Then Comes Marriage (24 page)

From there, we continued our hike into the bamboo forest, which is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Even Derek agreed it was like we were transported to some sort of magical land.

I never want to leave.
 

“Oh my God. What is that?” I ask, coming to a halt on the slippery rocks, and point to something that looks like a giant ferret. Derek bumps into me, hands flying to my waist to keep me from tripping.
 

He keeps them there after I’ve caught my balance.
 

“I think it’s a mongoose,” he says quietly as we stare down the creature. It looks at us, then turns and scuttles away.

“It’s so cute. Can you catch it for me? I need him in my life.”
 

“They were brought here to control the rat population but have taken over,” he informs me. “They’re bad for the native birds.”
 

“So taking him home will be doing everyone a favor.”
 

“I don’t think you want one as a pet, Rach. How about a cat instead? There were plenty in the picnic area a few miles back.”
 

“Cats are boring. Why would I have a cat when I can have a mongoose?”
 

“I…I got nothing,” he laughs, hands sliding around my hips to my front. He steps in and kisses my neck. I’m sweaty, hot—with a bad case of swamp-ass going on I should add—and smell like sunscreen. And yet Derek is turning this into something erotic in a way I think only he could.

I twist in his arms, hooking my own around his neck, and stand on my toes. He kisses me, slow, gentle, teasing. He kisses me in such a way I immediately want more, and he’s doing it on purpose, enjoying how wound up he’s making me.

“Come on,” he whispers. “The waterfall isn’t far ahead.”
 

Waterfall? What waterfall? Where are we? My heart is beating a million miles an hour and I’m quivering for more of him.

“Okay,” I dumbly say and force myself to turn around, to put one foot in front of the other. We pick our way over wet rocks, and eventually the path turns into a stream. Cold water rushes around my feet. It shocks me at first, but soon feels good. Refreshing, even.
 

Then the trees part and we’re standing at the bottom of a 400-foot waterfall. There are no words to describe that kind of beauty and power.
 

Goosebumps break out across my skin and my jaw opens. I trace my eyes up the cascading water. For a moment, time stops. Water falls in slow motion and everything exits in perfect harmony in the world. Derek puts his hand on the small of my back and I shudder, overcome with emotion. My eyes sting with tears and I almost feel inferior to be in the presence of something so amazing.

“Wow,” I finally say, voice weak and breathy. “It’s beautiful.”
 

Derek takes my hand. “Let’s get closer.”
 

Mist from the falling water hits us. I close my eyes and spread out my arms, tipping my head up to the sun. I run my eyes up the fall, and it’s like it’s pouring right down from heaven. I look at the fall, and then at Derek.
 

Something clicks, and I have a newfound clarity of the world. Of my life. A weird sense of peace comes over me and I feel all my old worries washing away. Everything that caused me so much anxiety before is suddenly nonexistent. All the bad things that have happened in the past, all the things I cannot change, all my insecurities that are based on others’ opinions of me are gone.
 

Worrying what others thought of me. Exhausting myself to gain their approval. Hiding who I really am to be the woman people expect me to be, to fit in with the crowd. My fear of being disliked. My fear of being judged.

Of being alone.
 

I look at the water, falling 400 feet to the rocky ground below. That’s when it hits me, that this was exactly what I needed. And it’s crazy how what I feared the most was the very thing that set me free.
 

I whip around, blinking tiny drops of water out of my eyes.
 

“So after this are we—” Derek starts.

“Shut up,” I say and kiss him. He freezes, unmoving for a second, and then wraps his arms around me, picking me up. We kiss like it’s the last thing we’re going to do, like our lives depend on it. When we finally break apart, I’m breathless.
 

Derek keeps his arm tightly around me as we gaze up at the falls for another few moments.
 

“We should go if you want to see those Sacred Pools before sunset,” Derek whispers.
 

My head moves up and down, and I know he’s right, but I can’t seem to get my feet to work properly. He takes my hand and puts his mouth to my ear. “Follow me, Rachel.”
 

“Give me a second,” I tell him and turn back to the waterfall. As weird as it sounds, I want to tell it thank you. Never in my life have I felt like I understand things so well, never have I felt like I know exactly what I need to do, which is surrender my fears and accept that I cannot control what happens in life, but I can control how I react to it.

We take the path back, and when we’re several yards away from the massive waterfall, we hear thunder in the distance.
 

“I’m guessing this isn’t the best place to be caught in a storm,” I say, eyeballing the trees. “Or will this offer protection?”
 

“It could, unless the wind is strong enough to knock over the trees. This might come as a shock, but I have no wilderness survival skills when it comes to tropical locations like this. I do have some training in places like Texas, but here…all bets are off.”
 

“Good thing we’re only a couple of miles from the car.”
 

Derek gives my hand a squeeze. “A lot can happen in a couple of miles.”
 

Yes, it can. And it already has.

~*~

“We can’t drive in this.” Wind presses against the SUV and rain pours down, obscuring our visibility. “It’s too dangerous.”
 

“I’ve driven in worse,” Derek says, turning the windshield wipers on as fast as possible. It doesn’t help.

“Really?”
 

“Maybe. But what else are we going to do? We can’t stay in the car all night…and the car shouldn’t stay here,” he adds, looking at the palms trees above us, doing their best to withstand the wind gusts. “I think we should start back the way we came and make it at least halfway before the storm gets worse.”
 

“You think it’s going to get worse?” I take a tangle of my wet hair in my fingers. “This is freaking me out enough as it is.”

“It’ll be fine,” he says like he believes it. “Tropical places like this get storms just like this one all the time. They’re over fast. If we drive slow back down the highway, we can wait it out.”
 

“You just said we could beat it back.”
 

“I said halfway, technically,” he says with a smirk. “Really, I don’t know. But I do think we’ll be fine.” He starts the SUV and takes my hand. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
 

I give his hand a squeeze and sit back, trying to relax. The energy from the storm is making me super anxious. I’m glad Derek is driving, though I still think we shouldn’t be driving at all.
 

“This isn’t going to turn into a hurricane, is it?” I ask, half joking.
 

“No, if a storm that severe were headed this way I’m sure we would have heard about it.”
 

“Would we?” I counter. “We’ve been on the road all day away from the modern world.”
 

“Check the weather on your phone.”
 

“Oh, hah. I forgot I can do that.” I open the weather app, nervously biting my lip as I wait for it to load. The storm must be giving me a crappy signal. “Serve thunderstorms,” I tell him. “But no hurricane. Or tornado for that matter. It’s predicted to go all night.”
 

“Is that so?” he asks and gives me a wink. I laugh, feeling some of the tension leave.
 

I lean back, close my eyes, and think of the waterfall. Slowly, we backtrack several miles, and then traffic comes to a stop. A line of cars is hardly visible through the pouring rain. I squint, counting brake lights.

“I’m gonna go check it out,” Derek says. I grab his wrist.
 

“You shouldn’t go out in this! You could get blown off the road and into the ocean! I’m supposed to be the one getting dumped into the sea, not you!”
 

“Rushing into danger is sort of my thing.” He kills the engine, leans in to kiss me, then get out into the harrowing rain. I lick my lips, tasting him, and lean back in the seat, turned on and scared at the same time. Just a minute later, Derek comes back, completely soaked. I toss him a towel.

“I’m glad this isn’t my car,” he says, hopping into the driver’s seat.
 

“What’s going on out there?”
 

“Fallen tree limbs and some idiot tried to drive over it and fucked up their car.”
 

“Is everyone okay?”
 

“Yeah,” he says. “Their car isn’t, but they said someone is on the way to fix it.”
 

“So can we get past them?”

“Not for a good while. Didn’t you say we could keep going and circle around the island in just about the same amount of time it would take to backtrack?”

“That’s what I read online. And lots of people said it was better than the Road to Hana because it wasn’t so touristy.”

“We can give it a try,” Derek suggests.

“That’s fine with me. Do we have enough gas?”
 

“We should be fine.”
 

“Should?” I echo. “That’s not too convincing.”
 

“If we run out you can get out and push,” he jokes.

“I’ll take my chances walking back in the rainforest.”
 

“You know there are lots of centipedes in the rainforest, right?”
 

I shudder. “No one should have that many legs. No one. It’s unnatural.”
 

Derek laughs and very carefully turns the car around on the narrow road. We have a slow go on the backside of Haleakala due to the rain. The miles creep by, but Derek and I are deep in conversation. The tension leaves me though the storm rages on.
 

The day is giving way to night, and the thick clouds bring on the dark earlier than expected. Lightning flashes, followed immediately by a boom, and it was as if the strike turned up the level of the storm. Derek jerks the wheel, countering against the wind.
 

“I hate saying I was wrong,” he says. “But I think you were right to say we shouldn’t drive in this storm.”
 

“Should we pull over and wait it out?”
 

“I think that’s a good idea. It’s getting harder to see in the dark. Are there any stops around here?”
 

“Lemme look.” I grab my trusty smart phone, only to be let down by the lack of service. “If I can get a signal, I can find out. Ugh, come on, iPhone!” I hold my phone up to the window, as if that two feet away from my lap is going to make a difference. “Nothing. Should we just pull over?”
 

“Not here. Another car could hit us too easily, and I’m not liking the way those wind gusts are pushing against the SUV. You probably can’t tell, but it’s kinda difficult to stay on the road.”
 

My stomach flip flops. I’ve driven in my fair share of storms, and have hated it each and every time. Usually it ended with me in tears, on the phone with my dad, Lauren, or Travis, certain I was going to get sucked away in a tornado,
Twister
style. Once I stopped crying, I got a lecture from my dad—and usually Lauren too—about how I need to check the weather before I get in the car and start driving.
 

I try refreshing the GPS page on my phone with no luck and end up making it worse. Before the map of the road was visible, without our location updating. Now all I see is an error message telling me there is no internet connection.
 

No shit, Sherlock. Or should I say Siri… I black out the screen and put my phone down. “Is that a sign?” I ask, pointing to the side of the road.

“I think so.” Derek lets off the gas and the SUV rolls to a stop next to a white, hand painted sign. I lean forward, trying to read the writing through the heavy rainfall.
 

“It’s a sign for a motel! Turn left at the crossroad in two miles. We can hang out in the parking lot.”
 

“Good idea.”
 

The two miles to get to the turn are some of the longest miles I’ve ever traveled. Funny how being terrified of your car blowing over does that, isn’t it? Finally, a neon vacancy sign glows through the dark.

“Thank God,” I say but as soon as we pull into the parking lot, change my mind. “Since when did the Bates Motel move to Hawaii? Maybe we shouldn’t stop here. We might get murdered.”
 

“Murder is my line of work,” Derek says. “Well, not doing the murdering, but you know what I mean.”
 

There are only two other cars in the parking lot, and no lights coming from the rooms. Derek puts the SUV in park and plays with the radio, trying to find a station and get an update on the storm. He cycles through all the stations twice before getting a report, which is that the storm is predicted to last at least half the night.

“We might as well get a room,” Derek says. “Unless you’d rather stay in here.”
 

I shake my head. “I still feel like we could get blown away in this thing. As long as you promise to fight off Norman for me, I’m game for getting a room. I shove our stuff into my bag, fold a towel over it to keep shit dry, and make a mad dash for the office with Derek.
 

The short jog was enough to soak through my clothes, all the way down to the bikini bottoms I’m wearing instead of undies. A TV is tuned to static and no one sits behind the desk.