Page 36 of Finding Elodie
A tear rolled down her cheek as she headed out to the bus stop. She wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all herself. Coming to Hawaii was a bad idea. It just made her think about Scott even more and regret being stupid enough to lose his number. She had no idea if things with him would’ve gone anywhere, but at least she would’ve had a friend. Wouldn’t have felt so alone in the world.
“Maybe I’ll move to Australia,” Elodie said as she took a deep breath and wiped her face clear of her tears. It wouldn’t be good for the tourists to see one of the employees red-eyed and weepy.
She knew she’d been hired not only because she’d been available to start immediately and hadn’t flinched at the low pay, but also because she looked halfway decent in a bathing suit, and most of the charters were men. Sure, it was discriminatory and disgusting, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. And she did actually like Perry and Kahoni, the owners of the boat. They didn’t allow their guests to make her uncomfortable in any way. One of them went on every trip, along with the only other employee, a local guy in his early twenties, Kai.
As she sat on the bus headed for the harbor, Elodie thought about where in Australia she might want to go. Maybe Adelaide. It wasn’t as big as Sydney or Perth, and she’d worked with a guy once who’d been from there. He’d always talked about the city in glowing terms, including how amazing the restaurants were. It would be too dangerous to try to find anyone she’d worked with previously, because she knew Paul would already consider any of her past contacts. He wouldn’t hesitate to hurt or kill someone if he thought they had information on her whereabouts. But she could go to Adelaide and find a small, out-of-the-way restaurant and make apple crumble cake and meat pies all day.
The harbor came into view, and Elodie gathered up her stuff. She’d learned the hard way that sunscreen wasn’t enough to protect her skin when it came to the Hawaiian sun. She’d splurged and bought a long-sleeve shirt that had built-in UV protection. It was made of a material that would dry quickly if it got wet and didn’t leave her looking like a lobster at the end of the day.
After climbing off the bus, she walked past the row of boats parked in the harbor until she got to the Fish Tales, the boat Perry and Kahoni owned.
Perry waved at her as she climbed aboard and Kai gave her a slight chin lift. Both were busy getting the boat ready to go for the day. Kahoni would be meeting their clients back at the small shack on the pier.
“Aloha, Melody, how’s it shakin’?” Kai asked as he worked.
Elodie had learned her lesson, and she’d used a good chunk of the money she’d gotten after leaving the Asaka Express to get some custom paperwork for a new identity. She’d needed a name that was closer to her own so she’d remember to answer to it. Melody was close enough to Elodie that she didn’t think twice when she heard it.
“I’m great, but gettin’ better. You?” she asked. This was their tradition. She had the same answer every morning when he asked.
“Good. Ready to find some marlin today!” Kai told her. He said that every day, as well.
It was good to have a routine. Safe. It was what Elodie needed.
Twenty minutes later, two couples headed to the boat with Kahoni. They were smiling and looked as if they couldn’t wait to go fishing.
Saying a prayer—like she did at the start of every trip—that the clients wouldn’t be susceptible to seasickness, as it was her job to deal with the barf bags, Elodie smiled in welcome as they climbed aboard. Eight hours and counting until she was free to roam Oahu in the hopes that by some miracle, she’d run into the man she couldn’t get off her mind.
Chapter Seven
Saturday morning, Mustang wondered what the hell he was doing. On one of the very few days of the week he had to sleep in, he was up at the ass-crack of dawn meeting his friends, people he saw every damn day, to spend an entire day in a boat on the ocean, something else he spent quite a bit of his life doing. He’d been looking forward to this fishing trip at first, but now he was having second thoughts.
But Midas seemed super excited about the prospect of catching a huge marlin, and Mustang couldn’t deny that sitting around shooting the shit about things that didn’t involve national security or some evil terrorist was appealing. So he hauled himself out of bed and got ready to meet Aleck when he arrived to pick him up.
Aleck was there right at seven o’clock, and they headed down to the harbor, where they’d meet the guy Aleck knew. The man’s boat was large and comfortable. After the rest of the team showed up, they headed out.
It was a beautiful day, sunny with a nice breeze. The guys laughed, drank a few beers, and generally had a good time.
Pid caught a huge marlin, which had taken all of them to help reel in. Aleck’s friend, the guy who owned the boat, was going to filet it when they got back to shore so each of them could have some. They all agreed to donate the rest of the fish to the man, in thanks for taking them out for the day.
It was still early afternoon when they arrived back at the harbor. Mustang was sitting near the front, enjoying the sun and wind on his face. There were a good number of tourist boats entering and exiting the mooring area. Mustang smiled at the little kids who enthusiastically waved at him from boats as they headed out for an afternoon of whale watching, snorkeling, or parasailing.
Despite his reluctance that morning, he’d needed this. A day to completely relax. To not worry about what was going on in the world…or whether or not his phone rang. Today, he was simply Scott Webber, average Joe, not Mustang the Navy SEAL.
His teammates were shooting the shit behind him, and Mustang wasn’t really paying attention when something onshore caught his eye. A boat was tied up to the dock not far from where they were headed to tie up themselves, and two couples, obviously tourists, had just exited the craft. They were shaking hands and thanking the guides when something about the smallest one made him look twice.
Her dark hair was up in a ponytail, and she had on a long-sleeve white shirt and a pair of black board shorts. It wasn’t until she smiled at the couples that Mustang realized who he was seeing.
Standing up abruptly, he yelled, “Rachel!”
But the woman didn’t turn her head or otherwise act as if she’d heard him.
“Rachel!” Mustang called out again.
“What the fuck, Mustang?” Aleck asked, coming up beside him.
“It’s her!” Mustang said impatiently.
“Who?”
