Hawaiian Holiday: Destination Desire, Book 2 (10 page)

“That was delish.” Julie smacked her lips, and flipped on the blinker to go left. “We should maybe find some lunch soon to make up for the sugar, though.”

“Right,” Lukas said. “I mean, you need to
turn
right.”

“Ah.” She flushed, gave a bashful little shrug, and set the blinker to signal a right turn. “My bad.”

“No problem. You just wanted to take the scenic route.” He reached over to tug on a lock of her hair.

“Yeah.” She chuckled. “Only the North Shore is supposed to be one of the most scenic routes in the world, so maybe we should stick with our original plan.”

He watched her pull the car back out on the highway, relaxing into his seat. He couldn’t get enough of how much she relished everything. He’d never met anyone quite like her. She wasn’t saccharine or obnoxiously cheerful—she was just having a good time. Someone like her seemed too good to be true. Other than her nonexistent sense of direction, she was a delight.

But he’d seen moments in the last couple of days when she lost a bit of the sparkle in her eyes. He wanted to ask her about it, but wasn’t sure he should pry, since those kinds of questions usually annoyed him. Hypocrisy wasn’t his thing, so he had to guess at why she might be sad. Perhaps it was spending the holidays without her friends and family, and perhaps not. Perhaps it was only about her deceased great-aunt. How much did he really know about her? Less than he wanted to, which was one more reason to keep his mouth shut. He felt too much when she was around, and emotions weren’t to be trusted.

He cleared his throat. “There are a few restaurants on the way. So we can have some sustenance to go with our early dessert.”

“Sweet. Or rather, savory.”

He snorted and propped his elbow on the window ledge. After about a mile, she reached across the console and took his other hand to twine her fingers with his. He gave her a slight squeeze and watched the scenery roll by. Mostly agricultural fields, without a hint of the ocean that was always so nearby.

“We’re going to come up on a fork in the road soon. You want to go right.” He pointed to emphasize. “The 83 will take us around the North Shore.”

“Got it.” She shot him a chagrined look. “Even I can follow those directions.”

“You’re not that bad.” Only he had no idea how bad she really was. He’d been navigating on this trip and the one downtown yesterday.

She snorted. “You know how we met at the convention center?”

“Of course.” He doubted he’d ever forget the first time he saw her, even years after they’d parted ways. Not that he needed to acknowledge that to anyone but himself.

“Yeah, I wasn’t there just to get out of the rain.” Her nose wrinkled. “I got lost trying to get back to the Hilton from the mall.”

He tried to turn a laugh into a cough, but doubted he was very convincing. “Um. You just stay on Ala Moana and you’re right there.”

“Sounds easy, doesn’t it? I came in that way, and it seemed like a pretty straight shot, but I ended up getting turned around inside the mall, left through a different entrance than I came in and then couldn’t
find
Ala Moana.”

Compressing his lips, he nodded. “Yeah, you really are that bad.”

She released his hand to wave hers through the air. “I print out maps to everything. Seriously, everything. When I first moved to San Francisco…it was bad. That’s all I can say. There’s all these hills and winding roads and the architecture is all pretty similar. I had a purse full of maps to all the places I normally go. Work, the grocery store, the library. I never moved once I settled because I wasn’t sure I’d ever figure out how to get places from a different direction.”

“Ouch,” he commiserated. While it probably led to hilarious bloopers, he imagined a problem like that would be a pain in the ass to live with.

“I know, right?” She shrugged. “At least being back in Half Moon Bay has the advantage that I lived there for eighteen years, so I know my way around.”

They came to the fork in the road and Julie made the correct turn without further prompting. The ocean loomed to the left and waves crashed on the shore. Cars lined both sides of the road and surfers dotted the swells, riding the breakers. Fortunately, most of the other drivers went slowly, so Lukas and Julie got a good look at the sparkling blue surf. It was beyond picturesque.

The car jolted and shuddered, swerving slightly.

“Oh shit.” Julie’s face went pale. She braked to a stop and pulled the car over into a sandy spot on the side of the road.

Lukas clutched at his armrest, but tried to keep his voice calm. “I’m guessing we blew a tire.”

“That’s what it sounded like to me.” She glanced over her shoulder and waited for traffic to clear enough to let her open the door. “Okay, let’s see if this thing has a spare.”

Lukas hopped out and met her at the back of the car. “A lug wrench and jack would be welcome too.”

They stared at the flatter-than-a-pancake rear passenger tire. A long nail stuck out of the tread at the top. Lukas squatted down and pressed his fingertip against the nail’s head. “Well, that answers that.”

“Damn.” Julie bent until she could get a good look at it. She blew out a breath, a frown snapping her brows together. “That is one flat tire, and trying to change it on sandy soil is going to suck ass. Doing it in a dress is going to suck even more. Blech.”

He rose and stepped back, his normal wariness when confronted with an upset woman coming to the fore. “I can take care of it for you, if you like.”

Better to handle it on his own than deal with her getting livid over things they had no control over. They weren’t going anywhere on that wheel, and the packed roadways meant it could be miles before they found somewhere else to park. They were lucky to have made it to this spot.

“Nah. I know how to change a tire.” She tossed up a helpless hand. “You’re my guest on this little jaunt. I don’t want to rope you in as slave labor.”

After moving to the trunk, she unlocked and opened the back while he gaped at her in surprise. This wasn’t the first time she hadn’t freaked out when plans went awry. It threw him off every time her unflappable nature surfaced. He really needed to get past that. Hell, he had a lot of things he needed to get past—most of them rooted in the catastrophe of his marriage. Being around Julie was making it more and more clear how much his divorce still affected him, how much what Lilith had done still colored his view of women. He did just fine when they were colleagues or friends, but add any kind of romantic involvement and he braced himself for every situation to go sideways.

He had to stop that. Maybe he’d never be ready for a real relationship again, but automatically casting attractive women into the role of bitchy, controlling villainess wasn’t the way he wanted to live. He would
not
let his ex have that much power over him. It was a revelation to consider how much power he’d already given her, even after their marriage was post-mortem.

“You okay?” Julie’s words brought him back to the present. “You have a funny expression on your face.”

He shook himself and found that she’d already unloaded the jack and lug wrench, and was currently wrestling with the spare. Hurrying to her side, he helped her maneuver the thing out of the trunk.

“Thanks.” She tossed a wink at him. “How deep do you think the sand goes before we hit solid ground?”

“Not terribly far. We’ll be okay, I think.” He rolled the new tire over and dropped it near the flat one. “Let’s try it. If we can’t do it, we’ll call a tow truck.”

She picked up the jack and positioned it under the car. “I have AAA roadside assistance, so as long as we have cell reception, I have that part covered.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” He helped her raise the car enough to get the old tire off, but it was a pure bitch because the soil
was
half-sand. Beads of sweat slid down his temples, not just because of the exertion, but the stress that any second, the jack was going to slip.

Working together in silence, they got the new tire on in record time. He figured she was just as worried as he was about the ground giving out on them, so speed was essential. She heaved a huge sigh when they tightened the last lug nut on the spare.

He started to lower the car, and the jack finally gave up the fight against the sand and slid sideways. The tire hit ground hard and the shocks squeaked in protest. He grabbed Julie around the waist and shoved her back a step while the vehicle resettled on the new wheel. His heart pounded in his chest, a spurt of adrenaline shooting through him. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” Her arms encircled his waist from behind, and she peered around him. “Whew. Looks like we got that done just in time.”

“So it seems.” He closed his eyes and sighed in relief. No harm done. Other than being a little dirty and sweaty, they were both all right, and the car was fine.

 
With her pressed to his back, he felt her stomach rumble and she snickered, burying her face between his shoulder blades. “Um…let’s get everything stowed and find that food we wanted. My sugar high has crashed hard by now.”

“A place to wash our hands would be nice too.” He scooped up the popped tire and headed for the trunk, leaving her to follow with the jack and wrench.

“Well, there’s a shrimp truck across the street. I see lunch in our future.” She slammed the trunk closed, then went around to the passenger door and reached through to grab her purse.

He watched her pull a wet wipe out of the bag and hand it to him, then use one to swipe at the worst of the grime on her hands and arms. He did the same. Not his favorite way to clean up, but better than nothing. “Thanks. With any luck, they have somewhere to wash more thoroughly.”

“Aw, you didn’t have any problem being sweaty and dirty with me yesterday,” she teased.

He tapped a somewhat clean finger against the tip of her nose. “
That
is an entirely different thing.”

Slinging her purse strap over her shoulder, she locked the car. “We can talk dirty later. My belly button is rubbing a blister on my backbone.”

He choked on a breath. “That’s a colorful way to word it.”

“Let’s make a run for it.” She tossed the keys into her bag and looped around the car to look both ways on the busy highway. The road was congested, but the cars drove slowly enough that after a few minutes, vehicles had pulled to a stop in both directions to let them cross. Julie gave both drivers a jaunty wave.

Lukas placed a hand to the middle of her back, urging her forward. “Traffic apparently waits for one woman, but lunch waits for no man.”

“
Foooooood
.” She drew the word out as if it tasted good.

The scent of cooking seafood hit his nose and his stomach gave a grinding wrench of hunger. Saliva filled his mouth in anticipation. Even if the food was barely mediocre, it was going to taste like ambrosia anyway. They joined a short line of people waiting to order, and had their food in no time. Julie hadn’t even settled onto a picnic bench before she dug into hers. Lukas managed to sit down first, but he chuckled at her enthusiasm.

“Man, we are scoring with the food on this trip. The Chinese food place, and now the shrimp scampi.” She made a face. “Okay, the calamari incident notwithstanding.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “I disagree that the calamari was anything other than an additional score to our food luck. The spicy garlic shrimp today is quite good too.”

“We will agree to disagree on the squid.” She lifted a hand to shield her eyes, taking in the view of the ocean from where they sat. “It really is spectacular here. I wish—”

She cut herself off, shook her head, and a crooked smile curved her lips.

There it was—the melancholy that sometimes darkened her expression. He shouldn’t ask about it. He’d already decided not to, but that didn’t stop the question from coming out of his mouth. He couldn’t sit there and do nothing. “You wish for what?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” She stuffed a bite of food into her mouth.

“You seem sad.” He caught her hand over the table. “Off and on for the last few days, I see these moments in your eyes where you look terribly lost and…sad.”

Reluctance shone in her gaze. She tucked her shoulder into her chin in an awkward shrug. “I’ve been feeling lost and sad for the last year. My great-aunt would have loved it here. She would have hit on some of the retired men. And some of the young single ones. She’d have loved the band that first night, the palace, the Chinese food place, Pearl Harbor, the North Shore. All of it. I wish I could share it with her, but I can’t because she’s
dead
. It’s gotten easier as the months have passed, but every now and then it just hits me. Wham. And I’m right back to that grieving place.”

He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles, a knot of sympathy forming in his chest. “I’m sorry.”

She nodded and kept her gaze on her plate. “It’s even worse than it was with my mom. Maybe because I was closer to Eloise than Mom, maybe because I had Eloise longer. Maybe because when Mom passed, I still had Eloise, so I didn’t feel quite so orphaned.” She blew out a breath. “I’m doing better, I really am. I
know
how lucky I am to have had them in my life and I’m so grateful that I got to keep them as long as I did. But with my great-aunt…it’s just
hard
to lose someone who seemed so larger than life, so invincible.”