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Allie left her post at the back bumper and wobbled her way to the driver’s seat, her heels covered in mud. He watched the firm bend of her rear as she ducked into the car.
Dallas grabbed a huge leaf that hung near his head from a nearby banana tree and put it in front of the back tire for a little grip. Kai stood at the other side of the bumper.
“Okay, ready... Give it some gas.” Dallas put his shoulder into the back of the car and heaved with all his might. Kai did the same. Allie revved the engine, the wheel spinning and flicking serious mud all over his favorite pair of Wranglers. He gritted his teeth and pushed harder, digging his worn cowboy boots into the mud for leverage. On this push, the car gave a little. He leaned in, and the car broke free of the rut, rolled over the leaf and on to the main driveway again. Kai gave a whoop.
“Teamwork!” he said, and gave Dallas a high five.
She paused on the road, and he jogged up beside her driver’s-side window. She gave him a sparkling smile, showing even white teeth and a dimple in her right cheek. Right then, he could see a little of Misu in her, in the childlike glee of her expression. This is what it looked like when her guard came down, he thought. He felt a little light-headed. He wanted to reach straight into that front seat and kiss this girl on the lips.
This was not going to do at all. He couldn’t be lusting after Misu’s granddaughter, for heaven’s sake. It wouldn’t be right. Misu wasn’t here to give her blessing, and besides, Allie still had serious questions to answer.
“Thanks, Dallas,” she said now, smiling even more broadly. Her dazzling smile made him forget just what those questions were. “Where should I park?”
Dallas realized the only real pressing question on his mind right at this moment was what that tight little body looked like without clothes on. Kai nudged him, hard. He ignored his friend.
“Uh...right there,” he said, pointing to a spot near the water tank, recovering himself, even as he tried to get his dirty thoughts under control. “Misu’s house is the yellow one there.” She nodded and rolled up the window, maneuvering the car to the spot.
“I thought you didn’t like locals,” Kai murmured at his shoulder.
“I don’t.” Dallas watched her brake lights flash. “She’s not a local.”
“Allie is like a little sister to me. Just like ohana. Family.” Kai studied his friend. “Careful, Dallas. Don’t look so relieved. She’s not someone you play with. You get me?”
“I thought you said you didn’t believe the rumors.”
“I don’t. But what I know as fact is that you haven’t been yourself since Jennifer.”
That was the understatement of the year. Before Jennifer, he would’ve never spent his time babysitting drunk tourists. But a lot of things had changed since then.
“Dallas, I mean it,” Kai grumbled, voice low. “You have to promise me you’ll stay away from Allie.” Kai held Dallas by the upper arm, his grip a little tighter than it should have been.
“Kai, come on.”
“Dallas. I’m asking you. As a friend. Do not play with that girl unless you plan on marrying her. And even then... Just don’t mess around.”
“I...” Dallas watched Allie hop out of the car, her lean form tight as she made her way to the trunk.
“Dallas?”
“Fine, Kai. Okay, I promise.” Allie bent over the back of the open trunk, showing her perfectly rounded assets at the best possible angle. Dallas instantly regretted his promise.
“I’ll get that,” he said, offering to carry the bag.
“You don’t have to.” Allie looked at him suspiciously, clutching the suitcase tightly.
“I’ll take that,” Kai said, moving between them, and Allie handed Kai the bag, who took it up the porch steps and avoided Dallas’s eyes. He hadn’t seen Kai so protective of someone since, well, his sister, Jesse. Kai wasn’t kidding about her being family. He followed Kai up the porch and slipped the key into Misu’s lock.
“I’ve got to go check on Jesse at the coffee shop,” Kai said. “It was good to see you, Allie. Though I’m really sorry about Misu.”
A shadow of sadness passed across her face. “Thanks, Kai.” Allie smiled warmly at him, and Dallas felt a little tinge of jealousy. He wanted all of Allie’s smiles.
“You remember Jesse?”
Allie’s eyes lit up. “Of course! She hated pink!”
“That’s her, and she still does.” Kai grinned. “Jesse still lives next door with Auntie. We’ll have you over for dinner sometime soon.” Kai backed off the porch. “Or come for a free cup of coffee at Hula’s. And if this guy gives you any trouble, you call me.” Kai pointed his house key at Dallas, a warning.
“I won’t be trouble,” Dallas promised.
“You’d better not be.” Kai wasn’t kidding. Kai was normally a lighthearted, easygoing guy, and when he got serious, which was hardly ever, Dallas paid attention.
“I’d love to come over for dinner and see Jesse. Good to see you, Kai.” Allie waved. Dallas had left Misu’s place exactly as it had been when she’d gone into the hospital after her sudden and devastating heart attack. All of her furniture and most of her clothes were still here. The simple overstuffed white linen couch she loved sat in the middle of the living room, draped with the pink-and-yellow Hawaiian-breadfruit quilt. The kitchen was dated but clean, its white-tiled floor and older appliances ready for use, and the breakfast nook nearby, which acted as her dining room. Little had changed in twenty years. Dallas knew Allie had been here once. That photograph had been taken right on Misu’s porch, so she’d been here then anyway. Her house would’ve looked much the same.
Allie went straight to the kitchen, running her finger along the old yellow countertop, stopping at the refrigerator. She plucked the photo of her and Misu from the freezer door and stared at it, running a finger over Misu’s face.
“She was a good woman,” Dallas felt the need to say.
“She was,” Allie agreed, her voice sounding far away. She put the photo back and blinked as she looked around the room. She gave the small house a quick tour. “Where’s the bathroom?”
“Don’t you remember?” he asked her.
Allie shook her head.
“It’s outside,” he said.
“Outside?” she echoed.
* * *
ALLIE STOOD AND stared at her only working shower.
It was outside, in a cabana with walls but no roof. She plopped down her bag and stared.
How on earth had this little tidbit about her grandmother’s house escaped her? She used to live here when she was little, that much she remembered. But how old had she been? Seven? Eight? That was before... Well, before the car accident, before she and her mom moved to the mainland, where it had been just the two of them against the world. Of course, with her mom working two jobs, it had pretty much been Allie all on her own. Allie preferred it that way, actually. Anytime she depended on anyone—like Jason—they failed her.
“So if you want to talk about the estate, I’d be happy to...” Dallas stood by her, lingering near the door. Allie did not turn to look at him. If she did, she’d stare at his muscled chest, and she didn’t want to do that. She didn’t have time for guys who looked as if they belonged in a sexy-cowboy calendar. She had sworn off men this time, possibly for good. The fact that she was very aware of his every movement made her feel jumpy and anxious. Her mind might want to be done with men, but clearly her body wasn’t. It had other ideas about what she ought to do with Dallas McCormick.
“I just want to shower.”
“Oh...sure.” Dallas paused, as if waiting for her to invite him in. She nearly barked a laugh out loud. With abs like that, and those crystal-blue eyes, he was probably used to women throwing themselves at him all the time. Well, not this one, buddy.
“I’d like some privacy.” Allie was proud that she made it sound official.
“Sure thing, ma’am.” Dallas grinned, unoffended, and then tipped his hat at her as he backed out of the cabana. The door slapped shut behind him, and Allie moved to secure the bolt. With Dallas and his broad, chiseled chest out of the room, Allie felt as though she could breathe for the first time. She stared up to where the ceiling should be but saw only blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds.
“How are you supposed to take a shower when it’s raining?” she muttered to herself.
Allie whipped up her thick jet-black hair off her neck, panting in the Hawaiian humidity as sticky sweat trickled down the nape of her neck.
All she remembered from her childhood at Grandma Misu’s were endless afternoons building sand castles on the pristine white beach about a mile away, and of Misu’s sticky sweet homemade mochi rice cakes and mouthwatering teriyaki chicken. She had fond memories of Misu, but hadn’t seen her grandmother in years. Money had always been tight growing up. She and her mom had barely made rent, much less managed to scrape together enough for two plane tickets to Hawaii. But if Allie was honest, since her father died, she’d been in no hurry to come back. For everyone else, Hawaii might be paradise, but for her, it represented just bad memories.
Still, Allie felt a pang of guilt; she should’ve come for her grandmother’s funeral. But it had all been too overwhelming—dealing with Jason and the called-off wedding. She’d been in no shape to travel anyway. She hadn’t been able to get out of bed, much less book a flight.
Jason was just one more person she couldn’t depend on, Allie thought. She tried her best not to slide into a pity party: girl loses her dad in a car accident at age eight, is left with a hardly there, working-two-jobs single mom and then a string of unreliable boyfriends...and now Jason. She hated feeling sorry for herself, but sometimes it beckoned like a warm, cuddly robe. Sometimes she just wanted to slip into it for a little while.
She kept coming back to the single fact that she should’ve known Jason would do this. He’d been her first really serious relationship, but she’d had plenty of short-term boyfriends who’d disappointed in various ways. How could she have been so blind?
Denial. It was probably how she’d spent two years with Jason and never even had an inkling about his penchant for S and M. Granted, he’d been bossy and controlling most of their relationship: always wanting to be the one to decide where they ate, what they did on weekends and even weighing in on what she wore. Sometimes it had grated, but most of the time she’d been fine with just going along. Happy to do what made him happy. He’d always been decidedly in control in the bedroom, but he’d never hit her, not once.
She’d thought she knew him better than anyone, but it turned out she didn’t know him at all.
Just because she didn’t like being beaten like a piñata during sex, she thought bitterly. She was sorry, but she liked pleasure with her sex, not pain. Why did that make her boring?
She blinked fast. No more pity party. That’s quite enough of that, Allie. She should look at the bright side—now she was back on her own. I’ll never have my heart broken again, because there’s no way I’m letting anyone within a five-block radius of it. Allie was officially done with men.
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_4b110622-f96b-517b-80cd-1ab68e469a4e)
STANDING IN THE HOT, open-aired shower, Allie fanned herself. Jet-lagged and sweaty, all she wanted to do was get clean, change into some shorts and track down the nearest real estate agent. She’d use the money to travel the world by herself. She didn’t know where she’d go, but she’d figure it out.
She glanced up at the blue sky and blinked.
No roof? Who did that? She wondered if anyone would buy a place with an outdoor bathroom. Allie sighed and turned the knobs of the shower, half expecting them not to work. Water sputtered out, and surprisingly, it felt warm, but then again, the air was a balmy eighty-two degrees. Everything would feel warm, even at room temperature. Allie shrugged out of her too-hot jeans, T-shirt and wool sweater and stepped into the warm shower, letting the water rinse over her. She exhaled. Remember the positives, she thought. You’re not stuck in subzero weather in that blizzard you left back home, and once the property is sold, you can travel for a year. That was all she had to do: keep moving. People couldn’t disappoint you if you didn’t let them.
Allie rinsed her hair in the warm water and sighed, almost forgetting about the lack of roof when a bright red blur zoomed past her, practically thumping her head.
She jumped, startled, until she saw the intruder: a small, brilliant red bird with black-trimmed feathers, its beak thin and scooped downward. It looked as if a cardinal had mated with a hummingbird, a species she’d never seen before. Definitely not in Chicago anymore, she thought. The bird cocked its head to one side and eyed her.
Allie felt like jumping out of the shower and running back to the house, but instead, she shook the shower curtain and the bird flew away.
Wonder what he was doing in here anyway, she thought, rinsing off. She shut down the water and stepped out, reaching for a fluffy white towel. She grabbed one from a hook and wrapped it around her chest, tucking it under her armpits, and then she wrapped her head up in a towel, turban-style, and looked at herself in the foggy mirror. She swiped at it with one hand, wondering what that brown stripe was along the top of her head towel, and that was when she realized the brown stripe was moving.
It was a centipede—a huge, disgusting, hundred-leg brown centipede, nearly a foot long and thicker than her thumb.
Allie did what any reasonable city girl would do: she screamed.
She flicked her head downward, and in the same instant, bounced against the thin door and tumbled outside, barely keeping the small lightweight towel wrapped around her as the turban fell to the ground. In her panic, Allie couldn’t see where the centipede went. Was it tangled in her hair? Running down her back?
It was a friggin’ monster, that was all she knew. She’d never seen a bug that big in Chicago. Ever.
Then she saw the horrible insect crawling in the black lava dirt. She felt relief: it wasn’t on her! And yet she felt complete terror as she realized the huge bug was headed straight for her bare toes, its huge menacing back pincher stinger wagging as it went.
She hopped on one foot, squealing, unable to help herself as she looked around for a weapon—a stone, a stick, anything. She couldn’t step on the thing with her bare foot.
That was when a square-toed brown cowboy boot crunched it for her, mashing it into the dirt.
“Got it, ma’am,” Dallas drawled, an amused smile on his face as the thing twisted and turned under his boot. He ground it farther into the dust.
Allie had never felt so relieved and so embarrassed at the same time. Her wet hair hung in strands down her shoulders, black mud caked her once-clean toes. She clutched the towel more tightly around her chest, but it did no good. She might as well have been wearing a washcloth.
“Th-thanks,” she managed, trying to regain her composure. He’d put on a T-shirt, she noticed, wondering fleetingly about whether the Cheeseburger in Paradise was a real restaurant. It clung to his muscular chest, stretched and near popping as if his pecs were planning an escape. He was handsome, even she had to admit. He had golden hair, worn shaggy, with natural highlights from the sun. His age was hard to place, but midthirties, Allie guessed. She felt drawn to him, and immediately shut down the urge.
“Those things are nasty. Sting hurts worse than a yellow jacket. Want me to check for any more?”
“More?” Allie’s voice came out as a squeak of fear. She hadn’t even considered there’d be another one of those creatures.
“Sometimes they travel in pairs,” Dallas drawled, and Allie was unable to tell whether he was teasing or not. “I’ll check.”
“Okay.” Allie stood very still as Dallas made a slow sweep, walking so close to her she could catch the faded scent of some earthy aftershave. He just grazed her shoulder as he glided behind her, and she was more than aware she was standing almost naked in front of him. He seemed to be taking his time, she thought, and doing more looking at her skin than for bugs. She felt suddenly shy.
No one has seen me naked since...Jason. She shifted on her bare feet, very aware of Dallas’s eyes on her.
“You’re all clear,” he said at last, stepping away from her, eyes still on her bare knees.
“Good,” Allie said, her face still flushed. “Uh...thanks.”
“Anytime, ma’am.” Dallas grinned, a big, white smile that made the pit of her stomach feel fuzzy.
“I’ve...uh...got to get dressed. The Realtor’s coming...”
“The who?” Dallas snapped to attention, his demeanor immediately changing from affable country boy to guarded cowboy.
“Realtor. I took the liberty of inviting Jennifer Thomas. I’ve heard she’s the best on the island. I saw her on that show...Hawaii Living?”
Dallas looked suddenly pale, as if he’d seen a ghost, but Allie kept going.
“She said she might even want to put the property on the show when I talked to her on the phone...”
“I don’t want her here.” Dallas’s voice was a grunt.
Allie, surprised, shifted on one bare foot to another, conscious of the sticky dirt beneath her bare toes. “Oh, well... I don’t know if I can cancel with such late notice. Her assistant was very clear...”
“She can’t come here. She—” Dallas seemed to lose the ability to speak “—just can’t.”
“But...” Allie didn’t get to finish her sentence. Dallas had turned and was stalking away from her, his back taut with anger, his boots making rivets in the mud.
* * *
HOURS LATER, DALLAS still felt hot with anger. He couldn’t believe Allie had invited his ex straight to his doorstep. Might as well just let loose the rest of the lions and tigers and bears.
Jennifer would be more bloodthirsty than all of them. Dallas was arguing with Jennifer’s assistant on the phone that afternoon when he heard a roar near the driveway and realized he’d have to tell the woman to her face just how unwelcome she was. He walked out of his front door and down the path of coffee trees toward Misu’s place, carrying a bundle of papers rolled up and sticking out of the back pocket of his jeans. He made it to the clearing in time to see the goat skitter away at the sight of Jennifer’s cherry-red convertible BMW. Smart goat. Jennifer was the kind of woman who didn’t mind running over anything in her path. Dallas still had the tire tread on his back to prove it.
He frowned as he watched her step out of her sports car, wearing her usual uniform of overpriced designer clothes, which clung tightly to her curves, her too-short skirt inching up her thigh as she slammed the car door with a thunk. She met his gaze over the car roof and smiled just slightly, triumph on her face as she flicked a long, curving strand of blond hair off her shoulder. She must love that Allie invited her here, must be relishing every minute, he thought.
He glanced in the backseat and saw it was empty, save for Kayla’s pink-and-green striped booster seat. She’d be at day care anyhow. He felt a pinch in his chest as he saw her small white stuffed bear. Mr. Cuddles, he remembered. She used to be inconsolable without him. He felt the urge to run it over to her at day care, but then felt a dull ache in his rib cage when he realized that wasn’t his job anymore. Hadn’t been for nearly a year. Jennifer had made sure of that.
He watched as she vigorously shook Allie’s hand, his stomach tightening into knots. He didn’t know if he wanted to shout or run, but his whole body felt as if it was on fire. The two women standing there looked like yin and yang: complete opposites, dark and light. Jennifer was a walking Barbie doll, clad all in pastels and wearing high-heeled wedge sandals. Allie had on flip-flops and hiking shorts, not wearing a bit of makeup and looking all the prettier for it. Even angry at Allie, Dallas felt a strong pull to her. Seeing Jennifer standing so close to her made Dallas want to step between them, if only to protect Allie from being eaten alive.
He couldn’t believe that once upon a time, Jennifer had shared his bed. She’d been as aggressive there as she was everywhere else in her life. And just as selfish, he thought. It would serve her right if he told the whole island the truth of what had happened between them. Except that they both knew why he wouldn’t do that. It wasn’t just Jennifer after all. There was Kayla, and Dallas wasn’t about to do anything that would hurt that sweet, innocent girl. Jennifer knew it, too. Counted on it.
