Page 24 of Fast Fury

“Good. My grandma’s been cooking up a feast all day.”

She blinked at him. “Your grandma?”

He nodded. “I already committed to dinner with her tonight, and promised I’d bring you along. I want you to meet her. That okay?”

Well… Meeting his family seemed like a lot of pressure considering they weren’t even in a relationship yet. She’d envisioned spending time just the two of them tonight, so she could get a feel of what was happening and talk about what they both wanted.

On the other hand, it felt good to know he was comfortable introducing her to the woman who’d raised him. And maybe it was a blessing that they wouldn’t be alone, so their chemistry couldn’t get in the way and cloud her judgment.

“Sure.” She couldn’t help but smile as he took her hand and led her to the Mustang. He opened her door for her, waited for her to settle into the plush leather bucket seat before closing the door and rounding the hood.

Once he was inside he did up his seatbelt, paused in the act of reaching for the keys in the ignition, and instead lifted a hand to cradle the side of her face, bringing her gaze to his. He must have had the seat pushed all the way back to accommodate his long legs, but he still looked crammed into the car. “I’m really glad you’re here,” he murmured.

Oh, man. There was no way she could stay just friends with him. “Me too.”

Kai grinned, kissed her softly, then started the car and pulled out of the hotel parking lot. “How’s the conference going so far?” he asked as he turned onto a wide street lined with lush monkeypod trees, their huge, leafy canopies spreading out overhead like giant green umbrellas.

“Pretty good.” She drew in a deep breath of the fresh, tropical-scented air and told him about Dr. Bradshaw and the extra security.

“Yeah, it’s been all over the news. You okay?”

“Yes, fine. What about you, how was your week with the team?”

“Helluva lot of fun, actually. We worked long days, but we had fun too.”

“That’s good.” She paused. “What is it you do, exactly? I’ve been dying to ask you. Can you tell me?”

“Wish I could. I want to, and I trust you, but for security reasons I can’t. Yet.”

“Yet?” As in, he would once they’d been together for a certain amount of time?

“Yeah.”

She decided to let that drop because she wasn’t ready to look too far ahead and just wanted to take things one day at a time with him. He drove her up the west coast of the island, through Kehei and then north across Maui’s “neck” toward the airport. But before reaching it, Kai turned south, heading inland toward the heart of the island.

“This is the upcountry,” he told her. “Mytutumoved up here to Pukalani after I joined the Marines. It’s quieter up here. She loves it.”

“Oh, where did you grow up?”

“Wailuku. West of where the airport is.”

Out here there were no towns, only farms and ranches and houses dotted along the foothills of the ancient mountains. The road was a twisting black ribbon as they climbed into the hills in the darkness, lit only by the Mustang’s headlights.

Kai pointed out sugarcane and pineapple plantations along the way, told her ancient Hawaiian legends about how the island of Maui was formed, when Maui pulled it from the depths of the ocean with his magical fishhook.

“Here we are,” he said, turning down a long driveway. It was too dark out to see much, but the land sloped gently away from the tidy little yellow house set in the middle of the lot.

A tiny, thin woman with deep bronze skin and a head of thick white hair appeared at the door, her wrinkled face lighting up when she saw them. “Aloha.”

“Aloha,Tutu,” Kai said, stepping forward to embrace her. Abby loved that he was so openly affectionate with his grandmother. He turned toward her. “This is Abby.”

His grandmother inclined her head with a big smile. “Abby.E komo mai.” She gestured for Abby to come in.

“Aloha,Mrs. Maka.Mahalofor inviting me,” she answered, using the full extent of her Hawaiian vocabulary in those two short sentences.

The woman’s sharp brown eyes darted to Kai. “You didn’t tell me she’s as pretty as a fairy princess,” she said with a heavy accent.

“Well, I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.”

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