Free From Glowing Embers by Emilie Richards

effort to get her to come to his hotel tomorrow; he just didn’t know if anyone’s effort would be good enough. Once she was over the shock of their confrontation, would she be able to put her bitterness aside long enough to settle things between them? He seriously doubted it. And, God knows, they didn’t need more bitterness.
    Despite what he’d told her on the plane, he wouldn’t follow her to Kauai. He had come to resolve their past, to wish her well, and to say goodbye. Now he knew that only the last would be welcomed. She would probably initiate the final goodbye—a divorce—before he even got back to the mainland.
    “I’m back, Gray.”
    Gray turned to see Jody skipping toward him from the direction of the rest room. “Where are we going to wait for my mommy?”
    The message he had intercepted at the information desk seemed to burn a hole in Gray’s pocket. “I’ve got bad news,” he said, preparing her for the worst. “Your mom’s flight was canceled. She won’t be getting in tonight.”
    Jody looked incredulous. “She’s supposed to be here!”
    “It’s a long swim from Vancouver,” he explained patiently.
    Jody didn’t look as if she was sure she should laugh or cry. “But she said she’d be here.”
    “She didn’t have any choice.” Gray put his arm around the little girl in an impromptu hug. “You’re going to stay with me until she can get a plane in.”
    “But there’s going to be a hurricane! A lady in the rest room said so!”
    “What’s wrong, shrimp?” Gray ruffled Jody’s hair. “Don’t tell me you don’t like rain.”
    “I don’t want to go with you.” Jody sniffed and hid her face against his side.
    “I know you’re tired,” Gray told her. “It’s not a great time for a new adventure, but it can’t be helped.”
    Gray was sorry for the little girl, but he wasn’t sorry he was going to have to take care of her a little longer. He needed the diversion. This was one night he didn’t want to spend in a lonely hotel suite. He squatted down to reach Jody’s eye level. “Listen, how about a room at a fancy hotel?”
    “I want my mommy!’’
    “It’s on Waikiki. You’ve heard of Waikiki, haven’t you?”
    “It’s a beach,” she said, pouting, but unable to resist displaying her knowledge.
    Gray nodded. “I’ve got a suite there tonight, and I’d be very happy if you’d share it with me.”
    She nodded slightly, resigned, but not pleased.
    Gray stood, ruffling Jody’s hair again. “I really wasn’t looking forward to spending the night there by myself. The Prince is a block off the beach, so they’re not expecting any problems from the...” He suddenly remembered he was talking to a child. “All the rain,” he finished lamely.
    “Do they have a swimming pool?”
    “If they don’t, we can just hold you out the window and you can get as wet as you want.”
    She giggled. “Can I call my mommy?”
    “As soon as we get there.”
    “Okay.”
    Gray rented a luggage cart and piled it high for the trip outside to find a taxi. Rain sheeted across the road ringing the airport, and the tropical foliage planted in small oasis-like gardens on either side of it bent in the fury of the wind.
    Not surprisingly, there were no cabs. In fact, it was impossible not to notice just how abandoned the airport had become. He had been so preoccupied, he hadn’t considered that getting to the Prince Kuhio might be difficult. “I’m sure a cab’s going to come along, but it may take a few minutes,” he told Jody. “Let’s wait inside.”
    “I want to watch the rain,” she protested.
    “As long as we stay under cover, we should be all right.”
    They waited in silence. Just as Gray was about to go inside and start calling cab companies himself, a van rounded the corner and stopped in front of them. Gray opened the door. “Can you get us to the Prince Kuhio on Waikiki?” he asked the driver, a man with a silver crew cut and a warm smile.
    “Roads closed.