Free Aloha Love by Yvonne Lehman Page A

guessed what kind of conversation Leia might have been privy to.
    “We’ve known each other long enough not to be so formal,” Jane said. He realized he had been thinking of her as Jane all along. “I’m just plain Jane.” She smiled. “By the way, you’re looking mighty fine this evening.”
    He wondered if that should have been his line, but he hadn’t wanted to be overly complimentary to any of them. He felt, along with Shakespeare, that discretion was the better part of valor. And he didn’t have to mistake her remark as flirting, because she was an engaged woman.
    He nodded, smiled, and observed she was anything but plain. She was as refreshingly beautiful as her aunt was fiery beautiful. The high neck, trimmed in a soft ruffle, was light blue and her eyes had turned that same color. Yes, they must be hazel. They’d been gray that first day when she’d thrown up, then green at the Ti leaves, now blue. Little swirls of golden brown hair lay across her forehead and along the sides of her face. The rest of her hair was arranged in a thick roll.
    Until the fiery Buckley woman said, “Just a moment, Pilar. Mr. MacCauley will help you down,” he’d forgotten there was a third person to exit the surrey.
    He quickly held out his hand to the young girl, who looked about ready to jump out and could have done so easily. This, however, was the polite way. She looked pretty in an elegant dress, and her hair was pulled back from her face. As she stepped down, he saw a white bow fastened at the back of her hair.
    He nodded at the stable boy who waited at the side of the house, then heard the women greeting each other and passing around compliments on their clothes and looks. Rev. Russell caught his arm, leaned close, and said, “These beautiful women are our dinner partners. How lucky can a man get?”
    “Indeed,” Mak said and laughed lightly. He walked ahead, held the screen door open, and bowed slightly as he gestured for them to enter.
    In the foyer, they stopped as Matilda commented on the beauty of the white, two-story, frame house and the elegance of the foyer and staircase.
    “Thank you,” his mother said. “I’m sure it doesn’t compare with your plantation home in Texas.” She gave Jane a knowing look. “I’ve seen some of that kind.”
    “Maybe not as big as. . .my daddy’s,” Jane said, placing the emphasis on my daddy’s , implying it wasn’t hers. “But it’s just as beautiful. In Texas, they just have to make everything bigger.”
    She cast a teasing glance at Mak when she said, “Even the stars are bigger.” He could feel his cheeks color slightly, but he smiled. “Before we go in,” she said, “I have something for Leia.”
    Leia stepped up to her, her dark eyes shining and looked expectantly while Jane opened a shiny blue bag and took out a smaller white satin bag drawn closed with a drawstring. “Just put your fingers in the top and pull it apart.”
    While Leia did that, Jane said, “This is my own special lei that I’d like to give you.”
    “Ohhh.” Leia’s little mouth made an O , and Mak knew she was truly pleased with the strand of small pearls.
    “I know it’s not as big or as colorful as the lei you gave me, but this is a lei from Texas. They’re pearls.”
    “Can I wear it?”
    “Here, let me,” Rose said and fastened the string of pearls around Leia’s neck. Leia touched them, looked down, and then held out her arms as she rushed to Jane and threw her arms around her waist.
    “I looove this,” she said, after stepping back. “I never had any pearls before.”
    “I’m glad you like it,” Jane said, and then his mother offered to show them through the house.
    Mak tried not to let his thoughts show on his face, but everything reminded him of his loss. Leia’s loss. Leia should have a mother who gave her pearls, who fastened them around her neck. He should have a wife to show guests the house.
    He was beginning to think it was a mistake to have a woman