Somewhere on Maui (an Accidental Matchmaker Novel) (18 page)

Adam strode to his truck, unable to stop smiling.
Now I know.

He unlocked the truck, got in, and turned the key. And sat
there, trying to sort out his thoughts, trying to pull himself together when he’d just been blown apart.

The session with Dr. Suzuki had been good, sorting
through the issues with his mother and her care, his worries about the kids, the fact that he hadn’t yet told anyone he was off the Lepler build and his lame reasons for that. His complicated feelings about Zoe, his frustration and helplessness, his guilt about even trying to get to know her better when life was so overwhelming.

And at the end, he’d opened the counseling room door and
there Zoe sat, just as if he’d conjured her up with sheer wishful thinking.

He replayed the kiss in his mind—crossing to stand in front of her. Noticing everything about her: the loose updo of that fascinating hair held in place with a pearly comb; the graceful line of her shoulders in the tank top; her ferny eyes, wide and startled, her mouth ajar in surprise.

That last bit of adorableness had ignited an overwhelming urge to kiss her.

And he had. Oh, how he had, and it was everything he’d been missing. Leaning his head on the steering wheel, he realized that he’d just had the kiss he’d been waiting for his whole life.

Cherisse hadn’t liked kissing, and if the truth be known, their relationship had been more for convenience than anything else. He’d liked her, been attracted, felt sorry for her, and frankly, given up hoping he’d fall in love. Other girlfriends had elicited pleasant feelings and functional arousal—but now he knew some part of him had been waiting for this.

The one big love.

And now the possibility had come into his life at the worst possible time.

And yet, he couldn’t stop smiling.

That unbelievable endorphin high lasted until he pulled up into the kids’ grandparents’ driveway, and saw Cherisse walking down the steps of their house, tugging his kids by their hands.

Adam pulled the truck up in front of her car in the driveway, blocking it in, his heart sinking with dread. He jumped out, already beginning his anger management breathing as he headed toward his ex, his eyes scanning the kids’ faces. Diego’s eyes were large and blank, his mouth a line; Serena had her head down and hair hanging over her eyes to hide her face.

Cherisse stopped, hauled the children in against her on either side. “Move your truck. Get out of my way. Your visit is over.”

“Cherisse.” He raised his hands in a surrender gesture, made his voice soft. “I thought I got to have them until school started.”

“Clearly you don’t want them that much if you dropped them off at my parents’.” Cherisse wasn’t looking good. Always a well-rounded woman, she’d lost weight to the point that her clothes hung from her sturdy frame. She’d cut her hair and it hung lank to her shoulders. Her eyes were red-rimmed.

“My mom had a heart attack and was in the hospital—it was an emergency. Let’s not talk about this in front of them, okay? Can I speak to you alone?”

“Diego, Serena, come have an ice pop in the kitchen,” their grandmother called from the porch. The kids took that opportunity to pry themselves loose and run back into the house. Adam felt a knot of sadness and guilt for Cherisse, but it was dispelled by her narrowed, hate-filled eyes she glared at him and said, “I got a letter notifying me you’ve applied for custody.”

“Yes. I have. I can give them a stable home.”

“These are my children. Not yours. And you can take your stable home and shove it.”

Adam felt the anger he’d been tamping down swirling up to fill his veins like hot lava.

“This is not about ownership of whose children they are. Think about what’s best for them, for once in your selfish life.”

Cherisse glared another second,
then turned back to bawl into the house. “Diego! Serena! Come right now!”  She took out her phone and jabbed it. “911? My ex is harassing me and trying to steal my children!”

This situation could not end well—it would turn into a “he-said, she-said” drama with the cops, the kids caught in the middle. That was the last thing Adam wanted.

Adam stomped back to the truck, wrenched open the door, jumped in. He fired up the vehicle and backed out. He pulled away and hit the steering wheel repeatedly. He didn’t realize until he pulled up at one of the surf breaks lining the road to Lahaina that his cheeks were wet with tears.

He would just have to get the kids
through the courts and through showing their mother was unfit. He felt sick at the thought of doing that to Cherisse and to the children… but she’d left him no alternative, and he still sensed the Vierras’ support—perhaps they could go through the ordeal together.

As if to confirm this, his phone rang. It was Josiah Vierra.

“She took out a temporary restraining order against you for herself and the kids,” said Cherisse’s father when Adam answered. “We tried to tell the cops you didn’t do anything, but she made some accusations—I’m afraid they aren’t going to sound good.”

Adam leaned his forehead against the steering wheel. “I’m not surprised.”

“She was really angry about your bid for custody. She thinks we’re on your side, and now we’re cut off too. We don’t even know where she went or where the children are.”

“Is
there anything you could say to the cops when they were there?”

“I tried. They weren’t listening. They see so much of the usual domestic violence, they just didn’t believe you aren’t like that.”

Adam felt a wave of anguish wash over him, and he shut his eyes. He did his breathing and eventually rallied, remembering he had money in the bank. “Well, I’m going to hire a private investigator to find Cherisse and gather information on her lifestyle. I’m not giving up on getting the kids and sharing custody with you. Are you okay with that?”

“Yes. We know she’s not just drinking. This new boyfriend she has got her into drugs too. My wife and I don’t want the kids exposed. Anything we can do. We’re in this together.”

They talked strategy a few minutes more, and Adam hung up, heartened.

The surf was breaking outside the windshield of his truck, little peeling waves creating a tableau against the expanse of blue sea and purple smudge of the offshore
island of Lanai in the distance. With nothing more to be done at the moment and a lot of stress to discharge, Adam got out of the vehicle. He changed, took his longboard down off the racks, and trotted down the rocky beach to leap over the waves into his element.

Zoe
’s neck had begun to ache again after her meeting with Dr. Suzuki, so when she got home, she got out her mom’s rice sock, microwaved it, took a couple of Advil, and lay down on the Murphy bed with the warm sock under her neck. She took out her phone.

Michelle answered on the third ring.
“What’s the latest?”

“I kissed them
.”

“
Who? What? Oh my God!” Michelle exclaimed.

“
Both of them. Brad and Adam. I kissed them both.”

“
Back up the train, girlfriend, and gimme details. All of ’em.”

Zoe filled her in on what had been going on, from the date with Brad that ended outside her door to Adam
’s mother’s second heart attack and their accidental meeting in the therapist’s waiting room.

“
Okay, stop right there. I know you’re going on about the chemistry, but what? You have the same therapist? That’s not an endorsement for the Well People’s Club. I’m still voting for Brad.”

“Well, having the same therapist is
like being caught at a nudie beach. Yeah, there they are, nude, but so are you. Guilty by association. Besides, he’d already told me he had a therapist and was going to anger management.”

“
So then he comes out and sees you and basically walks over and kisses you?”

“
I know it sounds crazy...”

“
Given the setting, that’s obvious.”

Zoe laughed. “H
e said before he kissed me, ‘I have to know,’ and I knew exactly what he meant. Was this feeling we were having as intense as he thought it was? I wanted to know too. And it was.” Her whole body lit up at the memory of that scorching kiss. The heat from the rice sock at the back of her neck seemed to spread out and downward. “Then he left. I went and did my session with Dr. Suzuki.”

“
So please tell me you talked with her about it.”

“
Of course. She apologized for the office changing my schedule so that we intersected. She hadn’t meant to go late with Adam or I never would have seen him. I told her thank you; we were having the hardest time figuring out a way to see each other again with all that’s going on in our lives.”

“
So you don’t think she engineered your meeting?”

Zoe paused, thinking a
bout the therapist’s facial expressions. “I don’t think so. She said she’d make sure it never happened again, and I told her to make sure it did, preferably as soon as possible.”

“Oh, my girl. You’ve got a crush
.”

“Afraid so.
I mean, I like Brad and I liked him kissing me, but it wasn’t like Adam. Nothing’s ever been like that, not even Rex.”

“
Well, that I’m not surprised to hear. The man was a cold fish, and I told you that a long time ago. Didn’t want to keep saying it. And once you got that obsession about having a kid, it was all business between the two of you.”

Zoe thought about her friend’s words even as they stung
. The charting of her cycle. Taking her temperature and having mechanical sex when she was ovulating. Elevating her hips on a pillow for twenty minutes afterward, hoping something would happen. Rex’s square-cut, pleasant face, eyes shut above her as he mechanically performed his duty—clearly somewhere else, with someone else.

Not that she’d been present for the act, either.

“I think you’re right.” Zoe covered her face with her hand, feeling tears starting. “I killed our marriage.”

“
Oh no, honey. It was dead from the get-go. If you think about it, having a baby was your attempt to do a project with him. I’m sorry, but as your friend, I never thought either of you should settle the way you did.”

“
Settle. Such a nasty word,” Zoe murmured, still feeling the silent track of tears moving down her face. But that was exactly what each of them had done. Rex, because Zoe was familiar and “good wife material.” And after her parents’ debacle of a marriage, Zoe had believed that the safe and predictable thing must be the right thing. She’d married Rex because, having met in college and been “compatible” for years, it was grown-up and logical.

She’d been too afraid to listen to her
intuition telling her that she’d been bored with Rex and their predicable path before it even got started. When they’d failed to get pregnant, Zoe had tackled having a child with her usual journalistic, driven thoroughness, convinced that it would bring meaning to their marriage.

“I think
it’s a good thing I didn’t get pregnant.” Zoe’s words came out a whisper as her hand slid down to rest on her stomach, stroking the smooth dip between her hip bones.

“So glad to hear you say
that,” Michelle said. “I hurt for you so much, but given how things turned out, it seems like it might have been for the best.”

“
Well, I’d better go. Got a few more edits to do, and my neck is feeling better.” Zoe said goodbye to her friend and sat up slowly. Sitting on the edge of her bed, staring at the swaying branches of the mango tree outside the window and feeling the breeze lift the muslin curtains, in spite of some residual neck pain, Zoe felt that profound sense of well-being settle over her. It had come to her more and more often.

She was in the right pla
ce at the right time, learning who she was and what she really needed in life.

Two days later, Adam, Charl, and Mele were together in Mama’s hospital room at last. Their mother, small and wan, stared at the array of homemade treats on the rolling table in front of her elevated bed: butter mochi, a Tupperware of peeled lychees, and a dish of mashed breadfruit.

“Come on, Mama. You can eat something. We’ve checked with the doc, and these are all okay,” Charl said. It had been a few days since
their mother’s surgery, but she didn’t seem to be bouncing back like she had before. Kalia Rodrigues was still on an IV and extra oxygen, but they were talking about discharging her to the convalescent hospital in the next day or two. She looked pale and puffy. His sisters had done her hair, but seemingly overnight, the gray had increased.

“Maybe a little mochi,” Mama said, taking a piece of the sweet, chewy rice flour concoction. “I can’t imagine getting much down right now.”

Adam moved restlessly in his chair, anxiety driving his eyes away from her face. He’d gone back to the hospital after the showdown with Cherisse in Lahaina and had hardly left in the last two days.

He stared out the window toward
Kahului Harbor, where the wind was already up and tossing the palm trees. A cruise ship was docked, gleaming even in daylight with lights and white paint. Sometimes he wished he could escape, just walk up a gangplank like any other tourist, maybe take Zoe on an exploration of the islands. He’d thought of calling her a hundred times, but people had been around, there was no reception inside the hospital, or the hour was too late or early. He wanted space and privacy for that important phone call, and somehow two days had gone by without it happening.

He didn
’t remember ever taking more than a few days off between jobs, and this break without work was eating at him along with the stress of his mother’s crisis and helplessness about the kids. Now that he’d hired the PI and visited his lawyer with the Vierras about their joint plan to gain custody, there was nothing to do but wait.

His mother called his name.
“Adam.”

“
Yes, Mama?” He scooted his chair over next to her bed.

“
Why aren’t you at work? Your Boss Lady, she wouldn’t like you to be here with me all the time.”

He cleared his throat. It was time
to tell them. “I’m no longer on that job. We had a parting of the ways.”

“
What?” Mele exclaimed. “You got fired?”

“
No.” Adam’s voice came out more forceful than he meant it to. “I mean yes, I guess technically. But they bought out my contract and kept all my crew working the job, so I’m considering it a win.”

“
What are you going to do now?” Charl chimed in, deflecting attention from how he’d lost the job to what was next. She was the only one he’d told that he was off the job and why.

“
I always have more projects in the pipeline, but I was taking a few days off to be with Mama.” Adam picked up his mother’s hand, stroked the back of it, dismayed by the texture. Her skin was dry, and there was a squishiness to it, even though he could easily feel her bones—almost as if the flesh of her muscles was dissolving. Edema, he thought he’d heard it called, and it meant the heart wasn’t circulating her blood effectively.

“
I want you to get back to work,” Kalia said, staring at him. Her eyes were clouded, yellowish. “But first go home and get some rest. You look terrible, son.”

Mele
wrinkled her nose. “You really do, Adam. Go home and take a shower. We’ll stay with Mama.”

Ejected, he kissed his mother’s forehead
and left with a little wave to Charl, who was on her phone arranging the convalescent hospital step-down. Outside the hospital, he gulped some deep breaths, clearing the sense of claustrophobia he’d developed as he loped the last hundred yards out of the building.

H
e tried to plan what to do next for work, but as he drove home, all he could think about were Zoe’s green eyes, her silky hair, how she’d felt in his arms.

It was late afternoon by the time he’d showered, shaved, and
standing in his kitchen, staring out the window over the chipped porcelain sink that had endured fifty years of Rodrigues family dishwashing, he called her.

Zoe
answered on the second ring. “Hi, Adam.”

“Hi. I’m sorry I haven’t called.”
There was a tight band of anxiety around his chest as he wondered if she’d wanted to hear from him, if what he thought he’d known, he really knew—and how soon he could possibly see her.

“
I was wondering if I was going to hear from you.” She sounded tentative. He thought of her mouth, open in surprise, and how her lips had tasted.

“
I’ve been in the hospital with my mother. There’s terrible cell phone reception in there. This is the first time I’m alone.” He drew in a deep breath through his nose, exhaled it out of his mouth. “I need to see you.”

“
I need to see you too.” Her voice had gone husky. “Do you want to have lunch or something?”

“
No. I want…” He couldn’t say what he wanted—which was to obliterate everything about himself, disappear into her until there was no way to tell where he began and she ended.

It was wrong and forward and too soon.

“Do you want to come over?” She whispered it. He could hardly believe she was asking. His eyes rested unseeing on the shifting leaves of the lychee trees.

“Please,” was all he managed to say
.

“
Okay. I’ll text you directions.” She hung up.

A few minutes later
, when his phone dinged with the address, he was already driving down the road toward Paia. He pulled into the alley that ended at her little cottage, parking behind a shiny Beetle. It had taken him only ten minutes to get there. Realizing Zoe had always been that close to him made his gut clench with a feeling a lot like hunger, and maybe regret too.

Sylvester barked at th
e screen door of a detached garage made over into a cute little cottage. He opened his truck door and saw the shadow of her shushing the dog. Her smile welcomed him. “Come in.”

And he did.