Page 24 of Between Hello and Goodbye

“It is not the aloha spirit to leave her without giving her a little something from the island. You know this.”

Nalani gave me a stern look that reminded me of her grandmother, Momi. The look that said,I’m older and wiser than you and you’re going to do what I say.

Nalani was four years younger than me, but there was no arguing with her all the same.

“Fine.” I took the pie. “I’ll just go to make sure she got dinner. That’s it.”

“Sure, sure.” My sister-in-law broke into a grin, turned me around, and shoved me back out the door. “Hurry. Before it’s too late.”

I drove the forty-five minutes from Hanalei in the north, down to Kapa’a on the eastern coast, with Nalani’s key lime on the passenger seat. My thoughts drifted back to my New York City days. It’d been a dick move to accuse Faith of promoting mindless materialism when I’d worked in finance on Wall Street for four years. My entire job was to make money for clients simply by moving it around. Turned out, I was good at it. I moved enough of mine around to hit my own jackpot.

That life nearly killed you, so we don’t need to think about it anymore.

Instead, I drove and made use of a residual skill required to survive on the floor of the Exchange—assessing multiple pieces of information simultaneously to make split-second decisions.

I have four days off on my rotation starting tomorrow.

She’s sexy as hell.

She’s trying for a reset, like I did all those years ago.

Great sense of humor.

She’s sexy as hell.

“You said that already,” I muttered.

I arrived back at the Pono Kai condos around nine. At Faith’s door, I knocked, then opened it a crack. “You decent?”

“Never,” sniffed a voice from the couch. “I’m distinctlyindecent.”

That was the damn truth.

The wall TV was on mute, and she was lounging on the couch with her foot up on the coffee table, dressed only in a silk bathrobe. Her blond hair was still damp from the shower and brushed back from her face. No makeup, bronzed skin under the flimsy robe, and legs that went on forever…

“You should lock your door,” I said and set the pie and my keys on the kitchen counter.

“Then you wouldn’t be able to come back to me,” Faith said, sounding strained. “Whydidyou come back to me?”

“Pie,” I said absently, glancing around her place. No sign of dinner. “Did you eat?”

“I’d planned on it but getting cleaned up with Paula took it out of me.” She smiled tightly and I noticed her green eyes were shining. “And because it’sme,I forgot to pack even one tablet of my beloved Advil.”

My eyes flared and I reallylooked at her. Her slender body was tense, her hand gripping the TV remote in a vise. I’d been around enough people in pain to know it when I saw it.

“The fuck? They didn’t give you anything at Wilcox?”

“They did, but it seemed to have worn off. I…I’m fine.”

“The hell you are,” I said, taking an awkward step toward her. “Faith, I’m sorry.”

“Why? It’s not your fault I’m a complete disaster.” Her eyes spilled over. “My ankle is screaming at me and all I can do is sit here, flipping channels to distract myself.”

I ground my teeth and grabbed my keys off the counter.

“Where are you going?” she asked, almost panicked at the idea of me leaving.

No, she’s panicked at the idea of being left alone again, you jackass.