Page 107 of True Abandon

My hand flies to my heart, which is funny because I’m the one who scared them, not the other way around.

I then cover my mouth as I stand in absolute disbelief that my ex-boyfriend is making out with my masseuse.

Kevin places his hands in his robe and gives me a bashful smile. “You were right. Shannon has hands like an angel.”

Her mouth opens wide, her face one of complete horror. “He doesn’t mean it like that. I wasn’t . . . I didn’t . . . I gave him a massage. A regular massage and we started talking and the next thing we knew the hour was over and we were still laughing and one thing led to another and—”

“Shannon,” I wave a hand and smile. “It’s okay. I’m not gonna say anything.”

She reaches for her chest and lets out an audible sigh of relief. Kevin, on the other hand, is scratching his head and looking at me in mild discomfort. “Is this weird?”

Yes. “No!” I demand. I start to turn around to give them privacy then remember I came in here to tell Shannon something. “I’ll leave a note for you at the front desk.” I close the door quickly and stand with the hard door against my back, stunned for a moment at what just transpired.

“That was awkward,” I mumble to myself and then lean forward to let out a laugh. There’s an odd buzz about the day as if everything is going to work itself out just as it’s supposed to.

The rest of the day is spent running back and forth from the suites to my desk. As the clock nears seven, I start to get nervous I’m going to be late. When Noah Kanë requests a private chef instead of the dinner reservations I booked, I scramble to accommodate him, constantly staring at my phone, watching the minutes tick by.

Once he’s settled in his room, I find a moment to escape to the lookout that sits on the path leading to the other hotels down the beach. This particular area is lined with grass and hibiscus plants, where people usually relax on lawn chairs and watch the sunset. This afternoon, it’s clear of furniture and filled with people and the soft strum of Jax’s guitar..

Shayna and Mark Waimer are standing face to face. They’re exchanging flowers as Isaiah speaks about the lei as an eternal symbol of unity.

Jax is seated to the side playing the “Hawaiian Wedding Song.” He’s dressed in his white linen pants and a coral shirt. With every strum of the strings, a gorgeous melody plays, eliciting a beautiful tone. There’s a hum and echo to the music that makes my skin prickle in goosebumps. I stand in awe, following as his fingers shift from one chord to the next and become entranced in watching him play.

I know he’s a guitarist by trade. He’s found moderate success and, hell, I just pitched him as a head studio producing songwriter to my former boss’ entertainment company yet, still, it really hasn’t hit me until this very minute that Jax is a musician.

I’ve had this picture of him as the politician-in-training for so long that I hadn’t realized he evolved into someone else. Not because he made mistakes along he way. He is exactly who he is supposed to be.

Isaiah is chanting, “Ei-Ah Eha-No. Ka Malohia Oh-Na-Lani. Mea A-Ku A-Pau” as he sprinkles the wedding rings three times from a loa wood bowl filled with water and a Ti leaf. The chant means: “May peace from above rest upon you and remain with you now and forever.”

I stand to the side, watching as Shayna and Mark, with her crown of flowers, hold onto eachother’s hands and have their second wedding. The breeze pours off the Pacific and seeps through her long, auburn hair. She has mist in her eyes and a joy in her smile that radiates through her cheeks.

When I first saw her, I thought she was an over-obsessed bride who was a little clingy to her husband. Now, I know she’s just a girl in-love. She isn’t obsessed with being a bride. She loves being married to the man who holds her hand.

Jax looks away from the ceremony and catches me standing over here on the other side of the grass. He gives me an appreciative once over. I do a little curtsey showing off my Kauai Princess uniform.

He then nods toward the ceremony and gives a grin of approval. He’s right. It’s very nice.

I dip my head toward Mark’s head to toe white ensemble. He looks like a Back Street Boy circa nineteen-ninety-nine, yet it works for him. Jax gives a devilish smirk as if he understands my thoughts.

While our banter is silent and said with eyes, there is something else transpiring as our gazes connect. His breathing is deep and the way his smile divots up, and his dimples sink in deep, shows me he is a man content with his life. A breeze washes over us yet we remain unflinching. Just two people caught in a moment of silence in the middle of the noise.

Isaiah concludes the ceremony as Jax strums the guitar again, playing a happy melody. Shayna and Mark kiss sweetly. At least they start sweetly and then morph into slobbers and then their hands roam in a very inappropriate manner. Instead of being grossed out by them, I just laugh.

Jax places his guitar on the side of his chair and rises. Walking toward me, he keeps his gaze fixed. His steps are determined and when he comes just inches from me, I look up into his eyes and fall right into his kiss. He grabs a hold of me and kisses me with more passion and more promise than I expected.

“I have a surprise for you.” I grab onto his shirt and play with the buttons.

He lifts his brow and I notice something different about it today.

“Where’s your piercing?” I touch his face and the hole where a silver bar used to be.

He shrugs. “Took it out this afternoon. Why? You miss it?

I run my thumb over the skin of his brow and then down his temple. “I got used to it. But I can get used to you without it. Doesn’t matter to me.”

His gaze shifts from side to side as if in mischievous thought. “So if I decided to pierce my nose or get seventeen holes up my ears you’d be totally okay with that?”

“Actually, I heard there’s this King Louie piercing you can get.”