A Marriage Healed in Hawaii, page 1
“What’s going on, Mika?”
“I just— I had to talk to you. There’s so much we’ve been trying not to say, Lani.”
She sucked in her breath and felt her cheeks flush as she looked away.
“We don’t have to drag up anything painful if you’re not ready,” he continued as her heart started to thrum. “I know I hurt you badly...”
“And I hurt you,” she said now. “I didn’t mean to,” she added, her voice cracking. “I felt dead inside after she died. I wasn’t myself. I’m still not, Mika.”
“Neither am I, but we have to at least be able to say her name.”
“Oh, God.” The words came out on a strangled breath and she stood up quickly, but he was on his feet in a flash, taking her wrist. Lani froze, staring at his hand around the turtle tattoo, feeling her stomach swirl.
Dear Reader,
I started writing this romance before the devastating wildfires in Hawaii, and my thoughts are still with all the people who lost their homes and livelihoods. While I’ve never been to Hawaii in person, it’s a place I’ve always wanted to visit, and still do. Here’s to the infallible aloha spirit, and I hope a little time with our feisty marine vet heroes and their dolphin friends will make you smile.
Becky
A Marriage Healed in Hawaii
Becky Wicks
Born in the UK, Becky Wicks has suffered interminable wanderlust from an early age. She’s lived and worked all over the world, from London to Dubai, Sydney, Bali, New York City and Amsterdam. She’s written for the likes of GQ, Hello!, Fabulous and Time Out, and has written a host of YA romance, plus three travel memoirs—Burqalicious, Balilicious and Latinalicious (HarperCollins, Australia). Now she blends travel with romance for Harlequin and loves every minute! Tweet her @bex_wicks and subscribe at beckywicks.com.
Books by Becky Wicks
Harlequin Medical Romance
From Doctor to Daddy
Enticed by Her Island Billionaire
Falling Again for the Animal Whisperer
Fling with the Children’s Heart Doctor
White Christmas with Her Millionaire Doc
A Princess in Naples
The Vet’s Escape to Paradise
Highland Fling with Her Best Friend
South African Escape to Heal Her
Finding Forever with the Single Dad
Melting the Surgeon’s Heart
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
For Hawaii, with love for all who are still rebuilding after the 2023 wildfires.
Praise for Becky Wicks
“A fast paced, beautifully set and heart warming medical romance set in the stunning Galapagos Islands. Interwoven with a conservation theme which is clearly a passion of the author.”
—Harlequin Junkie on The Vet’s Escape to Paradise
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
EXCERPT FROM NURSE’S SECRET ROYAL FLING BY JC HARROWAY
CHAPTER ONE
LANI KEKOA STEPPED onto the decking of Mermaid Cove Marine Sanctuary, and sucked in a lungful of fresh, salty air. The midday sun kissed the surface of the ocean in sparkles and high in the palms, two myna birds trilled in conversation. Crossing to Pua’s tank, she ran her hand softly over the turtle’s lumpy brown shell. “How are you, buddy?”
Pua wriggled his wrinkly legs in reply, and she leaned against the rail of the dock, letting the warm breeze tickle her skin. Her eyes scanned the bay, searching for the dolphins playing around the early-morning boats, but something else caught her eye. What was that in the water, floating in the white surf? A long white object, but not driftwood, and not an abandoned water toy either, she was sure. Lani stared at it for a few moments, trying to make out what it was. Then...
Oh, no.
Quick as a flash she was on her feet, racing down the steps and across the sand for the Jet Ski. Revving the engine to life, she tore across the waves toward the object, her heart pounding with dread as the shape became clearer. Cutting the engine, she drifted closer to the baby dolphin, so still and lifeless. “Oh, poor baby.”
Taking a deep breath, she cast her eyes to the Hawaiian sky, trying to calm herself. Not an easy task, as her emotions were bubbling like lava inside her. They should have been able to stop this by now!
A flash of silver caught her eye. The pod of dolphins was leaping and playing in the waves, except for one. The mother of this calf no doubt. The creature swam up close, put her silver head up inches from the Jet Ski, and nudged the baby. The action brought tears to Lani’s eyes; she knew what it was like to be a mother in distress, the gut-wrenching, soul-shattering pain of realizing you’ve lost something irreplaceable, forever.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I’ll figure out what’s happening, what’s causing this, I promise.”
The dolphin met her eyes in a moment of what she swore was understanding, and Lani again felt the urge to cry. It was her duty to protect them, to always look after the ocean for them, but this felt out of her control. Why were the dolphins dying?
Reaching the shore with the lifeless calf on the back of the Jet Ski, she saw Mahina. Her assistant was walking from the back room onto the dock, carrying a white storage container full of fish.
She took one look at Lani’s face and dropped the container. “No!” she wailed, speeding down the steps, dropping to her knees beside the poor, dead creature.
Lani’s shoulders tensed, noting the marks on the dolphin’s skin. Blemishes, almost like burns, just like the one they’d discovered just a few days ago. That one hadn’t died, thank goodness, but it had been badly injured and carried the same marks.
“What is going on?” Lani whispered, forcing her emotions to stay buried as Arnie and Mo, from the conservation management program, arrived to take the calf away for an autopsy. She’d join them later—she often worked with the scientists on necropsies of marine mammals. But it was going to be beyond frustrating having to wait four to six weeks for the finalized reports.
Mahina hung her head, her face hidden behind her mass of wavy brown hair.
“We need to find out what’s causing this,” she said to the guys, flashing her eyes to Lani, who nodded slowly. Lani had been working with the dolphins for years and something had definitely changed recently. They were suffering some kind of skin disease—that much was clear—but even as senior vet at the marine sanctuary with over twenty years of experience dealing with every oceanic creature around Oahu, she was out of ideas as to what might be causing the strange marks to appear.
Later, as they did their rounds with the mammals in the tanks at the back of the sanctuary, Mahina shoved her hair back, looking at her with some trepidation. “Maybe you should call...you know.”
Lani bristled. “Mika? No.”
Mahina sighed, like she’d been storing this question up all day, and expecting this very reply, too. “But he deals with stuff like this all the time. He was the one who figured out why the sharks were getting sick in the Red Triangle, he linked it to that shipping route...”
“We don’t need my ex-husband getting involved, Mahina. Just...no.”
Lani huffed out a sigh as Mahina held her hands up. She didn’t mean to snap, but her assistant vet nurse had struck a nerve. The last time she’d heard anything about Mika had been about a year ago, when she’d run into his mother and learned he had a serious girlfriend.
Hayley was some perky blonde thing, no more than thirty, probably, judging by the photo she’d been shown later after Mahina had stalked him online. Older than they had been when they’d walked down the aisle, her own pregnant belly bulging from her white gown, her hand gripping her father’s...seeing Mika, at twenty-four, two years her senior and impossibly, devastatingly handsome, waiting for her I do in his tux.
Catching a glimpse of herself in the window to the storage room, she puffed up her hair. At forty-seven, people said she hardly looked a day older than thirty-five, but they were probably just being kind. Her thighs weren’t as firm, her belly wasn’t so quick to fit so snugly into the band of her jeans, her hair was losing its luster and at times she missed the old her—the one who’d grown complacent in her smooth, taut skin, and her uniform of Daisy Dukes and bikini tops. But then, it wasn’t like she was out to look sexy these days, or even lure another man! What could she have to offer a man, anyway? Her whole life was the sanctuary these days, and her foster daughter, Anela, just eight years old and already the biggest challenge she’d ever taken on, she thought, picturing Anela’s mother suddenly—her good friend Sharie. Had it really been nearly a year since she’d taken on the new foster duties, after Sharie had unexpectedly passed away?
Life is just a series of challenges I’m not
Every bit of self-deprecation boiled down to what had happened to Iolana; she knew this, but it didn’t stop her dwelling on her misgivings anyway. Or on her baby daughter, who’d be an adult by now, if she’d lived.
Did Mika still think about it all, too? Maybe he did, but he’d moved on in other ways. At least, over twenty years spent in the US, away from the island and her, had proved enough time for him to get the full replacement package in Hayley. Good for him, she thought. If that made him happy, good. God knows they’d only brought each other misery before he’d packed up and left for California.
You know why he left, the voice inside her head chided.
And she closed her eyes as the image of their beautiful, perfect daughter flashed into her mind’s eye, faster than she could block the rush of stomach-twisting pain that followed.
No. Focus.
There was work to do, and anyway, Mika probably wouldn’t come here even if she called him. He was always busy. And there were too many memories here, waiting to bite them both.
Lani was still battling with what to do as she lay in the hammock on the house porch later, listening to Anela giggling at the new batch of kittens who’d already clawed their way into their hearts. Was she being silly, not calling him? Mika knew the ocean around here better than anyone. He’d grown up in it; the waters around Oahu used to be his playground. Him and his sharks. No one could believe the way he’d actually befriended a tiger shark!
A small frown creased her brow as she looked at Anela bopping her nose to a kitten’s. Anela’s mother, Sharie, had lost her life just over a year ago as a result of her own too-close encounter with a great white shark. Hence Lani had put her own maternal inadequacies aside and stepped up. Sharie was her friend, so of course she’d taken Anela in; the kid had no one else! What Mika did would scare the child silly if she knew about his job, but maybe Mahina was right and he was the only one who could help the dolphins. If there was even the slightest glimmer of a chance he could help, it would be worth a few bad trips down memory lane.
She picked up her phone.
After a few rings, a gruff voice answered, “This is Mika.”
Oh... God, he sounds the same, only more...distant.
“Hi,” she said, clearing her throat. “It’s Lani.”
A spark ignited in his voice then. “What’s wrong?”
What? Just three words from me and he knows something’s wrong?
“It’s the dolphins,” she said, clutching the phone tight. “We found a dead calf today, and we’ve noticed some kind of skin disease on several others but the tests we’ve run so far haven’t shown anything conclusive. I mean, we’ll know more after this necropsy but it’ll take weeks for that to happen and... I thought maybe...”
“Lani. Breathe.”
She shut her mouth. His command cut straight through her rambling monologue like a knife blade, and she swallowed a giant lump from her throat that felt an awful lot like a sob being stamped out. Closing her eyes, she breathed long and hard. In. Out. He knew how passionate she was about the dolphins.
“They’re dying, Mika,” she managed to say. She was gripping the phone so hard now her palms were sweating.
“Okay,” he said, after a pause. “I can probably make the 10:00 a.m. from LAX.”
She sprang up in the hammock and stared at Anela, stunned.
“Tomorrow? Oh...okay.”
“See you tomorrow. Keep breathing, Lani.” He clicked the phone off.
Lani sat back, letting out all the air she’d been storing in her lungs. Ten a.m. tomorrow? Was he serious?
Anela’s head was cocked in interest now. “Who was that?”
Lani blinked. What to say...what to say. Who was Mika now? She shrugged, fighting a smile. Mika wasn’t just her ex-husband, she thought, glancing at her wrist. The tattooed turtle with its geometric shell was still a jet-black inky reminder that he’d been her Honu longer than her ex. The Honu, or turtle, was a Hawaiian cultural symbol of longevity, safety, and mana, the spiritual energy that coursed through everyone’s blood here. Maybe Mika thought of her, too, every time he looked at his matching tattoo. He’d had his inked on his upper arm, hers on her inner wrist.
“Someone who used to be very important to me,” she replied, noting how the words used to from her own mouth sent her stomach into a knot. What had she just gone and done, inviting him back into her life?
CHAPTER TWO
MIKA STEPPED OFF the plane onto the sun-kissed tarmac at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Dragging his small case, he felt the warm Hawaiian breeze sweep over him, carrying with it the familiar earthy scent of salt water and plumeria. In arrivals, judging by the bustle of locals and tourists already draped in leis made from sweet-smelling frangipanis, Oahu was no different from his last visit several years ago. But everything felt different. Because last time he’d only seen family and friends, not Lani. And now, no one else knew he was even coming.
He’d taken a much-needed vacation over the month of July in order to come here, but he hadn’t even told Manu yet. His brother, aka SparkyMan—the renowned island electrician—would give him no end of stick over that, no doubt, never mind his mother, but he’d only thought of Lani when he’d packed his bags. She was here. Less than twenty miles away. And she needed him.
It made him more apprehensive than it should, seeing as he’d known the woman most of his life. What on earth had propelled him to offer to fly here, mere seconds after answering the phone? He could only blame the fact that he was tired, a little bored and emotionally drained after the breakup with Hayley.
Despite it being an almost incomprehensible twenty-two years now since his and Lani’s divorce, something about hearing his ex-wife upset had always spoken to his heart. Part of that, he had to admit, was definitely due to the guilt. It weighed heavily on him like an anchor: guilt for not taking a step back from his work when it had mattered, when being there for Lani and Iolana had been more important than anything. Guilt for not realizing how badly Lani had wanted to get back to her veterinary studies and qualify, for not picking up some of the slack with the baby sooner. Guilt for not knowing the early signs of meningitis, for brushing off his daughter’s cold hands and feet and sniffles as a mild cold before calling the sitter and heading out with Lani out on the dive boat that day after her dive partner had canceled at the last minute. He’d wanted to support her getting back into her research, finally, but hours later, when Iolana had been lying in hospital, surrounded by strangers, attached to tubes and drips, they’d still been out on the dive boat, making up for being so distracted in the first place. That guilt, for letting down his daughter and his wife, would follow him until the day he died.
Mika bundled his case into the rental car. No need for GPS. Driving down the island’s winding roads, verdant foliage hugged every curve, and glimpses of turquoise water winked at him through the gaps in towering palm trees. He was certainly not in Pasadena anymore. He was...home?
He sniffed at himself. Oahu hadn’t been his home for years, but his heart told him otherwise as he kept on driving. It was a familiar ache that he’d grown used to ignoring, but now it pulsed like an open wound. The Mermaid Cove Marine Sanctuary Lani had started and built from the ground up was near Kahala, the laid-back part of the island, famed for its tranquil solitude, limited fanfare and next to no nightlife. The best part. Far from the world-renowned surf breaks and the craziness of Waikiki, it was where they’d grown up and fallen in love, and then fallen to pieces, he thought grimly, stopping at a light and rubbing at his temples. He wasn’t here to dredge up the past.
Oahu was a magical place, the perfect blend of island paradise and urban energy—something he’d never quite managed to find in California. Vibrant flowers painted a rainbow of colors at every turn in the road. With each passing mile, the rhythmic sound of waves washing gently against the shore felt intoxicating and invigorating, waking him up despite his tiredness. How had he forgotten the way this place always made him feel? There was never any reason to be bored here; he’d never once turned to the TV for comfort at the end of a long day like he’d been doing these last few weeks, without Hayley around. The ocean was all he’d needed, living on the brink of it, immersing himself in its depths. This island had been his forever home. Before they’d lost Iolana. Before he’d also lost Lani, and part of himself, too.
