Hawaii Can Wait (The Girls Series) Read online

  Back to the center area closer to where they had entered, the seats were directly in front of the stage and a height that bordered on making Carolyn nervous but were so well designed that she was immediately put at ease. The new seats were a little narrow but regular theater seating including a cup holder for Anna’s drink, which was a good thing, because the concession didn’t supply lids.

  Although there were signs all around not to use a camera, cell phone or other device, people were snapping away, which obviously annoyed the girls.

  Three rows down, a young man came in with a generous kid-sized guitar.

  Carolyn sounded confused. “What on earth does he need that for?”

  Adeline sniffed. “It’s a drink.”

  “What?”

  “Look, there is a straw in it.”

  Carolyn couldn’t hide her amazement. “That whole thing is a drink?”

  Anna was already typing on her phone. “If this is the right thing, it says it is eighty-eight ounces of daiquiri.”

  “Are you kidding? He won’t be able to walk out of here.”

  Adeline tilted her head. “As long as he doesn’t cause any problems I don’t care. I’m just amazed they let him in the place with it. You would think that they would ask him to leave it behind.”

  Within minutes the young man was passing the drink back and forth with a couple of friends. The girls wondered aloud if that would continue throughout the performance. They got a dirty look, but the kids were more careful about how far up they raised the device while passing it.

  To be fair, there was a railing with foot guard between the girls and the young men, it wasn’t as if their sightline would be impeded, it was just annoying that our society had come to the point that people thought it appropriate to bring a gargantuan drink into such an establishment.

  Looking around, it wasn’t surprising.

  When did comfortable dress turn into sloppy mess?

  It wasn’t all that long ago that a gentleman would wear a suit to such an outing.

  The girls kind of missed those days.

  Before long, the show started and all other thoughts were put aside.

  The performers were truly gifted athletes, dancers and swimmers. From the contortionists to the divers, from the singer narrating the whole show in an otherworldly opera, to the heart-stopping displays of ability, the girls loved every minute.

  When the lights came up they continued to clap, as did the rest of the audience.

  They waited a few minutes for the crowd to clear before heading back out to the casino.

  Adeline smiled. “I loved that. How did you do with the heights, Carolyn?”

  “Parts of it scared me.”

  Anna took a breath. “I saw you look at your lap a couple of times.”

  “Dear God, they were flying the complete length of the stage and landing within inches of the side. If they missed, just by a little, it would have been disastrous.”

  Adeline nodded. “What talented young people. It was truly amazing.”

  Anna asked. “So, are you girls done for the night or do you still want to go to the shooting range?”

  “I think I have a little more adventure left in me for tonight. What about you, Carolyn?”

  “I’m ready.”

  “Good. We can go back to our room, change our clothing to something a little more gunpowder friendly, grab a taxi and head that direction.”

  Adeline came out in jeans with a wide smile on her face. She looked splendid. That was the only word Carolyn could come up with.

  “My gosh, Adeline, you look ten years younger.”

  Anna shook her head. “Fifteen!”

  “You girls are too kind.”

  “No, I’m serious. I’ve never seen you look better.”

  “Well, thank you. I haven’t worn dungarees, jeans, in years. I used to wear them when I was working the horses, absconded with my husband’s actually, but they just seem to be something younger people wear. Cara bought these for me and insisted I bring them along. I chided her, actually, saying I couldn’t imagine a situation in which I would wear such a thing.”

  “What were you planning on wearing on the zip line?”

  “Anna, don’t be ridiculous, I never planned on riding a zip line.”

  “Well, see there, just goes to show you, life can take an unexpected turn.”

  “If you had told me that we were going to be riding zip lines or shooting automatic weaponry or, for the love of Pete, wearing a swimsuit on the beach in Hawaii, just six months ago, I’d have thought you daft. But I will tell you, all the complications and interruptions notwithstanding, I’ve greatly enjoyed myself. I’m so pleased that you girls were smart enough to suggest this.”

  Carolyn smiled. “Don’t forget you were smart enough to accept the invitation.”

  “Another thing I have to thank Cara for. She insisted.”

  “I’ll remember to send her a note.” Anna pulled such a silly face the girls’ peals of laughter could be heard in the hall.

  “So, my kids still aren’t answering. I’m beginning to wonder if we should be concerned.”

  “Me too. Cell phones are such a convenience, but they are also stress inducers. In my day, if you were away from the phone, no one gave it a thought. Now if you go for a couple of hours without being in contact, people assume the boogie man has gotten you.”

  “I’m sure they are fine. They are probably all together, perhaps at a concert or movie. There are a thousand good reasons these young people are not responding, not the least of which is that we told them we would not be calling.”

  “True, but you would think they would have their phones on for business reasons.”

  “A.J. turns his phone off during shoots. He doesn’t want to be startled and miss the perfect shot. Suzi normally keeps her phone on. All the time. The child has answered her phone in the middle of the night, well aware that it was not an emergency. Then she wonders why she is tired all the time. Could it be that she never really turns her brain off? She is too well connected to the world at every moment.”

  “My kids do that too.” Anna blushed a bit. “My nieces and nephews and their kids. You know what I mean. They all take the stupid phone to bed with them.”

  Adeline shook her head. “I’m glad that wasn’t an option when I was young. I needed my peace.”

  “Me too. So, are we ready to go to the buffet? I thought we’d go there first, then grab a cab out in front and have them bring us to the shooting gallery.”

  “Sounds good. Any buffet in particular?”

  Anna suggested. “Planet Hollywood?”

  Adeline grabbed her purse. “Maybe we will see celebrities.”

  Carolyn chuffed. “At a buffet?”

  “Rich people gotta eat too.”

  Adeline just smiled.

  Anna tried to swallow her tongue.

  The buffet was great. They didn’t overeat like so many people seated around them, but they did have their fill.

  They grabbed a taxi and Anna gave the driver the address of the shooting range.

  “You are gonna have a great time, ladies. I’ve taken my wife there lots of times. They’ll take real good care of you.”

  Carolyn was polite. “That’s good to hear.”

  “Don’t be shy. You want to shoot a cannon, you just tell them. They probably got one for ya.”

  “A cannon?” Carolyn sounded horrified.

  The taxi driver laughed. “Maybe not a cannon, although, I wouldn’t be at all surprised. I think they got night shoots and you can go out in the back, way back, and shoot in the dark. They got special equipment and tracer bullets or something. I’m not sure about that one. Just ask ‘em.”

  Anna answered. “Thanks, but I think we’ll start out a little slower than that.”

  “Life is short, ladies. You gotta grab what you can, when you can. If you gonna shoot a gun, shoot a big gun. If you gonna have an adventure, you have a big adventure.”

  Anna star
ted to giggle. “Go big or go home?”

  “Exactly.”

  The ladies laughed.

  They got to the range and saw that the parking lot was nearly full.

  “Maybe you should wait, make sure that they can take us. I didn’t make an appointment.”

  “Believe me, there’s no problem, they have plenty of lanes. Tell you what, I’ll give you my card and if you want I’ll come back and get ya any time. I’ll be on duty till three.”

  “That would be great. Thanks.” Anna took the card, noted that their driver’s name was Floyd, took a quick picture of the card because she might misplace it but she wouldn’t misplace her phone, paid the bill and over-tipped the driver.

  “Thanks. I appreciate that. Got two in college, this helps.”

  “We’ll see you again, Floyd.”

  They walked in the door and were surprised to see that the place looked more like a sporting goods store than what they expected.

  They wandered around looking at camouflage patterns of every description, from traditional to pink digital, and some of the most interesting home décor items Adeline had ever seen.

  They wandered to a large display at the back. Every kind of gun imaginable was displayed under glass. Several young men with pink hair were talking to the employees. Anna waited in line while Carolyn and Adeline inspected the range, housed behind a wall of thick glass-like walls. The instructors and range masters and every kind of official looking person made Carolyn feel much better about the whole thing.

  While Anna talked to the gentlemen behind the counter, a young man named Emiliusz introduced himself to Carolyn and Adeline. He explained to them how the process worked and all the safety measures taken to assure that even the most novice shooter didn’t hurt anyone. By the time Anna arrived with brochures and information for the girls to make their decisions, Carolyn felt much more comfortable.

  They were sitting at a metal bistro table, looking over the brochures to decide which package they would choose, when a friendly male voice got their attention.

  “Ladies?”

  Anna almost blurted out ‘handsome-ness?’

  “I thought you were off to Hawaii.”

  Adeline sounded annoyed. “We decided to stay a few more days. Did my lawyer call you in again?”

  “No, ma’am. I’m here for target practice. I’m a regular. Ask Jimmy, there, behind the desk.”

  Anna vouched for the fact that it was Jimmy that had handed her the brochures.

  Adeline seemed unconvinced.

  “If you would be more comfortable, I’ll leave. I’m happy to hear that you ladies decided to stay in town. Vegas has a lot to offer. I know you were unable to enjoy our town when you were here last.”

  Adeline seemed to find her manners. “There is no cause for you to leave.”

  “Thank you. May I be of any assistance? If you need any ideas about things to do or places to go, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have.”

  Anna, a facilitator at heart — and maybe just a tiny bit of a matchmaker — smiled at His Handsomeness. What harm could it do to get Adeline together with a truly handsome and obviously interested guy? “You might want to show us how to shoot a gun. None of us have done it before. Carolyn, here, has all but convinced herself that she is gonna wipe out half the customers.”

  “Jimmy wouldn’t like that.”

  “Nor would the customers.”

  There was something about his handsomeness that put the girls at ease.

  Anna didn’t really care at that point if the lawyers had made arrangements for them to be followed, yet again. Carolyn and Adeline could believe his line, but she wasn’t born yesterday and she didn’t believe it for a minute.

  On the other hand, the way he was looking at Adeline, maybe it was more personal.

  They spent the next two hours shooting every kind of gun they’d ever seen in a movie or on television.

  His handsomeness kept buying another round—a really lame pun, since it was ammunition they were interested in, but it got a laugh from Adeline every time.

  They were sitting at the bistro tables, admiring their skills, with paper targets rolled up neatly to be brought home as proof of their adventure, when Carolyn’s phone rang. “I’m sorry. It’s Suzi. I need to take this.”

  “Suze…” Her granddaughter didn’t have time to say more than a couple of words before Carolyn’s face fell from brilliant smile to deep concern. “What’s wrong?”

  For the next several minutes Carolyn sat motionless. Concern etched on her face. She was becoming more and more pale as the very one-sided conversation continued.

  Anna thought that maybe Suzi had lost the baby, an experience she was all too familiar with. Her heart broke at the possibility.

  Adeline knew that whatever the problem was, it was serious.

  His handsomeness was mentally running through the steps that would be required to protect the women or enable their swift return home, depending on the information he’d soon get from Carolyn.

  After some comforting words, barely whispered, Carolyn put the phone back in her purse.

  “I’m sorry. I need to go home.”

  “What happened? Is Suzi all right? Is it A.J.?”

  “I’m sorry Adeline, it’s Cara. She’s been hurt.”

  “How bad is it?”

  “It’s very bad. Turns out that is why we couldn’t get ahold of the kids. They’ve all been at the hospital.”

  “What happened?”

  “My son-in-law, Suzi’s husband, Barry, beat Cara. Badly.”

  “How badly? Why?”

  “Very badly. There is a very real possibility of brain damage. There are broken bones. It’s very bad.” Tears started to fall.

  His handsomeness spoke up. “Ladies, do I hear that you wish to go back to Tampa Bay?”

  Anna pulled out her phone to start looking for travel information. “Yes.”

  “Anna, please, allow me to take care of this for you. I will give you ladies a ride back to the hotel. You can arrange your things and I will have information to you as quickly as possible. I will have you in the air soon.”

  Adeline reached out and touched his arm. “Thank you.”

  The ladies stood. Each seemed much older than they had been just minutes before. They hurried out to the car and were back in their suite in no time at all.

  Anna got on the room phone to order room service. “You can’t eat on a plane these days. The food is expensive, probably wouldn’t cost us any more eating in our room, and the food on a plane is terrible. It’ll also keep us busy until we know what our travel arrangements are.” She knew her comments were useless, that there was not a single possibility any of the girls could eat a single bite, but she needed to do something constructive.

  “I’m so tempted to make phone calls, but I know that the kids don’t need the stress. I can’t imagine how my grandson is dealing with this. When he was a junior in high school the girl he was dating was beaten badly by her stepfather. I’d never seen a look on A.J.’s face like I did when I got to the hospital. In the long term, she recovered, but her aunt stepped in and took guardianship of her and swept her out of town. I don’t think that A.J. ever saw her again.”

  There was a knock on the door that startled all three women.

  His handsomeness came in. “Okay. I have a friend with a plane. Corporate jet. It will be fueled and ready for you by the time you get to the airport. I have a car downstairs.” A bellman came in and started to collect the bags the girls had placed in a line by the door.

  “If you would like me to accompany you, I can do so. I’ll just catch a ride home with the plane.”

  “That is very kind of you, Mr. Hillcoat.”

  “Rick, please.”

  Anna didn’t want to seem ungrateful but she also couldn’t imagine the cost of a private jet bringing them all the way across the country. “Thank you, Rick. I could probably find us a commercial flight that would leave tonight.”


  “The only commercial flight that is available tonight would have you stopping multiple times with a layover each time. I can make those arrangements if you would like, but I believe the private plane would be a better choice.”

  Carolyn had silently listened to them go back-and-forth. “Under normal circumstances I would never even dream of the extravagance of a private plane. You know that. But these are not normal circumstances. If this is the best and quickest way for us to get home, then I think we need to do it. We have Cara, A.J. and Suzi to take care of. All three of them. And Cara’s whole family, they are so close. I can’t imagine. And Barry is still out there hunting Cara. I might not be able to do anything to make it better, but I need to try. I’m sorry girls, I need to get home.”

  Adeline stood. “That settles it then. Rick, thank you for your generous offer. We will gratefully accept. Please make sure that you forward all the details to Gaston.”

  Adeline and Rick knew what the request meant.

  Adeline wanted Rick to bill Gaston for the expense of the jet.

  If Anna and Carolyn were aware, they didn’t comment.

  Anna seemed focused on Carolyn, who was looking more troubled by the moment.

  Rick escorted them into the car waiting for them and accompanied them to the airport. In thirty minutes they were fastened into the luxurious seats of a private jet. In forty-five minutes a pretty girl in a well-tailored suit was offering them drinks and a beautiful array of cold cuts and breads.

  They couldn’t eat.

  For the majority of the flight, they sat in silence, each of the women affected by a life’s history that the other two did not yet know about.

  TWO

  A car was waiting for them on arrival in Florida.

  Carolyn chewed on the skin beside her thumbnail, a habit neither of the girls had seen before. Carolyn was obviously stressed. “I’m not sure what we should do. Should we go to the hospital? I’ve been arguing with myself the whole flight. I don’t want to get into the middle of it. For the sake of the O’Flynn family. They may not want to see anyone that has anything to do with Barry. But I want to be there to support Cara, A.J., and of course Suzi, although I can’t imagine that she is at the hospital.” She ripped skin from her thumb. “I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to drag you into this mess. You girls were good to come back with me, but please, go home and get some rest. I can do this on my own.”