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  She nodded, not about to take on an avalanche. When he married her, she didn’t ask him to change his life around for the honor of having her in his bed. Time to play grown up. She was a strong woman, and being strong right now meant letting him go. For now.

  “Call the concierge at the lodge when you are ready to leave. Help and transportation has been arranged for you. Do you need anything from me?”

  “Yes.” She swallowed, already missing him. “When will we see you again?”

  “I’ll be there in time for Gado’s wedding.”

  “That’s…eleven weeks away!”

  He closed his eyes, and she realized right then this was hurting him, too. Still, eleven weeks was better than the four-month span she used to have between sightings.

  His Adam’s apple bobbed. He cleared his throat. “There are things I have to do. Can you—will you be patient and bear with me on this?”

  “Of course. Of course I will! As long as you’re not taking me to divorce court, Jio, I’ll wait.”

  “No.” He exhaled a relieved breath. “No divorce court—unless that’s what you want.”

  She opened her mouth to argue. He pressed a finger to her lips. “If you need me sooner for any reason, call me.” Then he pulled her up against his hard body. “And by the way, darling?”

  Her distressed eyes gazed up into his, and his blue ones sparkled down into her face. “You belong to me, too. Don’t you forget it.” Then he dropped a kiss on her forehead, leaving her mouth feeling let down and untouched, while her mind reeled.

  With the slam of the front door, Jio was gone, leaving her, as usual. He was back in the groove of his high-flyer lifestyle, and she was headed back to Maui. Back to the life she knew. One forever changed after the days, and nights, spent with Jio in Starfire Ridge.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Golden received the court documents in the mail, four days before the wedding. She stood at the kitchen table designing table centerpieces when Naomi arrived, having greeted the mailman on the way in.

  “What do you think, ’Omi?” Golden presented her model arrangements. Inside tall, clear vases filled with water, lavender roses nestled in white pebbles. Romantic candles floated at the top. “You’ve got to decide on your rose colors today, before I start cutting the blooms.”

  “Gorgeous!” Naomi dropped the mail on the table to finger the colorful tea roses, fresh cut from Lani Kai soil that Golden had set aside in a bucket.

  Her gaze landed on a manila envelope addressed to her. It was from a family-law practice, based in Honolulu. Golden’s heart jumped. She fought a swirl of dizziness that had nothing to do with her pregnancy, and everything to do with the label of the sender’s name.

  Clenching the stem of a rose in her hand, she picked up the envelope and started to open it.

  “I still can’t decide between the lavender roses, or the deep pinks,” Naomi complained.

  Golden smiled, trying not to appear distracted as she pulled out the contents of the envelope. She couldn’t stop her hand from shaking as she reviewed the first set of papers.

  “Both roses smell heavenly—hoy! Golden, are you okay? What is it?”

  “Lily is Jio’s heir now.”

  “But of course! He’s always been committed to her. Always loved her as if she were his.”

  Golden flipped to the next bundle of documents. Confused, her eyes tore through the signatures and dates, all written in her own hand. Well, of course they were. She’d signed the papers herself! But that was weeks before she and Jio renewed vows. Before they made their marriage real by sharing their bodies. Making love.

  Her fingers trembled.

  “Golden?” Naomi asked, moving closer.

  “Jio and I are divorced.”

  “What?” Naomi peered at the documents that shook in Golden’s grip. “You two just got legit! What was the ceremony at Starfire Ridge all about? The renewal of vows? You looked so right together. He wanted you. I saw it in his eyes!”

  The flower in Golden’s hand fell to the floor. Her hand slipped to her stomach. “Naomi, I did this! I must have put the envelope in the mail. I thought I’d set it aside—”

  “Golden!” Naomi pressed her fingers against her mouth. “Oh. My. God! I was the one. I put an envelope in the mail with the address of this law office after you left for Colorado. It had already been stamped and sealed. I thought it needed to go out! What have I done?”

  The papers in Golden’s hand shook. Tremors rippled through her. Between her morning sickness, her in-love-with-her hubby sickness, and the whirlwind of helping with the upcoming wedding while taking care of Lily, then managing and marketing the orchards, she hadn’t given a thought to the envelope with the signed divorce papers in them.

  Out of sight out of mind.

  “And the little keiki, Golden? Your pregnancy? You still haven’t told Jio you’re hapai, have you?”

  “I was waiting for him to come to Maui to tell him in person. I-I wanted to see the look on his face. He was due back in time for the wedding.”

  “Will he come now?” Naomi asked, looking worried.

  “He will come.” Every time they spoke he assured her of that. Twice a week he called to say hi to Lily, and talk to her. She and Jio resorted to sharing even the most mundane things about their day, like the price of gas and the weather forecast, just to keep each other talking.

  How she loved those calls! It helped her get to know her husband better, without the distraction of his sexy face and his delicious body. Now this? Knowing his aggressive travel schedule, she hoped to high heaven he hadn’t received copies of the divorce papers yet.

  “I just…” Golden couldn’t keep her voice from cracking or her eyes from tearing up. “How do I manage to have such a crazy, w-wonderful life?” She shook her head, feeling her fire return to chase away her apathy of the past few weeks since coming back from Starfire Ridge, because it was a wonderful life. And the best was yet to come!

  “If I ever see him again,” she broke off, in danger of bursting into hormonal tears from being pregnant and madly in love with her baby-daddy—a man she missed, and loved, like crazy. A man whose past made him the man she loved today.

  The Falcone men—each of them had been a choice. She’d chosen love with Enzo, and lust with Jio. No regrets! Their tormented youth, their wild past, their women—even the three little girls had touched these men’s lives. Shaped them into the men she loved.

  How did she get lucky enough to cross not just Enzo’s path, but Jio’s, too? And what started off as desire had turned into so much more, with Jio.

  “What are you talking about, Golden? You will see him again!”

  “Who is seeing him again?” Gado asked, strolling in through the front door.

  “Gado!” Naomi rushed into his arms. “I caused Golden’s divorce to go through when I put the papers in the mailbox and sent it off to their lawyer’s office!”

  “Huh?”

  “Oh, no,” Golden groaned, feeling sick.

  Her brother immediately picked up the distress signals and walked over to where the stamped and marked documents lay sprawled on the table. The divorce papers were the first things he saw.

  “’Omi!” he groaned. “Why, woman?”

  “I didn’t know. The envelope was just sitting there, and I take stuff to the post office for Lani Kai all the time!”

  “Gado, this doesn’t affect anything,” Golden insisted. “Jio and I, we will worry about us. But you two? You two are getting married and are going to live happily ever after, damn it!”

  “Golden, you’ve been stressed out and you look like hell. Starfire Ridge—that wasn’t make-pretend. Tell me it wasn’t!” her brother appealed.

  “No, it was real. And whatever you both think, whatever has happened with these divorce papers, Jio is going to be part of Lily’s life. Come hell or high water!”

  “Yeah,” Gado sighed. “Let’s be sure to get some clarification. Naomi! Who goes and helps two people get
divorced?” he grumped at her, his voice shot with frustration.

  “I’m sorry!” Naomi raked distressed fingers down her cheeks.

  “We’ll fix this. Please, no worries, both of you. So I’m pregnant and I divorced my husband by mistake. I’m—” Golden started to laugh. She couldn’t help it. “I’m feeling great in spite of it all.”

  Gado rubbed his face, agitated. “When Jio comes back, he’ll be kicking my ass at my own wedding. He asked me to look after you, to make sure you stayed out of trouble till he got back!”

  “No one’s kicking anyone’s ass on your wedding day,” Golden insisted. “Jio and I? We’ll work it out as we always do. You’ll see.”

  ~~*~~

  “Boss lady? Dis weather—it no look so good. Let’s call it a day and come back on Sunday to finish pickin’ the rest of the beans.”

  Golden glanced up at the sky. Rainclouds rolled overhead, ready to shower down on the crew who’d been tirelessly picking the bumper crop harvest of red, ripe coffee cherries.

  “The storm will trash the cherries that are left on the branches,” she predicted, her brows crimped in worry. “And I can’t let the Island Java Company down. They bought what harvest is left of our coffee for the year. I’m not about to give it up. Can you believe it, Keo? Lani Kai’s coffee is about to take off!”

  Keo grinned. “Lani Kai’s best kept secret is out.”

  She smiled. Pretty soon her other secret would be out. Her baby-bump had bumped out in a major way. She’d carried safely over her first trimester, adding to her excitement of the days, weeks and months to come.

  Of course Jio would be the last to know, but she’d see him soon. He was flying in late tomorrow night. Her mouth watered as if she’d just bit into an island orange. There was so much she wanted to say. Most important was telling him how much she loved him. Well, that and he was going to be a father.

  Jio so totally loved her. She felt it in her bones. He had more than just words to say—he had feelings to express, and she sensed those emotions, simmering below their voices when they talked on the phone. You just need to get here, husband.

  “Take the crew and go, Keo.”

  “No can do, boss,” her foreman stubbornly replied. “Gado said if you stay, we gotta stay.”

  “Gado didn’t say that. He’s obsessed with making sure I get Naomi to the church on time. He could care less if our coffee ends up washing out to sea. Look, just let me finish up here. I’m thirty minutes behind you. Go home! I’ll see you guys tonight at the rehearsal dinner.”

  “Okay, boss, I’ll go,” Keo finally agreed, not looking happy about Golden’s decision to stay behind, but knowing it was pointless to argue. “Thirty minutes, and that’s it!”

  “I promise.”

  Horace Nakagawa, CEO of Island Java Coffee owned a string of island diners, each with an onsite gourmet bakery. After he’d served as a judge at a coffee cupping competition on the Big Island, where Lani Kai’s coffee entry took top awards, he flew to Maui to purchase whatever coffee harvest remained on Lani Kai’s acreage. Then he gave her a three-year contract to supply his bakeries and restaurants with Lani Kai’s estate coffee!

  Not about to let Horace down, the explosion of rain that stormed the trees didn’t keep her from cleaning out as many of the ripe cherries off the branches as she could. Finally, she gave up. The two sacks she’d managed to fill were extra heavy with the weight of the rain coming down on them.

  Doggedly, Golden maneuvered her loot toward the truck waiting at the bottom of the slope. Stepping into a loose patch of gravel, she lost her footing, slid down a muddy incline for several hair-raising feet, and screamed when her right foot crash-landed into a newly opened hole in the ground, where a stream of rainwater had unseated a rock from its nesting place.

  She thrust her arm out to break her fall—instantly grateful when her palm hit the ground, and stopped her from landing face and tummy down in the dirt.

  Pain roared up her leg. Tears filled her eyes. She righted herself into a crouch, pressing one knee in the ground and breathing a sigh of relief that her stomach was in no way harmed.

  She reached down around the belt loop of her stretchy maternity jeans for the keys to her truck—dismayed to find that the small key ring was no longer hooked there. The truck would be locked, she just knew it. She groaned, frustrated.

  Her ankle hurt like hell, and her power slide down the hill had resulted in her jeans being ripped at one knee. The skin on the hand she landed on had also been scraped and cut by loose gravel. Yet, as she ached and bled, all she could think about was keeping her baby-bump safe, and dragging the sacks of coffee cherries up the mountain slope and into one of the caves.

  Her brother was going to be worried sick when she didn’t show up for the rehearsal dinner.

  Worried sick, indeed.

  ~~*~~

  The commercial jet touched down and cruised over to its jetway at Kahului’s airport terminal. Jio glanced at his watch. They were early. Lucky to have arrived even, for severe headwinds and heavy rains were grounding outgoing flights from Honolulu to other islands in the Hawaiian archipelago.

  He stepped into the main lobby of the airport. With no baggage to claim and just his carry on, he strode over to the airport’s Starbucks and ordered a cappuccino. What his ragged nerves really needed was the tranquil effects of a soothing whiskey.

  About to get behind the wheel of a car, alcohol was out of the question. While the barista whipped up his drink, he looked around. A smile tugged at his lips at the sight of travelers being warmly greeted with fragrant and colorful flower leis. And hugs. And when lovers met once again? Slow, lingering kisses.

  He hoped his wife would have one of those kisses waiting for him.

  He’d been a businessman on the edge these past months, but others certainly benefitted from his eccentric, million dollar business deals. He wouldn’t miss the revenue he’d lose from them. Nor would he miss the equity he’d given away in real estate alone to various charities in the U.S., and abroad.

  The deals he’d made to unload property and business interests had gained him the freedom to spend a lifetime enjoying his wife.

  Golden was his wife. His lover. She and Lily were his famiglia. His ohana. He wouldn’t miss the money, but what a broken man he’d be if he missed out on her. She was his heart—an irreplaceable love no amount of money could buy, and she was right here waiting for him. Here, within his reach.

  Well, here he was—coping with an impatient heart, and a body that burned for her touch. He hoped his daily e-mails and calls to her twice weekly to let her know how much he missed her and Lily kept her believing in him. That she hadn’t given up, or gotten too frustrated with him.

  Jio paid for his drink and took a sip from the cup handed to him. Before hopping on the shuttle bus that would take him to the rental car lot—a service that allowed him to use his club pass to simply pick out a car and go—he thought it best to call ahead and find out exactly where his wife was going to be.

  Not wanting to spoil the surprise of his early arrival, Jio used a courtesy phone to call Gado’s cell. His brother-in-law picked up on the first ring.

  “Hey Gado—my apologies. I’m here at the airport, about to get into a rental car. I was hoping to surprise Golden and Lily. Are you all at home tonight, or at the wedding rehearsal—”

  “I’ll come get you,” Gado interrupted, and hung up.

  Jio stared at the mouthpiece, astonished. It would take at least an hour and a half to drive one-way from Lani Kai, to the airport! Shrugging, he found a place to sit, pulled out his mobile tablet and settled in for a long wait.

  An hour later, Gado’s car cruised up along the rain-battered curb. He must have been speeding on the coastal road, or had been closer in to the airport than he let on.

  “I don’t want to alarm you,” his brother-in-law said stiffly as Jio stepped out of the rain and climbed into the car.

  Jio frowned. “What is it?”

 
“Golden is missing.”

  Rain trickled down Jio’s forehead. It cooled the sweat that pierced from beneath his skin. His vision swam. Gado should have just kicked him in the head. It would have produced the same effect.

  “From where?” Jio squeezed past the sick knot forming in his throat. He’d been about to sling the seat belt around his waist, but now he found himself frozen in place.

  Gado wouldn’t look at him. His jaw clenched as he revved away from the curb. “We left her up on the mauka range, picking coffee. Because of the mountain’s elevation, no one’s been able to reach her on her cell. Our foreman tried driving his truck back up, but there’ve been mudslides.”

  “Marcus has a helicopter. Will he let me use it?”

  “Dude, no one is flying in this crap! It’ll be dark soon and visibility is nil. We’re mounting a search party to go up and look for her.”

  Jio pounded a fist into his carry on and leaned back, frustrated. Fearful. Helpless. Tears burned a path into his vision.

  “Don’t worry, Jio.”

  Don’t worry? Jio found no comfort in those words. He’d already lost his brother. He couldn’t lose his wife, too. He groaned, agonized. There was still the drive along the coast to endure. “Gado, we have to find my wife.”

  “Brah! Is she really your wife?”

  He rested his head in his trembling hands, feeling nauseated. “What are you talking about?”

  “Well, is it on this month? Off? Is it over? Your marriage to my sister?”

  Jio swore. “I love your sister. More than life itself. Damn it!” He dragged in a heavy breath. “I shouldn’t have let her leave me! I should have dropped everything and followed her back here. How has she been?”

  “Sick. Every damn day-ahh, crap.”

  “Has she not been well? Tell me!”

  Gado wouldn’t say one word.

  Jio pulled in a deep breath. “I have no right. I’m sorry. Please—I want no more tragedies in our lives, Gado. I’m begging you.” He swiped at the tear that drifted down his cheek.