Meet Me in Hawaii by Georgia Toffolo (best affordable ebook reader TXT) 📗

‘I always try and see the sun rise or set.’

‘Like you were last night… when I rudely interrupted.’

‘You didn’t rudely interrupt.’

‘No?’

‘No, your rude interruption came after the sun had set.’

He laughed, the sound low and husky and stirring up her insides.

Keep a lid on it, Malie.

Thor is your type.

Not Edward Cullen.

She laughed at her own madness.

‘I love your laugh.’

Her eyes snapped to his and his own flared with what looked to be surprise. He hadn’t meant to say it. But he had, and… oh, God. She swallowed, her tongue suddenly feeling too thick for her mouth.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to…’ He raised his hands palm out. ‘I just… well, anyway… it was just a fact.’

A fact?

‘Well, keep your facts to yourself…’ her words were hot with the whole thing, the effect of his praise, his appeal, the way her mind wanted to find out what else he loved, ‘especially when they’re all personal.’

He dropped his hands and her eyes traced the move as they landed on his scrunched-up board shorts and the exposed length of his thighs that were as toned as the rest of him. Not that she needed to remember the rest of him right now. Every. Toned. Inch.

She launched her eyes back to his face and felt her entire body overheat as they locked with his.

‘I apologize. Best behaviour from now on in – scout’s honour.’

‘You were a scout?’

‘Er, no, but I have it on good authority that the saying still stands.’

‘Good authority?’

‘Jonny… but the rest of the crew agreed.’

She laughed now, good and hearty. ‘I bet they did.’ She shook her head. ‘You’re as bad as them, Todd Masters.’

He shrugged his shoulders and looked back to the horizon, to where the sun had now started to dip into the sea. ‘I’m going to take that as a compliment, they’re all pretty great.’

‘You know…’ she began thoughtfully, ‘for a man who avoids friendships and family bonds because it keeps life easy, you sure care about these kids a great deal.’

He looked to her, his face suddenly sombre with her shift in focus. ‘That’s different. If I do my job right, if the charity does what it’s supposed to, they will all move on eventually. I’ll just be part of their past.’

‘You give them the tools, the social skills, the ability to move on?’

‘Of course, otherwise I’ve failed them and I’m not a man to take failure lightly.’

‘I’m not suggesting you are – but what about your family, friends, those that do stay around?’

‘There isn’t anyone, save for my father.’

‘And you’re happy living like that?’ She couldn’t imagine not having Victoria, Zoe and Lils. To have no friends at all. She knew she was pushing the same conversation from earlier but now she had him to herself, she couldn’t let it go. A man with a heart such as his, he shouldn’t live in a closed-off way, be so shut down.

‘Love and loss, Malie.’ His voice had turned husky, rough. ‘I think we both understand why it pays to avoid it.’

She hadn’t expected his brutal honesty, or the way it cut so deep. She’d never agreed more and felt so sad and regretful all the same.

‘But you must be close to your father now, even after…?’

‘It’s difficult, especially when every time I visit him, I’m reminded of all the ways he won’t let me help.’

His gaze dropped, his mouth forming a tight line as he seemed to withdraw from her and into his thoughts.

‘It’s really getting to you, isn’t it?’

His eyes came back to her. ‘When you have the power to help people and your own father won’t let you… It’s driving me more than a little crazy.’

‘How often do you see him?’

‘A few times a year, when I’m back in London and have the time to call in. I try to avoid the house as it only makes things awkward. When I have its condition thrust in my face like that, I can’t help but bring it up. And that always ends badly.’

‘Do you talk on the phone much?’

He went quiet, his face going back to the sun.

‘We’ve never had that close a relationship,’ he admitted eventually. ‘He was too interested in the bottle when I was younger, and now… now, I’m not really sure how to have a relationship with him.’

She could feel the hollowness of his words, knew he was hurting beneath it all. She thought of her relationship with her own parents, the distance between them, the Christmas she had just spent with them – the emphasis on time for families making it all the more pronounced – and her skin prickled. ‘What about Christmas? Did you spend it together?’

He let go of a drawn-out breath. ‘I put an event on at the Foundation, some of the kids are a little old for Santa but most turn up, a lot of effort goes into choosing gifts and putting on a festive spread. My father came along and chipped in.’

‘That sounds nice, really merry.’

He smiled a little. ‘It is the season for giving, after all. I guess you could see that as spending Christmas together, doing something we both care about.’

‘Sounds like you have more of a relationship than you think.’ ‘Perhaps… He’s been sober for a long time now and he uses his personal experience to help with the counselling side of things; you’d be surprised how many kids start to find sanctuary in a bottle.’

‘I can imagine.’ She gave an involuntary shudder. ‘Is your father a volunteer?’

‘Yes. I tried to pay him, but he saw it as charity… Can you believe it?’ He threw her a look. ‘I pay everyone else involved but him, he won’t take a penny.’

‘He might see it as a way to make up for the past.’

He looked at her long and hard, his voice quiet as he said, ‘I never thought of it like that.’

She gave him a small smile. ‘If it makes you feel better, I think you’re doing better