Maddie woke up in a cold sweat with her mouth open as if she were gasping for air; she heard the ghost of some high-pitched noise echoing in the black silence. It was the deep of night and someone had their arms around her, squeezing her shoulders tightly and rocking her gently whispering, “hush…hush…hush”. Terrified and disoriented, smothering in the sweat-soaked cotton of her nightgown, she sagged against the arms that held her, trying desperately to remember where she was.
“Madeline, are you okay?” a bed-side lamp clicked on and she saw the shoulder and upper arm belonging to the voice of the man who held her so tightly. Only her father had ever called her Madeline. The skin was dappled with freckles and there was a light sprinkling of red-gold hair on his upper arm. Snapping her head back she inhaled sharply with surprise,
“Kirk!” her head whirled around as her hands pressed against his shoulders, pushing him away. She was trying desperately to make out something of the room from the shadows. It was a bedroom, she glanced at the bed, only her side was disturbed, the other pillow was crisp, the blankets still tucked in. Looking down she saw that she was wearing not her nightgown but a man’s white dress shirt. Her eyes darted towards Kirk; he was wearing loose, grey silk pajama pants and a ribbed white tank top, his red-gold hair was tousled from sleep and his amber eyes full of concern. When her eyes met his, she felt her cheeks burning, her eyes full of the question: had they? Maddie tried to will her disordered, darting thoughts into some kind of sequence. Feeling his hand on her shoulder, she involuntarily flinched away.
“Hey, hey, settle down, don’t panic. You look like a deer in the headlights. I’m not going to hurt you, I think you were having some kind of nightmare. I was asleep on the sofa in the other room when I heard you.” He stood up and, with obvious difficulty, refrained from touching her again as he asked solicitously, “Can I get you a glass of water? Maybe they have some tea or something if you’d prefer something warm. Too early for coffee yet.” He smiled gamely, arms hanging nervously helpless at his sides.
“Kirk,” Maddie began nervously, impulsively reaching up and touching the tips of his fingers with her own and just as nervously snatching them back, searching under the collar of what she realized must be his shirt, instinctively reaching for the familiar comfort of the fine steel chain, “where are we?”
Kirk sat down heavily on the side of the bed, his eyes which a moment ago had been filled with quizzical concern now looked a shade darker and flooded with worry, “Maddie, we’re in Kauai. You don’t remember?”
At that moment it all came tumbling back in as if someone standing above her had flicked from their hands all fifty-two cards in the deck onto the top of her head. She grabbed them all, sorted them by suit, finally adding the last two jokers: herself and Kirk. Acutely embarrassed, she struggled to regain her footing; she still couldn’t remember if anything had happened between them. The last image her mind could recover was getting into the back of the taxi cab after dinner.
“I’ll take that tea, if there is some.” Maddie managed to meet his eyes and smile a bit. If he would just leave the room for a minute she’d have some time to think.
“Okay, are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yes, I’ll be okay. It was a terrible nightmare; I think that I’m still really disoriented.”
Not looking very convinced, Kirk stood up and headed out the door towards the kitchenette that adjoined the living room of the cottage suite. Maddie looked down at herself, relieved to feel that she still had her panties on and dismayed that the same could not be said for her bra. Of course she hadn’t been wearing one with the deep scoop-backed dress she’d put on to go to dinner. Had she just been so exhausted that she’d fallen asleep in the cab? How could she find out what had happened after that without him knowing that she couldn’t remember. She looked again at the other side of the queen bed and heard the sound of a microwave from the other room. That must mean that he’d found tea; good that meant he’d be out of the room for a little longer.
Maddie started to shiver as the sweat began to evaporate from the shirt and the sheets. Kirk appeared at the door with a grey silk dressing gown.
“The tea is almost ready. I thought you might want something to change into, that shirt seems pretty damp…I didn’t want to go through your things, but this is really warm.” for the first time, Maddie saw Kirk look slightly embarrassed. He cleared his throat and looked down as he laid the dressing gown over a chair by the door, “I’ll go get your tea” he said, backing away and pulling the door closed behind him.
Maddie slipped shivering from between the wet sheets, walking hastily towards the chair and unbuttoning the shirt as she went. She shrugged off the sodden shirt with relief, wrapping the soft cloud of silk eagerly around her. The shirt dangling from her fingers, she thought about his uncomfortable expression; he must have undressed her and put her in the shirt. Looking down at the keystone resting, reassuringly cool on her breastbone, she tried to picture the scene and couldn’t. By his evident embarrassment, she jugged that he hadn’t found the task unpleasant.
Opening the door she stepped out into the living room and headed towards the warm light coming from the kitchenette behind the island that divided the kitchen from the living area. Perching on one of the tall stools that stood in front the island, Maddie smiled shyly at Kirk as he pushed a mug of warm tea towards her. He took a sip from his own cup and then, just as she brought her cup towards her lips enjoying the warmth radiating from the cup, asked, in a calm, companionable tone:
“So, I’m curious…who is Lohiau?”
