Chapter 14

FOURTEEN

brIGGS TURNER was in her house. On her couch . Lahela paced her room, heart thumping erratically against her rib cage. Was he comfortable? Did he need an extra pillow? Did he know where the cups were in case he got thirsty in the middle of the night?

“I can hear you pacing.”

Lahela froze and dropped her eyes to the old oak floors beneath her feet. “Sorry.”

“Do you need anything?”

She pressed her hand on the wall separating her room from the living room. No, it wasn’t a shared wall with her bed and her couch, but it was a thin wall. Her eyes widened. What if I snore?!

Kekoa had teased her on more than one occasion, saying she snored loud enough to wake up Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes and fire, and even blamed her for why Kilauea was still flowing. “Pele can’t rest with your snoring, Sis.” And now, thanks to her annoying brother, she was going to stay awake all night.

“Lahela, you okay?”

She jumped, spinning to face her closed bedroom door. Briggs was on the other side of her bedroom door. Without thinking, she swung it open and blurted, “I snore!”

She cringed and clamped a hand over her mouth. This was not the way to win Briggs’s affection. What if snoring is where he draws the line? And why isn’t he saying anything?

And why —Her attention was momentarily stalled on the realization that Briggs was standing there shirtless. The cut of his chest muscles moving with the slow steadiness of his breathing that certainly didn’t match the erratic breaths coming from her.

“I was worried when you didn’t answer.” But the amused look he was giving her now didn’t appear to be worried at all. “You okay?”

“I’m good.” Her reply came out breathy. “Thank you for checking on me.”

“I’m always going to be here.”

His voice was low and husky, and Lahela didn’t know who stepped forward first, but his fingers brushed against her neck, sending a trickle of chills dancing over her skin. His chin dipped and she could just barely pick up the scent of his aftershave as his eyes asked permission.

Lahela slid her hand up his arm until her fingers stretched into his hair, and she felt his warm hands at her back, gently pressing her into his body until his lips finally found hers. She closed her eyes, leaning into him and into the kiss. It was soft and tender and—too short.

Briggs pulled away and it delighted her to see the heady way his look confirmed it was too short for him too. “Good night, Lahela.”

“Night, Briggs.”

She closed the door and then tiptoed to the wall and pressed her ear against it. She touched her lips—they were still warm from the kiss.

“Lahela.” His voice echoed through the wall, and she pressed back as if he’d known she was standing there. “If you can snore louder than me, I’ll buy you dinner tomorrow night.”

The smile she was biting back unfurled widely across her face. “Briggs, are you using a bet to ask me out on a date?”

“Maybe, but you haven’t heard me snore yet. The odds are definitely in my favor.”

Lahela laughed and remembered what Briggs said about doing whatever it took to make her smile and laugh. He was a man of his word, and suddenly her desire to be on the other side of this wall, sitting on the couch, tucked into his arms, and feeling his lips back on hers was overwhelming.

“Good night, Briggs.” She vaulted into her bed like a teenage girl. “May the odds be ever in my favor.”

“Good night, Lahela.”

Snuggling into her blanket, she reached over to make sure her alarm was set on her cell phone when it vibrated with a call from Nancy.

Lahela kept her voice low when she answered. “Hello?”

“Hey! What’s wrong?”

“What? Nothing. Why?”

“Your voice sounds weird.”

“I’m using my indoor voice,” Lahela said. “Why are you calling so late?”

Nancy scoffed into the phone. “It’s barely ten.”

“On a school night.” Her eyes flickered to the wall and she imagined Briggs’s body sprawled out on her couch. Would her pillows smell like him after tonight? Was it weird to hope so?

“You still there?”

Lahela blinked, realizing Nancy had still been talking to her. “Yeah, sorry. It’s been a long day.” She flopped a hand over her eyes. No need to worry about snoring, she wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight. “Um, did you need something?”

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

Lahela sat up at the change in Nancy’s tone. “What?” All it took was a second or two of silence for the anxiety to return. “Nancy, what is it?”

Nancy released a sigh. “I spoke to Trevor.”

She let that hang in the air for a second, unsure if she was surprised by it or that she was expecting something ... worse? “What do you mean?”

“While you were giving your report to the police today at school, I went over and spoke to Trevor. He told me everything. About what happened at the fair, that he went to your house to apologize, but he saw Briggs there, and how the police questioned him about the fire—which by the way, why didn’t you tell me about that?”

“I was going to.” Did her answer sound as defensive as she felt? She didn’t want to relive the terrible details of her weekend, but she wasn’t trying to hide them either. “At lunch.”

“Oh. And you thought Trevor would do that?” Again, there was an oddly accusatory tone in Nancy’s voice. “I mean, he was an idiot letting you walk out of his life, but stalking you? You should’ve seen how upset he was today, Lahela. He’s really worried about you, and I think maybe he’s realized breaking up was a mistake.”

Lahela dropped back against her pillows and relief eased through her, realizing what this was. Nancy had been Trevor’s biggest fan and was nearly as upset as Lahela, maybe even more, when Lahela told her about their breakup. Even though it was Trevor who had called it off, it hadn’t stopped Nancy from hoping for a second-chance romance that Lahela blamed on Nancy’s obsession with romance novels.

However, if this was Nancy’s thinly veiled attempt to get them back together, she was going to be very disappointed in how this story would end.

“I don’t think Trevor is a bad guy.” She kept her voice low. “And I wasn’t convinced he was behind the calls or fire, but the police had reason to look into him. I appreciate he’s sorry but, Nancy, that part of my life, with him, is over.”

“Are you sure? Because there’s nothing like a knight rising to the challenge of protecting his maiden.”

Lahela rolled her eyes. “You need to read some nonfiction.”

“Ugh. No thanks. There’s enough nonfiction in the world for me.” Nancy sighed. “Okay, well, I guess I just wanted you to know that if there were any lingering feelings for Trevor, I think he’d be open to rekindling th—”

“There aren’t.” Her voice was a little louder than she expected. “Feelings. For Trevor,” she whispered.

“Fine. I just thought it was super romantic of him to show up today. And before you tell me that’s the stuff of make-believe, there’s a reason authors keep writing the hero rescuing the heroine tropes. It’s the grand gesture that wins back her heart.”

“I don’t want him to win back my heart.” Exhaustion weighed on her. Lahela wasn’t going to explain how she’d been questioning whether she ever really loved Trevor in the first place. At least not tonight. “Look, let’s meet up for coffee tomorrow since I missed Mocha Monday today.”

“Ooh, Tea Tuesday. Sounds great.”

With plans made to meet at the coffee shop, Lahela flipped off the light and listened to see if she could hear Briggs snoring. Nothing. Maybe if she buried herself beneath her covers, it would hide her snoring, but then that meant he’d win and there’d be no dinner. Smiling, Lahela folded her blankets down and prayed she snored loud enough to wake up Pele all the way from Texas.

LAHELA JOLTED UPRIGHT in her bed to the sound of the blaring alarm echoing in her ears. It took her a second to shake off the sleep and realize it was her alarm system going off. Fear pulsed heavy through her veins, and she scrambled out of her sheets, forcing her eyes to adjust to the darkness of her bedroom. She screamed when her bedroom door flew open. Briggs.

He was at her side, one arm wrapping her into his side as he helped her off the bed and walked her toward ... her dark closet? She looked up at him and realized he was talking on his cell phone, his face the picture of calm against the panic thrashing against her rib cage.

“What’s happening, Briggs?”

Pressing her deeper into his side, he met her eyes. “Someone tried to break in.”

The coil of unease Lahela had been fighting all night to loosen tightened with a snap around her gut. Burying her face into Briggs’s shoulder, she closed her eyes, hating that she wanted to be anywhere but here.