“You mean you’d find another shop that would give you this for free?”
He chuckled. “No. Definitely not as good. And I would come over, but I would have to frown at you.”
She laughed. “I can see you doing that.”
“You’re liking it here.”
A statement, one she had been thinking for several weeks. “It is hard to explain. Just…Hawaii is very soothing. It’s like I am in tune with the lifestyle here, but I never thought it would be for me.”
He nodded as he finished off his second mallasada. “Hawaii is a balm to the soul. I’ve known more than one person who came here and found themselves.”
She shrugged. “It is an odd feeling. I know you know a little of what happened to me.”
He nodded.
“I could never find a place I was comfortable. My house was too big, too…not what I needed. It wasn’t that I was scared, exactly. It was like I didn’t fit anymore. Here I do.”
“Then that’s all you need. Just know living on an island this small, there is always someone here if you need them. They’ll leave you alone if you don’t want to be bothered, but always be ready to lend a hand when asked.”
She nodded. “I get that. I like it actually. I’ve met a few of my neighbors, know their names, their kids’ names. In Atlanta, I didn’t know one person who lived on my street. People never took the time to say hi. They were too busy with, well, whatever. And part of it was me. I was so focused on building my career I forgot to have a life.”
He gave her a fatherly smile. “And now you have one.”
She nodded, feeling the rightness of the statement and how much it meant to her. “Yeah. Now I have one.”
An hour later, she was closing up the shop when her cell phone rang. When she saw the familiar number, her heart jerked. What did Detective Morrison need with her?
“Hello.”
“Jocelyn, how you doing?” the policeman asked. He had been the calm in the storm, with his easy Georgia-boy ways and his contempt for Greg. He had waded through the disbelievers and been a silent hero to keep her safe. He had believed her without question.
“Fine. I’ve been keeping myself busy.”
“Probably not hard there in Hawaii. Is it as pretty as they say?”
Even with her nerves frayed, she looked out, down the street to the little patch of beach she could see. A nice soft wind still blew through the palm trees.
“Yeah. It is.” She paused, then swallowed her fear and asked, “Why are you calling?”
The sigh she heard was filled with regret. “Greg cut a deal.”
Greg’s lawyer had been playing a game for months, and with Greg’s connections, she had always thought this might happen.
“What kind of a deal?”
“Community service, time served,” he said, disgust dripping from his voice. “I threw a fit, of course.”
She could barely hear the words as her brain went blank. Time served? For what he tried to do? The bastard had almost killed her, was intent on that, and they were going to let him walk around free.
“Jocelyn.”
She shook her head. “Sorry. What?”
“I said I tried to resign from the unit—”
“No. You can’t do that. We both knew this was a possibility when it came up. He has a record now. There isn’t much he can do to get that off his record. Plus, he’s ruined financially.”
“Is that enough?”
She didn’t know. “It will have to be.”
Chapter Thirteen
Kai arrived at Jocelyn’s house, his body tired, but the drive had been worth it. He’d taken enough time to run back his house to shower. It had been a bitch of a day with unskilled fishermen and he’d gotten smacked more than once with a damned big mahi mahi. By the time he’d walked off his boat, he’d smelled like rotting fish.
He grabbed his overnight bag and walked up to the door. It was odd that in the last week he had started feeling more comfortable at Jocelyn’s house than his own. It wasn’t the house itself, that much he knew. He should be worried. He had never been one for sleeping over night after night. Here and there, no biggie, but there was a part of him that realized he was slowly moving in with Jocelyn.
He stopped in his tracks. Is that what he was doing? He glanced down at his bag and then at the door. She hadn’t pushed, not once. Not like a lot of women. She just went happily along with the idea that he would be over and that they would plan their night together.
He was frowning as he walked up the steps. He could see her through the screen door. She was sitting on the couch, sipping tea and reading over a cookbook. Something shifted in his chest. He had known he loved her. He probably hadn’t had a chance since he’d met her. But this was something else entirely. He started to realize that she was more important to him than anything else.