Page 28 of Between Hello and Goodbye

Chapter Five

The next morning, Monday, my phone chimed a text I barely heard for all the birds singing and the roosters crowing outside my window. No one had mentioned that Kauai is chock-full of chickens. They meandered all over the grass and walkways outside my condo and even perched in the trees.

I reached for the phone on the bedside table, squinting through early morning sunlight at a text from Viv.

Barneys today, maggies after. Meet at noon?

I carefully pushed myself to sitting up against the pillows and stifled a yawn. Asher Mackey hadn’t left until nearly midnight. I’d never spent so much time in a man’s presence justtalking.I started to type a response to Viv about the novelty of conversing with a man—and remembering it the next day—when I recalled that I’d neglected to tell my friend that we were no longer in the same time zone. I’d basically high-tailed it out of Seattle without so much as an aloha to anyone but Silas.

I bit my lip and typed in over-compensating all-caps.HEY YOU! Can’t today.

Viv’s response came punctuated with champagne glass emojis.Out late last night? I thought U were quiet.

I sighed. No point in dragging it out.I’m in Hawaii.

My phone rang instantly. I gingerly put it to my ear. “Hey, Viv.”

“You’rewhere? Sincewhen?”

“I got in Saturday night.” Which felt like a lifetime ago, all things considered.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It was sort of last minute. My boss wasn’t happy about my being late to the Nestle meeting—”

“So he punished you by sending you to Hawaii? Where do I apply?”

I eased a breath to hear Viv laughing. “It’s a leave of absence. Two weeks, and I just thought Hawaii might be a good place to…I don’t know.” I plucked the bed sheet. “Get my head on straight.”

“That’s cute, Faith.”

“I’m serious. I closed the deal and they want to make me partner, but I need to get my shit together before—”

“Right, right, right,” Viv said teasingly. “Who is he?”

“Who is who?”

“Whichever guy swept you off to his villa on…wait, which island are you on?”

“There’s no guy,” I said, and immediately Asher’s impressive, manly bulk shouldered its way into my thoughts. “I mean, not really…”

I could hear her knowing smile. “Yeah, notreally.”

I gritted my teeth. My ankle was starting to ache and the bottle of Advilthat a man had to go and fetch for mewas out in the living room. “I gotta go, Viv.”

“You know what… I’m looking at my calendar, and if I shuffle a few things, I’m free for the next week.”

Of course, she was. Vivienne Simon was an heiress to the fortune of a French-Canadian oil magnate.Shuffling a few thingsfor her meant postponing lunch dates and spa appointments. A week ago, she’d been my hero, and now I was hiding from her across the Pacific.

How’s that for personal growth?

“Wouldn’t it be perfect?” she was saying. “You and me in paradise? Looking hot A-F on Waikiki beach, shopping in Honolulu… You’re on Oahu, right?”

“Um…”

Outside my window, a rooster crowed.

“Or a farm?” Now Viv’s laugh was short and tight. “Seriously, where are you?”