One Hot Night with Dr. Cardoza Page 15

  In this moment, all she had to do was breathe.

  She blinked in amazement at herself. Thirty seconds in Hawaii and she was already stopping to smell the roses—or, in this case, the hibiscus. It was a decidedly un-Kat-like thing to do, and yet she felt more like herself than she had in weeks.

  After everything that had happened she’d begun to feel as though she didn’t even know who she was anymore. But now, as she gazed at the fairyland-like landscape before her, she started to feel something she hadn’t felt in several weeks—something she hadn’t even realized she’d lost after the Day of Doom.

  It was hope.

  Hope and something more than that—excitement.

  There was something about the mountains in the distance that suggested endless possibilities, and Kat closed her eyes and noticed that the gentle rushing sound in the background wasn’t just the wind; the ocean was adding its voice to the air as well. She was well on her way to falling in love at first sight—with Hawaii.

  Maybe I’m not at such a low point after all, she thought. Maybe this is the start of something.

  As she gazed at the natural beauty around her Kat realized that she didn’t want to go straight to her new apartment. Going directly to her new home and getting things settled was something the old Kat would do. The old Kat would want to carefully organize her things and research her new neighborhood for essentials like the grocery store and the post office. But the new Kat, she decided, was going to have different priorities. And the new Kat’s first order of business was to relax.

  But how?

  It had been so long since she’d had a moment to herself that she had absolutely no idea what relaxing even meant to her. In all her years of study, after all her classes on chemistry and human anatomy and physiology, she had overlooked one important thing. She had forgotten to learn how to relax.

  She resisted the urge to look up a dictionary definition of the word “relax” on her phone.

  I guess this is what comes of all work and no play, she thought.

  She hoped she hadn’t completely lost her ability to live in the moment. She had dreamed of becoming a doctor at an early age, and it had been a dream that required an incredible amount of study and discipline. She’d been so focused on her medical career that she’d never had the chance to have a wild, carefree adolescence.

  Well, maybe it was time. Could someone in their late twenties still have a wild adolescence? Kat decided she would damn well try.

  This year in Hawaii would be her chance to learn how to let loose and be spontaneous. She’d spent her entire life being responsible, and where had it gotten her? Jobless. Jilted—practically at the altar. If all her careful planning, her endless pro-con lists and her thoughtful decision-making had led to so much heartbreak, then maybe it was time to try a different approach to life.

  She only had one year. One year away from the expectations and preconceptions of everyone who knew her. Surely there was no better place to learn how to relax and live in the moment than a gorgeous setting such as this?

  She heard the faint sound of the ocean again and it deepened her resolve. This year wasn’t just going to be about putting Christopher behind her, she decided. It would be about putting the old Kat behind her.

  But how did one learn to relax?

  It can’t be that hard, she thought. If I can master organic chemistry, I can master this.

  In fact, Kat decided, she might be able to approach learning how to relax and getting over Christopher in much the same way she had gotten through organic chemistry and her other difficult classes. She would make a detailed list of her goals and then follow through with each step.

  A small voice in the back of her head suggested that this might be the most Type A way that she could possibly approach relaxation, but she chose to ignore it.

  How to relax in an island paradise while getting over a devastating breakup. Step one: find a beach, she thought.

  Kat looked down at her snow boots in dismay. Considering the cold in Chicago, and on the flight, the boots had been a sensible choice. But now that she was here they looked ridiculous. Her feet were stifled; she couldn’t wait to feel sand beneath her toes.

  She had her favorite blue-and-yellow-striped bikini on underneath her heavy winter clothes. She’d fantasized about going for a swim on her first day here in Hawaii, but she’d thought she’d see her new home first. Now that she was actually here, it seemed impossible to wait.

  A few moments of research on her phone informed her that the nearest beach was “a pleasant twenty-minute walk from the airport.” Surely there would be somewhere she could change out of her clothes?

  Kat hitched her carry-on bag over her shoulder and headed toward the water, her face set with determination. She was going to learn how to relax or die trying.

  * * *

  Jack Harper wasn’t usually an early riser, but he’d been wandering the beach since dawn. He held his father’s letter crumpled in his fist. Choice lines were burned into his brain.

  Many medical schools have a rolling admissions policy.

  I could make a few phone calls and you could easily start in the winter semester.

  Jack ran his hand through his dark hair in frustration. He liked being a paramedic, dammit. But it didn’t matter how many times he’d told his father he was never going back to medical school. There was no other path that his parents could understand.

  It’s time to apply yourself.

  You’ve had your fun in Hawaii. But now it’s time to come back to real life.

  To his father, real life meant Lincoln, Nebraska.

  Jack couldn’t imagine a place more different from Hawaii.

  Lincoln was as fine a hometown as any, but he’d been glad when he was able to exchange the cornfields, cows and cold winters of his childhood for the lush mountain landscape surrounding Honolulu.

  His parents, grandfather, and two brothers still lived in Lincoln, where they were all physicians. Both of his parents were highly respected, world-renowned medical researchers, his younger brother Todd had joined their grandfather’s small family practice, and his older brother Matt was a surgeon.

  Five doctors in the family. Five Type A personalities who were convinced that they were always right. Five people with egos larger than the Hawaiian mountains that loomed over the ocean.

  In Jack’s opinion, five doctors in the family was plenty. Three years of medical school had been enough to convince him that a doctor’s life wasn’t for him. He was much happier as a paramedic—especially here on the island of Oahu.

  After dropping out of medical school to join the Navy SEALS—another life decision his parents had disapproved of—he’d completed his basic training in Hawaii and never lived anywhere that felt more like home. He’d rescue a burn victim one day and deliver a baby the next—all while surrounded by an island paradise that meant more to him than anywhere else on earth.

  He loved his job—both for the adrenaline rush and for the opportunities it gave him to save lives. But his parents wouldn’t take his career choices or his desire to live in Hawaii seriously, and they continued to act as though he were on some sort of extended vacation.

  He and his parents were very different people.

  Nowhere was this more evident than in the last paragraph of his father’s letter.

  You’re thirty-one years old. You have to start thinking about your future.

  Plenty of women in Nebraska would like to start a family, and your mother’s getting older and would like more grandchildren—

  At that point Jack had stopped reading. He couldn’t believe either of his parents would bring up marriage after his older brother Matt’s betrayal. Matt—the golden boy of the family.

  Jack snorted. It had been four years since he’d spoken with Matt or Sophie, but Jack’s heart still twinged every time he thought about his older
brother and his former fiancée. After being betrayed by the two most important people in his life, the last thing he wanted was to get emotionally involved in a relationship again.

  As far as Jack was concerned, getting emotionally attached meant getting hurt, and that wasn’t something he was willing to put himself through again. Oh, he’d had his share of dates, and there were many women willing to enjoy his company for an evening, or even a few evenings. There were certainly plenty of tourists who seemed to want Jack to fulfill their fantasies of an exotic island fling while on vacation, and Jack was happy to oblige.

  But he was careful never to get too involved with anyone. If protecting his heart meant that he had to keep his guard up and keep his distance, then so be it.

  Jack smoothed out the letter one last time, then crumpled it into his fist again. He resisted the urge to throw it into the ocean. The sky was clear, the water was calm and perfect, and there was no point in brooding on the beach about a past he couldn’t change. He and Sophie were done, and had been for a long time. Everything that had passed between him and Matt and Sophie was long in the past.

  So why did all of it still bother him so much?

  Sometimes Jack wondered if keeping himself emotionally distant from everyone had actually made it harder to recover from his disastrous engagement to Sophie. But when he thought about the memories it was too painful. He hadn’t just lost Sophie—he’d lost his brother, too. The one person he’d thought he could count on, no matter what.

  Growing up in a family full of doctors had had its own unique pressures. Sometimes it felt to Jack as though he’d begun to feel the weight of his family’s expectations the moment he was born. But, as much as Jack had felt pressured to succeed at school and in his career, it was nothing compared to what Matt had gone through.

  Matt, two years older than Jack, had experienced all the pressure Jack had as well as the added expectations that had gone along with being the oldest Harper sibling. Their parents had always expected Matt to be responsible for Jack, and as a child Matt had taken that responsibility seriously. Whenever Jack had been hurt, whenever he’d had trouble with friends or begun struggling in school, he’d been able to talk to Matt about it.

  In return, Jack had hero-worshipped Matt throughout their childhood. If Jack was honest with himself, he’d hero-worshipped Matt for a good part of his adulthood, too.

  He’d always thought that he and Matt would stand by each other, no matter what. But after Matt had confessed what had happened with Sophie, Jack hadn’t been able to stand being in the same room with him. They hadn’t spoken in four years.

  A faint cry for help broke through his thoughts and he scanned the water with the trained eyes of a first responder. There—a woman swimming, far out from the shore. Too far. And going farther. She was caught in a rip current that was carrying her out into the ocean, and she was going to exhaust herself trying to swim against it.

  Jack snapped into action. This was one of the quieter beaches; there were no lifeguards on duty. He dialed the emergency number on his phone and let the dispatch unit know what he was about to do. Then he dropped his phone and stripped off his shirt, revealing a smooth, well-muscled chest and the powerful arms of a former Navy SEAL.

  A crowd of children who had been playing in the surf began to gather on the beach, having spotted the danger the woman was in.

  “Let me borrow that,” he said to one of the children, grabbing the boy’s body board without waiting for a response.

  He ran out into the ocean, letting the rip current do the work of carrying him out to the swimmer. When he finally reached her, he could see he’d been right. She’d been trying to fight the current instead of swimming parallel to the shore. And she was clearly terrified. He knew he could get them both back to safety, but first he’d need to calm her down.

  Despite the woman’s terror, he couldn’t help but notice her fiery red hair. He’d always liked redheads...

  Focus, he thought. She has to stay calm. Help her relax.

  “Looks like you swam out a little further than you planned,” Jack teased, attempting to lighten her fear. “You do realize it’s not possible to swim all the way back to the mainland, right? You’ll need to book a flight for that.”

  The woman coughed and choked. She looked frightened, but Jack could tell she was doing the best she could to keep her fear from overwhelming her. He admired that. Most of the time during water rescues the bulk of his work involved keeping the victim from making things worse by panicking. But this woman was doing her best to follow his instructions.

  “The current...” she gasped. “It’s too strong. We’ll never get back to shore.”

  Jack forced himself to stay calm, even as the rip current continued to pull both of them further from the shore.

  “Of course we’ll get back,” he said. “But first, I need you to relax.”

  He put as much warmth and confidence into his voice as he could, but for some reason, at the word “relax” the woman’s eyes seemed to widen in terror—as though Jack had told her she’d need to survive by learning how to fly, or something equally impossible.

  He decided to see if he could get his arms around her—the sooner she stopped fighting the current, the better.

  “I’m going to put my arm under your shoulders, okay?” he said.

  He swam behind her and slipped a firm arm under her shoulders. The support he lent her had the desired effect: once her body was directly against his she stopped struggling against the water and allowed his strength to keep her afloat.

  “Can you hold on to this?”

  He put the body board he’d borrowed in front of her, and she clutched at it.

  “Good,” he said approvingly. Her panic seemed to be receding by the minute. He had to admire how quickly she was gaining control of herself; most people would still be struggling and swallowing seawater at this point.

  “What’s your name?” he asked her.

  “Kat,” she said, with a strangled gasp.

  Good, Jack thought. If she could speak, then her airways were still clear.

  “Kat, I need you to listen to me,” he said. “We’re going to survive this, but you have to trust me. If you do everything I say I promise you that we’re going to get to shore. But the first thing I need you to do is stay calm.”

  “I’ll try,” she said.

  He chuckled. “I can feel you trembling.” She scowled at him, and he quickly added, “It’s all right to be scared, but you don’t need to be—because we’re going to get out of this. First time getting caught in a rip current?”

  She nodded. “It’s my first time swimming in the ocean. First day in Hawaii, actually.”

  He could see that she was trying to talk herself into a calmer state, and was doing her best to keep a cool head. She had nerves of steel. He also couldn’t help but notice the lithe shape of her body as she clung to him.

  First things first, he told himself sternly. Maybe they should get back on dry land before he started trying to find out anything more about her. Most likely she was one of the thousands of tourists who came each month, eager for adventure and completely unprepared for the dangers of the ocean.

  “Well, aloha and welcome to Oahu, Kat. Can you lean forward onto this body board? If you rest on your arms, I can paddle us in. Don’t worry, I won’t let you go.”

  * * *

  Somehow Kat knew that he was telling her the truth.

  At first, amidst her terror and the waves going over her head, it had been hard for her to get a good look at this man who had swum out to help her. All she’d been able to sense was a well-muscled, masculine presence and a steady, reassuring voice. A voice that was warm and soothing, like a spoonful of honey.

  But he’d reached her with surprising speed, and she tried to trust that he knew what he was doing.

  Pressing her between himself and t
he flotation device he had with him, he used his body to help her gain leverage as she shifted herself onto the board. As soon as she was resting entirely on it, he let go of her waist to swim beside her, and she felt a twinge of regret as the supportive arms released her.

  “Great job,” he said. “Hard part’s over. Now just keep holding on while I tow you in. We’ll be back to shore before you know it.”

  He continued swimming by her side, guiding the board as he pulled them both parallel to the shore. A rough wave knocked them unexpectedly, and Kat felt a sharp pain in her leg. She must have let out a yelp because the man instantly grabbed her around the waist again.

  “What is it?” he said, his face concerned.

  “My leg,” she said. “I must have scraped it against something. I don’t think it’s bad.”

  “Just hang in there,” he said. “We’re almost back to the beach.”

  To Kat’s relief, the shore was becoming closer and closer, until finally she felt the ocean waves pushing them both toward the beach instead of pulling them away.

  She collapsed in a heap on the sand and he fell beside her, one arm draped protectively over her body. They both lay there for a moment, exhausted. He was close enough that Kat could feel the heat radiating from his body next to her on the shore.

  She turned to thank her rescuer.

  She’d been grateful for his strength during the rescue, but now that she was back on dry land she was able to appreciate quite a bit more than just his strength.

  His eyes were the exact same shade as the Hawaiian ocean—a blue-green-turquoise. He was muscular, but his physique was track-star-slim. A shock of dark hair fell over his forehead, and Kat had to resist a sudden urge to run her fingers through it. Their eyes locked, and for a moment Kat felt an electric charge between them.