Page 14 of Sachie's Hero

“Oh no, you don’t. A T-shirt is the least I can offer you after you saved my life.” She shifted to block him, managing to bump into his bare chest in the process.

He caught her elbows to steady her.

Sachie’s breath stalled in her lungs as she realized her hands rested against the solid wall of muscles. Her pulse quickened, and heat rushed up her neck into her cheeks. “Uh, well...” she stammered. “I’ll just be a minute.” She backed out of his grasp, turned and ran toward her bedroom. “Don’t touch that old T-shirt!”

His chuckle followed her from the room and gave her a warm feeling all the way down the hall. All the arguing and banter had made her forget, for a fewmoments, that her house had been broken into and someone had almost killed them.

As she entered her bedroom, she had to pass the split wood of the doorframe, and the gravity of what could have happened hit her square in the chest. She ran to her dresser and pulled out the biggest T-shirt she could find, another she used as a nightgown that normally swamped her and came down just shy of her knees. She laughed at the faded image of a hula dancers on the front. Oh, well, it was a shirt and the biggest one she had.

While in the room, she grabbed a suitcase from beneath the bed and shoved enough clothes for a couple of days, including her toiletries and shoes. She hadn’t been sleeping well with the nightmares of what had happened in Honolulu. Sleep would be impossible in the house, knowing someone had been able to break in and had almost made it to her.

She shivered, zipped the suitcase and rolled it out of the room with the hula girl T-shirt slung over her shoulder.

Sun streamed through the windows in all its early-morning glory, and a rooster crowed nearby. Teller stood at the back door, peering out at the yard, his broad, naked shoulders nearly as wide as the doorframe.

She left the suitcase in the hallway. “Hard to thinkthat such a pretty garden is where a man tried to kill us, isn’t it?” she said as she crossed the floor to him.

He continued to stare out at the yard. “It always amazes me that no matter what crazy and horrible things happen, nature keeps going. The sun comes up, birds sing.”

Outside, the rooster crowed again.

Sachie smiled. “Or, in this case, the rooster crows.”

“And the flowers keep blooming.”

She came to stand beside him and glanced out the window, seeing what he was seeing. A yard filled with the lush tropical plants and flowers that flourished on the island. “I’d like to take credit for the abundance of bougainvillea and hibiscus, but they were there when I moved in a week ago.” She held out the T-shirt. “Sorry about the hula dancer, but it’s the biggest T-shirt I have.”

He took the offering. “It’s okay. I’ll wear it proudly.”

“I also packed a bag. I can’t stay here.”

He nodded. “I get it. Your home has been violated. You don’t feel safe even with me here.”

She nodded. “No offense.”

“None taken.” He pulled on the T-shirt, and the fabric that fit like a tent on Sachie stretched tightly over Teller’s muscular frame. “If we can swing by myapartment sometime today, I can grab a shirt of my own.”

“We can manage that. Especially since you’ll have to drive me.” Her lips twisted. “Which reminds me. I’ll need to call someone to replace the windshield and repair the doors.”

Teller held up his cell phone. “I had a text from Kalea. She said not to worry about the car. She has someone lined up to come by this morning to take care of it.” He slipped the phone into his pocket.

“I feel bad.” Sachie turned to look out at the garden. “Instead of escaping the problems I had on Oahu, I brought them with me. Now, it’s impacting the people who’ve helped me most. And you took a bullet that was meant for me.” She waved her hand toward his shoulder. “You could’ve died.”

“But I didn’t. And I’m glad I was here to help.” Teller’s voice softened. “You didn’t pull the trigger. It’s not your fault.”

“Then why do I feel like it is?” Her thoughts flashed back to her office in Honolulu. To the one she couldn’t help. She’d failed him.

The sound of a cell phone ringing pulled Sachie out of her pity party.

Teller patted his pocket, pulled out his cell phone and shook his head. “Not mine.”

She glanced around the room, looking for the source.

“It’s not in this room,” Teller said.

Then Sachie remembered she’d laid her cell phone on the floor of the closet before she’d burst out to attack her intruder. She hurried back to her bedroom. By the time she found her cell phone where it had slid behind a pair of shoes, it had stopped ringing.

She checked her missed calls and didn’t recognize the number. “Spam call,” she said and lowered her hand.

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