Hawaii Can Wait (The Girls Series) Read online

  Hawaii Can Wait

  Book Two

  The Girls series

  Sheila Horgan

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, businesses and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. No reference to any real person is intended or implied.

  Hawaii Can Wait – Book Two of Lessons, The Series © 2013 by Sheila Horgan. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, or distributed without the written permission of the author, with the exception of short quotes for purposes of review.

  Special thanks to Darlene Davis MacLean and Deb for all the help and support.

  Christie Giraud at www.eBookEditingPro.com

  Cover art by David Avila

  ONE

  Carolyn allowed herself to sink back into the seat. “If I live to be a hundred, I will never become accustomed to riding in a limousine. Not that I’m complaining, it just seems so strange to have a limousine waiting for us any time we want it. I’m more a taxi kind of girl.” Her smile was contagious. “Actually, I don’t think anyone but family has ever dropped me at the airport, but this will do.”

  The hotel limo was lovely with cream-colored leather seats that soothed without draining the energy out of you and ambient light that allowed for clear vision without being harsh. Even the audible tones of the different gadgets were different than her little car at home. Someone put a lot of time and thought into every detail.

  Anna opened her eyes at the sound of Adeline’s voice. “I hope they are billing Gaston.”

  Anna shook her head. “I thought you were past that. He really was just trying to protect you. He’s your personal attorney. It’s his job to look after your best interests and keeping you alive is probably high on the priority list. He was just trying to do what you pay him for.”

  “As well he should, but there was no cause for him to do so secretly.”

  Anna opened the minibar and looked inside. “And you would have allowed him to have us followed if he asked?”

  “Well, of course not.”

  The girls all chuckled.

  Carolyn ran her hand across the cool leather of the seat. “Then just what is it that you would have had him do?”

  “You are right. No matter how he chose to handle the situation I would have found fault with it. I’m just so frustrated. We didn’t get to see a single thing in Las Vegas. Now it is time for us to leave and we didn’t see a show or drive earth movers or even try a zip-line.”

  Carolyn noticed Anna pointed a freshly manicured nail at Adeline. “Be honest, we wouldn’t have gotten on the zip-line anyway.” She must have painted her nails while in her room last night.

  Adeline raised a brow and got her go-to haughty look on her face. “I most certainly would have considered it, but now I am unable to do so, and further, I have cost each of you the opportunity to make that decision.”

  Not one to let an opportunity pass, Anna challenged the girls. “There are zip-lines in Hawaii, I’m sure of it.”

  “Not the same thing at all. In Las Vegas we could have chosen a desert adventure or for that matter we could have climbed up and zipped right over the heads of tourists on Freemont Street.”

  Carolyn shuttered. “I would have left my dinner on the top of their heads. Or worse.”

  “I wonder if that ever happens.”

  Adeline still sounded annoyed with the situation. “Now we will never know, will we?”

  As they spoke Anna had been madly typing away on her phone. She was surprisingly fast on the thing and a gifted multitasking genius. “For a hundred dollars each we can change our flights.”

  Carolyn remained unconvinced. “No we can’t. We have reservations at the timeshare and that isn’t the same thing as changing reservations at a hotel.”

  “But we planned on going to see the memorial first. That is just a hotel reservation. We can change our flights to Hawaii. Do the timeshare first and then the memorial. We’re lucky. This isn’t the busy season over there so if we do it right it won’t cost us that much more. There are advantages to being little old ladies, and discounts and understanding customer support is on that list. Most of the time. If I can arrange it, do you want to do it?”

  Adeline and Carolyn gaped at each other.

  Adeline got her voice first. “Yes!”

  “That’s one. What about you, Carolyn?”

  “And what will we do here? We checked out of the hotel.”

  “We’re in Las Vegas. If we can’t find a hotel room in Las Vegas there is something really wrong. Each of the big casinos has thousands of rooms. They’ll have something. It won’t be as lavish as the last room, but that isn’t what we were really planning on anyway. What do you say?”

  Carolyn laughed. “We said we wanted an adventure.”

  Adeline asked the driver to pull over anyplace convenient while Anna went to work on her phone.

  Twenty minutes later, they were turned around on their way back to the strip.

  The driver had discretely contacted the hotel and there would be accommodation for them there. Within an hour of saying goodbye to the concierge, they were greeted by the same woman and escorted to their room.

  Anna’s eyes were wide. “I’m sorry, there must be a mistake. We just need a regular room. I thought we booked for three. I think it was to be two queen beds and a pullout. I didn’t reserve a suite.”

  The concierge stood to one side while the bags were being placed in each room of the suite. Three bags, three rooms; it didn’t seem too complicated.

  The concierge was undaunted. “Compliments of Mr. Colluride, head of security.”

  Adeline took a deep breath, but to the surprise of both Carolyn and Anna, it was she who turned the luxury away. “We are aware of Mr. Colluride, but this is not necessary.”

  “Ma’am, I’m sure he will be in touch soon. Please, make yourselves comfortable. He asked me not to take no for an answer. If you insist, I can contact him now. If you are willing to accept this accommodation, I can see to it that he gets a message, if you like.” The girls seemed too calm. “If there is anything we can provide, please do not hesitate.”

  “I can’t believe this.” Anna had her hand on her hip, but she had a huge smile on her face.

  Two queen-sized beds and a roll-away that she would have claimed as her own. The booking notice said that some rooms had a sofa bed and others had a roll away. When the driver asked if they needed a room, it didn’t dawn on her that this type of arrangement would be made. She just assumed talking to reservations through a company person would assure them of the room she intended.

  She fully understood that with the room she thought she booked they probably would have been tripping over each other, but the arrangements were made last minute and they didn’t want to go too far over budget with the extra expense of changing everything around at the last minute.

  She told herself when she found the room online that the two feet between each bed and a bathroom the size of a small closet would simply have to do.

  Anna was too practical to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Well, why don’t we go ahead and call home. We can let the family know about the changes in our plans so they won’t worry. Once we get that done, I vote we get some food. I am far beyond starving. Then we can decide what we’re going to do and in what order. I can probably have the concierge print out our options. I’ve done a list and I can merge that with a calendar if you like.”

  Adeline threw her hands up in the air. “Anna is
already organized. Imagine.”

  “I figured we could do the original three days we’d planned. We have all the information on that already, and it works out with the rest of the trip because we were going to do three days for the memorial at the beginning when we first arrived on Oahu. Originally we planned on Vegas for three days, then Oahu for three days. We were going to do the first day for relaxing and getting situated. Second day for getting to Pearl Harbor and maybe a nice dinner. Third day to look around a bit and then hop on the plane to the other island and the resort. We’ll just do it backwards. Three days in Vegas. Straight to the resort. Then back to Oahu for Pearl Harbor. Remember, we weren’t sure how much the heat and travel would take out of us so we figured Vegas would be the strenuous part and Hawaii would be the relaxing part.”

  Adeline took a very deep breath. Taking a deep breath didn’t throw her into a coughing fit the way it had just weeks ago. Her health must be returning faster than the doctors had indicated it would. “I don’t know about strenuous, but for me, emotionally, it has been somewhat draining. I always knew that my younger children were less than honorable people, but I assumed that their flaw was mostly laziness. They have wanted everything handed to them since they were old enough to whine until something was stuffed in their greedy little paws. I was unaware that they would go to such lengths. To have me followed. Imagine. All that is behind us now. Now we focus on enjoying our trip as we should have from the moment we arrived.”

  Carolyn stood. “I’ll just go in my room and call my granddaughter and her brother. A.J. worries and Suzi can panic. I don’t know why they worry so, but I’m touched that they do.”

  Anna walked toward her bedroom door. “I’ll call that nephew of mine. He has my itinerary on the fridge. He can update it there and the rest of them can just figure it out.”

  “What does it say about my life that everyone I need to inform is on my payroll not my family tree?”

  Anna gave Adeline a quick hug. “It says the important ones are right here in this hotel room with you.”

  Adeline laughed, but there was sadness in her eyes.

  “Can you believe it? We checked out, changed all of our plans and checked back in before official check out time.” Anna was reading from the binder that she’d found in one of the drawers of the entertainment center.

  Inside she’d found coupons for all kinds of activities. There were listings of things to do in the hotel and in other areas of the city. Virtually any experience one could dream up, someone already had, and it could be found twenty-four hours a day. In the back of the binder was the room service menu and information on hotel policies. That’s where she found the information about checkout and the room rate for the suite. She decided not to share that information unless it came up in conversation.

  “It is amazing what you can get accomplished on that little phone of yours, Anna. Thank you for making all the arrangements. When I called A.J., I got his voicemail. Same thing for Suzi. My guess is that Cara is feeding them. Suzi loves her comfort food and no one prepares it like Cara. I think she gained ten pounds when she was rooming with that girl.”

  Adeline came out of her room looking a little forlorn. The look on her face interrupted Carolyn’s train of thought.

  “Are you okay Adeline?”

  “I am, thank you, Anna. I was just thinking about our earlier conversation. How very sad it is that my family is such that I have no one to call in circumstances like this.”

  “Don’t you give that whole situation another thought. I think that things will change when your daughter gets home.” Warming to her theory, Anna continued, “When Genevieve gets home you’ll have the challenge finding any time for yourself. She will have so much to share with you about her time in the military. The stories she will tell.”

  Carolyn joined Anna in trying to cheer her new friend. “Until then we will busy ourselves with one adventure after the next.”

  “I intend to sit down at some point before we get home and compose a letter to her. Genevieve has never shown any real interest in the family businesses. For the most part, I have professionals run the day-to-day activities. Things are set up so that they care for themselves. We haven’t gone off plan in decades. I’m not sure what it is Genevieve would have to do. It would be such an injustice to bring her all the way home, ask her to leave her chosen career, only to have nothing at all to do to keep busy.”

  “The president says he’s pulling people out of that part of the world, might as well be your daughter among the first. What exactly is it that she does?”

  “Logistics.”

  Anna brightened. “Well, I would think that would come in real handy running all your company businesses.”

  “It would, at that. Perhaps she would actually find it interesting. My people are always after me to try something new. Something innovative. There was a time when money could sit in a vault and not lose value. Those days are gone. With the economy being what it is, the dollar is worth less every day. I need to invest accordingly. I’ve trusted others to do that for me, but I think maybe it is time to take a more active role.”

  Anna shook her head. “One thing I’ve learned in the last few years, you don’t know until you ask. Most of my life I’ve been afraid to ask. To ask for help. To ask for guidance. To ask for company. Since my husband died, I’ve had to learn how to do that, and it hasn’t been easy, but it has been effective. So my advice to you would be to ask your daughter what it is she wants. She might just surprise you.”

  “She might at that. Thank you. Again.”

  Anna had a twinkle in her eye. “You want to go ride a zip line?”

  Carolyn tried not to be horrified. “How about we work our way up to that.”

  Anna laughed. “We certainly can. What do you have in mind?”

  Carolyn decided to get their minds off of zip lines. She chose an equally scary option. “I contacted the front desk while the two of you were freshening up. I’ve hired a car for tomorrow. They tried real hard to have us use the limo, but I think it would be more fun to drive ourselves. How about we go to the dam tomorrow.”

  Adeline smiled. “That sounds lovely.”

  “I figure we can go bright and early, then we can come back here and see a show. I thought a musical show might be fun.”

  Adeline relaxed a bit. “I would love that. Today or tomorrow, however it works out.”

  Anna popped up and grabbed her phone off the charger. “If you girls will give me a few minutes, I’ll make the arrangements.”

  “Okay, we’re going to see a show. Jersey Boys. I can’t wait. They had pretty good seats tonight but they had outstanding seats tomorrow night so I made an executive decision and bought the tickets for tomorrow night.”

  Adeline sounded somewhat amused. “I’m quite sure that the concierge could have gotten us any tickets that we require on any day that we require them and the seating would not have been an issue.”

  Anna tried to keep her voice evenly modulated. “True, but I like the idea that we are doing this ourselves. For ourselves.” There were times that Adeline’s assumption that the whole world lived like she did struck a nerve with Anna. The reality is that they were in this lovely suite by the grace of God and she wasn’t about to take advantage of that. She knew that rich folks did, and that was fine for rich folks, but she was a woman who had always done for herself and always would.

  Just before they’d decided on this adventure, she was busy making end-of-life decisions, making sure she was financially able to take care of whatever befell her without being a burden to Morgan, her grandniece. After all, wasn’t Morgan the only family member who would truly volunteer to care for her if something went terribly wrong? Oh, her nephew, Morgan’s idiot father, might make noises of support. A few of the others would do what was required for their auntie, but she would not be a burden to anyone at any time. That was not her way. Period.

  Carolyn pointed to a huge bruise on her leg. “Will you just look at that? I swear
, as you get older the skin gets thinner and these just get worse and worse.”

  Anna reached down to feel the temperature of the bruise. “What did you do?”

  “I have no idea. What are you doing?”

  “Checking for the temperature of the bruise. My mother always told me that a bruise should be a little warmer than the skin around it if it’s healing right. Just a little. Also checking for swelling and such. You don’t want a blood clot.”

  “Bite your tongue. It’s not as bad as you would think. I’m just very light-skinned so everything looks worse. It’s a blessing and a curse. No one could ever get away with striking someone in my family.” Carolyn let out a strange sounding laugh. “We bruise too easily and it would be noticeable.”

  Anna looked at Carolyn. What an odd thing to say. She wondered for just a moment if Carolyn had been abused as a wife when her husband was still alive but dismissed the thought immediately.

  Carolyn was much too smart for that.

  Much too normal.

  But wasn’t that just the way? Wasn’t that what they used to think, back when these things were kept behind closed doors? Back in her day smart women weren’t abused, that’s what they told you. How completely naive and ignorant everyone had been.

  Adeline’s thoughts were quite different. She was instantly transported to another time and place.

  “Don’t you think, Adeline?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Don’t you think it would be great fun if we went there first?”

  “Again, I’m sorry. I apologize, my thoughts wandered.”

  Anna’s concern registered in her voice. “Are you okay?”

  Adeline snapped. “I’m quite well, thank you. The doctors assure me that my memory issues and my cognitive challenges are only temporary and will heal quickly.”

  “I didn’t mean to offend you, Adeline, I was just asking if you were okay. You’ve been through so much with your children and the stressors of dealing with your lawyers and everything, and on top of that it has all been done long distance while in the company of women you don’t know all that well. We will always try to be supportive, but it must be hard not to be in the comfort of your own people.”