Accidental Shield

Then I turn my back, just as an angry wave swallows up the last ripples left by my stone, a secret message with no bottle meant for a man, the sky, and the endless ocean.

* * *

By the time I head back to the lanai, I’m convinced the couch is the reason for my nightmare.

The leather’s heat on my back was too much.

The scars get weirdly sensitive to temperature sometimes. So I put down the back of a lounge chair and stretch out on it, still staring up at that starry sky, basking in…whatever the hell tonight’s supposed to be.

Turning over, lying on my stomach, I close my eyes and drift away.

Dreams don’t wake me this time. It’s the rising sun and the eerie sense there’s someone watching me. I open one eye to see a bashful figure next to me in her seashell pj’s.

“Did you sleep here all night?” she asks.

“Nah, just for a few hours.” I let out a sigh of satisfaction. I’d slept well out here. No dreams at all. “What are you doing up so early? Breakfast time?” I ask her.

She laughs. “No, and I think I’m kind of worried if breakfast always means stuffing me with malasadas and coffee. A girl shouldn’t get too used to eating like that every day. I was awake, though, so I got up and saw you out here when I walked through the house.”

I roll over, stretching my arms over my head, and sit up. Flipping my legs over the side of the lounger, I ask, “How’d you sleep?”

“Better than you, I’m sure,” she says.

I snort. She looks frigging adorable, her black hair rumpled up and a sleepy sheen shimmering in her gold-speckled eyes.

“Then you must’ve slept like Rip Van Winkle, babe. I slept like a baby out here,” I say.

There’s a grin on her lips but doubt on her face. “Babies don’t sleep that well. You should know.”

I shrug. “So you’re a child shrink after all, huh?”

“No, I’ve just heard what it’s like for new parents…not getting any sleep because the baby keeps them up.” She blinks at me a couple times. “I mean, it’s true, isn’t it?”

“You get used to it fast. When Bryce was born, I had a lot more to worry about than him waking me every two hours. I needed to keep him the fuck away from Mama. But yeah, I’ve heard that old yarn, too.” Standing up, I walk toward the house. “Coffee? Got a new batch in the mail yesterday, shipped in fresh straight from the Kona plantation.”

“I guess that sounds nice.” She follows. “Let me sleep on the couch tonight.”

“Not the hell again. Val, listen, you’ll sleep right where you’ve been sleeping; you won’t bite back about it, and you’ll be glad I’m a bad enough dude to happily park my ass outside under the stars for some shut-eye. You dig?”

That gets a new round of laughs from her. “Oh my God, are you for real?”

“Dunno. You standing here, or are you still in your bed, having sweet dreams? Better pinch me if you’re not sure.” I hold out my arm.

She slaps it away with a giggle.

I stomp off with a mock wounded look, then click on my computer before walking to the cabinet above the stove to pull out the coffee gear. I’ve got my gooseneck kettle, grinder, Chemex, and the finest whole beans money can buy straight from Kona. It’s all painstakingly assessed and sourced there, not like that hybrid crap they sell on the mainland that might be twenty percent Kona beans tops.

“Just promise me you won’t sleep on the lounge chair again,” she says. “You’re going to throw out your back on that thing. It’s good for naps, but all night? Yikes.”

“Fine.” I glance at the computer and nod. “You’re on, Val. Look up the closest furniture store and what time they open.”

Her grin grows. “Why?”

“Because today we’re gonna furnish those guest rooms.”

“Guest rooms?”

“Yeah, got two of them, and they’ve been empty too long.” I flash her a smile as I put the water on to boil. She looks like she’s just walked into a candy store holding her golden ticket. “What’s so damn amusing, honey? You’re that pumped to do a little shopping?”

Her smile just gets wider.

* * *

It takes half the day to answer that question, but it comes.

Oh, hell does it come.

Had I known how much joy decorating would bring her, turning her into a little whirlwind, I’d have braced myself. The lifelike drawings she whipped up of the cat and Bryce and her brother should’ve hinted at her artistic side.

Now, Val’s totally in her element. Not just with the furniture, but with the accessories, the rugs, the pillows, pictures, lamps, and shelves.

As soon as Bryce was awake and dressed, and breakfast over, we went out shopping together. She’d insisted I couldn’t purchase a mattress without trying it first, so she found a store that had everything we could ever want.