Page 11 of His Hawaiian Heart (Stateside Doms #26)

Chapter Seven

Samantha

It wasn’t the sunlight spilling through my tent flap that woke me as it was barely light outside.

It wasn’t the smell of coffee or even the aroma of freshly baked chocolate-chunk cookies.

It was the sweet scent of flowers. Though I’d removed the lei when changing into a pair of loose-fitting pajama pants and a tank top, I hadn’t been able to let it go.

I’d tucked it next to my pillow when I closed my eyes.

Opening them, I discovered I had practically buried my entire face in the blooms. I shook my head, plucked a random blossom off my cheek and sat up. It was a new day and a new start.

After I’d placed the blossom between pages of my journal, I made my bed, dressed, shook out my boots in case some creature had mistaken one of them for a new dwelling, put them on and then went in search of coffee.

Like the night before, it appeared I had the camp to myself.

No matter what time I went to bed, I tended to rise with the dawn.

I was actually surprised to hear someone calling, “Hold up.”

I turned to see Josh walking toward me. “Hey.”

“Hey, sleep well?”

“I did, how about you?”

“Like a baby,” he said with a grin. “If you’ve gotta camp somewhere, I’d highly recommend doing so smack dab in the middle of the Garden of Eden.”

His remark brought to mind a snake wrapped around a tree branch but I didn’t want to think about snakes and deliberately pushed the image aside. “Does this garden have coffee?”

“It does indeed,” he said with a grin and offered me his arm.

“Oh?” I arched my eyebrow. “I thought you were smitten with a certain intern.”

He laughed. “I am, but she’s not exactly an early bird. We won’t see her for at least another hour. Until then, I’m your humble servant, mi’ lady.”

“In that case, lead the way.” I slipped my arm into his.

“Damn good to see you, Sam. I’m very glad we’re teaming up again.”

“It’s great to see you too, Josh. Though after your comment last night, I admit I had a moment of doubt I was welcome here.”

He had the grace to flush. “Sorry about that.”

We’d reached the mess tent so he might think he was saved from expanding on that statement, but I wasn’t about to let him off the hook. Instead of entering, I stopped walking. Since our arms were still linked, he had no choice but to stop with me. His sigh was all I needed to hear.

“Come on, Josh. Spill.”

“There’s nothing to spill…”

“Is that so?” Curling the fingers of my free hand into a claw, I walked four of them lightly up his arm, allowing by middle finger to bob up and down.

“You do remember what I specialize in, correct?” I let the nail of my middle finger dip down like a head and press slightly into his skin, giving my “pretend” bug its stinger.

“No telling how many lovely little friends I’ll find crawling about in your garden.

And you know me, I’m always willing to share what I find.

Especially those with hairy little legs, multiple eyes, and wickedly sharp fangs. ”

“You know that people think you are all sunshine and sweet as honey,” he said.

“And you know that nature has a way of disguising the most lethal beings with all that prettiness when there is a far darker being just beneath the surface.” I pressed my nail slightly harder. “Now, spill!”

“Fine, but don’t blame me if you don’t like what you hear,” he groused and gingerly took my clawed hand in his and moved it off his arm. “Sam, I mean that other Sam, I’ve seen him before.”

That didn’t surprise me as he’d alluded to it the previous night. “Where?”

“Let it suffice that I just saw him and he wasn’t alone.”

“Nope, that’s not going to fly,” I said, my fingers twitching in his hold. “Where exactly did you see him and who was he with?”

He sighed. “At a club and with… with Katrina.”

I ceased twitching. “Relax, that’s not news.”

“Really?” He looked truly surprised. “Wow, I was afraid you were going be pissed. I mean, from the way you two were playing kissy-face last night, I figured you were really into him.”

“We weren’t playing kissy-face ,” I said and from the way his eyes widened, I figured I’d put a bit too much emphasis on that declaration. Forcing myself to tone it down, I smiled. “In fact, we never even kissed.”

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?”

“That you’d be upset. I know he was worried you might be hurt.”

“Josh can act a bit big-brotherish at times, but I assure you, I’m fine. It’s all good. Maybe we can catch up later.”

“Sure thing,” she said and then her hand shot up and began windmilling again. “Josh, over here!”

When I passed Josh on the way to Katrina’s table, I said, “Don’t worry, I didn’t grill your girlfriend. I told her you already told me everything, and it’s all good. I really don’t want to know anything else, okay? We’re all adults and whoever we date is our own business.”

He looked relieved and nodded. “Okay, but if you ever just want to talk, you know, about anything, I’m here.”

“I know, and thanks. I’m going to go check in with Katrina and hope she hasn’t kicked me off the team.”

“Not a chance,” he said and grinned. “She’s been talking about you coming ever since we set up camp.”

“Good to know, thanks, now, please go put Beth out of her misery before the poor girl dislocates her shoulder.”

He chuckled and I was very glad to see the old Josh back. As he walked away, I silently thanked my mother for being so wise. Perhaps it might behoove me to remember another idiom as well. Ignorance just might be bliss after all.

If that’s true, then why aren’t more people happy?

I was getting a little tired of wasting time telling her to shut up, so I simply ignored answering her and asked, “Good morning, Dr. Davidson. Mind if I join you?”