Laughing good-naturedly, Oliver strolled out.
Kye waited until he heard the front door close before he abandoned his computer and went to stand at the edge of the patio. Lily, who’d been dozing peacefully under the desk at his feet, stretched slowly then rose to follow him. She watched him for a moment then followed his gaze, though she didn’t understand his fascination with the view.
The vista from this house was of the clear blue water and sandy shoreline of Pukoo Beach, breathtaking each and every time he came here. The human spirit couldn’t grow accustomed to so much beauty. That’s what kept visitors coming to these islands again and again, to make certain their senses had not overhyped their memories.
His parents owned a home in Honolulu but kept this place on Molokai as a connection to their Hawaiian ancestors. It was where his father’s mother still lived. It was her birthday today and it would be celebrated on the beach with a traditional foods and music and dance.
He’d wanted to bring Yardley here. Wanted her to see the place he called home, as precious to him as Harmonie Kennels was to her. Even if he only lived here part-time, it was the place he dreamed of when he closed his eyes. But this time, something was missing. He didn’t feel all here.
Kye wiped both hands down his face. Oliver was right. He was mourning. Stupid. Useless. Waste of time. The fucking thing was, he’d known going in that she was in love with another man. Nothing had changed once she realized David Gunnar was alive.
So why couldn’t he get his last image of Yardley out of his mind?
She’d been bending over David, kissing him. He had been coming to tell her Oleg had been located and saved by the vet doctor. As he arrived at the door of that hospital room, David had pulled her across him into his bed.
That sight was like a boot kick in the gut. He hadn’t been able to catch his breath. He hadn’t even bothered to try to gloss over the blow and knock at the door and pretend the sight wasn’t killing him. Instead he’d backpedaled out of there. But Yardley had seen him. She caught up with him in the unsterile noisy hospital corridor.
He didn’t remember what they said. He knew he didn’t look her in the eye, afraid she’d see his pain. Or that he would completely lose his shit in front of her. It was a lose–lose proposition. He just remembered the need to get the hell out of Dodge.
He found a bar and drank enough beer to make him sleepy.
He hadn’t realized until he woke an hour later, with a sympathetic waitress shaking him, that it had been more than three days since he’d had more than a couple of hours of shut-eye. No wonder his emotions were surfacing through his laid-back pose. Because all he had wanted to do for the next month was break something. Hurt something. Destroy something the way the kiss had devastated him.
Kye thumped a palm on the post holding up the lanai. Lily pushed in against him, a reminder that he wasn’t paying enough attention. He bent and picked her up, absently petting her as his thoughts continued in train.
After the surgery to repair his broken nose, he’d taken the first SAR job that came up. Wildfires had broken out early in the Pacific Northwest. It was the kind of mission that required full attention all the time. Good for his mental health. While he and Lily worked, alerting residents of the need to evacuate and searching for those who hadn’t been heard from, he couldn’t think about anything or anyone else. He’d left there and gone to Central America. And from there to Chile. For three months he’d been a moving target for his emotions.
Now home, finally, he was breathing easier. It wasn’t a mortal blow. He would recover.
He rubbed his nose. But Oliver was wrong. There would always be scars.
His cell phone rang.
“Aloha ‘auinala, grandson.”
He smiled. “Aloha. Hau‘oli la hanau, Tutu. Happy birthday.”
“You are not here with the others, grandson. You promised.”
“Yes, Tutu. I will be there.”
*
Yardley hung off the rail at the bow of the ferry between Maui and Molokai as it docked at Kaunakakai Harbor. Everything she’d ever seen and heard about the Hawaiian Islands was true. Paradise dropped into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. She couldn’t look long enough or hard enough at the sights. Somewhere on the mountainous green island glowing in the setting sun off the bow was the man she’d come to see. But would he be happy to see her?
“Here you go, Ms. Summers.” Oliver handed her the travel kennel with Oleg inside as they stood on the dock a few minutes later. “He’s not much for the water, is he?”
Yard bent down to see her poor Czech wolfdog looking wobbly. He licked her hand gratefully. She could sympathize. Her stomach was still rising and falling though they were on land. “He prefers snow.”