Page 17 of His Hawaiian Heart
His forehead relaxed and from the way his lips turned up in a grin, I thought I’d finally get some actual information out of him. Before he could offer more, I heard, “Good morning! What are you two conspiring about so early in the morning?”
Well, well, well. Seems like fibbing might be a new habit of my old friend. Turning, I saw Beth bouncing her way toward us. “Not an early bird, huh?”
“Guess she’s hungry.”
That made two of us, but I wasn’t interested in bacon and eggs. I was looking to catch myself a worm or two.
“Hi, Beth. We were just catching up on Samuel and Dr. Davidson’s love life.”
“You are?” she asked, looking from me to Josh. “Does that mean you told her about seeing Samuel and our renowned team leader doing the nasty?”
I swear I could hear Josh pleading for the earth beneath his feet to simply open and swallow him where he stood. While his mouth worked and no sound came out, I slipped my arm free from his and wrapped it around Beth’s instead. “How about us girls have a little chat and you can share all the juicy details.”
“How fun!” she said, barely managing to give a small wave to her boyfriend before I pulled her inside the mess tent.
I still had to wait for another few minutes while we went through the line and she piled her tray with various dishes.
“Aren’t you eating?” she asked when noticing that unlike hers, my tray held nothing but cutlery and the rather sorry-looking napkin I’d unconsciously been shredding.
“Coffee is all I need. Can I bring you a cup?”
“No, I don’t do caffeine, but thanks. I’ll grab some juice and get us a table. Maybe Josh will join us.”
“Sounds great,” I said though I doubted Josh wanted to come within ten yards of me at the moment. I was pouring cream into my cup and wondering how much pillow talk Josh had shared with Beth when I felt someone behind me.
“How about some coffee with your milk?”
I looked down to see my mug did indeed more closely resemble milk than coffee. Cookie reached past me and took the creamer from my hand, filled a new mug, added two spoons of sugar and two splashes of cream before moving the mug to my tray.
“Thanks, Cookie, I guess I’m not as awake as I thought. Oh, and thanks for last night. I’m sorry I acted the fool, and I didn’t mean for you to provide room service, but I really appreciate it. The sandwich was delicious and the cookies, they were divine as always.”
“You’re thanking the wrong person.”
Huh? Who?
So now you’re an owl?
I didn’t waste time on answering stupid questions. Instead I asked one of my own. “What does that mean?” It seemed I wasn’t the only one avoiding answering questions. He didn’t even grace me with a glance, just walked back toward the food line. Sighing, I headed after him. “Cookie, you can’t just drop a bomb like that and walk away. If you didn’t bring me dinner, who did?”
He looked up from the plate he was filling. Still, he didn’t speak, simply stared at me for a long moment before adding a second slice of bacon to the pile of eggs on the plate.
Suddenly, I had a feeling I knew who. Still, it wasn’t like Sam had done me any favors. He’d brought the backpack and suitcase. Probably just offered to drop the plate off on his way out. “Are you sure he didn’t spit on it first?” I said. Cookie didn’t need to speak. I felt his rebuke in the side-eye he shot my way. “Sorry, that was uncalled for.”
He took his time and looked at me as if considering the state of the world, but finally nodded. “Just so you know, that extra cookie? That one was his.” He set the plate on my tray. “Enjoy your breakfast and don’t let me catch you skipping meals again. You hear me?”
“Yes, sir,” I said, feeling about an inch tall. With far less enthusiasm I made my way over to where Beth’s hand was waving like a windsock during a typhoon. I might be clueless as to why Cookie appeared to be defending Sam, but I wasn’t blind.
On my way across the floor it wasn’t my inner voice that accompanied me, it was my mother’s. Or rather the memory of her telling me and my older brothers to be careful what we wished for. Never had I thought the words meant anything other than a way to state she didn’t approve of whatever was the cause of our whining. The source of all that angst usually had to do with whatever it was we were positive we couldn’t live without.
Until now that is.
I had a choice to make. I could either give up my wish to know everything there was to know about the man I couldn’t stop thinking about despite all that worthless self-talk I’d done, or I could fulfill my wish and let Beth spill her guts. Who knew this whole being a professional could be such a burden.
Of course, even though I went with the decision to do the “right” thing, I didn’t have a clue as to how I was going to pull that off. The sight of Katrina at a table, sitting alone with a bunch of papers spread out before her, had the answer popping into my head. I gave Beth a smile. “Gosh, Beth, I’m so sorry, but I forgot I have a meeting with Dr. Davidson.” When Beth’s face fell, I said, “Besides, Josh already filled me in on what I needed to know.” She perked up and started looking around, letting me know I’d already been forgotten.
“I’m glad Josh was wrong.”
“Wrong?”
