*Lokela

He should know better by now, not to hope for the best. Or for anything at all, but what he deserved. Yet, there it was—all the hope in the world that she would somehow forgive him.

As her finger brushed his lips, a jolt of exquisite pain shot straight to his heart. She cupped his jaw and leaned forward. A new ache formed in his heart, a brilliant, blinding pain of his heart becoming whole. Only the weight of her on his chest kept him together. She wasn't leaving him.

"Can we start this over again?" he whispered. "Is there any promise I can give that you'll take?"

"In your letter, you wrote there was no kiss that would be a promise to right this wrong. Maybe you were wrong."

Her fingers moved from his lips to caress his face lightly, even to trace his scar, another part of him that was ugly. But that wasn't what he saw in her expression. She smiled, and every nerve lit on fire for her.

He drew her nearer, wanting her closer.

Her lips touched his, hesitant and brief. She paused to blink at him in the darkness. "Is your head all right for us to do this?"

"Ray, I swear, one day you'll kill me with your questions." He put an arm around her waist do pull her on top of him.

She met his hungry kiss with a heat that matched his own. Her summer night scent enveloped him. Her warmth swelled his heart just as her breath filled his lungs. She moved with him, rocking, swaying. She was the wave his heart was on—to be swallowed whole as well as lifted closer to the sun. The faint brush of her hand as it crawled up his shirt, the tickling wisps of her hair on his face, the soft pressure of her lips—all promising a second chance together.

"You are my gentle ocean, Kai wahine, I give you my heart, I will belong to you so long as you will keep me near," he breathed.

She kissed him again, her tongue darting into his mouth. He ran his hands the length of her body to cup her ass.

"So your head doesn't hurt too bad?" she asked, gasping as if out of breath.

"I'm not going to die, if that's what you're worried about," he answered.

She sat up suddenly, knees straddling him.

His dick instantly perked way the fuck up. She tugged her shirt over her head, exposing a see-through lace bra and the darker circles of her nipples. And then he had a raging hard-on.

His head? It was fine. It didn't hurt in the least.

Until she accidently bumped him with her forehead as she came down for another kiss.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"It's all right. Just keep doing what you were doing." He took her hips and ground into her.

She covered his face with wet, urgent kisses, careful to avoid his bandages. As she sucked his lower lip, he groaned in response, exhilarated anticipation of what was to come overwhelming his reason. He had Ray in his arms, and she was hot for him. He was going to bury himself—

"Wait," she said, pausing in mid-lip suck. "Do you have any condoms?"

His brain snapped back to reality. "Fuck."

***

*Ray

Embarrassed wasn't quite the word Ray was looking for. Guity? Well, trying to have sex with someone in observation at the hospital wasn't exactly a crime, if said person was willing and of sound mind.

As in, not hopped up on a lot of drugs. Which had seemed to be the case.

"Look, I said I'm sorry," Ray said.

It was just past lunch, and she'd spent the entire morning apologizing for getting caught by the night nurse when she was wearing nothing but her underthings and straddling Lokela, who was supposed to be resting. He only had on hospital robe, and the only reason they still had on that much was because they were exploring their options in the light of no condom.

Idiotic. There was another word to describe herself. How hard would it have been to buy some condoms and keep them in her purse, like a sensible young woman would do?

Of course, if she had, the nurse would have found them in a much more compromising position....

Beth rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

She glanced at Russell for support, but he was busy taking a selfie of himself with Annabelle in front of the tiny Christmas palm-tree the clinic staff had put up in their room on the side table.

"I said no drama, Ray. What is it you don't understand?"

"If that nurse hadn't walked in uninvited right at that awkward moment, none of this would be a problem," Ray said.

"That doesn't...that isn't..." Her voice trailed off as Annabelle's fussy cry picked up volume. "When she cries like that she either needs to nurse or she might need to be changed."

Russell practically leapt across the room in his haste to deposit the infant in his wife's waiting arms.

"Oh, I can change her diaper," Ray said, waving her arm in the air to volunteer. "I need to learn how to do it if I'm going to help out for the next week before I leave. Good thing I decided to come for Christmas, after all."

Beth sniffed Annabelle's derrière and grimaced. "Don't try to sweet-talk your way out of being in trouble for them finding you and Lokela half-naked in his room, in the middle of some serious hanky-panky."

"You sound like Mom," Ray said.

"I do not!" Beth turned a devastated face to Russell.

His expression went grim. "Actually, you do."

"See?" Ray asked and beckoned for the baby.

"Don't give me grief," Beth said, handing Annabelle to her. "I just gave birth. I don't need a bunch of nurses mad at me because my sister can't keep her pants on around her new boyfriend."

"Beth," Russell said slowly. "I'd like to say two things. One, she's young. It wasn't so bad, all things considered. There are worse places for hanky-panky, if you take my meaning..."

Beth glared at him until he cleared his throat and continued. "And I've already forgotten what the second thing was because I only got forty-five minutes of sleep last night between Annabelle arriving, Annabelle crying, the nurses checking on your boobs for Annabelle, and your sister getting in trouble. I'm not thrilled with the situation your sister got herself into, but in grand scheme of things..."

His voice trailed off as Beth continued to glare at him. He cleared his throat. "I'll talk to Lokela and make him understand a few things."

"Good."

"By the way, Beth," Ray said from the changing table. She snuck in a quick baby-foot kiss. "There is a surprise waiting for you and the family at the house, which I suppose includes me, unless you want me to shack up with Lokela at the hotel—"

"No!" both Beth and Russell cried.

"We need you to help change the baby and handle other stuff," Russell said, pointing at Beth discreetly. Ray nodded.

"You will not be staying with some guy in a hotel for Christmas," Beth said. "You are still my favorite sister, despite the drama. What's the surprise?"

"It's a surprise," Ray said. "And I'm your only sister. But you're my favorite, too, just so you know."

The clinic discharged Beth to go home a couple hours later and Russell helped her waddle out the door and to the car. Ray played with Annabelle's feet sticking up from her car seat the whole drive back. At the adorable bungalow, tucked behind a row of red hibiscus flower bushes and shaded by bending palms, a row of Ray's roommates greeted them as they pulled into the drive.

Doug dangled the keys to the house from his hand. He opened Beth's door and helped her stand. "I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of using your kitchen this morning, with Ray's blessing."

Beth frowned, but nodded. "We'll see. It depends on how you left it."

Miller, Doug, Trevor (wearing a clean shirt), and Travis ushered Russell, Beth, the baby inside. Ray trailed after them to take Lokela's hand.

"Is your head better?"

"I've felt better, but I'm not complaining. At least they didn't call the cops," he said, a smug grin plastered to his face.

She tugged his hand to keep him from going inside too fast. "I'm glad about that. My sister said she'd put me in a nunnery if I ever pull a stunt like that, and get caught, right after she's given birth."

"Moral of the story, in that case, is to not get caught next time." He nuzzled her ear, nipping at the lobe.

The front door swung open with a whine and Russell grunted at them. Startled, Lokela jumped at least three feet away from her.

"Your sister needs you inside, Ray," Russell said. "I had no idea your roommate Doug could meal-prep a week's worth of dinners, plus get Christmas dinner with all the works started in one day."

"I didn't know that either, I'm going to have some words with him," she said. She widened her eyes at Lokela and canted her head for him to follow her indoors.

Russell put his hand on Lokela's chest, stopping him. "Not you. You and I are going to have some words, too."

"Right. Good. Let's have some words. I'll see you a couple of minutes, Ray," he called, desperation tinging his voice with fear.

The house smelled like heaven and Christmas rolled into one. Cinnamon, roasting turkey, freshly baked bread rolls, apples caramelizing in the pan.... Ray strolled in, breathing deeply.

Beth grabbed her arm, pulling her into a corner by the Christmas tree. "Doug has a boyfriend, right?"

"Yes."

"Is it serious between them?"

"It's early, but it seems serious. Why?"

"I know it's wrong to kidnap people and make them cook for you, so I won't do that, especially since his boyfriend would notice he was missing, but do you think he could be persuaded to move to the guest house Russell is building and be my nanny?" Beth asked in a hushed whisper.

"You can always ask." Ray patted her arm. "But until then, he'll live in the same house as me, and now that I know what he's capable of, I intend to take full advantage of his culinary skills." She batted her eyes for full puppy-dog effect.

Beth inhaled, circling with her nose. "Sweet angels above, it smells so delicious. Maybe I've died."

Russell returned, but from the back door. Alone. Ray's eyebrows pinched in alarm. That wasn't fast enough to bury a body in the back yard, but it was too fast for a conversation. What had happened? He winked at her as she passed by on her way to the lanai to see if Lokela was alive.

He was. He stood in the sun-dappled back yard with his back to the bungalow, hands jammed deep in the pockets of his loose shorts. The sun glinted off the black locks of his tussled hair and glowed brown on his skin. She crept up to him. His scent hit her, a fresh shower, minty smell. She hugged him from behind, her hands crossed over his heart. Its beating thrummed in gentle vibrations.

"Are you all right? He didn't scare you off, did he?" she asked.

"He said if I was asshole, he would gather his furniture making tools and every surfer he knew at the bay to hunt my ass down and turn my insides out."

"I'll talk to him. That is not at all appropriate. In this day and age, a young woman is perfectly capable of handling tools and gathering a posse all by herself," she said.

He chuckled and twisted to kiss her forehead.

Her body buzzed with warmth that had nothing to do with the Hawaiian sun beating to the earth through the trees.

"Trust me, Ray," he said. "Your team-gathering and hunting skills will not be required."

The rough pad of his thumb grazed the base of her neck as he traced the tiny V dip between her collar bones. She softened into his arms.

"You know," he whispered, ducking lower to her ear, "I have a package of condoms in my man satchel, just in case."

She shuddered. "Russell is building a guest house. I think we should go check it out for structural stability."

"Lead the way, I'll follow," he said, winking.

*** Rule number one: let Ray go first .... Thank you so much for reading!!! Hit the star, and check out the epilogue!!! ***