Page 139 of One Bad Idea

I couldn’t help but smile back. Still, I had to give him at leastsomegrief in return. "How doyouknow?"

"Oh, I know."

"You can't," I said. "You'renot the boss of me. Remember?"

After all, I'd "quit" just a few hours ago.Sort of.

It was an old joke, but it never got old, at least not as far as I was concerned.

He said, "So, are you gonna answer the question?"

"About Hawaii?"

"Yeah. That."

"Well, you know my dad was stationed there, right? I guess I just really liked it, that's all."

I didn't bother rehashing my family history, because I'd already told him most of it in passing – how I'd been an Army brat, and had moved from place to place while growing up. One of those places had been Hawaii, where I'd spent some of the happiest years of my childhood.

And now, I was here.

With him.

At the thought, I took a quick glance around.

I was sitting on the back patio of a palatial beachfront estate, complete with its own palm trees. From here, I had a view of the ocean, along with an even closer view of the home's owner, who was pretty spectacular, too – well in some ways, anyway.

Other times, he was a royal pain.

When I looked back to Jaden, he said, "So Hawaii – it's your favorite place, huh?"

It was an odd question, and I gave it some thought. In truth, my favorite place at the moment was right here, with him, not that I'd admit it in a million years.

Dodging the issue, I said, "Well, itispretty nice."

And it was.Back when I'd been growing up, I'd fallen in love with the sun and palm trees, not to mention the sight of the ocean so breathtakingly close.

But now, Hawaii was the furthest thing from my mind. I asked, "How about you? What's your favorite place?"

He shrugged. "Here's nice."

I gave him a long look.Was he joking?Honestly, I couldn’t tell. I protested, "That's no kind of answer."

"Why not?"

"Because you didn't even think about it."

"Who says I have to?"

"Me. That's who."

He grinned. "Yeah? Well, too bad."

With another pillow toss, I said, "You're impossible. You know that, right?"

And he was.

In a million years, I'd never figure him out. Like tonight for example, we'd been hanging out for a couple of hours and hadn't yet jumped each other. It was unpredictable, and I liked it.