Between Hello and Goodbye(23)

I can think of worse things…

Faith nudged my arm. “So…thanks for all this. Putting it away will kill some time.”

I jerked into action. “Shit, let me…”

“Asher, I was kidding.”

“Go sit down and put your foot up,” I said, unpacking the bags. “I got this.”

“Thank you,” she said and then froze, contemplating how to carry her coffee to the living area with crutches. “God, I’m hopeless.”

“You’re not. You have your hands full, that’s all.”

I grabbed her mug and set it on the coffee table, then went back to the freezer for an ice pack. She sat on the couch, and I settled the bag on her foot, then returned to unpack the groceries, rationalizing like a bastard.

It’s shitty to leave her alone all day, doing nothing. Keeping her company doesn’t have to mean anything except maybe you’re not a complete asshole.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I blurted, “You want to come with?”

“To meet your family?” She smiled over her coffee mug. “Do you think we’re ready for such a big step?”

“We’re on our honeymoon, remember?” I said with a smirk. “You should see Hanalei before you go. That’s my neck of the woods.”

“Oh? I didn’t know that. Come to think of it, I have no idea where you live.”

And I planned to keep it that way. That’s the least I could do—keep her out of my personal space before things got even more personal.

But you’ll bring her to meet Morgan? Cool story, bro.

I coughed. “So do you want to go?”

“Well, I did have plans to spend a riveting day watching other people walk to the beach…” She grinned. “I’d love to see Hanalei and meet your family, but I don’t want to intrude. You were supposed to only check up on me and I already monopolize all your time.”

“I told you, I don’t do anything I don’t want to do.”

Except that was turning into complete bullshit the more time I spent with this woman. What I wanted to do was whatever she needed me to do.

“I’ll go on one condition.”

I smirked. “You have conditions.”

“Yes. We go for shave ice afterward. On me.”

“I don’t know,” I said gravely. “Hawaiian shave ice is pretty serious business.”

“So I’ve heard. I want one before I leave.”

“Deal.”

Her grin and the laughter in her eyes sent warmth radiating through my chest. She was a blazing inferno that melted all cold fronts and made it impossible to keep my distance.

While she crutched to her room to change, I sat in her living room and shot Morgan a text.

I’m bringing her to lunch.

The return text came in almost immediately. I expected no end of shit from my brother, and he didn’t disappoint.

Just “her.” Becuz we all know who’s the special lady in your life. 

I rolled my eyes. Be there in an hour.

The vibration of another text came in, but I ignored it. When it came to Morgan’s smartassery, it was best not to encourage him.

Faith came out of the bedroom wearing a summer dress, white with blue flowers, and her hair in a ponytail. The straps of the dress hinted at the perfect shape of her small breasts and revealed her long neck that tapered to an elegant collarbone.

I quickly averted my eyes, but it was too late.

“Thank you,” Faith said.

“I didn’t say anything.”

She smiled. “You didn’t have to.”

Faith had taken my stare as a compliment when it was actually a fierce urge to put my hands on her. To pull her to me and put my mouth to the delicate hollow of her throat. To taste her skin and feel the pulse of her heart under my lips…

This is a bad idea.

But I didn’t say that either.



The drive up to Hanalei from Kapa’a took about forty minutes. We made it in thirty.

“Do you always drive this fast or are you just trying to impress me?” Faith said as I careened my Jeep around a rental sedan on the northbound highway.

“Depends. Is it working?”

“No,” she said, then flashed me that flirty smile that made my blood heat. “Okay, maybe a little.”

“Most locals drive fast,” I said, keeping my eyes on the road and not on the fact that her dress had ridden up, showing me more of her thigh than it should’ve. “That’s how you know they’re local. It’s the slow-ass tourists you gotta look out for.”

“Not the cops?”

“I know all the cops.”

“A job perk, clearly.” She gripped the handle above her window as I tore around a curve. “But I should remind you, there is no actual fire.”

I chuckled and slowed down. A little.

The road took us along the northern curve of Kauai, past Princeville, to the small town of Hanalei.

“This place is so cute,” Faith said, watching it go by in a blink outside her window. “Aaaand…there it goes.”

“Each island has a Hanalei,” I said. “Old settlements that have been filled with boutiques to attract tourists. Oahu has North Shore, Maui has Paia…”