Burning up the Rain (Hawaiian Heroes) by Cathryn Cade Page A

smiled demurely, though her gaze promised vengeance. “Mahalo, ‘ īhepa.” She rose and sauntered around the loungers toward the cooler.
    Jack raised his eyebrows enquiringly at David, who winced. “Imbecile,” he translated.
    “Damn. A guy can’t win.” Jack drained his beer and then joined in as Claire and Melia gave in to laughter and their husbands chuckled as well, deep rumbles of sound.
    Wondering why Lalei was taking so long just to get another drink, he glanced around. She stood watching the other couple from the shadows by the cooler. Some indefinable emotion tightened her stance. Envy?
    He shrugged inwardly and raised his bottle to take another drink, then remembered it was empty. He set it down on the table, glanced at the cooler again and then forced himself to lie back in his lounger. Not yet—he’d better pace himself. It was cool; he could do it.
    Meanwhile, he was here in paradise with his good friends, and for some reason a gorgeous wahine wanted in his swim trunks. Things could be a helluva lot worse.

Chapter Six
    Lalei listened to Jack’s deep laughter mingling with the Ho’omalu brothers and their wives. He seemed to be enjoying the joke at his expense as much as they were. He was as easygoing as she’d remembered from his earlier visit for David’s wedding—she’d chosen well. He wouldn’t try to hang on her or go all possessive on her.
    She peered into the drinks nestled in the melting ice in the cooler and chose a soda. She didn’t mind a glass of wine at a cocktail party or dinner, but she didn’t like the taste of beer, and she hated the way alcohol made her feel, dizzy and off-balance. Jack certainly seemed to like it. He’d been tipsy last night, and if she’d counted correctly, he’d already finished three bottles of beer in the short time since he’d arrived at the beach today. Oh well, he was a big boy.
    Straightening, she watched the group chatting easily in the shade. They were so relaxed, so easy together. David and Daniel were gentle and protective of their wives, and they truly listened to them, seeming to count their words as important as another man’s. Unlike so many of the men she knew, including Benton Choy. Her mother saw nothing wrong in that, but it made Lalei want to scream. Of course, so did her mother. Okay, not thinking about Suzy right now. She forced her attention back to the group around her.
    Claire began a slightly naughty story about how Daniel had called her something sexy in Hawaiian, and she’d misunderstood him, thinking he was insulting her. The others laughed uproariously, while Daniel merely grinned at his bride.
    Lalei hated to admit it, but she envied Claire. She might be a bit raucous and overflow her bikini, but she seemed to revel in life, and particularly in her relationship with Daniel. The heated glances that she and Lalei’s cousin cast each other nearly made the air smoke between them.
    And she, Melia and Bella were as close as sisters. Lalei had never had a friendship that close. She’d liked some of the girls she went to school with, but her mother had firmly discouraged any friendship with girls she considered not their social equal, and on a small group of islands, that didn’t leave a large pool of candidates.
    And she could really use a girlfriend right now. She hesitated, holding her unopened soda. Maybe she should just go back up to the house and open her computer, work on that sales report for the gallery. The idea held little appeal, but neither did feeling like the odd woman out with her cousins’ wives.
    No, as soon as her mother caught her alone, she’d let Lalei have it even worse than last night. Still smarting inside from that slap, Lalei was not ready for what was going to be the Suzy Kai hissy fit of the century. She’d avoided Suzy and everyone else this morning by grabbing a bottle of juice and a granola bar from the pantry and climbing up the mountain. She’d eaten her breakfast on the trail that wound