Island Promises: Hawaiian Holiday / Hawaiian Reunion / Hawaiian Retreat

“I saw them,” Sarah declared. “Look, there’s another one.”

Shane obediently lowered his face to the water. “Oh, I see him. You’re right.”

He lifted his head, only inches away from Megan’s. That fluttering went into double time.

“You know, there are boogie boards with snorkel windows on them,” he informed her. “Grace could lie on the board and look right down into the water.”

Sarah snickered. “You said boogie.”

Grace giggled, too, and Megan had to hide a smile as Shane rolled his eyes at her.

He pulled the board out from under his arm. “For your information, missy, this is called a boogie board. It helps you ride the waves.”

He turned to Grace. “Want to try it?”

Grace gave a little nod, though she looked apprehensive.

He held the wide board steady in the small waves while Megan helped Grace stabilize on it.

“Hold on to the sides. That’s it,” Shane said. He supported the board and angled it to take best advantage of the waves. A slightly bigger one rolled to shore and she laughed when she rode up and down on it.

“That made my tummy tickle like the airplane!” she said.

He grinned. “It can do that.”

Megan really tried not to notice how sweet he was to entertain her daughter—or how gorgeous he looked doing it.

All the headaches of traveling with children, especially one with special needs, seemed to float away on the tide as she watched her daughter’s joy at riding the waves.

“Go Gracie!” Sarah yelled, clapping her hands. After a minute she turned to Megan. “Do you think I could have a turn when Grace is done?”

“You’ll have to ask Shane.”

He overheard. “Sure you can. Just give us a minute.”

After a few more waves, he tugged Grace back to Megan, lifted her off, then helped Sarah onto the board.

While Megan and Grace sat in the warm, shallow water, he tugged adventurous Sarah out to where the waves were slightly bigger.

Grace, in Megan’s arms now, gave a little yawn that for just an instant made her look like a fragile baby bird.

When Shane returned Sarah to Megan, he held out the board to her. “Do you want a turn now?”

She ordered her stupid hormones to calm down.

“No. Thank you, though. I need to get these little mermaids onto dry land for dinner and bed. We’re still on Chicago time, I think. It’s been a long day today, with more fun planned tomorrow.”

“If you take the board, I can carry Grace up to the house for you.”

He knelt down in the water, offering his broad, comforting back. “Hop on, Ariel,” he said over his shoulder.

Grace and Sarah both giggled, clearly infatuated with him. Grace threw her arms around his neck and he stood easily, wading through the waves and sand toward their cabana.

“Outdoor shower first, girls,” Megan said, following along with Sarah’s hand in hers. “We need to wash all this sand off out here.”

He lowered Grace to the little bench beside the shower. “Thanks for the boogie boarding,” Megan said, trying not to stare at all those gleaming chest muscles, or the small, puckered red scar on his biceps from the gunshot wound.

“No problem. I’ll see you all later.”

His fingers brushed hers as he grabbed the board. His smile encompassed her and her daughters, then he turned around and headed back into the waves. He waded a little ways, then dove in with quick, sure movements, heading for deeper water.

“Mommy?”

Sarah’s tone indicated that wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get her attention, and Megan jerked her focus away from Shane and back to her daughters, where it rightfully belonged.

CHAPTER FOUR

SHE SLEPT WITH the windows open and the sound of the sea lulling her to a deep and dreamless state...and awoke to pearly dawn splashing across the white and red hibiscus embroidered on her Hawaiian quilt and the quiet, endless murmur of waves licking the sand.

For one disoriented moment, she couldn’t think why she had brought the girls’ sound machine into her bedroom, then she realized that it wasn’t some kind of white noise sleep aid, it was the actual ocean.

She and the girls were in Hawaii, staying in a beautiful ocean-side cabana. Nick and Cara were getting married the next day.

She stretched and sat up. Though the clock on the bedside table read barely five-thirty, she was abruptly wide awake.

She loved working the night shift at the hospital for the flexibility it gave her with her daughters’ schedules, but as a result her body had become conditioned to odd hours and quick transitions from sleep to full consciousness. She wasn’t very good at sleeping in.

The ceaseless rhythm of the waves seduced and entranced her. Was it as beautiful as she remembered here?

She climbed out of bed and padded through the silent house to the lanai. Yes. In the pale pink predawn light, the water looked a mysterious, alluring green. Palm fronds rustled in the breeze, and the air was heavy with the scent of ocean and flowers.

She felt as if she were the only one awake this early, as if she had the entire Pacific to herself. A sudden, fierce urge to stand at the water’s edge to greet the sunrise washed over her.

Why not? How many chances like this would she have?

She hurried back to her room and threw on the first thing she grabbed in the closet, a soft, loose sundress the color of newly ripe peaches. She quickly pulled her tangled hair into a loose ponytail and picked up the video baby monitor she sometimes still used when Grace was sick, grateful for the impulse to pack it at the last minute.

A quick check of the screen told her the girls were still sleeping soundly, so she unplugged the little monitor and slipped it into her pocket, then walked out into the quiet.

The sun hovered just below the horizon, the puffy clouds glowing orange and pink and pale lavender in the gathering light. She could hardly take her eyes off it as she turned to walk down the ramp of the lanai to the sand.

Only then did she notice three boogie boards propped next to the front door. Two of them had little clear windows for looking beneath the surface.

She stared. What in the world?

A note was attached to the biggest one, written on resort stationery that flapped in the breeze. She pulled it off, knowing instantly who had left these on the porch.

“We can’t let Gracie miss the fish,” Shane had written in bold, masculine handwriting.