Chapter Three
“I think it’s going to be so much fun having a sister.” Amy propped herself against the doorframe of her brother’s hotel room while he took a minute to set down his bag and wash his hands.
“Don’t forget, whether you know it or not,” he said over the running water, “you’ll be getting an entire extended family. The Everretts already think of you as one of their own.”
“Considering you’re not one of their own yet, I think it’s supercool.
Mom and Dad are only children, so with no aunts and uncles or cousins it’s always been just the four of us.
Even though I knew Kathleen Everrett lived in San Francisco, when she called to meet me for lunch, I was so surprised.
Almost as excited as I’ve been waiting to finally see you face-to-face. ”
Amy had had a pleasant lunch with Emily’s middle sister, Kathleen.
As well as telephone conversations with the eldest Everrett sister, Ava; and her brother, Billy; and her mother, Maille; and her mother’s best friend, Missy; and anyone else who happened to be at the Everrett household while Amy was on the phone.
“Ava came within inches of flying in with Emily tonight,” Doug said. “She insisted she was only coming to play tour guide, but, in the end, she settled for simply making all the arrangements for us to see the island tomorrow.”
Amy suspected keeping them all from chartering their own plane had been a massive effort for someone. “I’m surprised the whole family didn’t come.”
Doug yanked the towel off the rack to dry his hands. “Emily might have had to finesse them a bit.”
Amy was so enjoying this ordinary chatter with her brother. Except for the insanity of their very first conversation, now when they spoke, she could almost forget that they’d been separated for most of her life. “The Everretts can be finessed?”
“Sometimes. Emily’s the baby and really good at it. Which reminds me—she wanted me to apologize profusely over and over that she couldn’t miss the planning meeting at school and fly in with me this afternoon. Hence, why she’s arriving tonight instead.”
Amy watched her brother neatly replace the towel on the rack.
No man she’d ever known had been that neat.
She wondered if maybe it was a navy thing.
“I’m just really happy you didn’t make me wait any longer to see you.
I barely got a wink of sleep last night, and, if I had two bites of dinner or breakfast, it was a lot.
I’d have probably died of anticipation if I’d been kept waiting another hour. ”
Doug chuckled and came back into the room. “Frankly Emily was ready to put me on a plane last night. Something ridiculous about a caged lion.”
Close enough to reach her brother, she stretched her arms around his waist and held on tight. Again. “I hope you don’t mind if I keep doing this. I think I’m still afraid I might wake up and discover none of this has been real.”
Holding on to her, he kissed the top of her head. “I may need a little reassuring myself.”
“Anytime.” She stepped back, and, at that second, Doug’s stomach growled. “We’d better get going. I don’t want to be the reason you starve to death.”
Smiling down at her, Doug opened the door and waved her on, but she’d only managed to take a single step when she stopped short at the man in a towel standing across the hall.
His blond head whipped around, a flash of horror filling deep blue eyes. Large hands immediately dropped from the doorknob to readjust the knot at his hip.
Really nice hips. Hips that led north to really broad strong muscled shoulders.
Mr. Handsome Married To Pretty Wife in Lobby cleared his throat. “Uhm—”
Before the man could say another word, Doug broke the awkward moment. “Why don’t you call housekeeping from my room.”
Amy felt herself tugged back into the room by her brother’s grip. Suddenly realizing she was still staring at the hunk of a guy in nothing but a towel, she felt her cheeks heat with mortification for gawking like a hormonal teen.
“Oh, yes. Thanks. I, uh …”
Doug raised his hand to silence the man. “Been there, done that. Once without the towel.”
This time Amy’s head snapped around to look at her brother.
At her expression, Doug’s face pinched with what might have been embarrassment but most certainly was regret—if not for his long-ago actions, at least for giving them voice. “Sorry about that.”
“No problem.” She wasn’t a prude or anything; it would just take a little more time to get used to an all-grown-up man for a brother. In her head he was still only eleven years old and reading her bedtime stories.
Mr. Towel dropped the phone into the cradle. “Someone will be up to let me back in. I had a little incident on the beach and—”
“How’s the head?” Doug interrupted.
Towel Guy’s hand immediately lifted to his temple. “Not bad.”
“She was pretty pissed.”
“You saw?”
Doug nodded. “Had you not had everything under control, I’d have been at your side.”
“I may have had the boy under control. The woman—not so much.” Towel Guy rubbed his temple again, and Doug chuckled.
“One more whack and I’d have stepped in.”
“You couldn’t have thought to do that a little sooner?” Towel Guy smiled at her brother, his gaze darting to Amy, and she thought a hint of embarrassment colored his cheeks. Or maybe it was just the Honolulu sun.
Doug shrugged and turned toward the sound of laughter drifting up the hall and growing louder.
“I think that may be my key.” Towel Guy tightened the knot once again and circled the room, giving Doug and Emily a wide berth. Opening the door, he met his wife along with another attractive woman.
Towel Guy turned and lifted a hand in a brief wave. “Thanks.”
Doug shot him a thumbs-up, and Amy wondered why not even one of the guys she’d dated had looked like Mr. Towel. Then she wondered why couldn’t she have found him first.
“I’m starving,” Jessica announced.
The hostess seated their party at a large table in the hotel restaurant.
“You think they have cheeseburgers here?”
“Most likely,” her husband assured her.
Jessica and Josh. And baby Anthony. Ray concentrated on gluing the names to the faces he’d seen briefly a couple of hours earlier.
Lisa and Matt held hands as if they were still newlyweds.
All of the women, he’d learned, had met while taking a yoga class his sister taught.
The men each had met and married in the last few years seemed to get along as easily as if they’d known one another all their lives.
Ray was the only outsider. Although everyone was friendly and tried to include him in their conversations, the attempts seemed like courteous obligations for the benefit of the new guy.
As soon as Josh removed the infant from the carrier and sat him in the high chair provided, the baby began to cry. “I think he’s hungry too, Jess.”
The baby’s mother shoved her arm into the diaper bag and retrieved a cloth towel, then a bottle and a warming device. She took the baby from her husband and settled Anthony on her lap. “He’s sleepy too.”
“Not surprising,” Josh said, “since he was awake and wiggling the whole flight.”
“Guess all you guys are pretty tired.” Tish looked at Ray. “At least we got some sleep on the plane.”
“Speak for yourself.” Ray hadn’t slept a wink, but that was by choice. Flying over the Pacific hadn’t been quite as exciting as the awesome view of the Grand Canyon on his way to Los Angeles, but, even just watching clouds and ocean, he’d felt as excited as a kid at Christmas.
A gorgeous red-haired woman, wearing a halter top and one of those skirts that were actually shorts, appeared at the restaurant entrance and glided toward them. Were all California women beautiful? Surely this one must be the bride. Ray eyed his sister, and she nodded.
“I got us booked on the all-day island tour tomorrow,” the redhead announced, holding up a fistful of tickets.
She glanced at Jessica and Josh. “Good thing you guys already have plans to go to Pearl Harbor because there were only five spots left.” She slid into the empty chair between Josh and Matt and counted on her fingers.
“So it’ll be Matt and Lisa, me, and Tish and—”
Ray stood and reached his hand across the table. “Ray Varner. Best wishes on your wedding.”
“Courtney Clark. I’m glad you could come.” She shot him a megawatt smile. “Tish, you never told us your brother was so hot.” She leaned across the table and stage-whispered to his sister. “Is he the brain or the athlete?”
So that was how Tish had described him and his younger brother, Bobby. “Neither,” Ray said, scooting her chair to the table. “I played football in college but that seems like ages ago.”
Courtney smiled up at him. “Got a girlfriend?”
He lifted a brow at his sister.
“You’ll get used to Courtney,” Tish said. “She has no filter. Says exactly what she means.”
The bride pouted affectedly. “I resemble that remark.” She smiled at Ray as he retook his seat. “So, no girlfriend.”
“Not currently.” For some reason, he glanced around the restaurant, as if expecting to see … who? The pretty blonde? Even if she were interested, and she’d looked for a moment during his hallway mortification as if she might be, she was taken.
“Well, this is a great place to find romance.” Courtney’s gaze took the same tour of the restaurant patrons his had. “I’ll bet we could find you—”
“Thanks, but we’re only here for a few days.
” And then he’d be back—where? Oklahoma?
Having left his third job in as many years, he was ready to start over with something different.
A visit to his sister and Brady, his new brother-in-law, had seemed like a great vacation and possibly a new adventure.
Tish had left the farm and found work she enjoyed and a man she loved.
Maybe California might be Ray’s promised land too.
A week in paradise was just icing on that rich cake.