The Hawaiki Inn
Tairua, New Zealand
Darius pasted on his best professional smile. “Congratulations.” He handed the room key to the new groom. “I hope you both enjoy your stay.”
The blushing bride was practically beaming with happiness and she gazed up at her new husband. “How can we not? This place is beautiful.”
Just over the couples’ shoulder was a floor-to-ceiling picture window that overlooked the Tairua Harbor. The turquoise-blue water almost matched the color of the cloudless blue sky exactly. In the distance the lush green mountainside of Paku volcano stood high in the middle of the perfect skyline. The palm trees swayed only slightly as a soft breeze rolled by and the bright sunlight warmed the hot-pink, soft lavender and bright-red tropical flowers indigenous to the area. Tairua was as close to paradise on earth as one could hope to get and yet Darius was certain the newlywed couple before him would probably never leave their room over the next two weeks.
As they turned from the counter heading up the stairs to their room, Darius returned to his task of entering invoices into the computer system when the phone rang. He answered on the second ring. “Hawaiki Inn—a little touch of paradise on the Coromandel Peninsula. How can I help you?”
A woman cleared her voice softly. “May I speak to Darius North.”
“Speaking.”
“Darius?”
“Yes.”
There was such a long pause, Darius wondered if the caller had disconnected. “Hello?”
“Darius…this is Liz. Elizabeth.”
His heart stopped for a moment, and then he realized it couldn’t possibly be his Elizabeth. He struggled to find his voice. “Hello, Elizabeth, how can I help you?”
“Darius, it’s me. Elizabeth Donovan.”
His heart stopped once again, and, as if by some reflex reaction he slammed the phone down on the base. He took several deep breaths trying to control his breathing. Liz Donovan?
He walked around the check-in counter and took a seat on one of the plush tangerine-colored sofas scattered around the hotel lobby. Why would Liz Donovan be calling after all these years? How had she found him? What could she possibly want?
He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees and cradled his head in his hands. If you hadn’t just slammed the phone down in her ear you might have been able to get answers to those questions, idiot.
The ringing of the phone startled him and he glanced over at the desk. He sat still as stone listening to it ring and ring. After several rings it stopped and he released a sigh of relief. Then it started up again. He stood but found his feet rooted to the spot. After several rings it stopped again. Then it began again.
Just then, his assistant Alika came into the lobby and headed straight for the ringing phone, never noticing his boss standing a few feet away.
“Don’t answer that.” Darius’s harsh tone cut through the air like a knife, and Alika stopped dead in his tracks.
His dark eyebrows rose in confusion. “We’re no longer answering the phone?”
“Just don’t answer it.” With a quick glance at the confused man, Darius turned and headed out the glass sliding doors that led to the palm-tree-lined walkway that wound its way through the hotel bungalows and eventually down to the harbor.
Alika stood in stunned silence looking back and forth between the phone and the rapidly disappearing back of his normally super-composed boss. At first, he’d assumed Darius was headed back to his own bungalow, but then he watched him take the curve leading to the harbor. Alika prided himself on knowing his enigmatic boss better than anyone, and he knew he was going for a swim. He always swam when he had a difficult problem to solve. But what was troubling him now?
Alika glanced back at the phone when it suddenly stopped ringing, remembering the look of fear and anger on his boss’s face. His natural curiosity ate at him as he tried to imagine what kind of telephone call could both intimidate and infuriate his boss?
With a shrug he turned and headed down the hall leading to the kitchen to talk to the chef. But just as he started to walk away the phone started to ring again. Instinctively he walked back and answered it.
“Hawaiki Inn—a little touch of paradise on the Coromandel Peninsula. How can I help you?”
“I’d like to schedule a reservation,” the woman’s voice on the other end said.
Alika quickly scheduled the reservation and, after ending the call, headed to the kitchen once again. His mind briefly fluttered back to Darius’s strange behavior, but he quickly dismissed it, deciding that despite his great curiosity it really was none of his business.
Chapter 2
“Are you sure about this?” Dee asked, sitting on the side of the bed as Liz packed her suitcase.
“What choice do I have?” Liz pulled several pairs of underwear from the drawer and tossed them into the bag. “He won’t take my calls.”
Dee lifted one of the well-worn pairs of underpants and frowned. “Is this the best you’ve got?”
“I’m not going there to seduce the man.”
Dee looked directly at her for several long seconds. “Are you sure about that?”
Liz slammed the drawer closed. “How can you even suggest such a thing? My only child is dying—that I know for sure! This man is his best chance for a transplant—that I know for sure! Beyond that, Dee, I don’t know a damn thing, for sure.” An uncomfortable silence fell over the pair until Liz released a deep sigh. “Sorry, didn’t mean to snap.”
“I know.”
Liz moved on to digging around for shoes in the bottom of her closet.
“Do you think he’ll do it?”
“Yes,” she grumbled. “He’ll do it.”
She turned from the closet carrying two pairs of sensible flats in various shades of beige, and dropped them on top of everything else in the suitcase. She could tell by the way Dee was eyeing the case that her packing left something to be desired. But considering the stress she was working under she thought she was doing good just to get everything inside the suitcase.
Liz stood staring down at the hodge-podge of faded blouses and frayed jeans, trying desperately to ignore the feeling of fear building in her chest. “He’ll say yes because it’s the responsible thing to do.”
Dee’s eyes widened at the heavy sarcasm. She glanced back down at the open suitcase. “I know you’re going there for Marc, but I really wish you would spend some of your savings on a decent wardrobe. You haven’t seen Darius in almost ten years, you don’t want to show up looking like a ragamuffin.”
Liz braced her hands on her hips, and looked at the aunt whose advice she normally took as gospel. “Aunt Dee, I left him at the altar to run off with his brother. We haven’t exchanged a glance or single word since then. Despite all that I’m about to show up at his place of business and ask him for a kidney. Trust me, Aunt Dee, there is nothing pretty underwear can do for this situation.”
“It couldn’t hurt,” Dee grumbled.
Liz flashed her aunt a frown, realizing this was where Marc had picked up the annoying habit of mumbling under his breath. She began collecting her toiletries from the dresser.
“Besides, I need every dime for Marc’s medical care—nothing else matters.”
Dee walked over and laid her hands on Liz’s shoulders. “That’s not true. You matter.”
The loud engine of a school bus grew closer and Liz knew that any second her son would come bursting