Meet Me in Hawaii by Georgia Toffolo (novels for beginners txt) 📕

matter what has gone before, that it’s the future you should be focusing on.’

He could feel her eyes on him, feel his words sinking in.

‘It’ll be nice to share the waves again with her, for sure.’

‘And you can let go of the guilt.’

‘I—’

She was cut off by the in-car system ringing. He scanned the screen and cut the call. He didn’t want work to interfere with this. He could sense a potential turnaround for her, if he could just keep her talking about it, get her to acknowledge that the guilt should no longer be a burden, then what a difference it would make.

‘What were you—’

It started up again, cutting off his question.

‘They’re persistent,’ Malie commented, looking at the caller ID. ‘Who’s Rachel Mann?’

‘She heads up my Asian operations.’

Her eyes widened as she pulled a downturned smile and nodded. He didn’t know whether she was secretly laughing or impressed.

He was going to have to take the call, Rachel wouldn’t call again unless it was urgent.

‘Do you mind if I get it?’

She shook her head and raised her hands. ‘Not at all.’

He flicked the call to answer. ‘What’s up, Rachel?’

‘Good lord, where are you, Todd? It sounds like you’re in a wind tunnel.’

‘I’m driving with the roof down.’

‘Really? How nice! Well, in that case, I’ll keep it brief…’ He nodded, even though she couldn’t see him, and sneaked a look at Malie. She was watching the world go by, her hair blowing back off her face, her skin glowing from the morning’s exertions in the sea. Did she ever not have that glow? Would she look the same in London, miles away from the ocean, with grey skies overhead and rain beating down? What would it be like to show her where he lived, to show her his HQ and take her out to dinner? To wine and dine—

‘Todd?’

Malie turned to look at him as his name came through the speaker and he realized Rachel was waiting on him to say something. ‘Sorry, Rach, say again?’

He put his effort into the call this time, so much so that Malie had to tap his leg to get his attention to take the next left turn. The fleeting contact sent a shock-like current along his thigh, that had him hitting the indicator far more aggressively than it needed and he swallowed before he could nod to her and respond to Rachel.

Smooth, real smooth, Todd.

Malie did the same again minutes later, a light brush of her fingers and a nod to the exit. He started to hope for more turns, but he was out of luck. Ten minutes later, he’d finished with Rachel, called his PA to set some reminders for him to action when he got back to the house, and Malie was telling him to turn into what he could only describe as Hell. On. Earth.

‘Here?’

‘Yup.’

He eyed her but did as she asked, pulling into a car park as crowded as the Underground in rush hour. Probably not helped by the three buses full of tourists just offloading and meandering around the car park like lost sheep. ‘What is it about being a tourist that means you lose all common sense?’

‘Hey, easy, tiger, they’re just taking in the beauty.’

‘The beauty?’ He narrowly missed a woman stepping into the road, her phone outstretched before her as she sought the best selfie. ‘I can’t see anything but people right now. You sure you meant to come here?’

‘Believe me, when you get your mouth around a whip, you’ll be begging me to come back again.’

He gave a disbelieving chuckle as he swung the car into an empty space. He’d never been so glad to be stationary for fear of running someone over.

He looked across at her as he cut the engine. ‘A whip?’

‘A Dole Whip to be precise, pineapple ice cream heaven…’ She’d gone all dreamy-eyed and licked her lips…

OK, definitely time to get out of the car and get moving. He opened his door, realizing even as he did that if she did that again, with the actual whip, he wasn’t so sure he’d fare any better, if he could cope at all. ‘We best get moving else there’ll be nothing left by the time these lot get served.’

She laughed. ‘Do you always do everything at a million miles an hour?’

‘I’d say that was more your way of living.’ He stepped out of the car, not bothering to put up the roof.

‘Only when I’m on the waves… things like this, you just need to chill out and go with the flow.’

‘Go with the flow?’

‘Something tells me you haven’t queued for anything in a while.’

‘No.’ It was the truth. ‘You want me to put your bag in the boot?’

She reached into the back and picked it up, swinging it over her shoulder. ‘Nah it’s OK, I’ll keep it with me, but you probably want to put the roof up else these seats will be toasty warm when we get back.’

She had a point so he ducked back in and set the engine going, the roof next. His phone started to ring through the speakers, and he checked the display before cutting the call.

‘You’re a man in demand, Todd Masters.’

He shook his head at her teasing tone and locked the roof into place before joining her in the car park.

‘Ready to tickle your taste buds?’

He eyed the masses and gave her a wary, ‘So long as you know what you’re doing…’

‘It’s a historic landmark visit and a culinary delight in one. What more could you want?’

Fine dining for two on a deserted beach, just him and Malie, that would be perfect… and again, not the answer she would want to hear, or one he should want to give.

‘Not a lot, apparently.’

She grinned and surprised him by lacing her fingers through his to pull him along. He eyed their entwined hands as he fell into step behind her and suddenly he was willing to take any amount of queuing, crushing, tourist-trap-hell-ing.

It was a bad, bad sign… only