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Which doesn’t sound right because that man? What I can see of him anyway…is too damn hot to be an angel.
Broad shoulders, tanned and boulder-tough. A craggy face with a roman nose that looks like it might have been broken at some point and a wide smile with flashing white teeth, blue eyes, crystal-clear like glacier ice. He’s all man and there’s no way you can mistake that.
I have a feeling an angel he is not. The thought of what he gets up to in his spare time makes my clit throb and I groan, pushing all those thoughts out of my head. I haven’t thought about another man since…
With a jerk, I reach down and pick up the handle on my suitcase, rolling it up to the hidden door that’s almost buried behind overgrown tropical flowers. Big as dishes and so damn bright that they hurt your eyes. All hot pinks and reds and whites. So damn many of them.
My heart hurts just looking at them. Dave would have loved all this. He lived for adventure. Actually, that’s all he lived for.
My heart sinks but I pull my shoulders back and step inside the lobby which looks about twenty years older than it did in the brochure. The tiles are cracked and broken in spots. The big wooden desk has a huge chip out of the corner of it and it’s a mess of discarded paper coffee cups and little scraps of paper.
Unease rides me again but I step up and ding the little bell. Honestly, I don’t care what happens to me at this point. All I want is a place to lay my aching head and close my eyes, forgetting that the last year even happened and just sleep away the rest of my life.
CHAPTER 2
Leon
“Let’s go, beautiful! The beach is calling and this is my only day off this week!”
“I’m coming, dad!” A clammer and clatter down the stairs almost covers her piping voice.
“What the hell? Did you bring your whole bedroom with you?” I frown at the massive bag she’s toting along with a beach towel over her shoulder and a cover-up over what I’m sure is a bikini that’s bound to give me a heart attack. Being a girl dad for a teenager who thinks she’s about to turn twenty-one instead of fifteen is not for the faint of heart. Even though I’ve seen shit as a cop that would turn your hair white, my daughter is still challenging my self-control these days.
She frowns at me. “I just brought the essentials, Dad,” she huffs, her flip flops hitting the tile floors with a snap at each step.
It takes everything in me not to flinch. I hate that she always looks at me like I’ve lost my damn mind anymore. I mean, what happened to the little girl I used to tuck in every night? It was always just the two of us. Her mother took off right after she was born. We were never married and she decided that there were a lot of things on her bucket list that she wanted to do and not one of them was have a family.
A pang hits me right in the chest and I rub it absently. I don’t fault her. I mean, she was young. I was older than her when we got together so it wasn’t a shock to me that she was a little immature. But it still feels like she didn’t want me. Didn’t want our life. That’s a hard feeling to live with.
It’s over though. I haven’t seen her in ages. I grunt and shove all that shit down. I’m not gonna go through my life with a bunch of regrets that we couldn’t make it. Fact is, we really didn’t have a lot in common.
The slapping of rubber soles hitting the tile drags me back out of my own thoughts as Penny glares at me.
“Are we going or not? I can call one of my friends to come and get me if you don’t want to go? I’ve got a lesson this afternoon.”
I shake my head. “No. Let’s go. I’m just a little distracted today.”
That’s putting it mildly. I’ve been feeling a bit out of sorts since I saw that woman this afternoon. She was pretty. A little older than I usually see alone around here and so damn cold. Her eyes were arctic silver and she stared at me for a second, something in those eyes that made me feel strange. Like I know her or something.
Which is utter bullshit. I don’t know her. I’ve never met her before and I can’t possibly remember her from somewhere. She’s just some pretty tourist that wants to see what it’s like to visit the islands and maybe brag to all her friends that she came here. She’s not interested in anything other than that.
I shouldn’t be either. Tourists are okay to scratch an itch with but I’m too old for all that shit. I’ve had my moments and it takes everything in me to deal with Penny’s shit right now. I’m not in the right headspace for a woman anymore. It’s all gotten too stale anyway. I mean, a good lay is all well and good but it just feels like too much trouble anymore. Or maybe that’s just me.
Penny huffs out a sharp breath and mutters, “I’m gonna call Desi.”
“No. Let’s go. Head out and wait for me outside and we’ll go to the beach.”
“Fine.” She storms out and I roll my eyes. Teenagers. It’s always so much drama and everything is either the end of the world or the greatest thing on earth! There is no in-between.
I shut off the lights in the kitchen and follow after her, my eyes looking around, feeling unsettled. I feel like there’s something I’m forgetting. Something that’s off-kilter but I don’t know what the hell it is.
It doesn’t take us long to walk to Ka’anapalibeach. It’s busy, like always and there are a bunch of beginning surfers out on the water for a lesson.
Penny walks up to the girl who’s been teaching her and they start talking about boards and curls and all that stuff. I know she loves it. I’m not that adventurous. I wish I was but I’ve always felt like I needed to keep my feet solidly on the ground. I’m the only person she’s got. The only one she can count on. What would happen to her if she lost me?
My heart melts when she smiles at me and waves good-bye. That’s my little girl. Sometimes she forgets herself and I can see the sweet little thing she used to be.
And then all those teenage, angsty feelings prickle again and it seems like she about tears my head off. It’s a rollercoaster but it’s not a fun one!
