Chapter 1 #2
“Babe!” Candy calls to Erwin, shifting the ring light without breaking her smile. “This place is so adorably Hawaiian! My followers are going to absolutely die for this content!”
Here we go again. Another influencer on the hunt for authenticity. Newsflash, the last one didn’t fare too well.
And here’s hoping the Grim Reaper doesn’t come back for a repeat performance.
I give my ex the side-eye.
On second thought…
Candy air-kisses Erwin, most likely to avoid somehow disturbing her glossy red lips, then turns to me with a smile bright enough to be weaponized.
“You must be Jinx! Erwin has told me so much about you. Well, not that much, but enough to know you’ve got crazy red hair and you’re going to make our special day absolutely perfect!
” Her voice has a particular cadence that makes everything sound like a question while being aggressively upbeat.
“Or did he say vengeful?” She looks confused for a moment.
I shoot Erwin a look. So he does know me, after all.
“Anyway,” Candy is quick to wave off the thought of a toxic week in paradise, “I’m already getting so much engagement on my wedding preparation content. Who knew paradise was so photogenic!”
Everyone, that’s who.
Before I can respond, another car arrives, and out steps a woman sporting the minimalist but chic look.
She has sleek black hair cut in a razor-sharp bob, designer sunglasses, and an all-black ensemble that screams I’m too sophisticated for your tropical nonsense.
She’s a striking woman who looks like she might have both Hawaiian and Caucasian features, but there’s something about her expression that suggests she finds most of the world beneath her standards.
“Oh, there’s Alana!” Candy bounces with excitement, and I mean bounces, while still clutching her ring light. “Jinx, you absolutely have to meet my business manager! She’s the brains behind my entire brand strategy.”
The woman approaches with a confident stride that demands people move out of her way. When she reaches our little group, she removes her sunglasses and hisses.
“Wow,” Ruby muses as she leans in. “The cats are going to love her.”
I shake my head and whisper back. “I doubt she gives belly rubs.”
“Candy, we need to discuss the cultural elements,” the woman snaps without acknowledging anyone else, her voice carrying a level of authority that alludes to the fact that she’s never been told no in her life.
“I’ve been researching, and some of these traditional Hawaiian touches are going to read as too ethnic for your brand demographic. ”
The trade winds suddenly feel a lot less friendly.
“Alana Kapahu handles all my business partnerships and brand management,” Candy nods to Ruby, Lani, and me, still holding the ring light at the perfect angle to highlight her chiseled cheekbones.
I have a feeling this is going to be a running theme, or a glowing theme as it were.
“She’s absolutely brilliant at market positioning—and she’s helping with the wedding planning. ”
Ruby’s eyebrows have climbed so high they’re practically hiding in her hairline. Lani squints at Candy as if trying to read very illuminated hieroglyphics.
“Too ethnic?” I hear myself ask. “We’re in Hawaii.”
Alana removes her sunglasses and fixes me with a look that could stop the flow of lava.
“I understand you’re enthusiastic about local color, but Candy’s audience expects aspirational content.
Accessible luxury, not cultural education—or appropriation.
We need the wedding to feel exotic but approachable, tropical but refined. ”
“You want Hawaii without the Hawaiian,” I say slowly.
“I want a wedding that photographs well and appeals to Candy’s two million followers,” Alana replies smoothly. “Think less indigenous culture, more luxury resort aesthetic.”
The roosters have stopped crowing. Even they can sense the tension.
A third vehicle pulls up—a snazzy red convertible, and out steps a woman who makes the word bombshell seem inadequate.
The woman has curves that should be illegal in international waters, long dark hair that catches the late afternoon light like silk, and red lips that could stop traffic in multiple time zones.
Her form-fitting coral dress leaves very little to the imagination, and her high heels make her legs look like they go on for approximately forever.
Also beach ball boobs, but in all fairness, she looks like she came upon them honestly, unlike Candy, who likely shelled out the big bucks.
I might need to get her doctor’s name, you know, just in case.
“Aloha, everyone!” The woman practically purrs as she approaches our group.
“I’m Halea Palani, your wedding planner, and I am so excited to make this the most sensual, romantic wedding Kauai has ever seen!
I’m from Maui, so I’ll make this the most sensual, romantic wedding that Maui has ever seen, too. ”
She immediately zeroes in on Erwin and quickly traipses over before placing a manicured hand on his arm, and looks as if she’d like to slurp him up like he were a puddle of deliciousness. Clearly, she’s starved for some physical attention if even Erwin looks appetizing.
“And you must be the lucky groom,” she purrs. “Candy is absolutely gorgeous, but I can see why she fell for you. There’s something so appealingly vulnerable in your eyes.”
Speaking of eyes, either she needs glasses, or Erwin paid her off in advance.
Erwin turns a shade of red best described as ready to pick.
Before I can break into song and dance about the appeal of paunch bellies and quickly receding hairlines, the god of perfect timing drives up and hops out of his weathered truck looking like he just stepped out of my hottest fantasies and into my cold reality.
Detective Koa Hale chooses this exact moment to stride our way, clipboard in hand, for his routine security check of the resort grounds.
He stops dead when he sees our little gathering as his dark eyes take in the scene with a professional assessment that makes my pulse do things I’m not ready to acknowledge.
He’s wearing his usual off-duty uniform of jeans and a navy polo shirt that does excellent things for his shoulders, and his black hair is slightly mussed from the trade winds.
Have I mentioned he’s hotter than lava, has a body that can stop a bullet, and that perma-scowl on his face makes women swoon from three islands away? And more importantly, have I mentioned that my lips are intimately acquainted with his?
“Good evening,” he nods at the entire lot of us, his voice carrying that particular gravelly quality that makes a simple greeting sound like a naughty promise.
The man could read a grocery list and make me beg for more.
“I just thought I’d stop by and check the perimeter before the weekend festivities.” He stretches a short-lived smile my way before frowning at Erwin if he foresees disaster.
And let’s face it, if pattern is prophecy, then he sees just that.
I may have clued Koa in on the fact that my ex was sauntering onto the island to commit unholy matrimony in my presence, and neither Koa nor I was amused.
“Detective Hale,” I say, aiming for professional and landing somewhere in the vicinity of breathless. Honestly, who could blame me? I clear my throat. “This is Erwin Tuggle Julep and his fiancée, Candy Tassels,” I continue. “They’re the lucky couple tying the knot this week.”
Koa’s expression doesn’t change, but I catch the microscopic tightening around his jaw.
“And,” I continue, relishing it more than necessary, “just so you know, I had the great misfortune of being the first Mrs. Erwin Tuggle Julep. Emphasis on had and misfortune.”
Okay, so I merely reiterated that info so that we’re all on the same page—and when I say, we, I mean Erwin.
Erwin’s face flushes red enough to be seen from orbit. “Jinx, that’s not—”
“Pleasure to meet you both,” Koa says smoothly, extending his hand to Erwin. “Congratulations on your upcoming wedding.” His lips stretch into a smile, but it looks more like a threat. And wow, does it make him look lethally handsome.
They shake hands, and a part of me expects an earthquake or a volcano to spontaneously erupt in fury. Some things just aren’t natural. This is one of them.
I watch as Erwin tries to assert dominance with that aggressive grip thing men do. Koa just looks mildly amused, which somehow makes him more intimidating.
“So, you’re the detective around here?” Erwin’s voice has gone up half an octave. “Helping with resort security?”
“Among other things,” Koa replies as his eyes flick to mine for half a second, and my insides bisect with heat.
Hey? Maybe Erwin’s presence will be the catalyst to catapult Koa and me to the next level when it comes to our budding relationship? I gasp at the thought.
Erwin’s expression shifts from nervous-polite to something sharper. His gaze bounces between Koa and me, and I can practically see his accountant brain cataloging data points.
Face it, the heat emanating off of Koa and me makes the balmy humidity feel like an Arctic breeze. Or at least I’d like to think so.
“Among other things?” Erwin repeats slowly. “Right.”
And suddenly the air is charged with tension that has nothing to do with wedding planning and everything to do with male territorial nonsense.
“Erwin, is there something you’d like to say?” I grouse over at him.
“No. Nope. Nothing at all.” But his voice has that tight quality it used to get when he’d find my credit card statements. “I just find it interesting that you’ve gotten so friendly with local law enforcement. That’s all.”
Ruby steps up and doesn’t hesitate to give him the stink eye. “It turns out, murders tend to create those kinds of professional relationships.”
Lani steps in close and nods. “Dead bodies have a way of bringing people together.”
“Dead bodies?” Erwin repeats faintly.
“Two of them so far,” Ruby is quick to tell him. “But who’s counting?”