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Eventually, she went out of sight. I left the bowls to keep warm in the little oven and followed her. But when I walked into the garden, I saw Lena, standing stock-still.
“What have you got there?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“Let me see,” I said.
Lena turned around. In her hand, she held something sparkling and shiny, nestled among a handful of dirt.
“What is it?” I asked.
“A ring,” Lena said.
She was right. In her hands, Lena held a small diamond ring. I recognized the stone immediately from its shimmer and the way it refracted the light.
“How long do you suppose it’s been out here?” she said.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “Maybe the people who were here before us left it behind.”
“You think someone just left behind a diamond ring?”
The ring was beautiful. The stone was held around a base of filigreed gold. By the way, it shone in the red evening, I could tell it must be high-quality—twenty-four karat, even.
“That’s incredible,” I said. “Someone must be missing that.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Do you suppose we should hand it in at the office?”
“Maybe,” I said. “I’m guessing that whoever brought it here’s long gone, though. Maybe they left a note at the police station on Kauai. We should tell someone when we get back tomorrow.”
While were we back at the lodge when we first arrived here, and Mary found our groceries for us, I’d used her phone to call the mainland. The yacht would be back to pick us up tomorrow—but the forecast was right. I could see dark clouds gathering above us.
“Come on,” I said.
When it rains in Hawaii it pours. Thuds and crackles of thunder sounded above us, and before long rain was pouring down on the cabin. After we’d eaten our supper (which I was pretty proud of), Lena stood at the window.
“We’re gonna get washed away,” she said.
“Not likely,” I replied, following her gaze down to the rolling, dark waves at the shore of the island. “These things are built to last. The raised structure helps the ground not to erode. And the foundations are deep.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” said Lena. She turned to me. “I mean, not glad we’re here. But I’m glad you’re here.”
“I feel pretty bad for getting you into this one.”
“It’s not so bad,” she said.
That night, we stayed up, talking for a while. As it turns out, I didn’t have to sleep on the couch after all. Rattled by the thunder and the rain outside, Lena sleepily took me into the bed by the hand. There, among the soft, clean sheets, we lay down. In the morning, I awoke to the sun, to clear skies pouring in through the window, and Lena’s head resting on my shoulder.
It was the nicest way to wake up that I could have imagined.
Chapter Seventeen
Lena
WhenIwokeupthat morning, I found that Alex had fried the rest of the pork and left it there for me, with some scrambled eggs. I ate gratefully—he was getting kind of good at this, I thought. And then I noticed the fondness and intimacy of the thought and shrunk back. Today was the day we’d be saying goodbye.
When I stepped out of the door in my clothes, having cleaned up a little and left the place as tidy as when we’d arrived, I saw Alex striding up the hill. He looked a little ruffled in the same clothes he’d worn yesterday, and his hair was still drying from the shower. A sexy, dark stubble ran over his chin.
“You ready to go?” he said. “They’re on their way.”
