By the time Julia hung up the line, Mo had enough ammunition to tease her for the next two weeks. Both girls wanted to say goodnight and she was certain that she’d blushed when Reed finally ended the call with her own goodnight. Fortunately, the screen door opened as soon as she set down the phone.

  “You two missed a good show,” Kate said. She held up a split coconut and wiggled her hips.

  “How were the grass skirts?”

  “Revealing. But I was paying more attention to the sweaty muscles of the guy with the torch.” Kate set the coconut on the coffee table and went to the kitchen. She pulled a bottle of white wine from the refrigerator. “Who’s drinking with me? I bought a deck of cards at the resort shop so Julia can beat us all at poker.”

  Kate’s timing was perfect. Mo wouldn’t have a chance to tease her about the phone conversation and she’d have a minute to digest the fact that she was going to be spending tomorrow at the pool with Reed and her kids.

  “You guys are the best.” Julia shifted the ice pack on her ankle and wiggled her toes. She was hoping for a miracle cure, but her ankle still hurt. “Kate, I have to bail on parasailing tomorrow. You and Mo will have to go on your own.”

  “You could come hang out on the beach anyway and take some pictures,” Kate suggested.

  Mo took one of the wineglasses from Kate. “She’d rather be taking pictures of a certain mom in the kiddie pool than hanging out with her friends.”

  “That’s not true. You know I’d rather be parasailing with you two. Or hanging out on the beach. But I don’t think I should walk on the sand until the swelling comes down…”

  As Mo started to grumble about the trip being about spending time with friends, Kate cut in with: “Jules, this is fate. You’re always so busy with work and you never let yourself relax. I think this is exactly what you need.”

  Chapter Five

  Work was the last thing she wanted to think about. Julia stared at the phone number flashing on her screen and then eyed the swimming pool inches from her toes. She knew it was her boss. She also knew that Val would expect her to answer unless she was dying.

  “How’s Hawaii?”

  “Good. What’s up?”

  Cut to the chase, Julia thought, and please don’t tell me that there’s some emergency that you need me to come back to resolve. She considered how much she needed her paycheck and how long it would take to find a different position if she told Val to screw herself for even thinking of asking her to come back to work.

  “Did you know that this is the first vacation you’ve taken since you started here? I had Eileen pull up your file. You were hired five years ago. Since then, you haven’t requested a single day off. Not a sick day, not even a long weekend. Eileen told me that you take one week off between Christmas and New Year’s to go see your parents in New York. That’s it. And since the whole place closes for that week…Well, your record’s impressive.”

  Or depressing. Julia wasn’t going to admit that the reason she never took time off was that she had no one to spend it with. Val would probably congratulate her.

  Val cleared her throat. “Anyway, I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m calling. We’ve got a situation with the Chicago team.”

  Julia bit her tongue. Why had she answered the phone? “Okay. You’ll have to get me up to speed. I haven’t checked my email in a few days.”

  “Jason Gelfry is moving on. I haven’t sent anything out about this yet, but we’ll need to start a search for his replacement. I’d like you to talk to his team and put out any fires. Let them know that we’re on top of this. He’s not going to be replaced overnight and you know how people start worrying…In the interim, we need someone who can swing the meeting with D and J.”

  Val continued talking, but Julia had stopped listening. She wanted to argue that she was on vacation and so therefore she was not at work and therefore she was not going to be talking to the Chicago team. But she’d brought her laptop and could send a few emails…

  “I’ll be in Tokyo next week but go ahead and send me updates. Oh, and I’ve been hearing that there’s trouble in Atlanta as well. Maybe you can send some feelers out to people on that team.”

  After Val hung up the line, Julia stared at her phone screen for several minutes. The wallpaper image was a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge that she’d taken over Memorial Day last year. She hadn’t even gone out of town when she’d been required to take a three-day weekend.

  Someone dove into the water a few feet away from her lounge chair and the splash hit her toes. Two teenage boys were roughhousing at the far end of the pool, taking turns dunking each other, and a third had come to join in on the fun. Julia had tuned them out until now.

  “Hey. How’s the ankle?”

  She’d been waiting for Reed to show up at the pool, hoping to see her any minute, but now she was thrown off by the warm smile and gorgeous eyes looking down at her. Her body’s reaction to Reed was ridiculous. She quickly glanced at the wrap on her ankle and wiggled her toes. “Feels great as long as I don’t walk on it.”

  Carly and Bryn appeared on either side of Reed, each wearing a life vest and wielding pool noodles. Bryn eyed Julia’s cocktail.

  “What’s that?”

  “Punch for grown-ups,” Reed said. “And, no, you can’t have the little paper umbrella.” Bryn’s face dropped. Before she could get out an argument, Reed was pointing both kids to the pool. She glanced back at Julia. “Everything okay?”

  Julia nodded.

  Reed walked the kids over to the kiddie pool. As soon as she turned her back to set out their towels, Bryn pushed Carly into the water. Reed turned around when Carly bobbed up screaming. Bryn hopped in behind her. The kids fought for a moment and then were racing, somewhat awkwardly in their vests, toward the slide. Reed watched them for a moment and then walked back to Julia’s spot. She sat down on one of the empty lounge chairs, keeping her gaze on the kids.

  “Do they fight a lot?”

  “All the time. They’re best friends and best enemies.” Reed sighed. “I know I could do a better job parenting Bryn…well, both of them, honestly.”

  Julia wondered if it was appropriate to ask if Reed liked being a parent and then decided that it wasn’t. “Parenting looks hard.”

  “It’s a lot harder than my day job,” Reed admitted. She scooted her lounge chair over a few inches so the shade from the umbrella covered her legs. This also meant her chair was now sandwiched against Julia’s.

  With little effort, Julia could have brushed against her when she reached for her drink—which is exactly what her body wanted. Heart racing, she tried instead to focus on an intelligent conversation. “Do you like your job?”

  “I’m happy enough. Some days I wish I’d decided on something with a little less stress, but this one pays the bills…And I like that I can help people.” Reed paused. “Do you like yours?”

  “I love it—most of the time.” Julia shifted her leg so she was a little further from temptation. “My boss just called…”

  Reed cocked her head. “She called you while you were on vacation?”

  “She doesn’t understand personal time.”

  “No kidding.” Reed kicked off her sandals and shifted back on the lounge chair, bringing her even closer to Julia. “Is it urgent?”

  “To Val, everything’s urgent.” Julia swallowed. Focus on something besides how good she smells.

  “Maybe you should explain the value of vacation time. Increased productivity and all that.”

  Julia eyed Reed. “That would not go over well.”

  “No? What if you tell her that it’s against the law to ask you to work when you’re off the clock? Maybe labor laws will be more convincing. By the way, I’m completely unqualified to give career advice.”

  Julia laughed. “I was thinking you were doing a pretty good job, actually. For a doctor.”

  “I’m a radiologist. I give a lot of advice. But most of the time I’m talking to other doctors. Career guidance isn’t usually part of the conversation.” She paused. “You’re looking at me funny. Did I say something wrong?”

  “I was wondering how it is that you’re a doctor and good at what you do, but you don’t drive me crazy.”

  Reed chuckled. “How do you know I’m good at what I do?”

  “Just a hunch.”

  “Hmm. What do you have against doctors?”

  “I have something against know-it-alls. And cocky assholes. The last person I dated was both. She happened to be a surgeon—which I know is nothing like a radiologist—but I swore off the whole profession. I can’t figure out why you’re different,” Julia continued. “But it’s a good different.”

  Reed grinned. “Maybe not all doctors are assholes. It’s possible you got caught up with a bad egg.”

  “Doubtful. I think you’re an exception to a rule.” Julia paused. “It wasn’t only my ex. All of her friends were doctors and there was definitely a theme.”

  “The cocky asshole theme?”

  “Exactly. Don’t get me wrong—they were all smart and probably had every reason to act like know-it-alls, but it got old.”

  Reed’s brow furrowed, seeming to consider her rebuttal. “I know a lot of doctors who are socially awkward. Maybe the cocky attitude is a cover. Most of us were the classroom nerd for too many years.”

  “Maybe. So what’s your story?”

  “What do you mean?” Reed squinted at her.

  “You aren’t cocky,” Julia said.

  “Do I need to work on that?”

  “Please don’t.”

  Reed chuckled. She was wearing her sexy glasses again and her hair was disheveled like she hadn’t bothered with a comb. She ran her hand through it, as if nervous under Julia’s gaze, and only managed to mess it up more. Julia resisted the urge to reach over and push the stray hairs into place.

  “I’m sorry I asked you to check out my ankle,” Julia said. “That’s probably not part of your job description.”

  “Not exactly.” Reed glanced at Julia’s outstretched leg. “But how does it feel? We could get you to urgent care if it’s still bothering you.”

  “It’s getting better. I think I just need to follow doctor’s orders and stay off it for a few days.”

  “You’re going to let a doctor tell you what to do?”

  “In this case, yes.” Julia held back from saying that she’d do whatever Reed told her to do.

  Reed’s gaze had turned to the kiddie pool. Bryn was attempting a climb up the waterslide while Carly was teetering at the top, one hand gripping the top rail. Carly shouted for Bryn to get off the slide, her tenuous hold on the rail slipping, while Bryn was halfway up and shouting for Carly to stay put. A fresh surge of water pushed Carly and her hand slipped. Reed was on her feet and starting toward them.

  Before she got to the pool, the kids had tumbled down the water slide and splashed into the sandy-bottomed kid pool. Someone had been thinking when they’d designed the little pool. The water was only knee height and with the sand, it was hard to get hurt. Still, Carly and Bryn were both wailing.

  Reed scooped up one kid in each arm and carried them to the nearest chairs. Julia always had the impulse to run from crying kids, but now she was debating if she should hobble over to see if she could help or order everyone ice cream. She hailed one of the servers from the poolside café that was passing by with an empty tray.

  “Any chance you could ask those three what flavor ice cream they’d like?” Julia handed the young man her room key.

  “No problem.” He glanced at the room number and then handed the key back to Julia. “Would you like a cone too?”

  “Chocolate, please.”

  * * *

  “Looks like you two had a fun day.”

  Mo was stretched across the living room sofa with an ice pack on her shoulder and another on her hip. Kate was on her yoga mat in the middle of the room, groaning as she stretched. A cherry-red sunburn marked her thighs up to her shorts and her nose was decidedly pinker than it had been that morning.

  “Don’t rub it in,” Mo said. “Turns out parasailing isn’t as easy as it looks. And the brochure did not mention that you could fall getting back into the boat.”

  “Into the boat?”

  “We had a good time until that mishap,” Kate said. “But I forgot to reapply sunscreen.”

  “I noticed. Want some aloe?”

  “Yes, please. Mo needs some on her feet, but she won’t admit they got burned.”

  When Julia returned from the bathroom with the aloe, Kate said, “You’re walking better.”

  Julia glanced at her ankle. She’d almost forgotten about the sprain. After her last dip in the pool, she’d left the wrap off. “I’m not going to tempt fate, but I think this sprain is a lot better than the last one I got.”

  “At band camp?” Mo grinned. “Or could it be that you were so distracted by a soccer mom that you spent all day lying on your back watching her and the swelling went down because of that?”

  Mo’s guess wasn’t far from the truth, but Julia didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of telling her so. She argued that she’d spent the day with her nose in her paperback. For the most part, that was true as well. “It’s possible I may have had a few conversations with Reed, but I didn’t spend all day ogling her.”

  “Any kissing?”

  “No. Her kids were with us the entire time and I’m not going to start kissing someone I hardly know in the middle of the afternoon.”

  “You have a schedule for that?”

  “Ignore her, Jules,” Kate said. “Some of us take a while to get to know someone before we’re ready to exchange saliva and that’s completely reasonable.” She raised her eyebrows at Mo and continued, “Do you know how many infectious organisms are transferred in one open mouth kiss?”

  Mo let go of the ice pack she’d been holding in order to clap her hands over her ears. “Don’t let her ruin kissing, Jules. You’ve gotta stop her.”

  But Kate pressed on anyway, a sly glint in her eye. “Eighty million bacteria in one intimate kiss. And that’s only bacteria. That study didn’t take into account viruses or yeast that could also be transferred.”

  “Yeast? In a kiss? Why do you always have to bring science in and ruin the good stuff?” Mo shook her head. “Anyway, Jules is kissing a doctor—there’s no germs involved there.”

  “Turns out she’s a radiologist,” Julia said, mostly to change the subject away from bacteria. “Maybe it’s because I’m slightly smitten, but I’m thinking there’s a good chance radiologists are less likely to be assholes than surgeons.”

  “Give her time. Remember—she’s on vacation at the moment. She’s just as likely to be an asshole once you get to know her better.” Mo added, “But less likely to have kissing germs.”

  “Well, she probably works in a hospital. Those places are cesspools of bacteria,” Kate argued.

  “Only if you touch the door handles.”

  Kate shook her head. “The truth is, we’re probably at a higher risk of getting sick when we eat the fish tacos at the buffet tonight. Have you guys noticed that they leave that salsa out for everyone to reach their hands into? Norovirus central. And who knows if they wash the cabbage. Salmonella, anyone? It’s all relative risk.”

  “Now you’ve ruined buffets and kissing,” Julia said. “Do you realize those are two of my favorite things?”

  Mo chuckled. “You’re probably better off having sex. Germ free as long as you don’t kiss.”

  “Not germ free,” Kate said, shaking her head at Mo. “But probably safer than eating her taco.”

  There was a half second of silence before Kate busted up laughing. She laughed so hard that she had to stop for air and then busted up again. Her cheeks turned as red as her sunburned legs. Mo couldn’t resist laughing at Kate and then Julia joined in.

  When they’d all stopped, Julia said, “I’m so glad you two are my friends. I don’t even care that I have a crappy dating life with you two around.”

  * * *

  Her cell phone had been silent since Val’s call earlier that day and Julia jumped when she heard it ring late that evening. She glanced at the caller ID and was instantly glad that Mo and Kate weren’t back from the resort bar. This call she wanted to take alone. When she answered on the third ring, trying not to seem as if she’d been waiting for the call, she had to hide her disappointment at hearing Bryn’s voice. Was it ridiculous to want Reed to call her herself?

  “Can you come to the waterfall with us? Mom rented a car. It’s red and there’s a real window on the roof.”

  “A sunroof?”

  “Yeah—can you come?”

  Before Julia could decide how to answer, Reed’s voice came on the line.

  “Hope you weren’t trying to have a quiet evening at home. My kids couldn’t go to sleep without saying good night. Hold on a second.”

  “Julia?” Carly’s voice was more distinct than it had been in their last phone conversation but still quiet. “Mom says one of the waterfalls has rainbows in it.”

  “That sounds beautiful.”

  “Can you come?”

  As if on repeat from the previous night’s conversation, a loud crash followed and then screaming. When Reed came back on the line, Julia said, “You all okay?”

  “Oh, this is normal for us.” She sighed. “Carly, Bryn, quiet down for a minute. I can’t hear Julia.”

  The screaming died down some and Julia asked, “What’s this about a waterfall?”

  “You know your dating life has gotten bad when your kids start asking women out for you.” Reed quickly added, “Not that I wouldn’t ask you out on my own. I would definitely ask you out, but I’m not really dating right now and this isn’t a date kind of thing. This is more like a field trip—with two insane four-year-olds who might scream the entire time.” She paused. “I totally screwed that up, didn’t I?”

  “Not completely.” Julia couldn’t help smiling. “Maybe you should tell me what your plan is.”

  “We’re taking a drive over to the Hilo side of the island. I want to show the girls some waterfalls and I need a break from the resort. We won’t be walking much—you can see most of the waterfalls from the car. But we’ll probably be gone the whole day…”