Chapter 6
SIX
It was a little crazy, she acknowledged to herself. Most people didn't take a trip to a romantic destination like Hawaii with some guy they hardly knew.
Correction.
With a guy that she'd just met a few hours before.
There were reality shows for stuff like that. She just wasn't the kind of person who would even consider something like that.
And yet, here she was sitting next to Vince, not just excited to take a trip with him, but completely buzzed on the thought of getting to know him better.
They weren't even doing the normal 'get to know you' stuff of most couples-
NOT that they were a couple.
Not that she was putting that thought out of the realm of possibilities, but the idea of a couple’s trip was supposed to be down the road of a relationship not the start of one.
Some couples only got to Hawaii for a honeymoon or a vow renewal.
Cora knew she was light years away from getting married to anyone. She'd barely had more than a handful of dates with any guy she'd met since she moved to Chicago. Go figure, right?
And this guy.
Vince.
He was sitting there beside her, waiting to learn some of the important facts about Hawaii.
And she was going to deliver them to the best of her ability because she wanted to be useful. She wanted to be knowledgeable.
She wanted to be fascinating. At least for the next few days.
At least... for him.
"Okay, so... I think the biggest thing to remember is that Hawaii is a state. I know it might sound like something that's obvious, but it's not. I just saw a news story shared on YouTube where someone thought they needed a passport to get to Hawaii."
He nodded, slowly. "It should be obvious that you don't. I mean, where did they think Hawaii 5-0 came from? It is the fiftieth state."
She grinned at him. "And you just earned a few cool points from me."
Vince's smile was like the sun, it lit her up inside. "I'll take those points. I'll have to keep banking them."
Cora nodded. "That's a good idea."
Reaching forward, she pulled her carry-on bag out from under the seat in front of her and pulled out her eReader. "I bought a book about Hawaii and read it. It's got some great information in the back. In the glossary."
Powering it up, she turned the screen toward the window and clicked open the book at the top left corner. With a few swipes, she opened the book she'd just started reading. The last in a series of romances set in Hawaii.
"Here."
Turning the screen to face up, Cora pointed at the top of the page. "From what I've read, the Hawaiian language was only a verbal language for thousands of years. When the Missionaries from the Northeastern part of the United States came over in the early eighteen hundreds, they wrote it down." She pointed to the pronunciation guide on the page. "It came down to twelve letters."
Vince nodded. "Twelve? That's got to be easier than twenty-six."
She shrugged. "I thought so, too. But then you have more repetition. It's easier in that there's nothing silent."
Vince sat back against his seat. "Good. My mother thought I should try learning French in middle school, but I couldn't pronounce things. Talk about hellish memories."
Cora gave him a nudge with her shoulder. "That was a long time ago. You've gotten over it now, right?"
He smiled, but there was a tinge of something like regret she saw in his features. "There was a lot of teasing back then. I was tall, but skinny. Spindly skinny."
She nodded, understanding how painful teasing could be at any age.
"And the girl I had a crush on laughed the loudest."
Cora heard the ache in his voice. Wounds like that hurt. She had some of those, too.
"So, I'm glad we're not going to France, then."
He looked up at her with a smile. "Or anywhere they speak French Canadian." He frowned a little. "Is that a language? Or a people?"
She chuckled softly. "Hey, don't ask me. I'm just trying to help you with Hawaii. French Canadian will have to be your responsibility."
"Yes, ma'am. Whatever you say, ma'am." He gave her a salute. “I’ll take the lead when we go to Canada for our next trip."
"Oh..." she couldn't help but smile at that. "Sounds like a plan, then."
Vince dropped his hand back into his lap.
"So," she lifted one of her hands from the eReader and touched her cheek, it was only too easy to get flustered around Vince, "remembering the five vowels is the base of everything."
Cora paused as the food cart moved up the aisle. Had so much time passed already? They were going to start their meal service soon? Until this trip, flights always seemed to take forever.
She pointed at the letters in the middle of the page. "A, E, I, O, U."
"Normally, I'd ask if this was something about Old MacDonald, but I'm afraid to get you riled up again."
She rolled her eyes. "Ah for A. Eh for E."
He nodded and she continued. "Ee is what you say for the I."
"Like the word LEI." His gaze narrowed and she saw his brow furrow. "Eh and Ee. L-eh-ee."
She grinned and nodded, excited that he got it.
"Got it," he grinned. "What about O and U?"
"O is like Oh in Ok. And U is like-"
"You?" He grinned hopefully at her.
"That's it!" She bobbed her head. "You've got it."
"So nothing silent. Just those vowels and..."
"Sound everything out and you should be OK."
"OH, like," he pointed at the words on the page, "that."
"Yes!" Cora held out her hand for a high five and he matched her, but instead of pulling his hand back or away, they folded their fingers together.
"Yeah."
She blew out a breath and hoped that it wasn't too obvious. Heat built up between them with just a touch.
It was crazy. Or she was.
Either way, it felt good.
She felt good with Vince.
Cora just hoped that it was only going to get better. They'd have a few days together in paradise.
It certainly wasn't something she'd planned on when she'd packed for the trip, but she was more than happy to make the adjustment. Thank goodness she'd packed some fun clothes. She was hoping that Vince might get to see her in some of those clothes.
Her cheeks heated like a furnace.
Okay, Cora... Let's not put the cart before the horse, okay?
"Sorry to bother..."
Cora lifted her gaze and saw the flight attendant looking at them. The other woman's smile was telling.
"I was wondering if you two would like a meal?"
A meal?
Was it that time already?
Cora looked at Vince as they disentangled their hands from each other. "Sure. I could eat."
She rolled her eyes at herself as Vince turned to look at the attendant and answer her questions.
Beef or Pasta?
Drink?
Before she knew it, they had plates before them on their trays and Cora had some time to reel in her thoughts and pull herself together.
The last thing she wanted Vince to do was second guess coming to Hawaii with her.
Cora worried that the 'second guessing' started as soon as the plane touched down at the airport.
At least for her it did.
Shuffling forward to get out of the plane, Cora panicked and tried not to audibly groan.
And failed.
Leaning closer, Vince murmured quietly near her ear. "Are you okay?"
"Uh... yeah! Sure!"
She smiled hoping that he'd heard that in her voice and wouldn't see the worry she was feeling.
"Try again," he chuckled. "I can feel you worrying from back here. This is going to be great."
Cora nodded, willing herself to pull it together.
"I might have forgotten to let my brother know that I've brought a friend."
Vince chuckled behind her. "Friend-zoned in Hawaii. That hurts a little."
Cora turned to look at him and felt her elbow connect with him.
"And now you're trying to hurt me." He moaned as he rubbed his chest.
"Are you teasing me?" She shook her head. "You're teasing me, aren't you!"
"Guilty!" He lifted the hand that he'd been rubbing against his chest, and it was embarrassing how quickly her eyes followed the movement.
Yes, she was attracted to him.
Worse than that, he was crazy attractive.
The appreciative look from the flight attendant just a few feet away spoke volumes.
"Seriously, though," Vince leaned in closer, "I can probably find a place to stay if that's going to be a problem and-"
"You know this is Hawaii, right?" She swung her head around to stare at him, her eyes widening in shock. "I heard they have a Navy hotel on Ford Island. And there's a hotel in Waikiki, but this close to a huge holiday? There won't be any room. No, it'll be okay."
She drew in a deep chest-filling breath. "It'll be okay."
"It'll be okay." Cora heard him repeat it a couple of times.
She shook her head as they made it to the door and stepped out into the jet bridge. "Are you praying?"
Vince stepped up and walked beside her now that there was some room. "Not praying so much as trying to settle your nerves. Seriously, I know it's going to be crazy busy but if you're worried about how your brother is going to feel with me here, I can work something else out-"
"Nope." She shook her head. "No. My brother said I could bring a friend with me and that's what I did." She smiled hoping that the gesture would manifest that kind of confidence.
Once they reached the gate area the atmosphere changed.
The area was air conditioned, and it felt a little like heaven.
She drew in another breath and smiled, feeling some of her confidence rise to the surface. Cora took a step to the side to let the legions of fellow passengers exiting the plane move on past them and caught at Vince's arm to bring him along with her.
She'd surprised him, but not in a bad way if his smile was any indication.
"Look, Vince," she gathered what was left of her wits about her and explained. "I can handle my brother."
Vince gave her a look that stopped just shy of calling her a liar.
She had to admit that he really had her number.
"Okay, so I'm nervous, but probably not for the reason you might think."
Vince shifted his duffel bag and waited for her to continue, his eyes warm and open.
"I invited you on a lark, but it wasn't just because I was trying to do something nice for you, I was doing something nice for myself. I like you so the whole 'friend thing' isn't a lie." She wasn't sure if he would hear her words and believe them with the nervous vibration in her voice. "But the more time I spend with you, the more we talk and joke and," she made a vague gesture between them, "whatever it is that we're doing, I feel like I'm crossing that line from friend to more than friends and I think Cam might see it written on my face."
She looked up at the ceiling and found herself struggling with her words but that didn't shock her. She was struggling even more with her feelings.
"Cora."
She closed her eyes and felt her throat tighten up.
"Cora," his voice was warm and the hand that touched her forearm was warm as well, "look at me."
She did what he asked even though she was worried that she was going to embarrass herself.
"I know you're worried about your brother and how he's going to act or how he's going to feel about me being here and about what this is between us."
She turned her head to look away, but stopped when she felt his hand touch her cheek.
Cora lifted her gaze and met his, closer than she'd expected it to be.
He smiled and she felt his gaze move over her face like a caress. "I'm just letting you know what's going on in my heart and my head. I do think there's something building between us, Cora." He turned his hand so that his thumb swept over her chin. "I'd be lying to say that there isn't. So, if you're worried about your brother reading into your feelings, he'd probably read into mine, too. That's not a bad thing-"
"It is," she countered, "especially because he takes the whole big brother thing really seriously."
Vince's smile was disarming and he stepped in closer making her feel like the whole world around her was shrinking into just the space around them. "I'm not worried, Cora. I appreciate that you're nervous about this, it means you'd care if he kicked my ass."
She laughed out loud, a chuckle that was almost a cough.
"And I'm not a big brother, but I can imagine what it would be like to walk in his shoes. I'm guessing his biggest concern would be to make sure that the guy with his sister was going to treat her right and step up to make sure other people treat her right, too. So I think he'll give me shit. I've gone through shit being in the military. I can handle that. I just want to be clear between you and me, Cora. If we end up as friends after this," he shrugged and nodded, "okay. I'll take that, but..."
She sucked in air when she heard 'but.' It wasn't intentional. It was instinct.
He shook his head, smiling at her. "I'm hoping for more, Cora. I think if we'd met somewhere else where we didn't have a clock ticking over our heads, I'd like to think that I would have asked for your number-"
"And I would have given it to you," her cheeks warmed as his smile deepened.
"And we'd go on a bunch of dates and somewhere down the road we would have ended up here, in Hawaii, together."
Her skin tingled as the sweep of his thumb slowed and drew closer to her lower lip.
"Regardless of how we got here, Cora, I want you to know that I want to be here, with you."
"Yeah?" Her voice caught a little in her throat.
"Yeah," he agreed. "And I'm hoping that you'll give me a chance to romance you while we're here. Who knows where we'll end up by the time we head home to Chicago?"
"Who knows?" She drew in a breath as he leaned closer. "But I think I want to find out."
He was close enough that she could feel his breath against her lips and that gentle touch sent sensations all over her body. "Then let's see what happens."
She opened her lips to agree with him and felt their lips brush against each other.
They froze for a moment, their eyes searching for something in each other's gazes.
Later, they'd end up debating who kissed who first, but at that moment, it didn't seem to matter.
All she could think about was what it felt like to kiss Vince Lazar.
As far as she was concerned, she had her first taste of paradise, and they hadn't even left the airport.