Waikiki Wedding: Unforgettable Nights in Hawaii Read online

  Slipping her arms into the bra straps, Amy couldn't help herself and paused to watch him step into his briefs. Damn, that man looked good naked. She fastened her bra and glanced around again for her slip. Maybe she didn't need the slip. "Where's my dress?"

  Ray's brows lifted high. "You weren't wearing a dress."

  "Oh, yeah. Right. Do you see my slip?" Amy darted close to the bed, and Ray passed her crossing the room. Their chests brushed against each other, and, for a few seconds, Amy thought they might wind up back in bed.

  "I'd better use the restroom," he mumbled.

  She bobbed her head. "I'll get my dress."

  The bathroom door latched shut behind him, and she spun about, hurrying to the closet. Tripping over Ray's shoe, she didn't remember when they'd come off. Setting it by the bed, she searched for the other and spotted her slip, sticking out from under the pillow.

  Ray emerged from the bathroom. Smiling, he tucked his shirt into his pants.

  She didn't have time to go where her mind was taking her. Reaching into the closet, she grabbed her dress and slid it over her head. "Your shoes are over there." She pointed.

  "Thanks."

  Hopping on one foot, Amy slipped on her own shoe. A few steps closer to the front door, she stood up straight, grabbed her purse, and stepped into her other shoe. "Okay. How do I look?"

  "That depends."

  "On what?"

  "Are your shoes supposed to match?"

  She looked down. "Shit."

  Grabbing her by the wrist as she ran past him to the closet, he spun her into his arms and kissed the tip of her nose. "You look beautiful."

  "Thank you." She found the matching shoe and took a quick look in the full-length mirror.

  Ray stood, holding the door open for her. "Ready?"

  Sucking in a calming breath, she nodded. "Ready as I'm going to be."

  She scurried past him, pausing long enough to give him a quick peck on the lips and then darted down the hall. With his scent still on her skin, she dashed to the open and empty elevator. As the doors closed, she lifted her face skyward and pumped her fist into the air. “Yes!”

  Chapter Twelve

  "We were getting ready to send out a search party." Courtney waved over the waiter. "A margarita for my new friend."

  Amy's jaw hit the floor as their waiter, in tight minimalist shorts that left absolutely nothing to the imagination, with only suspenders and bulging muscles to complete the outfit, nodded at the flamboyant redhead.

  From beside her, Carrie scrambled from her seat, curled her fingers around the guy's suspenders, and thrust a five-dollar bill into his belt. "I'll have another one of those dee-licious daiquiris."

  "Holy crap." Amy yanked her friend back into her seat. "How many of these have you had?"

  "Two."

  Two? Amy turned to Linda.

  "Yep." The maid of honor nodded. "What can I say? She's a cheap drunk."

  When Courtney had insisted that Amy and the rest of Carrie's bridal party join her group to give their singlehood a respectable farewell at the Bare Cave across the street from the hotel, instead of the Wine and Cheese Board, Amy hadn't given the nightspot’s name much thought.

  "Saved you a seat." Emily pointed to the empty chair between her and Courtney.

  Amy took a second to scan the immediate surroundings of the dimly lit club. On the other side of their table a dark cross-shaped stage jetted out into the room. If the waitstaff were already more than half naked, she wasn't sure she was ready for whatever performances were going to happen on that stage. She was even less sure if she wanted to watch it seated next to her brother's fiancée, but it would make one hell of a bonding moment. "Thanks."

  "Isn't this great?" Courtney shouted over the din of the customers and the tune "It's Raining Men" blaring from the overhead speakers.

  "Definitely not my normal Thursday night," Emily said.

  "This entire trip is turning out to be so damn perfect." Courtney took a sip from an oversize martini glass filled with frozen swirl. "Better than I'd imagined."

  "How's that?" To hear better, Amy leaned a bit forward.

  "We saw the reception area today. Oh, my God. The photos online just can't capture the awesomeness of that view. And with the wedding scheduled just before sunset, it will be phenomenal. If we time it right, the sun will be all sorts of pretty shades of red and orange at the same moment we promise to love, honor, and cherish for the rest of our lives."

  "No obey?" Amy asked with a smile.

  "Not in my marriage." Courtney grinned. "Oh"—she scooted to the edge of her seat—"and you should see the room my mother got for the same price as mine. There's a balcony facing the ocean and a little living room, and a bathtub the size of my entire bathroom at home."

  "Wow." Amy leaned back.

  "You'd think," Courtney continued, "that they'd give the free upgrade to the bride not the bride's mother."

  Lisa stuck her head between the women. "They should have given it to my mom. You were practically another tax deduction."

  "No kidding." Courtney laughed. "BFF for sure."

  "That's right," Amy said. "You guys have been friends since elementary school."

  "Yep." Courtney nodded. "Third grade."

  "Did you see this?" Lisa held out her phone.

  Courtney turned toward her BFF, and, swiping at the screen, the two women huddled in more wedding conversations.

  "You're looking more relaxed tonight." Emily scooted her seat closer to Amy so she could lower her voice.

  Amy just hoped she wasn't blushing six shades of red. She had a very good reason to be more than relaxed. The momentary memory flash heated her from the inside out, and she was suddenly very thankful for the lousy lighting. "It's been a … good day."

  "Things are going good between you and Ray?"

  Oh, yeah. Not that she knew where things were going exactly, but she was pretty sure good wasn't an appropriate euphemism for mind-blowing sex.

  • • •

  How Ray had gone from considering walking away to making mind-blowing love to Amy, he had no idea. Actually he did. From the minute he'd met her, without having said a word, he'd known she was someone special. Getting to know her better had cemented his first impressions. He wanted her more than he thought possible for one human being to want another.

  The last thing he needed now was to sit alone in his room and stew over how tonight had changed things. He'd been kicking around the differences in their lives for three days and was no wiser now than when he'd arrived. But one thing was for sure, he was a damned sight happier than he had been two hours ago.

  "Hey, man." Sitting at the hotel bar, Doug waved Ray over. "Not out with the bachelors?"

  "Nah. Only met the groom a few hours ago. The rest of the guys have known each other for a while. I just didn't see the point."

  "Same here. I'd rather spend my night watching football. On the other hand, my fiancée is off having a blast with the girls." Doug waved at the stool beside him. "Have a seat."

  Oh, this can't be good. Usually Ray thought quickly on his feet, but, at this moment, all his brain cells were still working their way up from south of his belt. There was no finding a single excuse to skip drinking with the brother of the woman he'd just had heart-stopping sex with. Forcing a smile, and hoping there wasn't a neon sign on his forehead—flashing I slept with your sister—he took a seat, ordered a beer, and focused on the large-screen TV in the corner. Maybe a good game would help him get his head on straight.

  "What the hell are you waiting for?" Doug shouted at the TV. "An invitation?"

  "Throw the damn ball already." Ray shook his head. "The kid is too young. He wants to show off. Eickleman was in the clear. Coach will rail on his ass for not throwing to the star running back."

  "Quarterback thinks he's all that. Reality comes around sooner or later, and these young kids come crashing off their pedestals."

  Ray certainly understood how it felt to crash and burn. He rea
ched for his drink.

  "Sorry, man." Doug set down his beer. "I wasn't thinking."

  "We're just watching a game." Because the urge to down the remainder of his beer in one swallow was so strong, Ray nudged the drink away with his fingertips. Looking back at the game, he pretended not to notice the way Doug's gaze had followed Ray's hand, then came back up to study his face.

  "Did my sister tell you why I separated from the navy?"

  Ray shook his head. Amy had shared the story of their separation at an early age, after their natural father had been killed in a bar fight, but she'd said very little about Doug as an adult.

  "It was a cluster fuck. Everything that could go wrong did. An explosion cost one man on our team his life and another his leg." He reached for a handful of nuts from a nearby bowl. "I was lucky—so they told me. I'd only lost my vision in one eye. But you need two good eyes to do what I did."

  All Ray could do was stare. Any response seemed woefully insufficient. That day long ago on the field, he'd lost the ability to play pro ball. Yet he could still walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night or play in a friendly game. Only on rainy days and occasionally during a big game on TV did he feel his loss. For all intents and purposes he still had full use of all his body parts.

  "Giving up on a dream sucks. Big time." Doug glanced at the screen. Fourth down and eight, thirty yards out, the team went for a field goal. "I thought I'd be in for at least my twenty. Not for the pension. I loved what I did. Every damn adrenaline-stoked minute of it."

  Ray nodded. That much he understood. He'd loved the highs of playing ball. Whether the rush of coming from behind to win a game or the agony of giving away the game-winning points, the intensity was unmatchable. He had loved every fucking minute. "But you had a backup plan?"

  A riot of laughter wasn't the response Ray had expected.

  Even when Doug stopped, his shoulders still shook with the last remnants of his mirth. "I didn't have a damn clue. Took six months just to shake off the depression." He hesitated. "The guilt never goes away."

  Doug's buddies. Dear God. Ray felt two inches tall.

  "I kicked around the country, licking my wounds. Tried a few jobs. Nothing worked. A guy I knew from the navy ran a skydiving school. If I couldn't save the world for Uncle Sam, teaching thrill-seeking people how to propel through the sky seemed like a good fit. It worked for a while."

  One of the teams scored, and the bar erupted in cheers and moans. Both Ray and Doug glanced up at the screen from sheer habit. Neither really cared about the game or the score anymore.

  "I walked away from my last job. Third strike." Ray hadn't meant to share that bit of information. Especially not with Amy's brother. "I just couldn't see waking up and spending another day the same exact way I had the day before and the day before that."

  Nothing wrong with running away from a dull life, he told himself. People started fresh all the time. The only damn problem was, he had no idea what he was running to.

  • • •

  "You and Ray seemed to be getting along awfully well on the beach." Emily practically had to sit in Amy's lap to be heard over the roar of the music.

  "We almost didn't." In only a few seconds Amy's mind rewound past the absolutely fantastic sex to Ray's odd dispatch in the bar onto frolicking at the beach and didn't stop until it settled on Ray's admission that he had no job and no plan. "He's unemployed," she blurted out.

  Emily took a second to process Amy's words, then shrugged. "The economy really sucks right now. Lots of people are having a hard time—"

  "He left the job because he was restless."

  Whether Emily was waiting for Amy to say more or merely trying to read her mind, she didn't know.

  Amy flipped a cardboard coaster in front of her. "He thought he was going to live the dream life. Hit that adrenaline high every week. Be the star."

  "Like your brother." Emily's gaze remained fixed and studious.

  "That was different. Doug had a job. Ray had a dream. How can any real job live up to the dream?"

  "Oh, Amy. First, being part of an EOD team was more than just a job or even a dream to your brother. That was his family, his world. And second, if you're worried about Ray, I'm sure Doug would be glad to talk to him."

  Setting down the coaster, Amy faced Emily and her need to tell someone what had really been bothering her—ever since that moment when Ray had confessed that he hadn't held a steady job since college. "Only knowing each other a few days on top of living half a country apart is a lousy way to start a relationship." And, like it or not, she officially had a relationship. One she didn't want to lose. "I'm afraid, no matter what obstacles we overcome, I'll never be enough to make him happy. My sensible world seems like a poor substitute for the lost dream of being a football star."

  "I see." Emily took a slow sip of her massive margarita, then settled her gaze on Amy once again. "Maybe you're the one who should talk to your brother. He's been there, done that."

  "What?"

  "I said, your brother has been there, done that."

  "No." Amy shook her head. "I heard you. I just don't see the connection."

  Emily's head bobbed back in surprise. "You seriously haven't noticed how alike those two are? Two competitive men. Two overprotective brothers. Two career-ending injuries. Two men living for the next rush. Doug never wanted to leave the navy. He loved it. Your brother was king of the adrenaline junkies. He still is. He just doesn't need to blow things up anymore to get his fix. Doug understands more than you give him credit for."

  "I don't know." When she was a little girl, her Doggie fixed anything. Not that four-year- olds had much to take care of. But how was he supposed to fix her broken heart when Ray moved on and left her in the dust?

  • • •

  The grave way Doug stared at Ray had him wondering if he should duck and take cover—all the way back to Oklahoma. Though even that wouldn't be far enough if Doug learned Amy had been late to the party because Ray had been buried so deep inside her he could have tickled her kidneys.

  "You had fun today," Doug said.

  Even though Ray wasn't sure if that was a statement or a question, he nodded.

  "There's something to be said for working with teens. I help Emily at the high school. This summer I spent most of my free time working with her students to build sets for the school play."

  Again Ray nodded. He didn't have a clue where this was going, but, if it meant his nose wasn't about to be broken, he'd listen.

  "When you've seen as much as I have, it's easy to think you’ve seen it all, that nothing could surprise you." He smiled. "But let me tell you, those kids surprise me all the damn time. You never know what to expect from them."

  "You mean, like when Yoshi was so surprised he'd caught the ball that, instead of running for a touchdown, he came infield to show us the ball?"

  "Yeah, something like that." Smiling, Doug raised his glass for the bartender to bring him another. "Ever think about volunteering to coach football? A lot of kids out there could benefit from team-building skills."

  Kids? "Can't say that I have." But he did have a good time this morning. More than he had expected to. He'd always thought that being involved in his favorite sport and unable to play would hurt more than the dream-ending injury. But maybe there was something to this. Football was football. Sort of.

  "You were really good with those teens."

  "Those polite teens."

  "Not all American teens are future Juvenile Delinquents of America. Emily has some great kids in her classes, and it's been interesting watching how she interacts with them, how she encourages them to stretch their horizons."

  Stretch horizons. Like maybe all the way to San Francisco. Ray's heart did a sudden somersault in his chest. Though it probably had nothing to do with San Francisco and everything to do with the woman he loved, who just happened to live there. Woman he loved. Did he love her? His heart rate kicked up a notch, just thinking about Amy. Holy shit. Somehow
he'd fallen in love with Amy. Head-over-boots, sing-through-the-lobby in love with her.

  "You're smiling."

  "What?" Ray had forgotten he was sitting next to her brother.

  "If you smile any wider, you'll knock your ears off. And if that shit-eating grin has anything to do with my sister, I'll tell you two things. Girls like her and Emily are special. They come from wholesome families where everyone has your back, and they expect nothing but the best from people, and that makes us want to be better men for them."

  Ray nodded. He could see that. Already his head was spinning with ways to be the kind of man who Amy could fall in love with.

  "And second …"

  Ray nodded again.

  "Keep it in your pants."

  • • •

  "I'm in no position to tell you what to do," Emily said. "You're not my little sister yet. Which, by the way, it'll be really nice no longer being the baby of the family, but I might as well start acting as your older sister who gives advice that you'll probably ignore anyhow."

  "I've always wanted a big sister."

  "Well"—Emily reached out and patted Amy's knee—"for better or worse, you've got one. The first thing—and you won't like it—is don't sleep with him. Sex always messes things up."

  No point in mentioning that horse had already left the barn. "Didn't you and Doug sleep together before he even knew you were his best friend's kid sister?"

  Emily nodded. "Which is why I know of which I speak. Sex is just sex. But great sex with a guy you could easily fall in love with sucks your heart into the picture so fast it will make your head spin."

  Wasn't that the truth? She loved Ray so damn much that the thought of losing him in a couple of days scared … Love? Oh, God, she loved Ray.

  "The second thing is tough because, in two days, you're leaving paradise for different destinations, but follow your heart." Colored lights at the foot of the stage came on, momentarily pulling away Emily's attention for a moment. "Looks like the show is starting. I'll say this fast. You are a natural planner. Love doesn't work that way. Don't lead with your head on this one. It won't work. Listen to your heart and go with the flow."