Page 29 of His Hawaiian Heart
“Am I sensing a bit of thawing?”
I turned to see Cookie had joined me where I leaned against a tree outside the circle. He wore a grin I’d seen on men who’d watched their kid win some sort of prize. While childless myself, I was pretty sure I was wearing the same smile.
“To be honest, I pretty much forgot all about that ice several hours ago. Though I’ve got to warn you. I believe the gig is up. You were right about stepping into her world. Not only did doing so allow me to get to see her in her element, but she made it incredibly pleasurable.”
When his head turned and his smile shifted, I was quick to qualify, “You gave me the species to try to find for her, but my lack of actual knowledge was pretty evident. Learning all about it from Samantha, was not only educational, it was fun.”
He continued to stare hard for a moment and then nodded. “Good to hear but understand this. Letting a woman know you’re interested in what makes herheris only the first step, son.”
“I’ve always known life is a journey, Cookie.”
“No doubt, but tell me, when was the last time you remember feeling as you do right this moment?”
I didn’t blow him off, didn’t roll my eyes even though I was past the age where most men were willing to answer questions about anything other than ones related to business or their favorite sports team. I gave the question some consideration and then answered respectfully. “Never.”
This time his smile returned though it wasn’t the same as the one he had for Samantha. This one reminded me of my grandfather’s when I’d come up with the right answer. Somehow, seeing it on Cookie’s lips made me happy I’d pleased him.
“Then take the next step. If you want her to trust you enough to show you what she keeps hidden from all others, don’t hide what makes you,you.” When I opened my mouth, he held up ahand. “I’m not talking about what makes you want to sleep with her when everything is all sunshine and roses. I’m talking about what makes you want to simply hold her hand and walk beside her through the darkest storm.”
All I could do was close my mouth. He walked away and left me to my thoughts. He was asking me to do something I hadn’t done in years, something I wasn’t even positive I could do. I looked back to the circle and saw Samantha look up and find me. Her smile wrapped around me in a way nothing ever had and I knew I was in trouble.
“Goddammit it, Cookie,” I muttered, but when Sam lifted her hand to wave me over, I didn’t hesitate. I went to her.
Chapter Thirteen
Samantha
I refused to take credit where credit wasn’t due, but when I insisted Sam was the one who truly deserved the praise I’d been receiving, he turned out to be of the same mind.
“It wasn’t me,” he stated emphatically. “If Cookie hadn’t given me some advice, I could walk around this canyon for the rest of my life and not have a single clue how many bugs surround me.”
“Advice?”
The tone Katrina used to ask the question had me wondering if that goodbye she’d told me she’d made wasn’t quite as final as she’d like me to believe. Sam didn’t so much as blink.
“That as well as a list about as long as my arm. He said he figured I should be able to come up with the best place to find at least one of the names on that list. That and a bit of research”—here he paused to gaze down at me—“not as fun or as impressive as the research I learned from Sam today, but Google did narrow the list down a bit. I just picked one that I figured best fit the part of the forest I was familiar with and, well, fate took care of the rest.”
“Then cheers to all three of you,” Josh said as he lifted his bottle of water. “Knowing what location to search cuts down half of the hours we normally spend.”
“What happens now?” Sam asked.
“Now the real work begins,” I said. “We form a small team to return and take more samples and hopefully find additional caterpillars.”
“Won’t removing them impact, I don’t know, the ecosystem or something?” Sam asked.
“Oh, no, I didn’t mean we’d take them or anything. Just find more to study. The only thing we’ll take are samples of their environment and note what they spend their time doing.”
“Okayyy,” Sam said though I knew he didn’t truly understand what I meant.
“You already know I’m an entomologist which means I study insects. In fact, most of us on this team do the same. But my role for this research study focuses on entomotherapy.” Seeing his brows furrow, I laughed. “I know, it’s not something one necessarily hears every day.”
“Unless you’re a bug in need of therapy.”
I smiled as his quip drew laughter from most of the team. Only Katrina seemed to be determined to remain stoic, but that was her issue and not mine.
“No, it’s not that kind of therapy. It’s just a big word that means I look for ways to use various species of insects in applications that are beneficial in healing diseases in humans.”
“I never considered bugs as offering anything to humanity other than the sting that comes from being bitten by one.”
