“I think I know my own sister better than you do,” she snapped. She looked away. He was going to think she was a shrew. She told herself she didn’t care what he thought of her, but she knew it was a lie. She cared. Way too much. “Sorry,” she said softly. She pointed. “There’s the lava tube they called their clubhouse.”
He stopped the car and twisted in the seat to look at her. “Look, Annie, let’s get this clear between us. You’ve been prickly ever since I told you that I thought you were pretty. I’m not a womanizer. I don’t say things I don’t mean. When a man gives you a compliment, you’re supposed to say mahalo, not turn it into some kind of big production where you question his integrity.” He got out and slammed the car door.
From the set of his shoulders, she could tell he was mad. Could he really be over Leilani? Was that even possible? She was afraid to hope. Her emotions were too raw to handle one more problem.
She let her gaze travel over his husky build. Pure Hawaiian, full of the aloha spirit of giving, and passionate about the people and things he loved. For a moment, she let herself dream about what it would be like to be one of the things Mano Oana loved. It was too wondrous to fathom.
Annie got out of the car and went to stand beside him at the opening to the cave. She touched his arm and felt the firm muscles under the skin. “Sorry, you’re right. I know you better than to think you’d lie to me.”
He turned to look down at her. Before she could think about it, she reached up and touched his cheek, then stood on tiptoe and brushed her lips across his. She heard his swift intake of breath, then he caught her in his arms. She closed her eyes when his kiss gained in intensity. She’d never been so thoroughly kissed. In fact, the only time she’d been kissed by someone other than a family member had been in third grade when Johnny Choo kissed her for putting a Band-Aid on his leg.
She wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of emotion that left her shaking when he finally released her. “Wow,” she whispered.
His dark eyes regarded her with amusement and something she thought might be tenderness. “I think I’d like to try that again when we have more time.”
Heat flared in her chest and spread to her face. “Fawn and I have a big Scrabble tournament on for tonight. Want to come?”
“Can I get you in the moonlight afterwards?”
“Maybe.” She smiled, her heart as light as the honeycreeper that soared from the tree above her head.
Mano walked along the rough a’a lava rock toward the lava tube. Black gravel crunched beneath his boots. Little vegetation had returned to the area, and the sparse landscape was like another world. Light shone from the other end of the hollow tube and illuminated the length of the enclosure. Filmy roots dangled like spiderwebs from the ceiling.
“I can see how this would be intriguing to kids.” He stooped to enter the tube.
“Watch the stalactites,” Annie warned. She pointed to the rock formations that hung like black icicles from the ceiling. The floor was flat and level with high water marks on the walls.
Annie pointed out a depression in the side of the lava tube. “Look, someone has been here.”
Blankets, a cooler, and some Styrofoam cups lay on the smooth floor. Tucked away like this, they almost escaped Mano’s notice. There was nothing to indicate who the items belonged to. He glanced at her. She wore a closed expression, and he wondered about her childhood and how she’d lived in the shadows of her more flamboyant siblings.
He smoothed the blanket out. “This is our clubhouse now. Sit down.” He sank onto the blanket and folded his legs in front of him, Indian-style. “I’ve got a macadamia-nut protein bar we can share for our little picnic.” His alarm beeped on his watch, and he shut it off.
A smile tugged at her lips, and the distant expression vanished from her eyes. “You’re nuts.” She joined him on the blanket. “You didn’t even check for scorpions or lava spiders.”
“They wouldn’t dare interrupt our good time.” He unwrapped the protein bar, broke it in two, and gave her the bigger half. “A repast fit for a princess.”
She tucked a strand of silky black hair behind her ear and accepted the candy. “Sugar-free. I didn’t know you were a health nut.” She smiled at him. “And Leilani was always the princess. I was the wicked witch.”
“You’re too pretty to be a witch. They have crooked teeth and warts.” The dim light inside the lava tube cast a misty, ethereal halo around her. It seemed like he’d just met her, and yet he knew her so well. All the qualities he’d seen subconsciously were no longer hidden from him. She took a bite of her candy bar and didn’t answer, and he knew he’d embarrassed her again. He wondered when she’d last had a compliment. “Your father must be very proud you chose to follow in his footsteps,” he told her.
She met his gaze. “Tomi was the one who was supposed to do it. Father groomed him from the time we were small. But Tomi has no patience for the meticulous work of geological studies. It bored him.”
“And you love it.”