Page 6 of His Hawaiian Heart (Stateside Doms #26)

Chapter Three

Samantha

It was definitely getting darker but I was finding myself wondering if it was dark enough to conceal my phone if I “accidentally” dropped it. The fact we were currently standing in a bit of a clearing nixed that plan and the beeping drew Sam’s attention to the phone’s screen.

“Are we still on the right track?”

“Yes. The camp should be just through there,” I said, holding out the phone so he could better see the blinking dot.

It might just be my imagination, but even over sounds that couldn’t be attributed to any animals, I thought I heard him sigh.

While I’d love to believe he was also hesitant to say our goodbyes, I knew he had to be relieved the end of the hike was close.

“Sorry about the walk. It took a bit longer than I thought.”

He looked up from the screen to me. “Don’t be. I’ve enjoyed every moment.” He glanced toward the murmur of noise created by people. “Before we go further, promise me something.”

“Okay, I promise.”

He chuckled. “You need to wait until I ask before promising.”

“No I don’t,” I said with complete confidence.

“You’re far too trusting. You know nothing about me.”

I shook my head in disagreement. “I know enough to know that Harriett trusts you. Even if you’ve managed to fool her, I’m pretty sure that if you had evil intentions, I’d at least have seen a hint of them by now.”

He moved closer and cupped my chin in his fingers, lifting my face.

I knew it was to more easily see my expression in the reflection of the light from my phone, but it was nice to think he also might be enjoying it as much as I was.

It didn’t matter that he didn’t immediately speak, and when he lowered his head to press his forehead against mine, my heart actually skipped a beat and my breath caught in my throat.

It was the most intimate moment I’d ever shared with another soul.

I couldn’t have moved away even if the earth started shaking.

I looked into eyes the color of the forest around us, seeing the same things I was sure he was witnessing in my eyes.

It was like looking into my deepest places and recognizing a link that had been missing without my being aware of its need to complete the chain of events that made up my life.

It offered a place of sanctuary, promised a sense of calmness beneath the chaos of the world.

When he finally spoke, I felt the breath surrounding each letter brush over me.

“Breathe.”

I hadn’t even known I was holding my breath, but my body obeyed the softly uttered command.

As he inhaled, so did I, and when he exhaled slowly, I mimicked that as well until we were breathing in perfect synchronization.

Time seemed to stretch until each minute could have been an hour and I didn’t care.

I was content to simply stand there with this man I knew nothing about.

The analytical part of me knew the connection I felt wasn’t pragmatic and yet it couldn’t be more real as far as I was concerned.

When he smiled, it began with the slow curl of his lips but ended in the depths of his eyes. The light I saw glowing was electric and powerful enough to have me smile in response. It made no sense and yet, again, it simply was.

Not everything is about the data.

Normally, that statement would have me ready to debate until my last breath, except I had no desire to attempt to prove my point. The only thing I wanted was to share every future breath with this man.

“Sam?”

Whoa, connection was one thing, but when it expanded into telepathy, that was a power that finally caused the scientist in me to wake up. He must have noticed the magic as well because I was sure the gold flecks in the sea of emeralds gleamed brighter.

“Sam!”

“What?” We were not only breathing in sync with each other, we spoke the same word at the exact same moment.

Though that wasn’t enough to pull us apart, the replacement of the quiet whispers of twilight by the sound of laughter was.

Our foreheads parted as we turned toward the source that had interrupted that one perfect moment of time.

“Are you okay?”

“Huh?”

“Wow, I think they might have nibbled on some special species of mushroom. What do you think?” Josh asked.

“I think it’s rather selfish not to share,” a voice unfamiliar to me said, earning a laugh from most of the group.

But it was the original speaker who repeated, “Sam,” for the third time that had us replying.

“Yes?”

“See! I told you. It’s like she’s split into two halves. One female and one male, yet both know they belong to the whole.”

“Good grief, Josh, are you sure that award you received wasn’t for creative writing rather than critical thinking?” The woman standing next to Josh asked with a roll of her eyes but her giggle afterward spoke of her amusement.

“Would you two give it a break? Something’s obviously not right.”

This came from Dr. Katrina Davidson, a scientist I’d been trying to work with for the past five years.

When she stepped closer, shot a direct look at Sam before turning back to look at me and asked, “Dr. Laughlin, are you all right?” the spell was finally broken and I sensed Sam step away.

I immediately felt the loss of his presence but it was the final element needed to snap me from warmth of fantasy back into the cold world of reality.

“Sorry I’m late,” I said then turned toward Sam who was no longer smiling but wasn’t frowning or turning on his heel and leaving either.

“This is Sam, and Sam I am,” I said and then burst out laughing which caused yet another round of concern among my team as more people moved out of the trees to surround us.

“Do you like green eggs and ha… mmmph.”

Josh’s attempt to make a joke was thwarted when the eye-rolling young woman slapped her hand over his mouth.

I knew I was hysterical but couldn’t stop laughing even though I was beginning to panic.

“Breathe with me.”

Only three spoken words, but when they were accompanied by Sam’s fingers finding my chin once again and lifting my face to look at his, they were magical.

It took a few minutes, but I began to calm as oxygen flooded into my body.

When I was breathing in sync with him, his smile returned and I smiled back.

“Thanks,” I said softly.

“Anytime,” he said then stroked the tip of his finger across my lips before dropping his hand.

Once again it was as if part of my body had been ripped from me. The pain might be akin to what a person felt when losing a limb, but phantom or not, my heart felt the loss.

There was no laughter this time, only a circle of faces watching when he stepped away. “It’s my fault Sam… Samantha is late.”

“We figured,” Josh said which caused the young woman I’d not yet met to jab her elbow into his side.

I’d have to ask him about her later, but for now, watching as Sam shook hands with people I’d often worked with before reminded me that I wasn’t in Hawaii on vacation.

I was being paid to do a job. Running my hands over the denim of my jeans, I began to follow him, hugging old friends and shaking the hands of those I didn’t know.

The young woman with Josh introduced herself as Elisabeth, but instructed, “call me Beth,” and informed me she was here due to securing a fellowship from Harvard and was earning credits for her degree.

“It’s nice to meet you, Beth, if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask,” I said after releasing her hand.

“I think that’s supposed to be my line. You know, student to established scientist,” she said with a grin.

I laughed. “I remember thinking the same thing when I was on fellowship. Except mine was in Egypt.”

“Oh, I hope to go there someday. I would simply die if I got to see the pyramids. Are they as fantastic as I’ve heard?” she gushed.

“I honestly can’t say. I was nose deep in beetle dung the entire two months I was there.”

“Wow, that’s really sad.” Beth’s sincerity momentarily threw me.

“Don’t fret,” Josh said from her other side.

“I’ve been trying to teach our Sam that as fascinating as insects can be, there is more to life than science.

It looks like she might finally be getting the message.

” He grinned and shot a glance at Samuel who was currently speaking with Dr. Davidson.

When he turned back, his grin was no longer in place.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said but wasn’t meeting my eyes.

“Josh?”

“It’s just that… well, I thought the guy looked a bit familiar.”

What? Who?

I voiced my inner questions aloud. “Thought or does?”

“I’m pretty sure he does. I didn’t put two and two together until just now.”

I couldn’t make sense of that. “Okay, maybe you could see a way to fill me in…?”

Josh shrugged. “Sorry, it’s just that seeing him in the middle of the forest threw me. Last time I saw him he was?—”

He paused again and I’d swear I saw him blush, yet that also didn’t make any sense.

Josh was one of the most unflappable people I’d ever met.

If I didn’t know him as a scientist, it would be easy to mistake him as some laid-back surfer dude who had nothing better to do than ride the waves and soak up Vitamin D.

Of course, his shaggy blonde hair and perpetually tanned skin helped that image seem far more likely than the one he made when flipping through slides at a hundred miles an hour with the ability to process the information provided at the speed of light.

Though he appeared to be tongue-tied at the moment, he was actually absolutely brilliant.

“Hello? Earth to Dr. Wilson, anyone there?”

It was far more likely my fingers snapping close to his ear got his attention rather than my question, but either way, he turned back to face me instead of sneaking glances at Beth. That might explain his sudden muteness. He obviously had a crush on our new team member.

“It’s dark and I’m probably wrong. Forget I said anything.” He ran his fingers through his hair before adding, “I-I’ve… I’ve gotta go.”

I watched as he stepped away, the darkness hiding him from view within just a few steps. “Thanks for nothing,” I muttered. “Any clue what that’s all about?” I asked as I turned to Beth.

She laughed and shrugged. “He’s a man,” she said as if she had some far deeper enlightenment than I could claim.

I couldn’t argue with that and it was just as well as she gave me a little wave, said, “Later,” and was enveloped in the same blackness that had overtaken Josh.

I looked around and realized that the only people left in the small clearing beside me were Sam and Katrina.

I was about to step toward them when my current team leader raised her hand and laid it on Sam’s arm.

The move froze me where I stood. I’d had my arm patted and grabbed today and yet I knew what I was witnessing wasn’t a move that strangers might make.

It seemed to be a move that telegraphed familiarity , but how did that make sense?

The two hadn’t appeared to know each other but every bone in my body was telling me that not only were they not strangers, but they actually had some sort of shared connection.

When she leaned forward and kissed him, the situation became crystal clear.

So much for wanting to play Jane to Sam’s Tarzan. Seemed like that role had already been taken. What caused my face to heat wasn’t shame or embarrassment, it was my blood boiling with the knowledge that I could be so stupid.

Book smarts don’t make you street savvy.

My fingers curled with the desire to slap something and that included the smugness right off of my inner voice’s face.

Hell, she wasn’t even being creative, simply plagiarizing words I’d heard my father repeat no less than a zillion times when I’d proclaim I was totally capable of handling myself no matter which corner of the world my career dropped me into.

You’d think by the age of twenty-eight, I’d be able to recognize a player when I saw one, but nope.

I’d swallowed his “make me a promise,” hook, line and sinker.

It was time to allow something to swallow me, so I turned and walked into the darkness.