Her Hawaiian Homecoming

Nearby, bright-colored birds chirped, and a warm breeze blew, rattling the delicate glass wind chimes hanging from Kaimana’s porch. They made a high tinkling sound.

“Ms. Mahi’ai...”

“Kaimana,” she interrupted, pointing at herself.

“Yes, uh...Kaimana, I’m not sure if you understand me, but my grandma Misu...”

“Misu,” Kaimana repeated and nodded.

“Yes, Misu. She left me the coffee plantation, but I need to sell it. Misu wanted me to get your permission before I did that and...”

Kaimana’s face looked blank as she strung flowers on the lei.

Allie realized none of what she was saying was going in. She barreled on anyway.

“I need you to sign this paper, please.” Allie reached in her back pocket and pulled out the folded slip as well as the ballpoint pen she’d stashed there. She pretended to write with the pen on the paper and pointed to Kaimana afterward. “You. Sign?”

Kaimana made no move to pick up the paper. Instead, she finished looping the last flower on the string and expertly tied it, her brown fingers working nimbly. She held it up for Allie to inspect and said, “Nani?”

Allie had no idea what she meant, so she just nodded. “Uh... Nani.” And nodded again.

“Ko Aloha Makamae E Ipo,” Kaimana said, smiling, as she stood and draped the lei around Allie’s neck. It was beautiful and soft, emanating a sweet, tropical fragrance.

“Oh, I couldn’t accept this.”

Kaimana shook her head and put up her hands, showing she wouldn’t take it back. “Nau wale no.”

At a loss, Allie had no choice but to take it. “Mahalo,” Allie said finally. “But about the paper. If you could just sign...”

Kaimana waved the paper away. “Dallas,” she said.

“Dallas?” Allie echoed. “No, Dallas can’t sign this. Dallas...” Wouldn’t, even if he could.

“Dallas,” Kaimana said, sounding certain he would handle it. “A’ole pilikia. Aloha ’auinala. Kipa hou mai,” Kaimana said, and she patted Allie on the shoulder and then went back inside and closed her door. Allie heard the lock being thrown.

“Kaimana? Ms. Mahi’ai? Are you in there?” Allie knocked, but Kaimana didn’t come to the door. “Hello? Uh...aloha?” Allie knocked once more.

Again, she heard nothing.

That went well, she thought sarcastically, staring at her unsigned piece of paper and Kaimana’s locked door. What now?

Allie stomped back across the plantation and found Dallas casually unloading a big toolbox from the back of his black pickup. She felt irrationally angry at him as he worked. If he wasn’t so stubborn, so full of himself, maybe the two of them could’ve found some kind of compromise. He glanced up and tipped his straw cowboy hat in her direction, his blue eyes amused.

“Ma’am,” he drawled. She ignored him. He let out a low chuckle as she walked past. “How did that conversation with Kaimana go?”

She whirled on him, his smug grin feeling like salt in her paper cut.

“As if you don’t know,” Allie spat out, annoyed. Dallas had sent her over there knowing full well she’d get nowhere without a translator. “She doesn’t even speak English!”

Dallas raised his eyebrows in surprise and then inexplicably burst into laughter.

Allie shifted uneasily, foot to foot. “What’s so funny?” Allie felt exposed, as if she might suddenly be transported back to the cafeteria in middle school. The joke was on her; she just didn’t know how.

Dallas nearly had tears in his eyes he was laughing so hard. He laid a big strong hand across his flat stomach as he howled.

“She speaks English just fine,” he managed to get out.

“What are you talking about?”

“She’s one hundred percent fluent, as fluent as you or I. But when she doesn’t like what’s going on, she’ll usually refuse to speak English. Just ask the traffic cop who pulled her over for speeding last month.”

Understanding dawned on Allie a beat too late. “She tricked me?”

“Probably just wanted to put you off for a little while,” Dallas said and grinned. His blue eyes sparkled. He clearly was enjoying this. “Whatever you were asking her about, she didn’t like.”

Allie felt a surge of annoyance and complete embarrassment for making a fool of herself by blubbering on as if Kaimana didn’t understand her, complete with full pantomime. Yet she considered the idea of a near stranger banging down her door and asking to sell the property of her once dearest friend in the world. Okay, maybe she hadn’t been the most tactful there. She still felt like a total idiot. And Dallas got a good laugh out it. At her expense. That was the worst part. She felt her cheeks burn. He’d probably sent her there knowing full well she’d be tricked.

“You’re still going to have to talk to me about selling,” Allie said. “Even if I can’t get her signature, I’ll find a way.”

“Maybe you should just get used to growing coffee. At some point, we’ll have to talk about the harvest.”

Allie felt a flash of anger. The last place on earth she wanted to settle down was Hawaii, the place her father died. And the last man on earth she ever wanted to deal with was Dallas McCormick. He reminded her of Jason, of the kind of man who thought the world owed him everything.

“I’ll talk about the harvest as soon as you talk about selling.”

Dallas’s blue eyes grew cold like steel. “Not going to happen,” he told her, shaking his head. She watched as he picked up the toolbox and began walking toward the big metal barn on the property. Her side of the property, she realized.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she demanded, hands on her hips.

Dallas stopped and calmly turned. “To see if I can fix the roaster. It has to be working by harvest time. Or we need a new one.”

“The barn is on my side of the property line. I didn’t say you had permission to fix it.”

Dallas froze, annoyance flashing across his face. Allie thought, Good. See what it feels like, buddy, when you don’t have the upper hand.

“Allie...” Dallas’s voice held a warning.

“You may not want to sell, but as long as this is my property, I can do what I want with it. I can knock down that barn and sell that roaster for parts, if I want to. I don’t need Kaimana’s permission for that. I could even knock down all the coffee trees on my side.”

Dallas looked stricken. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

Dallas hesitated, as if deciding whether or not to call her bluff. Allie dug her tennis shoe in the ground and dragged it across the dark lava dirt, making a line.

“That’s your side, and this is mine,” she declared, glaring at him. “You cross this line without my permission and...” Allie walked over to the nearest row of coffee trees on her side. She snapped one of the branches with bright orange coffee cherries on them.

“No...don’t!” Dallas protested, but he was too late. She dropped the branch in the dirt and stomped on the coffee berries.

Dallas flinched as if seeing the damaged limb brought him physical pain. He frowned, his blue eyes hard and glinting. “That was one of our oldest trees,” he growled.

“Good. I’ll start with cutting down that one first.”

Allie left him standing there, toolbox in hand, as she stalked off to the house, strode up the steps and slammed the door.

CHAPTER FOUR

BY THE NEXT MORNING, Allie was beginning to regret her show of temper. Not that she wasn’t still furious with Dallas and didn’t love seeing that smug smile wiped clean off his rugged face, but Allie usually didn’t get so mad, so irrational. She’d known the minute the door slammed behind her she’d been in the wrong. It was childish, and she knew it. She usually was the calm, sensible one in the salon where she’d worked in Chicago, the one who never got ruffled about anything. But ever since Jason, she felt as if she was sitting on a powder keg, and any little thing could set her off.

Boom.

She didn’t like this new Allie who flew off the handle at any small provocation. Sure, this was her grandmother’s land, and she’d had plans for the sale, but did that really merit stomping on coffee cherries like a three-year-old? She should’ve handled it better. Maybe she ought to apologize, she thought as she gathered up a change of clothes and headed out to the outdoor bathhouse on her grandmother’s property. She’d take a shower, get dressed and maybe go over and offer to talk things through. They had to come to some agreement, and Allie suspected that Dallas could probably convince Kaimana to sign those papers. She’d mentioned him by name after all. They had to work together...or neither one would get what they wanted. She felt better, more in control, calmer.

Allie had considered the whole problem as she’d tossed and turned the night before. Misu’s house had no working air-conditioning, and the night had been particularly sticky. Allie had been waiting for the sun to come up, waiting for her chance to sit in a cool shower, wash off the salty layer of sweat.

Allie thought she was being quite grown-up about it as she walked into the outdoor shower. She double-checked for prehistoric-size bugs and, finding none, plopped her clothes down and went to turn on the hot water.

Nothing came out.

This can’t be. She’d been looking forward to a shower for the past three hours of tossing around in the damp sheets of her bed, and now...no water?

She stared at the dry showerhead. “Don’t do this to me,” she whined.

She turned the knobs again, opening them all the way, and found...nothing. Not a single drop of water. “No!” This was seriously not happening. All she wanted was a cool shower. Her white tank top stuck to the small of her back; tendrils of hair stuck to her sweaty temple. Even her short plaid pajama bottoms felt too hot.

Allie wasn’t going to take this lying down. She was going to get a shower, one way or another. She marched outside and saw the big rain-fed water tank sitting a few yards away. She decided to investigate, and as she walked, noticed a deeper line in the black lava dirt. Her toe print had been widened and deepened, probably by Dallas.

She made it to the huge water tower, and that was when she noticed the line ran straight to the middle of the base of the tank. She walked around the tank on her side of the dividing line and looked up. Half the water was on her side. As far as she could tell, it should be equally split. She crossed over the line to Dallas’s side of the property, and that was when she noticed the kicker: the on-off spigots for the tank were on his side of the dividing line.

Well, crap.

God, she hated instant karma.

“I think you’re on my property, ma’am,” Dallas drawled, strolling up with one thumb hooked casually into the belt loop of his worn jeans. He wore a tight-fitting T-shirt across his muscled chest, and somehow it seemed even more sensual than if he’d been naked. Allie had to force herself to meet the man’s eyes and not just gape at the ridges of his muscled pecs, plainly visible through the thin cotton fabric.

“Why did you turn my water off?” Allie demanded, hand on her hip, as she stubbornly stood her ground.

“It’s our water, but the spigots are on my side, so...I can do with them what I want. Isn’t that what you said?”

She really hated having that thrown back in her face. She really, really hated it.

“I...” The apology Allie had so carefully thought out that morning evaporated off her tongue. She had no desire to apologize to this man. “Turn my water back on.”

A sly smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he walked straight up to her, his tight T-shirt filling up most of her view. He only stopped when they were nearly toe-to-toe. She had to arch her neck to meet his steely blue eyes. She saw amusement there, but something else: strong-headed determination.

“Make me,” he murmured, grinning again. She took in his broad shoulders, his football player–like frame. There was no way all five foot two of her was going to make that wall of a man do anything.

She wanted to stomp on the toe of his worn cowboy boot, or call him names, or thump on his chest with her fists, but she knew it wouldn’t do any good. She felt that out-of-control temper flare again. The match was near the powder keg.

“Half of the tank is on my side. Half the water is mine,” Allie argued, trying to keep her voice level and calm. I will not lose it. I won’t!

“The spigots are on my side.” Dallas grinned more widely, showing off the dimple in his cheek and his even, white smile. The fact that he looked as if he ought to be on some tourist ad for a remote stable in Colorado made her just want to punch him straight in the nose.

“Turn my water back on or I’ll...”

“You’ll what? Destroy some coffee?” Dallas rocked back on his heels. “If you do that, it’s just money you’ll lose. I don’t plan on selling, and you need cash. I heard you quit your job to come here. You’re living off savings.”

“Who...”

“Through the grapevine.”

“The lawyer,” Allie exclaimed. “Misu’s lawyer is the only one I told. He...”

“He’s a good buddy of mine.”

Fan-freakin’-tastic. “Is this some more of that locals-protect-locals BS?”

“You should know,” Dallas said. “You used to be one.”

Allie let out an exasperated sigh.

“You still can’t make me turn that water back on.”

Dallas took a step closer. His eyes flicked down, lingering on the scooped neckline of her tank. Her anger burned hot, so hot she wasn’t sure if she could keep a lid on it anymore.

“You’ll turn that water back on,” Allie promised. She stood her ground. His eyes met hers.

“Only if you say...please.”

His blue eyes blazed with mischief, and something more. With a start, she realized he was flirting with her. God, the man’s ego knew no bounds. He’d just cut off her shower, and he was trying to get into her pants? Seriously?

“Say it,” Dallas said, his voice a rumble she almost thought she could feel in her own chest. Stubbornly, she stood her ground. “I’m waiting.”

“You’ll be waiting a long time,” she ground out, spitting mad.

He dropped his head back and laughed. “Then you’ll be waiting even longer for your shower.”

He had her there and she knew it.

“Fine.” Allie let out a frustrated breath. “Please,” she muttered, annoyance in her voice.

“That’s not a nice please.” He took a step forward, and Allie wanted to punch him in the nose.

“You didn’t say it had to be nice.”

“Didn’t I?”

He was so very close to her. She looked into his blue eyes and felt as if she’d fallen into the ocean. For that second, she froze, and she couldn’t tell if the adrenaline zinging through her veins was fueled by anger or something else. She could smell Dallas’s aftershave, and it made her head spin.

Dallas studied her mouth, and suddenly Allie’s throat went dry. “Please,” she whispered.

“What was that, darlin’?” He cupped a strong hand to his ear. “I can’t hear you.”

“Please,” she managed, a bit louder.

Dallas’s face hovered over hers, a smile in his eyes as he moved even closer. Allie thought for sure he’d kiss her right then, but he moved at the last minute, his lips missing hers by millimeters as he leaned into her ear.

“I’ll think about it,” he whispered, and she could feel his warm breath on her earlobe. It made her shiver. And not with murderous rage.

“Damn you, Dallas McCormick,” she ground out, and stomped on one of his booted feet. Her flimsy flip-flop did no good against the thick leather, and Dallas just threw his head back and laughed. She could hear the laughter following her almost all the way back to her the house. Her face burned in humiliation: he’d played her. She was thoroughly tired of being played by men. It wouldn’t happen again, she swore.

* * *

IF DALLAS MEANT to declare war, then, fine, two could play that game. Allie would just have to redouble her efforts to win over Kaimana, get that paper signed and sell her half. She’d love to see the look on Dallas McCormick’s face when she told him she’d sold her half to resort developers. See how he’d fare with just half his crop and no roasting barn.

The only problem was that, whenever Allie went to Kaimana’s house, she found the door locked, the blinds drawn.

Well, Allie wasn’t going to give up that easily. She made her plans even as she rinsed off in the kitchen sink with jugs of water bought from the local grocery store. She didn’t think she’d find herself wishing for an outdoor shower, but anything would be better than this.

One thing was for sure: she’d make Dallas pay.

She knew of only one person who could help her: Kai Brady. After finishing her hasty sponge bath, she got dressed and drove her rental into town.

She walked slowly down the main street of Kailua-Kona, with its brightly colored storefronts facing out to the ocean. Lines of green palm trees swayed against the blue sky nearby, and the sidewalk looked pristine, bathed in bright Hawaiian sunshine. Hula Coffee sat sandwiched between a salon and a little sushi restaurant. Painted a bright baby blue with white trim, the shop boasted an old-fashioned wooden sign carved into the shape of a Hula dancer, a Hawaiian woman wearing a white-flowered lei and green grass skirt, a halo of white flowers in her jet-black, waist-length hair. The small coffee shop was bustling even at two in the afternoon, the window-seat benches filled with people of all stripes. A handsome guy in his midtwenties, wearing board shorts and a tank top, opened the door, holding it for her.

“After you,” he said, taking in her sundress, his eyes lingering on her legs. She ignored him. She didn’t need complications right now. She saw Kai talking to his sister, Jesse, at the register and waved.

“Allie!” He motioned her over. “Come in. Say hi to...”

He hadn’t even got out Jesse’s name before the tanned, petite brunette had launched herself over the counter and clobbered Allie in a huge hug. “Why are you never on Facebook?” she scolded. “Seriously—we need to catch up! It’s been a thousand years!”

Allie had forgotten about Jesse’s bubbling enthusiasm for everything. She and Kai had the same mom and different dads, but they both had their Irish mother’s warm, hazel-colored eyes. She was two years younger than Allie and Kai, and what Allie remembered was a fierce little girl who wanted to climb every tree they did.

“This is a great place,” Allie said, meaning it as she looked around at the warm koa-wood tables and the easy conversation happening across the various nooks in the small but surprisingly open shop. Pastries of every kind called invitingly from behind a glass counter, and the air smelled like coffee and vanilla.

“Thanks,” Kai said, standing a little straighter, clearly taking pride in his establishment. “I never imagined having a life other than surfing, but my finance guy said it’s good to diversify.”

“That’s only because surfing is probably going to kill you,” Jesse scolded. “This guy liked to surf the big waves. Like seventy feet!”

“Seventy...?” Allie’s mouth dropped open in shock. Kai had always been fearless, even as a toddler, but somehow she couldn’t quite imagine his muscled body handling such serious surf.

“That was on a slow day,” Kai said, half teasing, half not. He pointed to the espresso machine. “Care for a cappuccino? On the house.”

“Well, I...” Allie hesitated for a split second, but before she could even properly answer, Jesse had bounced over to get started.

“You don’t want him making one. He doesn’t know how,” Jesse explained.

“I do so!”

“You’re only here a couple days a week,” Jesse teased, as they bickered warmly like the siblings she remembered. “During the slow times. Ask him where he is in the morning, during rush time?”

“Hey! I surf mornings!” Kai protested. “Got to keep giving those young kids a run for their money on the circuit. I just come in here to supervise, make sure you’re not sleeping on the job.”

Jesse snapped a dishrag at him, and Kai just laughed. In a few moments, she handed Allie a lush cappuccino.

“This is the second time this week someone put coffee in my hands.” Allie inhaled the rich aroma and then took a sip. It was the richest, most delicious thing she’d ever tasted. Nothing bitter about it, just dense, lush goodness.

“This is amazing,” Allie said, dumbstruck that she actually liked coffee without a sugary shot of vanilla or caramel.

Kai grinned, ear to ear. “Made from one hundred percent Kona Estate coffee.”

“My grandmother’s coffee?”

Kai nodded.

“Wow, this stuff is really good.” Allie took another sip, relishing it.

“The best Kona on Hawai’i,” Jesse said.

“Your grandmother’s coffee made this place,” Kai seconded.

Allie felt a shudder of guilt as she glanced around at all the happy patrons in Kai’s shop. They all seemed to like the coffee so much, and she could understand why. It was delicious, like none she’d ever tasted. But she had no intention of growing coffee, at least, not with her share. What would happen to Kai’s shop, to these patrons drinking her coffee, if they sold the land? Developed it for condos?

Not your problem, Allie thought. Your problem is Dallas McCormick and that smug smile he wears on his face.

“You said someone else gave you coffee?” Kai asked. “Where did you get it? Please don’t tell me it was you-know-what down the street. Please don’t!”

“Kai won’t even say their name, it’s that personal,” Jesse said.

“Don’t get me started on why,” he said. “Big corporate lattes! Wouldn’t know good coffee if it bit them in the...”

“Oh, no, don’t worry,” Allie said. “I haven’t been to any competitors. Your aunt gave me coffee grounds, actually.”

Kai immediately relaxed. “You saw Auntie K? She’s always had a soft spot for you. Did she make you a lei?”

“Uh, yes, actually. Gorgeous.” Allie cleared her throat. “I wanted to talk to you about her, actually. Grandma Misu wanted me to talk to her about the estate if I was going to sell, so...”

“She did?”

“Yeah, and I didn’t have much luck. She, uh...she...pretended not to know English.”

Kai and Jesse exchanged a meaningful glance. “That wasn’t very nice. Let me go talk to her,” Kai pronounced, like a big brother ready to go to bat for a little sister.

“No, that’s okay. I mean, I know she probably didn’t want to talk to me about selling Grandma Misu’s land, so I get it. But now she won’t answer the door, and...”

“That’s none of her business whether you sell or not,” Kai muttered. “That’s your choice, not hers. You should be able to sell if that’s what you want to do.”

Jesse didn’t say a word. Allie could tell she didn’t approve of selling, but she was grateful Kai didn’t judge her. “I just feel kind of stupid. I fell for it. I really thought she didn’t know English.”

“Aw, she does that to everyone,” Kai said. “Hell, the postal carrier didn’t know for years, and I don’t think the tax assessor still does.”

They all laughed, and Allie felt an easy kinship between them that she hadn’t felt in...years. She liked Jesse and Kai a lot. They felt like long-lost family.

“Hey, want to come to dinner tomorrow? We could help you talk to Aunt Kaimana. Maybe get this all sorted out.”

“Oh, I don’t want to put you out.”

“You won’t,” Kai assured her. “I’m barbecuing, and we’re having a few friends over anyway, at Aunt Kaimana’s house. One more is no big deal!”

For the first time since Chicago, Allie actually did feel like getting out. She ignored the little voice of warning at the back of her head. She was on a mission: sell the land and get out.