A Very Important Guest Read online

“Japan. I loved it. I’m minoring in Japanese.”

  “You know Japanese?” His mouth dropped open.

  “I’m fluent,” she said nonchalantly, knowing perfectly well it was impressive. “Living in Honolulu helps. There’s a large Japanese-American population here, but honestly, my job at the hotel really lets me practice my everyday conversation. There are so many Japanese tourists, and I get to talk to people from all over the country who have different dialects.”

  “Do you want to move back there?”

  “Oh no.” She shook her head. “Actually, I’d like to move to D.C. or New York when I’m done with my degree. My dream jobs are working for the State Department or World Bank, or maybe the United Nations, though that’s a bit out of reach.”

  He gave her a warm smile. “I think you’re too smart for anything to be out of reach.”

  “Thanks.” Her small voice belied how her heart leapt.

  “I’ve barely been outside of the U.S., and I don’t speak any languages. I did go to Japan once on a trade mission. It was really cool,” he said as his eyes held steady with hers. “Tell me what interests you about it.”

  The evening continued with engaging conversation, punctuated by laughter and teasing as Abby successfully guided Will through his seafood dinner. At the end of the long meal, she thanked him as he paid the check.

  Will grinned. “How about we go for a walk on the beach? I haven’t been out much.”

  “Sure.” She actually wasn’t sure because that would mean she was at ease with the situation. She never expected the dinner to have gone on for as long as it had, and she certainly hadn’t planned on a romantic stroll afterward.

  “Where should we go?”

  “Let’s just walk toward Diamond Head.” Her smile froze as she realized she was sending them in the direction where they would find fewer people on the beach.

  When they hit the sand, they both shed their shoes and held them as they walked along. Abby was thankful Will kept the conversation going by asking her question after question about the history of the area. Because she thought talking was better than thinking about what was going on, her answers were thorough, but that also proved problematic. She hadn’t noticed how far they’d walked until they were alone, nearing the far end of Queen’s beach.

  After she’d finished a long answer about why the native Hawaiian royalty once frequented that beach, he abruptly stopped and pointed to the sky. “Wow. Look how many stars you see here.”

  A quick glance at the heavens confirmed what she already knew. “There are more where I live.”

  “Really?”

  Abby sensed it was a rhetorical question because he stared at her with a smile that had an agenda nothing to do with astronomy. She saw a kiss was coming. She took a breath of courage and whispered, “I don’t know if it’s wise for me to kiss the handsome congressman.”

  “You don’t, do you?” He laughed.

  She shook her head but kept silent. If she opened her mouth to speak, she was a goner.

  “How about we sit down and talk about it?”

  She laughed in response and followed his lead, sitting down on the fine sand, picking a spot not too close, but not too far away from his side.

  He turned to her with a grin. “The way you say it sounds like you really are having an internal debate on whether or not it’s the prudent thing to do.”

  Searching for a way to diffuse the moment, she glanced down. “My mind just works that way sometimes.”

  “You’re so beautiful … and smart and funny,” he said as he touched her hair. “But also serious. What makes you so serious?”

  “Life,” she whispered. “Lots of life.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No,” she said, touching her throat as if to stop any other words from coming out.

  His brow furrowed, and he was quiet for a moment. “And what if you didn’t have all these things in your life weighing down your mind?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, would you still think it unwise to kiss me?”

  As he gazed into her eyes, obviously looking for an answer, she returned the stare, looking for a motive. What is he after?

  While she received no confirmation, his warm expression was one of honest interest in her. She again believed she might be able talk to him, but she didn’t try. The last thing she wanted to do was dwell on what no one could make right. Her urge was to touch him because she sensed a connection between them, and she wanted to see if the wire was actually live.

  She inched her head closer to his. “If that were the case, I don’t believe I’d think at all. I’d just act.”

  “Then can you set everything aside for just a minute? Because I really don’t think it would be unwise to let me kiss you.”

  Her lips parted slightly in anticipation, and yet were left wanting. Will lowered his head not to her mouth, but first to her right temple, where he placed a soft kiss. His lips then moved along and brushed her cheek, her jaw, down her neck, and then upward again, following the same path on the other side of her face. When his mouth touched her left temple, she grinned because she could almost taste the sweetness of it all.

  “You’re teasing me,” she said with a quiet giggle.

  “Am I? I don’t think I’m being a tease at all.” He smirked in between kisses of her forehead and nose. “I’m being very honest and intentional in what I’m doing.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “You think I’m teasing you sexually?”

  “Um … no.” Her eyes widened because, regardless of his intent, her body had started responding as if he was toying with her.

  “Then how did you mean it?” he asked as he simultaneously pulled away to look her in the eye while putting his arms around her to pull her closer.

  She settled into the warmth of his arms but playfully slapped his shoulder. “You know I was talking about whether or not I should kiss you on the lips, and now you’re kissing me everywhere but there.”

  “You caught my little joke. Excellent.”

  She snorted a laugh and slapped his shoulder a little harder.

  “Aw. There’s no need for that. I promise I’m going to get to your lips soon enough. Just wait a moment. For someone who was in great personal torment over kissing me, you sure are eager now.”

  “Oh, God. You’re impossible.” She looked up to the sky and laughed.

  He tightened his arms around her. “Your pretty smile is back.”

  “Thanks,” she said in bewilderment.

  “I’d say my strategy worked.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve managed to distract you so you don’t notice that I’m the one who desperately wants to kiss you.” Lowering his head to hers again, he murmured, “Can I kiss you now?”

  “Yes,” she said in a quick whisper. There was no hesitation in her voice because his honesty was evident. Even if she hadn’t verbally agreed, her body was already moving of its own accord. Within seconds, their lips met halfway. A brief kiss led to another and then another, but all were as careful as his hands, which wandered with hesitation over her back. In a signal that things were going just fine, she caressed the nape of his neck. He hummed in appreciation, and every touch and kiss intensified between them.

  Time passed, but Abby didn’t keep track. She was long gone. When he broke away and gave her what felt like a final kiss on her forehead, disappointment crept into her heart. Not knowing what to say, she shyly said, “Hi.”

  “Hi.” He wore his own smile and briefly stroked her cheekbone. “Do you think it was unwise?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Good,” he said and punctuated it with a kiss on top of her head. He nodded toward Waikiki. “I should be getting back. I’ve got a presentation tomorrow morning.”

  “It’s late,” she said, though she really wasn’t sure of the time.

  As they walked back they held hands, and this time, Abby peppered Will
with questions to keep the conversation going. She only half-listened, though, as she spent most of the time trying to figure out why she’d just let that happen between them and even more so, why it had felt so good. When they arrived at her old Mercedes, she turned to him and smiled. “Thank you for dinner. Good luck with your presentation tomorrow.”

  “Thank you for making dinner fun,” he said and touched her hair again. “Can I see you again tomorrow?”

  “Um. I’m scheduled to work.” She didn’t want to presume too much.

  “You know that’s not what I meant.” He chuckled.

  “I know.” She smirked. “I can meet you around the same time.”

  “Great. Let’s go to dinner then. You pick the restaurant this time. You’ve got great taste in food.”

  “Thanks. I’d be happy to. I’ll let you know where.” Her chest filled with warmth over the prospect of another date, and she seized the joy. Standing on the tips of her toes, she kissed him—not short, not long—but a sweet caress of how she felt. He responded by weaving his hands into her hair, bringing her in closer, and her body was soon pressed against his. When the kiss began to gather some heat and their mouths opened to explore, she felt as if the door to a grand prize was swinging open for her. Unfortunately, he quickly shut it when he broke the kiss and gave her a brief nuzzle of the nose. “Good-night, Abby.”

  She eyed him, wondering about his restraint. Is he always this way, or is it just because of me? The correct answer wasn’t readily obvious, and in the end, it didn’t matter. Whatever the reason, she needed his self-control because she seemed to have lost hers. He was too smart, too charming, and most off all, too kind. With a quick kiss on the cheek, she said, “Good-night” and turned to get into her car.

  * * *

  The following morning, Abby leaned against the elevator wall as she traveled up to the eighth floor to start her day’s cleaning. She always began by scanning the daily list of departure dates for the rooms on her floor so that she could best plan her cleaning schedule. When she saw the date by room 828, she patted every pocket in her uniform for the previous day’s list and pulled a crumpled paper from her apron pocket. She compared the two lists.

  “Oh my God,” she said to the empty elevator. Looking at the paper again, she confirmed one more time that Will had indeed changed his departure date. He’d been scheduled to check out of the hotel the next day, but he was now leaving two days later.

  She placed her hand on her chest to stop her heart from racing ahead of reason. Intuition told her he’d extended his trip to spend more time with her, but she couldn’t believe it. Yet nothing else made sense. The man was a junior congressman from a working class district in Ohio. A federal judicial conference in Hawaii was a major junket for him, but it was still work. She knew he wasn’t here with friends or family for a vacation, and he hadn’t mentioned any fellow travelers arriving later in the week. What made him want to stay in Hawaii longer? She grinned at the possibility he’d done it for her.

  A few hours later, she was again tidying room 828, only this time she thought of it as Will’s room rather than just another stop on her rounds. She’d never before cleaned the hotel room of someone she knew personally, and certainly not someone she’d kissed the night before. From the moment she walked in, she felt as if she were trespassing in a friend’s bedroom—only worse because she had to touch his things in order to clean. It felt like she was reading his diary.

  As she gingerly made order of his messy desk, she jumped when she heard him say, “You can try and put my things in piles, but I’ll just spread them out again.”

  She looked up to see Will standing a few feet away, holding two cups of coffee and wearing a teasing grin. She gasped. “You scared me.”

  “I didn’t mean to.” He held the coffee out to her. “Here. I brought one for you.”

  “How did you know I’d be in your room?”

  “I may have occasionally come up here to check out your progress on the floor,” he said and shrugged.

  “Ah.” Her mouth opened in shock, but she took the coffee from him and smiled. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” He pointed to the bathroom. “You haven’t been in there, have you?”

  “No, not yet,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

  “I told you I don’t want you cleaning my bathroom.”

  “I’m supposed to.”

  “Come on. You have to have guests who tell you not to clean.”

  “That’s true.” She nodded.

  “Good. Then the discussion is over.”

  “If you say so.” She laughed. “The guest is always right.” The mirth in his expression made her want to join in the teasing. “But I guess in your job, you’re used to having staff always do whatever you say.”

  “Not always.”

  “But usually, right?”

  He held up his hands, as if admitting defeat. “You’ve got me. I promise I didn’t used to be this way, but something about being in Congress has made me a little self-centered.”

  “I wouldn’t say you’re self-centered, and I think it would be natural for someone in power with a hectic job to expect staff to make things go smoothly.”

  “Yeah, but …” He shook his head. “I think about what an ass I was to you the first day. My parents would’ve been horrified.”

  “I told you not to worry about it.” She didn’t say how touched she was that she actually had caused some self-reflection on his part. She smiled as she changed the subject. “So how did your presentation go?”

  “Pretty good, I think. I’m always happy to debate collective bargaining rights with an asshole corporate lawyer who’s never broken a sweat at his job.” He returned her smile. “So have you picked a restaurant?”

  “We’re going out for Japanese.” She’d chosen a highly recommended Japanese hole-in-the-wall. “I’ll pick you up across the street at eight, okay?”

  “Great.” He glanced around the room for a moment. “Now get out of my room.”

  She laughed. “I’m not quite done.”

  “Sure you are. Besides there’s another reason you need to leave.”

  “Ah, sorry.” She cringed. “You need to actually use the room as an office.”

  “Well, yes. But I’m concerned that if I’m alone with you in here too much longer, I’m going to have to kiss you.” He ended his words with a wink.

  Her eyes widened, but inside she was tickled. “Just because I’m in your room doesn’t mean I’m not working.”

  “So it would be ‘unwise’ to kiss right now.”

  “Uh, yeah …”

  “But otherwise, you wouldn’t mind it?”

  Avoiding his stare, she looked around the room in embarrassment. “Why are you teasing me like this?”

  “Because when I tease you, you’re not so serious. I see that other side of Abby—the fun side.”

  She met his gaze and shook her head in amazement. How had he puzzled her out so quickly? But moreover, why did he want to? She wanted to act as she would’ve a few years ago. Until then, she’d always been a demonstrative person. In an interaction like this, with a hot guy who made her heart sing, she’d be all over him, showing him how she felt. Her old boyfriend loved her for it, but as the fire of her soul slowly cooled and then chilled, so did their relationship. At that moment with Will, she wanted to pounce on him. She stammered, “You’ve got my number.”

  “Figuratively and literally?” He seemed to suppress a laugh.

  She kept quiet, and he quickly said, as if he knew she was anxious. “Don’t worry. You’ve got mine, too.”

  As she absorbed what lay behind his words, she beamed. “We should both get back to work.”

  “See you tonight,” he said and waved a hand to usher her out of the room.

  “Yes. Tonight.” She headed straight to her cart, grinning the whole way.

  * * *

  When she pulled up to a side street of the hotel, she saw Will across the way, posted at the
hotel front doors and looking around. She hoped he’d recognize the car so that she didn’t have to get out. Though the bellhops and valets were her buddies, she didn’t want them seeing her drive off with a guest. Luckily, her car was distinct enough she assumed Will might remember it from the night before. In only a few seconds, he spotted her and walked over.

  She rolled down her window. “Hey.”

  He grinned. “I couldn’t miss the car.”

  As he walked around to the passenger side, she smiled when she saw his more casual dress for the evening. “Welcome,” she said when he finally sat down on the aged leather interior.

  “Thanks for picking me up.” He looked about the car’s interior. “What year is this?”

  “1985.”

  “Wow. It’s an antique.” He pointed to the Mercedes symbol. “Thirty years old, and it still has that German car smell.”

  “It was my stepfather’s. He kept it in perfect condition.” She started the car and began to pull out of the parking space. “When my Honda got totaled by a drunk, I took this car.”

  “Did your stepfather get another Mercedes?”

  Taking her eyes off the road, she glanced at him and shook her head. “He’d died a few months earlier. The car was just sitting there.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  His serious expression felt like proof he already knew that part of her story. “Thanks,” she said, her voice small. She stole another quick look at him before turning her attention back to the road. The distraction of driving would make the conversation easier. “He had congestive heart failure. It was a slow decline.”

  “That’s rough. Were you close?”

  “Not particularly. Chuck was a big officer in the Navy. He was always kind to me, but we never really connected. When he and my mom met, he’d just become a widower. He was over twenty years older than my mom with two grown sons. He adored her, but I don’t think he knew what to do with me. I was just a little girl.” She looked at Will for a few seconds and saw he was listening intently. “Don’t get me wrong. He was a good man. I liked him, and my mom loved him.”

  “But your mom’s sick now?” he ventured.