Getaway Bay, page 9
A chorus of hellos and heys met her ears, and she scanned the group for Stacey. She hadn’t arrived yet. Esther felt quite sure that Tawny wouldn’t spill anything about a new man until their unofficial leader was there.
Sure enough, when Winnie Broadhead, the owner of Hibiscus Ink, a popular tattoo and piercing parlor on the island, asked, “So? Come on, Tawny. The suspense is killing me,” Tawny frowned.
“It is not,” she said. “You don’t even want to be in another relationship.” She took a long drink from her mug, and Esther found it strange it wasn’t her usual soda.
“No, I don’t,” Winne said without shame or embarrassment. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to be happy. And you do want to find someone and fall in love. So tell us what happened.”
Tawny glanced down the beach, where it curved and the jungle clawed it’s way toward the sand, only held back by a four-foot high stone wall. Aloha Hideaway, Stacey’s bed and breakfast, sat back in the trees somewhere, with the most charming gardens.
Even Esther had dreamt about what it would be like to walk down the cobbled path, a long, white train behind her, as she approached the man she was in love with. And Tawny? Tawny probably had a date booked already.
“I haven’t heard from her,” Esther said quietly, hoping only Tawny could hear.
She gave herself a little shake, a look of doubt crossing her face. Esther put her hand on Tawny’s arm. “We’ll fill her in, Tawny. Tell us.”
She drew in a big breath, expanding her chest fully before blowing it out. “Okay, I met a man on the beach today. I’ve seen him before, actually. But he always looks like he’s asleep. Today he was throwing a Frisbee to his dog and it flew into my class.”
Esther watched the other women in the group, and they all seemed rapt as Tawny told her tale. Esther was too, if she were being perfectly honest with herself. Meeting a good-looking man for the first time was pulse-pounding and she didn’t want to miss a word of the story.
And maybe, just maybe, her Women’s Beach Club, which Esther had always thought would stick together forever, would be changing very soon. Did that mean she couldn’t come to this patch of sand and talk with her friends?
Of course not, her mind whispered, and a wisp of the worry she’d felt about telling them about Marshall evaporated under the hot sun.
“Anyway,” Tawny said, and Esther realized she’d missed some of the story. “He said he doesn’t have a job, and that sent up a red flag. I mean, I don’t want a man who doesn’t work.” She glanced around at the other ladies. “Do I?”
“What’s his name?” Winnie asked. She knew a lot of people on the island, having grown up here. Her family was generational Hawaiians, and she leaned a bit closer to Tawny.
“Tyler. I didn’t get a last name.”
“Oh, I know him,” Sasha said. “Surfer dude, longish blond hair?”
“Yeah, that’s him,” Tawny said.
“His last name is Rigby.” Sasha reached for her phone. “And honey, he’s riiiich. He doesn’t need to work because he’s already a billionaire.” She tapped and typed, finally turning the phone toward Tawny, and then flashing it around the group.
“He won millions playing poker, then started the biggest online gambling website in the world.” Sasha looked back at the phone, her dark eyes devouring whatever was on the screen. “Says here he sold his half of the company to his brother, the co-founder, for six-point-two billion dollars.”
Esther immediately knew he was in the Hawaii Nine-0 club with Marshall, but she kept her lips tightly shut. He hadn’t specifically asked her not to say anything, but she knew instinctively that she shouldn’t.
“So are you going out with him?” Winnie asked.
“Still working toward the ask,” Tawny said. “But Esther has a new beau.”
All eyes lasered in on Esther, whose heart started sprinting like it would win a gold medal if it raced fast enough.
“Tawny.”
“Come on,” she said, scooting down in her chair and extending her legs. “We need to hear a hopeful story. Have you kissed him yet?”
Esther looked around the group, the eager glints she saw in each eye a testimony that while they were here, they still hadn’t given up on love. And Esther realized she hadn’t either.
“What’s his name?” Sasha asked.
“It’s the guy who owns all the pineapple plantations,” Tawny said before Esther could respond.
“How about you tell it?” Esther reached into her bag for the bar of chocolate she’d brought.
“Sorry, sorry.” Tawny flashed her a smile. “But do go on. I’m dying to know how the date on Thursday night went.”
WANT TO FIND OUT IF TAWNY GETS HER DATE WITH THE BILLIONAIRE BEACH BUM? READ THE BASHFUL BILLIONAIRE NOW!
Chapter Twelve
Marshall wished Fisher hadn’t given up alcohol, as he could really use a drink tonight. A couple of weeks had passed, and he liked Esther as much today as he had the day she’d laid a blue-wrapped package on the back seat.
More, in fact. He couldn’t keep his hands to himself whenever he saw her, and every evening ended with her wrapped in his arms, their kisses as sweet as they were sexy.
Fisher had left a couple of days ago to go help his mother, who had suffered a couple of broken bones in a car accident. And Marshall had just gotten off the phone with Esther. A call that had started with accusations about his best friend, as if she were Stacey’s personal bodyguard.
He raked his hands through his hair and paced in Fisher’s suite. He had a call out to Fisher too, but he honestly didn’t know how this was any of his problem. Stacey had freaked out about Fish leaving town, but Marshall would’ve done the same for his mother.
He passed the empty liquor cabinet, glad for its bare shelves now. He didn’t like the way alcohol clouded his thinking, and he needed to get his thoughts straight as an arrow.
Because his mother had asked him about Esther. How she’d found out, Marshall wasn’t entirely sure. He hadn’t deliberately kept the relationship a secret, but he hadn’t brought her to any of the Thursday dinners in the few short weeks they’d been dating, and she hadn’t asked to come.
The door opened, and he turned to find Tyler, Lawrence, and Ira entering the room. Tyler wore a pair of board shorts and a T-shirt with triangle on it. He was the least likely to be labeled a billionaire, but Marshall knew better. Beneath all those surfer locks and devil-may-care attitude, the man managed his money like he only had pennies left.
Lawrence and Ira fit the mold of the Nine-0 club, and they were already talking about the new tariffs on consumable exports. Marshall suddenly didn’t want to talk business, and he decided he wouldn’t. Such talk wasn’t a requirement at the meeting, and he handed Tyler a can of soda with a nod.
“How’s the beach?”
“Fantastic.” He grinned and popped the top. “How are the pineapples?”
“Fantastic.” The plantations had made a full recovery from the storm, and Marshall had new plants in the ground and fruit being harvested and shipped every day.
His phone rang, and a rush of relief filled him at Fisher’s impeccable timing. “It’s Fish,” he said, already putting long strides between him and the other members of the club. The bell rang again, signaling that another elevator full of people had arrived.
Marshall ducked into the guest room off the living room and answered the call. “Fish.”
“Hey, Marshall. How are things on the islands?”
“There aren’t any storms,” he said.
“Well, that’s good.”
“Yeah.”
“Look, I need to ask you something.”
“Shoot.”
“Have you talked to Esther or anything?” Fisher sounded frustrated.
Yeah, he talked to Esther about a lot of things. The men that claimed her shallow or that they didn’t know her obviously hadn’t tried that hard. “About what, exactly?”
“Stacey.”
Marshall’s pulse blipped. “Why would I talk to her about Stacey?”
“Apparently she thinks I left her.”
“Did you?”
Fisher hissed into the phone. “My mother was in a car accident. I’m in Michigan. Temporarily.”
“But you did leave without telling her.” Marshall didn’t mean to sound like such a jerk. He understood business and family, but knew very little about women and relationships. Obviously, Fisher operated by the same manual.
“I asked Owen to send her a message, and she never got it.” Fisher sounded tired, and Marshall imagined him rubbing his eyes as he spoke.
“Esther said she’s not in a good place,” he said. “Maybe give Stacey some time.”
“Yeah.”
Marshall wanted to end the call, but he decided he could ask a question of his own. “So…what do you think of inviting an almost-billionaire to the Nine-0 club?”
“What?”
That was all Marshall needed to know. “Never mind. It’s a stupid idea.”
“Who is it?”
He didn’t want to say, but he pushed out, “Esther,” anyway. “She doesn’t qualify, but I’m…I’m actually thinking of buying Your Ride for over a billion dollars. Then she would.”
“Wow. I—” Fisher didn’t say anything for a few seconds, and Marshall’s idea sounded ridiculous and stupid when he said it out loud. What made him think Esther would even sell to him? So she could come to Fish’s swanky twenty-eighth floor suite and sip water while boring business people talked about taxes and investments?
This club wasn’t even her scene, and yet he felt guilty for being here without her. She hadn’t asked what his “meeting” was but the woman was as sharp as a tack. She had to know.
“How do you know she’s even a millionaire?” Fish asked.
“I looked her up.”
“You mean you pulled strings and looked at her private financials.”
“Something like that.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I can’t believe you don’t,” Marshall hadn’t had this argument in a long time. But Fish had never been married, though he had told Marshall about a woman who’d tried to get him drunk and then to sign over a huge chunk of his assets. So he should understand, at least a little. But he didn’t seem to.
“She isn’t going to like that,” Fish said.
“She isn’t going to find out.” But Marshall had this nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he needed to be honest with her. Hadn’t he already told her that he hoped they’d always be truthful with each other?
“She’s not going to sell Your Ride,” Fish said. “She built that place from nothing.”
Marshall nodded, though his best friend was a world away. “You’re right. I don’t know why I’m even thinking about it.”
“I don’t either. Besides, what would you do with a car service?”
“Let her run it.”
“So this is just about getting her the zeroes she needs.”
Marshall ran his hand down his face, the beard he hadn’t shaved for a couple of days starting to itch. “I don’t know.”
“Oh, I get it now.” Fisher started laughing, and that only made Marshall angry on top of confused.
“Get what?”
“You’re falling in love with her.”
“No,” Marshall said automatically. No.
“You are,” Fish insisted. “And you’re trying to make sure she’s on the up and up, that’s why you pulled her financials. To make sure she’s not after your money.” So Fisher knew too much of Marshall’s background. Didn’t mean he was right.
“And you don’t want the Nine-0 club to come between you, so you’re trying to figure out a way for her to join.”
“No,” Marshall said again, but everything Fisher had said was starting to sound true. “Tyler’s calling me. Tell your mother I hope she feels better from me.”
Fisher laughed, and Marshall hung up with the sound of it ringing in his ears. He didn’t go back out to the living room and the meeting though. He couldn’t believe he’d allowed himself to slip down the slippery love slope so dang fast.
Three weeks. Fine, three and a half. It had only taken him three and a half weeks to start thinking about having Esther in his life permanently.
And he had no idea what to do with her.
He did know she had money of her own, and her interest in him seemed to be one-hundred percent genuine. He knew he was happier with her by his side, even when they weren’t talking, than he was alone. He knew she kissed him with as much fervor as he kissed her.
“But are you in love with her?” he asked.
He couldn’t answer the question, and when Tyler did poke his head into the room, Marshall left the unanswered thought in the guest suite and went back to the meeting, where such perplexities didn’t exist.
Marshall strolled down the sand, his hand secure in Esther’s. Another week had gone by, and he wasn’t exactly sure what he’d done at work. But he knew he’d shown Esther around his house, and she hadn’t judged him for the massive theater room he’d only used twice. They’d eaten sashimi, which she’d brought over with her, and watched the sun sink into the ocean.
He’d never pegged himself for a romantic guy, but Esther seemed to think he was topping the charts.
She cooked dinner for him at her bungalow, but everything had been too salty. “Ew, gross. Don’t eat that.” She’d practically lunged at him to get the plate with chicken and rice away, and then they’d gone down the beach to a hut that sold wraps with everything imaginable in them.
They’d wandered through the jungle trees on the way back, and he felt like he’d gotten lost in the forest with her—which was just fine by him. His world had narrowed with her in it, and he liked it.
She’d stopped opening the door for him, and he’d kept paying the same amount. He wasn’t going to bring it up again, not if she didn’t. They swam in Fisher’s private pool, as he was still in Michigan with his mom. Stacey had gone too, and all seemed to be well with them.
By the end of the week, Marshall had the growing need to let Esther know how he was feeling. Cards, flowers, dinner dates, sailing, chocolates, he’d done them all.
Esther was fond of coffee, and essential oils, and the beach.
Truth be told, Marshall had started thinking in terms of diamonds and how he could surprise the woman that seemed to know everything about his life before he did. She knew a lot of his favorite things, and he’d enjoyed learning about lavender oil to help him sleep and peppermint oil for when his stomach hurt. Not that he’d ever use them, but he found it sweet that Esther subscribed to the health benefits of oils, and he knew the money in that industry was huge.
But he didn’t want to get her a new stock of jasmine oil. He needed to know a few more things about her before he took the next step, because the next step had his feet on glass ground, and it could shatter at any moment.
“So,” he said on Friday evening when they’d cuddled together in the hammock she had hanging on the edge of her property. She’d confessed and told him she only owned one of the trees, but so far, no one from the forest service had come complaining about her use of the second one.
“So,” she repeated when he let his train of thought keep going without saying anything.
He liked the soft vanilla scent of her hair, the feel of her body formed to his. Getting his next words out was so, so hard. He cleared his throat, the sliver of sky he could see through the foliage above the bluest he’d ever seen. It darkened toward navy, giving him the courage he needed. After all, Esther had told him a few days ago that his navy suits were her favorite.
“I’m just going to say this,” he said.
“That would be great,” she teased.
He should’ve relaxed, but he wasn’t sure if they were this far along in their relationship or not. He just knew he wanted to be.
“So in the Robison family, the first born takes over all operations of the plantations at age thirty,” he started, unsure of why he thought she needed a family history lesson. “So I’ve been doing that for a few years. But at age forty, the plantations become mine. My father will be retired, and I’ll pay him a salary.”
“Okay,” she said. “Sounds great.”
“I don’t have a first born,” he said.
“Ah, and you’re wondering if I want kids.”
“Do you?”
Esther remained silent, and Marshall pushed the hammock slightly with his free hand, giving her time to think, absorb, and respond. It was a skill he’d learned from her over the past couple of months, and though the silence made his pulse do weird skippy things, he kept his mouth shut.
“I’d like children,” she finally said.
Pure relief soared through him, and he took a deep breath of her, inhaling the essence of her all the way to the bottom of his heart. “I think I’m in love with you.”
Marshall hadn’t said words like that in so, so long, and it felt amazing. Another freeing moment when he hadn’t even realized he’d been caged.
Esther twisted to look at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “Are you serious?”
“Deadly.”
She closed her eyes, and a single track of tears ran down her left cheek. He wiped it with his free hand and guided her mouth to his. This kiss was different than any of the previous. There was no rush, but still plenty of passion. The love flowing between them was palpable, almost hanging in the air with the humidity.
And Esther hadn’t said I love you back, but she didn’t need to. Marshall could feel it in her kiss, and that was good enough for now.
“I’m not crazy, am I?” he asked, pushing her hair back from her face and gazing down at her.
She pressed her lips together and shook her head, her eyes still closed. “I’ve loved you for years,” she whispered, and his heart catapulted around inside his chest. “I was worried you might not live up to the man in my dreams, but you have.”
She opened her eyes and said again, “You have.”
