4 Kaua'i Me a River Read Free Page B

‘what do you think of’s,’
and ‘how much for’s”.
    When I finally got home at ten minutes
after six I was starving. I grabbed a yogurt, but only ate half of it. I didn’t
want to spoil my appetite for the scrumptious birthday dinner I’d be enjoying
at one of Maui’s premiere seafood restaurants, Mama’s Fish House.
    I jumped in the shower. Fifteen
minutes later I was wearing the only dress I owned, a short black shift with a wide
band of tropical flowers circling the hem. I did a quick touch-up of the big
three—blush, mascara, and lipstick. Then I rummaged through my closet searching
for my one pair of sandals that weren’t made of rubber.
    “You look great,” said Hatch
when I opened the door at precisely six-thirty.
    “You smell great,” I said,
inhaling the sweet scent of machismo—soap, Old Spice and the lingering odor of
smoke that firefighters can never get out of their hair.
    “We had a big one go up in
Wailuku today. Did you see it on the news?”
    “No, I just got home. My wedding
couple turned out to be talkers. Or, to be fair, she was a talker. The
guy she’s marrying never said a word.”
    “It was a warehouse. Probably
another insurance job.” Hatch wasn’t big on discussing the day-to-day
challenges of my wedding business. At first I found it infuriating that I’d
tell him how annoying my clients had been that day and he’d change the subject.
Now I find it refreshing. No matter how stressful my day, I can always count on
Hatch to get my mind off work.
    “You think it was arson?” I
said.
    “Yeah, in this economy it’s become
a favorite method of unloading upside-down real estate. This is the third one
this month.”
    “Huh. Are you sure you don’t
mind running me out to the airport before we go to dinner?”
     “I’ve been thinking about
that,” he said. “Why don’t I go to Kaua’i with you? I can add a vacation day to
my usual two-days off. We could hang out and relax before you have to go to your
lawyer thing. It’ll be fun. Kind of like a pretend honeymoon.”
    I shot him my ‘ what the heck
does that mean’ ? face.
    He gave me a ‘ no worries’ shrug.
    “What do you mean ‘pretend
honeymoon’? I said. The shrug hadn’t explained much.
    “It means we’ll have a great
time. It also means we’ll probably get our room upgraded if we tell them we’re
honeymooners.”
    We parked in the airport parking
lot and walked across the street to the Hawaiian Airlines departures area. The waiting
line for the ticket counter stretched through the open-air lobby and out on to the
sidewalk.
    “This is going to take forever,”
I said. I looked up at the ‘Arrivals and Departures’ board. “Looks like they’ve
got a wide-body heading to the mainland in an hour.”
    “Stay here,” said Hatch. “I’ll
be right back.”
    I watched as he bobbed and
weaved through the crowd like a wide receiver sprinting downfield after shaking
off an entire defensive line. I lost him in the swirl of sunburned tourists
dragging bulging suitcases through the Disneyland-style check-in line.
    Hatch returned less than five
minutes later waving two airline tickets.
    “How’d you do that?” I said.
    “We did a terrorist drill with the
TSA last week. I dropped a name and a ticket agent whose shift was ending offered
to stay a few minutes more.” He handed me my ticket. “Happy birthday, Pali.”
    The ticket was for the twenty-fifth,
two days before my meeting on the twenty-seventh.
    “I’ve got it all worked out,” said
Hatch. “If it all goes according to plan, by the time that meeting rolls you’ll
have forgotten what the word ‘urgent’ even means.”
    I hugged him. This birthday was
turning out way better than I’d expected.

 
     
    CHAPTER
3
     
    The best way to describe Mama’s
Fish House is ‘heaven on earth.’ Anyway, I hope heaven’s got a palm grove flanking
a pristine beach with blinding white sand and soft turquoise water. And I hope in
heaven it’ll be