust said, “How did you even get hired if that’s how little you think of us?”
“No! I misspoke. I don’t think poorly of you or the team. I’m sure we have as much of a chance of winning as any of the others.”
He caught a glimpse of Makoa, picking up two little kids, one under each arm, as if they were beach towels. Oh, God. They didn’t stand a chance.
Lulu, catching the scene, spat back, “You said we were chosen for optics. So...what? We tick all the right boxes? Ethnic woman? Big, sexy, strong fireman? Is this a photo-op or a competition?”
He goldfished for a minute, stuck on the part where she’d called him a “sexy, strong fireman.”
She dug her weight into her heels. “You know, when you came along I thought you were a jerk. A highly qualified, talented jerk. Turns out only one of the three was right.”
He had to fix this. Fast. “I am highly qualified.”
Despite her obvious ire, she sniggered. “But not very optimistic.”
He sucked in a sharp breath and held up his hands. “You’ve got me there. And that’s why I think they put us together.”
“Why? Because I’m a dreamer and you’re an optics-only guy?”
“No. Because you see options where I don’t. And...” He batted round in his frazzled brain for something smart to say. “And I can lift more stuff.”
She sniggered again. “Pfft. You think you’re strong?”
The atmosphere between them shifted, crackling with a whole new breed of tension. The kind that made him want to close the distance between them. So he did.
“Oh, I know I’m strong.” He was close to her. Close enough that she had to tip that feisty little chin of hers up to meet his gaze.
“How strong?” she asked, in a voice that demanded proof.
“This strong.”
Before he could think better of it, he reached out, picked her up, threw her over his shoulder and ran to the sea, gratified to hear her screams of protest turning into laughter. A lot of laughter.
He ran into the surf, deeper and deeper, until a wave slammed against his thighs and the two of them fell into the ocean, her body sliding down his chest, his arms wrapping round her waist to keep her above water, her hands lacing round his neck. When the wave retreated he was still holding her. The water dappled her skin like dewdrops. Their faces weren’t even a handful of inches apart, and their bodies were pressed together as if their lives depended upon it...
“Is that all you two got?”
Mak appeared, towering above them, hands extended to pull them both up, the tropical water sloshing round his immovable body as if he were made of granite. He fixed Zach with an intense and highly effective warning glance to get his hands off his little sister. Immediately.
Once he’d pulled them up, Mak gave Zach a proper thwack on the back as he chuckled. “You’re going to have to prepare yourselves for an epic defeat.”
Zach stood back, feigning a devil-may-care attitude he definitely didn’t feel. Hands off Lulu. That was the unspoken part of that warning.
Message received. Loud and clear.
He glanced at Lulu. Her eyes were lowered to half-mast, her arms were crossed, and she was clearly mortified by her brother’s thinly veiled threat.
When she looked up and met his gaze he caught a glimpse of something in her expression that sent a shot of warmth straight through to his heart.
Hope.
He stuck out his hand and did his best not to crumble when Makoa crushed it in his own enormous, meaty paw.
“Game on,” he said, then forced himself to lower his voice an octave. “Game on.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
LULU HANDED ZACH a carabiner. “Did you know your name means Sea Warrior?”
He snorted and took the metal loop, pushing the rope against the spring-loaded clasp before twisting it into a snug knot. “What? Have you been stalking me on the internet?”
It was a joke, but from Lulu’s guilty expression, he saw that was precisely what she’d been doing.
“No,” she snapped, handing him another. “I was looking up nicknames for Harry, and as I was at it I thought I’d look up some good nicknames for us. You know... For the competition.”
“Sea Warrior, eh?”
She nodded, tempering the quick flare of defensiveness that had clouded her expression.
Zach grinned. “You tell me I’m a sea warrior just before I’m about to throw myself off the side of a mountain?”
They looked at the sheer drop they were just about to rappel down.
Lulu smirked. “I would’ve thought the King of Health and Safety wouldn’t dream of describing his unparalleled rappelling efforts as ‘throwing himself off the side of a mountain.’”
“Good point,” he conceded with a smile—one he’d grown used to wearing whenever he was with Lulu.
Ever since he’d had virtually every bone in his hand pulverized into sand by her brother, he’d felt as if he and Lulu were joined in a silent truce. One in which they were united in their mission to show both the Hawaiian Coast Guard and the Ocean Safety Team that their little “ramshackle crew of misfits” were the best in the business.
It didn’t mean they were a hundred percent simpatico. There were still a few knots and kinks to smooth out in their teamwork—wanting to rip her clothes off being top of the list.
He wasn’t a vain man, but he couldn’t help thinking she felt the same way. But something told him that if they broke the seal on whatever it was that was simmering between them there would be no turning back—and Lulu Kahale was not a woman he wanted to disappoint.
Despite his best efforts, his feelings for her were growing, no matter how “chalk and cheese” they appeared on paper.
He ran his life by the rule book.
She swore blind that it was critical to know when to go rogue.
He dialed back the risk in his life.
She liked nothing more than to push the limits.
And yet...the more he got to know her, the more he felt they had more in common than initially met the eye.
She’d not spelled it out, but it was clear her parents hadn’t been with her for some time, and she’d pretty much been raised by five very protective older brothers. Anyone who fell in love with Lulu would have to have Superman-like resolve. He didn’t know if he had that amount of love to give. And laying down a book of rules as thick as the complete works of Shakespeare, most of which would be about Harry, would send most women running for the hills.
Lulu likes a challenge...
And, of course, there was the undeniable fact that in the love stakes Harry was utterly smitten. His son introduced Lulu to everyone as his best friend, and he counted down the days, hours and minutes until their surf lessons, which were pretty much every day after school now.
School. Snack. Surf lesson. A bit of larking around with the sea turtles.
Then Harry would go in to shower and help Zach’s mom make dinner, while he and Lulu had an hour’s training session on the beach.
Pushing enormous tires up and over in the wet sand. Climbing palm trees. Tying knots. Untying knots. Swimming out to the reef as fast as they could. Alternating turns in dragging one another back to the shore.
Pretending like hell that being close to her didn’t turn him on more than he’d ever been turned on in his life...
So, yeah. Being at the top of this rappelling rope felt a lot like his life had felt these past couple of weeks. Like riding a yo-yo that went in only one direction.
He eased himself off the edge, both hands on the rope as he leaned back and found the sweet spot where the ropes and harnesses took his weight. His phone rang. They both looked at it, wedged into his top breast pocket.
“Want me to get that?” she asked.
He could get it. Rejigger his position so that he was holding the ropes with one hand. But the naughty devil he hadn’t realized was perched on his shoulder had other ideas.
“Could you?”
She knelt down and pinched it between her fingers. The heat of her hand seared through the fabric of his shirt as she withdrew the phone. Their eyes met. Was she taking her time with this? Enjoying their proximity as much as he was? Or was she sharing the torture of indecision? Did they look at what this was humming between them or didn’t they?
His phone rang again and she pushed herself back and up, her mixed scent of vanilla and frangipani surrounding him in a little cloud of Lulu that retreated as quickly as she did.
“Murphy’s phone,” she said, using her self-appointed “grown-up” voice. She listened for a second, then her eyes snapped to his, her body growing taut as if poised on a starting line.
“What?” he asked, already pulling himself back up and over the edge.
She hung up the call and handed the phone to him. “Hiker hasn’t been seen in three days. Julia Thompson. Her husband called it in. He was searching for her himself, but lost his bearings. Some smoke was spotted farther up along this trail. Casey’s waiting with Stewart. They’re going to head over in the chopper if you and I find her.”
“When you and I find her,” Zach corrected, moving back from the ravine edge.
She smiled at him and made an approving noise. “I see some of my positivity is rubbing off on you.”
“And some of my cautiousness is wearing off on you,” he said, his brow furrowing as he realized it might actually be true.
He wasn’t so sure he liked that. There was something unfettered and untamed about her that he never wanted to see trapped in a vise of strict regulations.
“Nah...” Lulu swiped at the air between them. “Don’t you worry ’bout that, Mr. Rules and Regs. I’m sure there’ll always be some fault you see in me to improve upon.”
“I doubt that,” he said, before he could stop himself.
Her eyes locked with his. Something charged and intimate exploded in the space between them.
“We’d better get going,” she whispered, before the moment could fully take hold.
The two of them swiftly moved into a synchronized rhythm he hadn’t realized they shared. Pulling in the ropes. Coiling them. Putting everything back in its exact place in the run bags. It spoke of the hours of training they’d put in together, but also nodded at something deeper. Something innate. A shared understanding that came with a heightened awareness of each other.
Zach was going to have to find a way to check it. He hadn’t moved here to fall in love. He’d moved here to give his son a solid foundation upon which to build his life. He would force himself to remember the emotional scars his marriage had left.
“You okay?”
Lulu was looking up at him as he shouldered his pack.
“Yeah, why?”
“You look... I don’t know... You don’t look like you’re in a good place to go out on a rescue hike.”
“I’m good,” he assured her. “C’mon. Let
’s go.”
* * *
Lulu set off at her usual brisk pace. Five enormous brothers setting the pace throughout her childhood had pretty much meant running before she could walk. Which some people—like Zach, for instance—might say was her main problem. Racing headlong into situations before she’d drawn up the diagram. Calculated all the risks.
How could she explain to them that there was something in her, something innate, that she felt kept her safe? Privately, she thought it was her mother. A guardian angel watching out over her only daughter. But on a practical level she’d grown up with parents who had set the tone for a life of pushing limits. They’d been lifeguards. They’d known the ocean as well as themselves. Well... Almost as well.
They would never know if their mother had realized how bad the surf was when she’d grabbed her board and gone out looking for a tourist who’d decided surfing was a good idea well after the warning flags had been raised. What they did know was that their father had definitely known how bad it was and he’d gone out, anyway.
He’d always said life wouldn’t be worth living if it didn’t have their mother in it. Turned out he’d meant it literally.
Their deaths had irrevocably changed them. Her brothers all had jobs that pushed the limits—navy SEAL, volcanologist, bodyguard, stuntman, and, of course, Mak—her rival over at Ocean Safety. Even so, they all liked the firm set of rules and regulations that came with their jobs. But Lulu... She liked the fact that her crew went that one step beyond. Pushed harder. Further.
Zach had definitely bristled when he’d first met her, but now... Up until about thirty seconds ago she would’ve put money on the fact that he liked that about her.
But something had happened between them back there, and whatever it was had made the atmosphere between them awkward. First-day awkward. Awkward like back when they hadn’t liked each other very much.