Epilogue
Dear Lexie,
Thank you seems light compared to what you have done for me and my family.
I did not assist you for money. You saved my family when we needed it, and I never forgot.
The scholarship to the university will allow me to get an education so I can get a job and help my family.
And my brother and sister will also be able to go.
My mom cry when she found out. It is like I told you, I want to learn how to do for myself so I can help my country.
I am sorry my English is not so good, but I will be better.
Sincerely,
Shermake
Lexie wiped a tear off her cheek and put down the letter she’d received in the mail. She went looking for Midas and knew exactly where to find him. He was in the backyard, picking some mangos for dessert.
She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her cheek on his back.
“You okay?” Midas asked.
“Perfect,” she said with a sigh.
Midas turned in her grasp and put his finger under her chin, tilting her face up so he could see her eyes. Ever since he’d walked in on Magnus trying to kill her, he’d been overprotective. But Lexie couldn’t blame him.
“You’ve been crying,” he said.
“Shermake sent me a letter,” she told him.
“He all right?”
“He’s great. He was just thanking me. Although he really should be thanking you and Baker,” Lexie said.
Midas shrugged.
It had been a month since the incident at Food For All.
Sometimes it was hard to believe so much time had passed, and in other ways it felt like yesterday.
Plans were progressing for the new location, and hopefully within another month or two, it would be open.
Ashlyn and Lexie had been working nonstop to meet the local business owners in Barbers Point and to let them know the plans for the organization.
So far, they’d had nothing but positive reactions.
Elodie was also getting excited about helping out, and had started gathering recipes for the lunch boxes she’d be in charge of putting together. The new location wouldn’t have hot meals, but it would provide nutritious take-away meals for those who needed them.
Midas reached for Lexie’s hand and pulled her toward the chairs on the deck. He put down the mango he’d picked and sat, bringing Lexie with him. She sat without complaint, settling into Midas. He’d been more touchy-feely recently, which was perfectly all right with her.
“So, you gonna officially move in or what?” he asked.
Lexie blinked in surprise, though, she really shouldn’t have been. She’d gotten used to Midas’s abrupt topic changes.
And she’d been practically living with Midas ever since she’d come home from the hospital.
He’d taken some time off work to stay with her and make sure she really was all right, and then he took her to work every day and picked her up as well.
She was looking forward to the satellite branch opening so Midas didn’t have to drive so much every day.
“I want to,” she said, then hesitated.
“But?” Midas asked gently.
“I don’t want to overstep. And I’m not ready to get married.” The latter was something she’d been thinking about a lot. Elodie and Mustang had tied the knot fairly quickly after they’d met, but that was a big step for Lexie, and she wasn’t sure she was ready yet.
“First, you aren’t overstepping. I love you, and I love having you here.
I never really thought much about living with a woman before, but now that you’ve been here, I can’t imagine not waking up with you by my side every day or falling asleep with you in my arms. Second, I’m not ready for marriage either.
I love you, and that’s not going to change, but I like how things are going right now. ”
“Me too,” Lexie said with a relieved sigh.
“I want you to meet my parents. And my brother and sister. I want to marry you on the beach in a laid-back, simple ceremony.”
She grinned. “And if I want a huge formal shindig?”
Midas stared at her, as if trying to figure out if she was serious or not. She held the serious look as long as possible before grinning.
“That was mean,” he said with a pout.
“I know, sorry. I don’t want something huge,” she reassured him. “The beach thing sounds amazing. If your folks don’t like me, is that a deal breaker?” she asked nervously.
“You have nothing to worry about. They’re gonna like you,” Midas told her. “They already do. You know my mom’s been bugging me to give her a time when she can come out and visit.”
Lexie snuggled into his chest and sighed. “I’ll move in,” she told him. “I mean, the view is much better here than in my apartment.”
Midas snorted. “I’m being used for my view,” he said under his breath.
“Well, that, and I love you to distraction,” Lexie told him. “You think Theo’s gonna like living in Barbers Point?” Shit, now she was doing it, changing subjects on a whim. Midas was rubbing off on her.
He chuckled as if he knew what she was thinking. “I think he’s gonna love it.”
Midas had worked with Baker to find a tiny one-room apartment for Theo to live in.
He’d always have a roof over his head and wouldn’t have to worry about rent.
Lexie wasn’t a millionaire, but she’d saved up a nice nest egg after years of free lodgings, thanks to Food For All.
She wouldn’t have a problem paying the rent for the small space for Theo.
After learning he’d dragged himself across the floor to try to help her, even while the knife was still sticking out of his back, she’d do anything for the man.
She wished she could get him psychological help, but Theo had lived on his own on the streets for too long to be cooped up in a hospital.
So she’d done what she could by providing him a safe place to sleep at night.
The room wasn’t far from where Food For All’s new building was located, and Lexie would be able to see him every day.
“Love you, Lex.”
“Love you back, Midas.”
His hand shifted under her shirt and began to rub her bare back, and just like that, thoughts of Theo, Midas’s parents, and even what she’d been planning to make for dinner flew out of her head.
She wanted Midas. Bad.
After she’d gotten out of the hospital, he’d been reluctant to initiate any sexy times, but Lexie hadn’t had any problem convincing him that she was completely healed.
Sitting up and straddling his waist, Lexie scooted forward until she could feel his hard cock between his legs. Without a word, she reached for the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head.
Midas smiled, palmed her ass, and leaned forward to nuzzle her breasts.
Yeah, it was safe to say she was one hundred percent happy.
Kenna Madigan did her best not to sound like an out-of-shape hippo as she ran near the Ala Moana Park, toward the Magic Island Lagoon.
It was at the end of a piece of land across from the Ala Wai Boat Harbor.
It was early, but there were other people out exercising like she was.
Kenna didn’t love running, but it was the best way to keep in shape, and to keep the Malasadas she loved so much from adding forty pounds to her average-sized frame.
This was a rare morning off for her, and she’d decided to get out into the Hawaiian sunshine and enjoy the day.
She was thinking about the errands she needed to get to before her waitressing shift at Duke’s, not paying much attention to what was going on around her, when something to her right caught her eye.
It was hard to figure out what she was looking at, but as she got closer, her eyes widened in horror.
A body was floating in the ocean, just on the other side of the lagoon!
It was a man. She knew that much from the size. He was wearing some sort of black wet suit and was face down, bobbing up and down.
Looking around, Kenna didn’t see anyone else nearby. Certainly no one seemed concerned that someone was drowning.
Without thinking twice, Kenna sprinted around the edge of the lagoon.
She peered down into the dark water and saw that the man hadn’t moved.
Immediately, she toed off her tennis shoes and whipped her tank top over her head.
Wearing nothing but her socks, shorts, and sports bra, Kenna jumped into the ocean.
Unfortunately, but probably not surprisingly, she misjudged her leap into the water and instead of landing near the drowning man, she jumped right on top of him. Kenna wasn’t known for being the most graceful person. Most of her coworkers teased her for being clumsy.
Thankful that she’d hit his legs and not his back, Kenna used her arms to bring herself back up to the surface before reaching for the drowning man.
But when her head broke the surface of the water, she found herself staring right into the confused and concerned eyes of the man she’d jumped in to save. He was very much neither dead nor drowning, and instead was looking at her as if she had a few screws loose.
He wore a black face mask, and she could now see the snorkel attached. As she treaded water and stared at him in shock, he pushed the mask onto the top of his head.
“Are you all right? Did you fall in?” he asked.
To complete her embarrassment, five more heads popped up in the water around them. Each had on the same black mask, but were also wearing scuba tanks on their backs.
“Oh shit,” she said, knowing her cheeks were probably bright red. She had no idea why this group of men were scuba diving where they were, but she’d obviously screwed up. Bad.
“Ma’am?” the man she’d jumped on top of asked again.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Um… I just…” Kenna looked around, trying to find the fastest way to climb up the rocks surrounding the lagoon so she could go home and die of mortification.
The man gripped her arm and easily held her above water. She was a good swimmer, but his grip definitely made it easier to float.
“What happened?” one of the other men asked.
“She fall in?”
“She hurt?”
“I’m trying to find out, if you’d shut up and give me a second,” the man holding her said.
Kenna couldn’t help but grin slightly.
“Right, so…you fell in?” the man asked once more.
Staring into his dark eyes, Kenna was embarrassed all over again. “Not exactly. See, I was running up there,” she said, indicating the path next to the lagoon. “Minding my own business, and I saw you. You were face down. Floating.”
The man’s lips twitched, and Kenna spoke faster, just wanting this over with. “I thought you were drowning, okay?”
“So you jumped in to save me?”
“Yeah,” Kenna said sheepishly. “But you obviously aren’t drowning, and I’m an idiot. So I’ll just be going now.” She looked over at the rocks meaningfully.
“We’re SEALs,” one of the other men said, obviously trying hard not to burst out laughing.
Aaaaand…Now her humiliation was complete.
“Didn’t you see the scuba flag?” her not-drowning victim asked.
Turning her head, Kenna saw the red and white flag bobbing in the water nearby.
“Obviously not,” she said with a shrug. “I just thought you were drowning and acted.”
“Well, I appreciate it. I’m in charge of safety for our training today, so my job is to hang out up here while my team does their thing under the water. Which is why it probably looked like I was a dead body. Anyway, I’m Marshall.”
“Kenna,” she said, feeling as if she were in the twilight zone. Treading water in the ocean and meeting a hot guy, a Navy freaking SEAL at that, wasn’t what she thought she’d be doing today.
“Be back, guys,” he told his friends.
“Don’t mind us, Aleck,” one of them said.
“Yeah, training can wait,” another added.
“Pretty girls come before scuba any day,” a third called out.
“I thought you said your name was Marshall,” Kenna said.
“It is. My nick name is Aleck, it’s what most people call me,” he said. “But you can call me Marshall.”
He kept hold of her arm and began to swim with her toward some rocks a bit away from his buddies, where it looked like she could climb up and out of the water somewhat easily.
“I can swim,” she told him.
“I know,” he said, without letting her go.
When she reached the rocks, Kenna wanted to scurry up as fast as she could, but clearly the man had other ideas.
“Don’t be embarrassed that you were trying to help me,” Marshall said. “Seriously, if more people got involved when they saw something wrong, I think the world would be a better place.”
“But nothing was wrong,” she told him.
Marshall shrugged.
“Right. Okay, well then…have fun with your training and whatnot,” she said lamely as she reached up to grab one of the rocks and pull herself out of the water.
She’d come to terms with her body a while ago, and had a pretty healthy self-esteem, but exposing herself in her sports bra to this man who didn’t have an extra ounce of fat on him—based on what she could see from that wet suit he was wearing—wasn’t exactly high on her list of things to do.
And she couldn’t hang out in the ocean all day. The sooner she got out, the sooner she could get back to her apartment to try to pretend this never happened.
“Can I see you again?” he asked suddenly.
Kenna froze. “What?”
“I mean, I’d like to thank you properly…for trying to save my life and all.”
If she wasn’t mistaken, Marshall sounded…unsure. Why this man would ever need to be unsure while asking someone out, she had no idea.
“Um…okay,” she said without thinking. Then mentally winced.
“Great,” he said with a smile. “When? Where?”
“Duke’s? I’ll be there tonight.”
The second the words were out of her mouth, Kenna wanted to take them back.
“Sounds good. Is seven okay?”
Kenna nodded.
She could’ve sworn she felt Marshall’s thumb brush against her upper arm before he swam away from her.
“See you later then. Be careful.”
“I will.” Kenna began to climb out of the water, refusing to look back to see if Marshall was watching her. When she got to the top, there were a few people running by, but no one really offered to help. Luckily, her shoes were still lying where she’d left them.
Not able to resist, she looked back down into the water and saw Marshall staring up at her.
She gave him a lame wave, then rushed to her belongings. She grabbed her shirt and shoes and headed back the way she came. Exercising was done for the day.
Why had she told him to come to Duke’s? Yes, it was a super popular restaurant on Waikiki Beach, so she wouldn’t have to worry about being in danger if he showed up. But she was working tonight, and as a waitress, it wasn’t as if she could sit and hang out with him.
“Stupid,” she muttered to herself.
But she couldn’t help taking one last look behind her as she hurried down the sidewalk. Marshall was back with his friends now, and they were all smiling as he said something to them.
Shaking her head, Kenna turned back around and squished her way back toward her apartment.
How’s that for a hilarious meet-cute? Jumping in the water to save a Navy SEAL?!? ha! Read on to find out how their first date goes and what trouble is in the horizon in Finding Kenna!