Two Little Secrets

Ginna grinned broadly.

“I am taking the vacation of my dreams.”

“THIS IS A JOKE, right?” Zach Stone looked at the sheets of paper his sister had unceremoniously thrust into his hand.

“Do I look like I’m kidding?” She tapped the top paper. “Happy birthday, big brother.”

“Lucie, my birthday’s seven months away,” he said dryly.

She shrugged off his statement. “Then think of it as two weeks in heaven. Sun, sand and surf. Maybe you’ll even go wild and have a hot island romance. It wouldn’t hurt you, you know.”

“Romance?” He started laughing. “Lucie, I have two kids who will be starting kindergarten next year. My life consists of Big Bird and Elmo. Not spending my days on a tropical island beach.”

“Then I suggest you start thinking about it, because you leave next week.” She held up a hand to forestall the arguments she expected to hear. “Emma and Trey will be staying with us.”

“Terrific. While I’m gone, Nick will teach Trey how to hack into a government computer, and God knows what will happen to Emma while her brother is in prison,” Zach muttered in a dark voice.

“He hasn’t done any of that for the last three months,” his sister reminded him.

Zach thought about telling her he’d caught his eight-year-old nephew at his computer and the moment he was sighted the boy shut everything down. Zach had nightmares for a week about a member of a secret government agency coming knocking on his door.

He was positive the boy would run the country one day.

“Zach, you need to get away,” Lucie said softly but forcefully. “You haven’t done one thing for yourself since the twins were born. You need this.”

“I took a vacation six months ago.”

“Taking the twins to Disney World doesn’t count,” she argued. “As it was, you turned it into a working vacation by coming back with enough material for a few months’ worth of your column. Fine. You want more material? Go to Hawaii and write about a single dad at a singles resort.”

“I’ll have plenty of time for myself when they graduate from college.” He feared he was losing the battle. Lucie was like a Gila monster. Once she sunk her teeth into something, she didn’t let go.

She shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. I planned this trip to give you everything you could ever want. Just pack up some casual clothes and suntan lotion and you’ll be all set.”

Zach got up and walked over to the patio doors overlooking the backyard. He watched his son and daughter playing tag with their cousin outside.

Since the day their mother died giving birth to them, he’d focused his life on giving them a rich full life in an attempt to make up for what they’d lost. By doing that, he’d pushed his own personal needs to one side. He couldn’t even remember when he’d last gone out on a date.

He didn’t want to take the trip his sister was generously giving him.

Maybe he should tell her to take the trip in his place, and he’d watch Nick for her. Maybe she’d even find a man who could handle the boy.

The offer hovered right there on his lips.

Chapter One

People were not meant to fly.

The previous day, Ginna had been scrubbed with sea salt, waxed, exfoliated, massaged, moisturized, moussed and polished. Her skin glowed and felt smooth as silk. Thanks to her co-workers’ efforts, she was sent off to have the time of her life.

If only she didn’t have to fly to achieve it.

Ginna Walker was known to be fearless. With three brothers, she’d had to be. Over time, she’d handled snakes, lizards and even a scorpion named Ralph.

But when it came to walking into a large cylinder that a human and computers navigated through the air, she didn’t do as well. If it hadn’t been so expensive, she would have opted for a cruise.

Except the movie Titanic stayed with her much too long.

So she’d armed herself with motion-sickness medication, a couple of paperback novels and a positive attitude to get her over the Pacific Ocean.

She made her way down the aisle to her seat. She pushed her carry-on bag into the overhead compartment, then settled herself in the window seat assigned to her. She opened her book and pretended not to hear the jet engines warming up or feel the faint rumble under her feet.

“Excuse me, I’m afraid you’re sitting in my seat.”

She looked up into a pair of brown eyes that rivaled Casper’s, her German shepherd’s.

“I don’t think so.”

He didn’t move. “I do think so. You’re in my seat.”

She looked up at him, refusing to back down.

“This is seat 15C and my ticket reads 15C.” She pulled her ticket out of her bag and showed it to him.

As if not to be outdone, he brandished a ticket with the same seat number printed on it.

She glanced at his ticket and smiled. “Amazing, my ticket says the same thing. Besides, haven’t you ever heard of possession being nine-tenths of the law and all that?”

“I guess we’ll need a third party to figure this one out,” he said, pushing the call button.

The flight attendant was warm and helpful as she took both tickets to investigate. When she returned, she was equally apologetic.

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Stone, but somehow the same seat assignment was made for both of you,” she told him. “As Ms. Walker’s ticket was purchased first…” Her voice fell off. “I’m afraid we have no more window seats. In fact, we’re full except for the middle and aisle seat here.”

He nodded. “That’s fine with me.”

She handed them back their tickets and went about her duties.

“Sorry about that. I’m Zach Stone.” He held out his hand.

“Ginna Walker.” She felt his warm palm slide across hers.

Not bad at all. She judged him to be a couple of inches over six feet and nice-looking, with dark-blond hair she knew would lighten under the Hawaiian sun. It needed a good shaping, her keen hairdresser eye noticed. Soft yellow polo shirt, khaki-colored pants. A pair of glasses stuck out of his shirt pocket.

Maybe the flight won’t be so bad, after all.

All the way to the airport, Zach had busied himself with instructions for Lucie about the twins. His sister looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.

Which he had. He was leaving his precious babies with his sister and her son, a child who aspired to be number one on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.