Schroeder, Melissa - Getting Lei'd [Hawaiian Holidays 3] (Siren Publishing PolyAmour) (8 page)

“If you take H-2, we can head up to the pineapple fields and the North Shore.”

He watched Maribelle as she gave Damon more directions. God, she looked good. Better than good. She seemed to be in her element. Her skin was golden from the few days she had spent there, and he couldn’t remember her ever smiling this much. Well, at least not since she’d been engaged to Aaron. She laughed and shook her head, her hair flowing behind her. This was the Mari he knew from years earlier. The one before she had been engaged. Although, she seemed lighter than he ever remembered.

“What’s there up in the pineapple fields?”

She turned to look at him, a small smile curving her lips, and he felt it all the way to his toes. She held back the hair whipping around face.
 
“Lots of things. The North Shore, for one. I love Sunset Beach, but we can follow the road through Haleiwa. That leads to several places they’ve shot movies, including
Jurassic Park
. It has become one of my favorite parts of the island.”

“You’ve gotten to know the island well in a short amount of time.”

Her smile widened, and he could imagine her blue eyes dancing behind the lenses. “It helps when one of your best friends has a couple of husbands who lived here most their lives. Their whole family has been wonderful. Including their cousin. He took me out and taught me how to surf.”

“He?” Damon asked. “Is this an old guy or a young guy we’re talking about?”

Alex could hear the thread of jealousy in his friend’s voice, and he understood. Mari had no idea just how sexy she was. Years of being involved with assholes like Aaron had made her think that men weren’t that interested in her, but they were. He’d seen her when she stopped by the firehouse a few times and all the guys vied for her attention. Of course, being the way Mari was, she always thought it was her cookies she brought by. She didn’t even see that most of them just wanted her attention.

“Younger, by a few years than you or me, or even Alex. He’s training to be one of the tour guides they have at their new resort, so I was a trial run.”

Damon took the exit to H-2, and they started the climb in elevation.

“He even took me to some of the locations in the first season of
Hawaii Five-0
. I really would like to hit one of the locations where they are shooting before I have to go back.”

He heard it there in her voice, the way it dipped, and he knew she didn’t want to go back to DC. Hell, she had been in Hawaii for less than a week. Both he and Damon had been convinced she wasn’t ever coming back.

“I bet your mom will be happy.”

She shrugged and looked away out the window. “I guess. She’s still upset with me.”

Anger whipped through him. Mari had never stood up for herself until that day of the wedding.

“Did she expect you to marry the cheating bastard?” Damon asked. Alex heard a reflection of his own anger in his best friend’s voice.

“No, not really.” Mari shrugged again. “It was more that I did it at an unseemly time.”

Alex didn’t say anything because he was ready to explode. The fact that her mother thought fit to blame her for what happened was about par for the course. The woman never did understand Maribelle, and she never showed her much affection. He didn’t want to say she was a bad mother, but what mother would say things like that? In his mind, a bad mother.

“But I have to decide what I want to do. I’m really not interested in working for the hotel anymore. I don’t really need a job.”

There was a hint of something in her voice, something that had panic tickling the back of his throat.

“You wouldn’t leave DC would you?” he asked as he caught the worried look from Damon in the rearview mirror.

“I don’t think so, but I really like Hawaii. I never thought I would, because you know me, I have to have my seasons, but there’s something to be said for spending Christmas at the beach, ya know?”

He wanted to tell her very loudly that she couldn’t go, that if she left, he would freak out. But Alex knew she wasn’t ready for that.

“Your family must have been pissed that you decided to spend Christmas in Hawaii,” Damon commented.

She shook her head. “They were kind of upset I wasn’t going to Germany to see my cousin Brett and his wife. The whole family is there, but I just didn’t feel like it. I couldn’t bring myself to leave here. I just didn’t feel right.”

“But you wouldn’t like living here, would you?” Damon asked, calmer than Alex could. His palms were sweating at the thought of her leaving.

“I don’t know. You know how I feel about bugs, right? But for some reason here, I’m just used to them. Plus, you’ve only been here a day. There is nothing to describe what it is like to wake up every morning and see that sunrise. I mean, lord, who could say no to something like the sun peeking over the mountains, the sound of birds in the air, and that salt-water taste in the air?”

No one except Mari
. She had always loved snow, loved to get out in it, play, then come in and make homemade hot chocolate. But here she was, talking about Hawaii like she wanted to be here for the rest of her life. That was just unacceptable.

He shared another look with Damon in the mirror. At least there, he knew there was an agreement. Neither of them was going to let her stay in Hawaii without a fight.

* * * *

Maribelle was having a really hard time concentrating on the book she was reading. No heterosexual woman would be able to concentrate sitting between Damon and Alex, that was for sure. They had been quiet since the ride up H-2, and now at the beach. Very odd for them for both of them to be this somber. Was it that she was coming back to DC? Did they think she was staying here, so they felt it okay to do the things they did the night before?

She had heard rumors of their sexual exploits for years, but she had never really guessed it was true. Of course, once again, she had been proven wrong. But even though they had apparently shared women, they had never kept one around long. In fact, in all the years she had known the two men, she had always thought their relationship was more important to them than their threesomes.

Alex stood. “I’m going to go in and cool off.”

He said nothing else as he sauntered toward the waves. She watched him go, trying to figure out his strange mood. Both men had been beyond moody.

“It’s hard to just hang out on the beach with you dressed like that,” Damon said, reading her mind as usual.

She looked at him and couldn’t help the way her heart did the little jump at the sight of him. He was gorgeous. There was no way around it. Sculpted muscles, that strong jaw. She wished she could see his eyes, because she could tell what he was thinking, but he kept them hidden behind his mirrored sunglasses.

“What?”

She realized then she’d been staring at him for several minutes. She shook her head and hoped she wasn’t drooling.

“You have a problem with the way I’m dressed? Alex, too?” She couldn’t keep the skepticism out of her voice. She glanced down at the black retro bathing suit that reminded her of what a movie star would have worn in the fifties.

“Hawaii agrees with you. Nice little glow to your skin, and you seem...happy. It’s been a long time since you were happy.”

Her heart did a little jerk, but this was different from the feelings from before. This had more to do with love, the kind that could ruin a good time in Hawaii. She moved away from that.

“I like it, as I said. But my life is back in DC.”

He nodded and looked out over the water. Of course, it didn’t sound that great going back. Now she wanted to live in a place that allowed her to go to the beach every day, and be near Sophia and Eddie and their husbands. She was going to miss them.

“Is this where they have the big surfing contests?” Damon asked.

She nodded and tried to get out of her thoughts. Lord knew she was lucky to have them for this short amount of time. She needed to be happy with it.

“Yeah, I really enjoyed it when I tried it. I was amazed that I was any good at it.”

“Why do you do that?” Damon asked.

“What do you mean? Do what?”

“You put yourself down all the time. Why?”

She shrugged. “I wasn’t putting myself down.”

“Yes you were. Living with that bitch all these years has made you doubt everything you do.”

Shocked at his vehemence, she stared at him. He was still watching the waves, not looking at her, but she could see his jaw flexing. There was part of her that wanted this, needed this validation from someone outside of her family and her two best friends. But at the same time, a sliver of guilt wormed its way into her gut.

“Damon, you can’t talk about my mother that way.”

“Someone has to.”

He glanced at her then, and his expression softened. “I don’t mean to put your mom down. Lord knows she put up with me enough times, crashing at your place in college. But she isn’t that nice to you, Mari. You both don’t realize how much she criticizes you.”

She knew it was true, but it was the way she and her mother communicated. “I don’t care what you think.”

She turned away from him and searched out Alex. Damon said something under his breath. He waited five long seconds then said, “You see yourself as she sees you. You need to stop that.”

She turned and stared at him, amazement spreading through her. Damon had never said anything so strongly to her before. “I had no idea you found me so deficient.”

He made a noise that was close to a growl. “That’s not what I said. I said that you think that way, you and your mother. I don’t know how to get it across to you that your mother is a poison when it comes to you.”

“I said I can’t have you putting down my mother.”

He shook his head. “I know, call me the bad guy. I just can’t hear you put yourself down. You’re bright, beautiful, and have more personality than most women have in their pinky finger. It’s your mother that makes you think that you have faults.”

She could feel the tears burning the back of her eyes. The mixture of feelings that moved through her caused her to pause before she said anything else. She had waited so long for someone else outside of her family, and her two best friends, to acknowledge her. But she also couldn’t let anyone put her family down.

“My mother loves me in her own way.”

He said something else under his breath.

“Don’t do that. I hate when you get pissy like that.”

He shot her a warning look, but he said nothing else as he stood and marched out to the ocean. The sick feeling in her stomach now expanded, and she felt her head start to pound. What the hell was she doing?

Wait. She didn’t start the fight. She refused to take the blame this time, to allow him to tell her she should do something. She had spent a lifetime doing that, and now she refused. After a month in Hawaii reassessing what she needed, she had realized that she had been trying to gloss over other people’s emotions to make things easy. Not anymore. Still, a fight on a public beach would just not be the thing to do. She might be ready to take a stand, but she would not make a spectacle of them. Her mother had raised her too strictly to go against the grain like that. Instead, she took a deep breath, grabbed her e-Reader, and lost herself in a story.

* * * *

Damon looked out over Waikiki Beach as he sipped his coffee. It had been three days, and his mood hadn’t gotten any better. He hid it well, knowing that with Mari, he had to take small steps. Pushing her to stand up to her mother was just not something she was going to be comfortable with. Small steps. It was bad enough that they were going to confront her with the possibility of being their lover on Christmas. Tomorrow.