Her Hawaiian Homecoming

“You didn’t notice?” Dallas threw back his head and laughed. “I wouldn’t be such a bad guy that I would seriously not let you shower. I just wanted to make a point. Besides, as I recall, you did say please.”

Allie’s face burned with embarrassment. Why hadn’t she checked? She’d...just assumed the worst. God, what a fool!

“You should have said something!” Allie folded her arms across her chest and glared.

Dallas just laughed more. “How? You weren’t talking to me!”

Touché.

Allie’s anger faded a bit. So Dallas hadn’t left her stranded without water out of spite like she’d thought. She’d been the one who assumed he had.

Allie glanced again at the ring of girls watching them and whispering. She suddenly felt like the new girl at school talking to the star quarterback.

“Look, let’s agree to a cease-fire, okay?” Dallas offered. “You can go back to stomping on coffee cherries tomorrow. But right now, let’s just eat and pretend we’re not going to kill one another.”

Dallas’s warm smile softened Allie a bit, but not enough.

“I’m not all that hungry,” Allie said, and then her stomach growled loudly.

“You’re a terrible liar.” Dallas chuckled. “Either you take the plate or I feed it to Poi, and I’m not sure that pup can handle all this potato salad. Not to mention, Kai and Jesse will be pissed if I tell them you fed their food to the dog!”

“How do I know you didn’t spit in it?” Allie eyed the plate with some disdain.

“Honestly. You go shut off a girl’s water for fifteen minutes and she starts to think you’re a criminal. You stepped on my coffee plant first.”

“You deserved that.”

“Maybe I did.” Dallas shoved the plate toward Allie. “Eat, would you, woman? Kai’s awesome barbecue is getting cold. That’s a crime against...barbecue.”

Kai gave her a wave from the grill, and Allie realized she was trapped now. Reluctantly, she took the plate. The smell of the food wafted up to meet her, hearty and good. She took a bite, and the barbecue melted in sweet goodness on her tongue. She almost forgot that Dallas was watching her every bite, his blue eyes studying her mouth. She felt a charge of tension between them, but chalked it up to the fact that she wanted to sell her share of the land, and he didn’t. Tension would be part of everything until that was settled.

“So how do you and Kai know each other?” Allie asked.

“Everybody knows Kai, but he’s a good friend, yes,” Dallas said. “He was the very first friend I made on the island. I had this crazy idea to go surfing, though I’d never been. I headed into some pretty atrocious waves, and nearly bit it that first day. I don’t know what I was thinking. Cowboys don’t surf! I wrecked my board, and Kai saved my life. Don’t tell him, though, because it’ll just go to his head.”

Allie laughed a little. Dallas grinned.

Then an awkward silence fell. Allie waited for Dallas to leave. His peace offering delivered, he was under no obligation to stay. Yet, he lingered.

“Thanks for the food, but you can mingle if you want to,” Allie said, hoping he’d take the hint and go. She felt a little disoriented, a little dizzy with him standing so close. She could smell his aftershave, something crisp and outdoorsy, and it made her want to bury her nose in his shirt collar. It just underlined the fact that she had terrible taste in men. Jason was no fluke, which was a depressing thought.

“You trying to get rid of me?” Dallas put up some mock outrage.