phone?”
“No.”
This wasn’t making any sense. “But you inherited her entire estate–four million dollars?”
Adrienne glanced up at the approaching cocktail waitress and smiled wryly, as if relieved for the interruption. The waitress gathered our spent drinks, set down fresh napkins, then placed frothing new goblets on them.
Adrienne waited for the waitress to leave. “Things happen between sisters that a man wouldn’t understand.”
She looked out again toward the darkening ocean, her lips set in a tight line. I decided not to press her further on what seemed to be a sensitive issue. The time would come.
As we reached the bottom of our second drinks, the moon was rising over Diamond Head. The singer crooned “Blue Hawai‘i,” his voice as gentle as the soothing tropical breeze: “Come with me when the moon is on the sea …”
Despite my objections, Adrienne put the Chi Chis on her hotel tab. When we stood I felt a bit wobbly. I wondered where her idea of the evening ended.
“Walk on the beach?” I suggested. “The moonlight is magic on the water.”
She looked hesitant a first, then seemed to make an instant decision. “That’d be perfect.”
I let her lead us to the shore, where she took her heels off and stepped onto the sand. A few off-balance strides put us at the ocean’s edge. I steadied her by putting my hands around her slender waist.
Being that close to her, touching her, breathing in her perfumed scent made me almost dizzy. I wanted this woman. I had from the start. She looked at me with those eyes that kept turning from steel grey to baby blue.
By the time we returned to the Halekūlani we were strolling arm in arm like lovers. In the elevator she pressed “12,” the doors closed, and we kissed. Before the doors opened again, we had abandoned ourselves to our Chi Chi-inflamed passions.
Down the hall, Adrienne hung a Do Not Disturb sign on the door of her oceanfront suite. I opened the lānai doors and let in the moonlight. She slipped off her dress and lay on the bed in the moon’s buttery glow. As I unbuttoned my aloha shirt, Adrienne’s eyes opened wide. The welts on my chest. I started to explain–but she stopped me. With a whisper-soft touch she drew me down on her.
twelve
Before leaving Adrienne’s suite by the waning moonlight, my head still spinning, I had somehow managed to ask her to phone the University of Hawai‘i Law School about Baron Taniguchi, the missing fisherman. Could he have been one of Sara’s former students? Adrienne had agreed to call while I was in Los Angeles.
Five hours later, I was dragging myself aboard a crowded DC-10. Booking a last-minute fare had landed me in the cramped middle section of the coach cabin. I desperately needed sleep, but every time I tried to snooze, another passenger crawled over me to stretch or use the lavatory. Every time, I awoke with an aching head.
The airliner touched down in Los Angeles just as the setting sun tinted the hazy gray sky. I couldn’t help thinking of Niki as we taxied to the terminal. I decided to call her that night from my hotel.
In the darkening twilight I picked up a car and crawled through Monday rush-hour traffic toward the suburb of Glendale. I checked in at the Red Lion Hotel, about a half mile from Archibald’s travel agency, Island Fantasy Holidays. Archibald had agreed to see me the next morning at nine. Still spent from my late night and long flight, I ordered dinner in my room. Then I slipped between the crisp king-sized sheets, all too reminiscent of Adrienne’s moonlit bed at the Halekūlani.
I reached for the nightstand phone and started to dial Niki’s number. I put the receiver back in its holder. Why not just drop by tomorrow on my way back to the airport? Maybe I’d discover the truth about what she’d been doing when we were apart. Hopefully she wouldn’t have flown off to Denver or Indianapolis.
I fell asleep, reminiscing of those first few nights Niki and I
“No.”
This wasn’t making any sense. “But you inherited her entire estate–four million dollars?”
Adrienne glanced up at the approaching cocktail waitress and smiled wryly, as if relieved for the interruption. The waitress gathered our spent drinks, set down fresh napkins, then placed frothing new goblets on them.
Adrienne waited for the waitress to leave. “Things happen between sisters that a man wouldn’t understand.”
She looked out again toward the darkening ocean, her lips set in a tight line. I decided not to press her further on what seemed to be a sensitive issue. The time would come.
As we reached the bottom of our second drinks, the moon was rising over Diamond Head. The singer crooned “Blue Hawai‘i,” his voice as gentle as the soothing tropical breeze: “Come with me when the moon is on the sea …”
Despite my objections, Adrienne put the Chi Chis on her hotel tab. When we stood I felt a bit wobbly. I wondered where her idea of the evening ended.
“Walk on the beach?” I suggested. “The moonlight is magic on the water.”
She looked hesitant a first, then seemed to make an instant decision. “That’d be perfect.”
I let her lead us to the shore, where she took her heels off and stepped onto the sand. A few off-balance strides put us at the ocean’s edge. I steadied her by putting my hands around her slender waist.
Being that close to her, touching her, breathing in her perfumed scent made me almost dizzy. I wanted this woman. I had from the start. She looked at me with those eyes that kept turning from steel grey to baby blue.
By the time we returned to the Halekūlani we were strolling arm in arm like lovers. In the elevator she pressed “12,” the doors closed, and we kissed. Before the doors opened again, we had abandoned ourselves to our Chi Chi-inflamed passions.
Down the hall, Adrienne hung a Do Not Disturb sign on the door of her oceanfront suite. I opened the lānai doors and let in the moonlight. She slipped off her dress and lay on the bed in the moon’s buttery glow. As I unbuttoned my aloha shirt, Adrienne’s eyes opened wide. The welts on my chest. I started to explain–but she stopped me. With a whisper-soft touch she drew me down on her.
twelve
Before leaving Adrienne’s suite by the waning moonlight, my head still spinning, I had somehow managed to ask her to phone the University of Hawai‘i Law School about Baron Taniguchi, the missing fisherman. Could he have been one of Sara’s former students? Adrienne had agreed to call while I was in Los Angeles.
Five hours later, I was dragging myself aboard a crowded DC-10. Booking a last-minute fare had landed me in the cramped middle section of the coach cabin. I desperately needed sleep, but every time I tried to snooze, another passenger crawled over me to stretch or use the lavatory. Every time, I awoke with an aching head.
The airliner touched down in Los Angeles just as the setting sun tinted the hazy gray sky. I couldn’t help thinking of Niki as we taxied to the terminal. I decided to call her that night from my hotel.
In the darkening twilight I picked up a car and crawled through Monday rush-hour traffic toward the suburb of Glendale. I checked in at the Red Lion Hotel, about a half mile from Archibald’s travel agency, Island Fantasy Holidays. Archibald had agreed to see me the next morning at nine. Still spent from my late night and long flight, I ordered dinner in my room. Then I slipped between the crisp king-sized sheets, all too reminiscent of Adrienne’s moonlit bed at the Halekūlani.
I reached for the nightstand phone and started to dial Niki’s number. I put the receiver back in its holder. Why not just drop by tomorrow on my way back to the airport? Maybe I’d discover the truth about what she’d been doing when we were apart. Hopefully she wouldn’t have flown off to Denver or Indianapolis.
I fell asleep, reminiscing of those first few nights Niki and I
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