The Homecoming

He climbed on the bike and waited for her to settle in behind him. His heart was racing and his body was far too aware of her slim frame as she got onto the bike. When her slender thighs were spread wide on either side of his and her hands gingerly clasped his waist, he thought he might expire with pleasure right on the spot.

He hadn’t thought much about women since Felicia’s death. He’d been functioning on autopilot for the first year or so after her suicide, but even in the three years after that, he hadn’t cared about meeting anyone. He’d assumed his sex drive had died with Felicia.

But judging from the adrenaline rushing through his system now as he put the vehicle into gear and Sydney’s small hands tightened around his waist, he’d been wrong in a big way.

Hell. Sydney was pretty, agreeable and sweet, and he hadn’t been around a woman in ages. There was no more to his physical reaction than that.

He took the main path from the house down to the boat dock in the sheltered cove on the northeastern edge of the island. The reefs were larger and more plentiful all along the north beaches than on the south, and the small cove where the boats came in was a perfect spot to show her first.

He cut the engine and climbed off the bike, then helped her to stand. Her fingers clutched at his and he realized she was a little off-balance, so he slid an arm around her. “You okay?”

She gave him a wobbly smile. “Yes. Just a moment of dizziness. I don’t know why.”

Swimming through God only knew what kind of surf and hitting your head on a rock might have something to do with it, he could have said. But she knew that already. “This cove is where you’ll come when you’re ready to leave the island. Isn’t it pretty?”

“It’s beautiful,” she said. He looked around, seeing it through her eyes. At the right side of the cove was the boat dock, where the water got deep a little faster than around the left side of the circular beach area. Several hundred yards offshore, the waves boiled up against the reef that protected the cove from the stronger surf.

“How do you get in and out of here? That looks dangerous.” She was pointing in the direction he’d been looking.

“It is,” he said. He dropped his arm and moved a pace away, a little unnerved how easy it felt to be with Sydney, to touch her as if they’d been touching for a long, long time. “But there’s a big break in the reef around that headland to the right, and pilots who know the way in have no trouble. I don’t usually swim here but it’s possible over at the west end away from the currents.”

He felt her actually shudder. “I don’t think you have to worry about me swimming.”

After they left Boat Cove, as it was known, he took her northwest around the island, following the beaches. “We have a lot more sand beaches here than the eastern islands do,” he told her as they stood on a wide, sandy beach and watched breakers curl over an offshore reef. “Those islands are geologically a lot newer and haven’t had time to build up the beaches or the reefs like this island has.”

Danny shook out a blanket and sat down, stretching his legs and patting the place beside him. “Take a break. You probably could use a little rest.”

“I hate to admit it, but you’re right.” She sat down a decorous distance from him, drawing up her knees and looping her arms around them as she gazed out to sea. “I’ve never been to Hawaii before,” she said. “I had so much planned and here I sit on one little island, recuperating.” She sighed.

A tingle of excitement that he hadn’t felt in years shot through him. She was remembering more! Carefully, he said, “What kinds of things were you planning to do?”

“I wanted to see the Big Island while I was here,” she said. “Get a close look at the volcanoes and maybe a lava flow. And I wanted to visit Pearl Harbor and tour the Arizona memorial on Oahu. It’s all so beautiful, but I understand that each island is different.”

He nodded. “Kauai has the distinction of having the wettest place on earth. The Big Island has Kilauea, the world’s most active volcano. Each of the others has its own special something.” He paused, then deliberately gave her a test. “Why did you start with Kauai?”

“I had to—” She stopped, whipped her head around to stare at him. “I remembered more, didn’t I?”

He had to smile at her excitement. “You did.”

“But…” Her obvious pleasure was fading fast. “When you asked me about Kauai, I got the strongest feeling that there was something I had to do here first. Something I had to finish before I went home.” Her gaze grew unfocused, though no less intense. “But I can’t remember what it was.”

He put his hand on her shoulder and massaged, feeling the fragile joint, the smooth curve of her supple skin beneath his hand. “It’ll come. Look at what just happened.”

She sighed, an immense exhalation that shook her entire frame. “I hope so.” She looked as pitiful as a balloon that had suddenly lost half its helium, and her misery affected him.

Pulling her close, he rubbed her back for a moment. “It’ll come,” he repeated. Maybe, he thought, he should hire a private detective. He could find out all about her life for her.