JUST MY LUCK

Accidentally Yours ~ Book 2

Excerpt

Zara Morrissey hadn’t gotten far before Eddie’s scream had her racing back to hale twelve. Crap crap crap. Her shift on the concierge desk started in half an hour, and she’d been hoping to get some studying done before that. If she was late for work one more time…

Well, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t gotten fired before. It was kind of her thing. But she liked working at this absurdly luxurious resort. They had excellent poke.

She found Eddie and Mia standing at the entrance to hale twelve’s kitchen. The Royal Leilani Resort was composed of freestanding hales like this one, dreamy apricot stucco structures, some with one bedroom, others with more, each with its own little backyard terrace, some with a private swimming pool. They were landscaped with lush shrubbery punctuated by brilliant birds of paradise and lipstick-red anthurium.

Hale twelve was the most expensive, with four bedrooms, a full kitchen and the largest swimming pool at the resort. It was also currently unoccupied, which suited her perfectly. As the concierge, she had access to the reservations system and always knew which hales were going to be empty. 

She’d also made friends with—okay, bribed—the housekeeping staff to let her, on occasion, stash the kids in whichever empty hale was available. Her usual babysitter was on the flaky side, to say the least. She couldn’t blame Odessa. When a big cruise ship came into town, it only made sense for her to take her guitar down to Ali’i Drive and see how much extra cash she could make busking. 

She sincerely hoped Odessa was raking it in while she was dealing with whatever weird emergency had just occurred. 

At least the kids weren’t hurt, although they seemed to be frozen in place. 

“I’m sorry, did I hear you say there’s a man’s butt in here?” 

“See?” Eddie pointed toward the sink. She peered over her little brother’s shoulder and saw that, sure enough, a man was crammed into the cabinet under the sink. He appeared to be immobilized, his upper half jammed inside and his lower half sticking out. She recognized the uniform of a Royal Leilani gardener, so at least he wasn’t a random criminal. 

“Who are you and what are you doing to that poor sink?” she asked the man’s rear end.

“Do you think you could, maybe, help me out of here?” His muffled voice surprised her. He sounded pretty arrogant, actually, considering his situation. Shouldn’t he be begging her for help, with maybe a “pretty please” thrown in? 

She eyed his ass in those work pants. Not bad, now that she thought about it. He was a very fit man, as the gardeners tended to be. They would probably be better equipped for this rescue mission than she was.

“Want me to get some of the gardeners in here?” 

“No! I don’t want to waste anyone’s time.” 

“I see. I guess my time isn’t quite so valuable.” She stepped across the floor and knelt next to him. Peering past him, she saw that a piece of broken drainpipe was pinning him to the cabinet. No wonder he couldn’t move. 

“That’s not what I meant. You’re here and they’re not.” 

“You don’t have to sound so upset about that fact.” 

“I’m not— Jesus, could you just focus? I’m trying to get out of here without making a big mess.” 

“A bigger mess,” she corrected. She was discovering that it was fun to tease this guy, whoever he was. She didn’t have much interaction with the gardeners. Her concierge job involved the kitchen and housekeeping staffs, the activities crew, and the guests. The groundskeepers did their own thing. They were supposed to keep the gardens immaculate and be invisible. They were definitely not supposed to be inside the hales. “What are you even doing in here?” 

“Long story,” he gasped. “If you could just hold onto that pipe that’s stabbing me in the neck, I’ll try to inch my way out.” 

“Okay, hang on. But I want that story.”

She had to drape herself over him and press her chest onto his back in order to reach the pipe. Awkward, to say the least. His body felt solid and muscular under hers. She didn’t mind it, not at all, and that struck her as odd. How could you have a comfort level with a person when you hadn’t even seen their face? But she trusted her own intuition implicitly, and gave a silent nod to her body. You’re saying he’s okay, so he probably is. But I might let my powers of observation weigh in too, if you don’t mind. 

“Make it quick,” the man growled. “I’m getting claustrophobic in here.” 

But the husky undertone in his voice told her that wasn’t the real reason he wanted this over with. She smiled to herself. Men were so transparent. Even when trapped under a sink they could get aroused. Gotta love ’em. 

“Just to warn you, I will expect a proposal after this,” she quipped. “Otherwise my reputation will be ruined.” 

From behind her, she heard Mia snort. “Don’t listen to her, Man-butt. Her reputation is hopeless.” 

Mia had a point, although that same statement could be applied to everyone in their family. Her dear disaster of a father had taken care of that. 

“Okay, I’ve got the pipe secured,” she told the man. “By the way, what’s your name? I’m Zara.” 

“Jim.” 

“Hi Jim. Too bad it’s not Slim Jim. Might be easier to get you out. Or jimmy you out, as the case may be.” 

“Ha ha.” He didn’t seem to find her amusing, but that might be because he was cramping up, as well as bleeding from that cut in his neck. She gently worked the pipe a workable distance away from his flesh. 

“Okay, you should be able to get away from this thing now. Please move slowly and don’t jostle me or this whole thing might break apart.” 

Inch by slow inch, on hands and knees, he backed himself out of the cabinet. Although she tried to avoid full-body contact with him, she couldn’t do so without releasing the pipe. So she just went with it. Whatever. They were both fully clothed, not reenacting some porno involving a plumber come to fix the pipes. 

When he was fully out of the cabinet, he collapsed onto his back on the kitchen floor. He stretched his body long. “Not sure I can stand up yet,” he muttered. “I think my muscles might have atrophied.” 

“How long were you in there?” Zara turned off the water valve. The drainpipe would have to be replaced and she didn’t want anyone using the faucet until that happened. 

“Felt like months.”

Pulling back, she took a closer look at the man she’d just rescued. Despite the official resort uniform, she didn’t recognize him. He was quite attractive, dark-haired, sort of intense and serious. Dark scruff covered his jaw. In a stunning contrast to his lightly bronzed skin, his eyes were a dreamy deep blue-green color. He had a part-Asian look to him, which was common enough here in Hawaii.  

“I still want to hear that story, but I have to get to work. You probably do too, unless you get fired for this little misadventure in trespassing.” 

He lifted his head off the floor. “Which won’t happen if you don’t tell anyone.”

“Which I won’t, as long as you don’t tell anyone.” She shot a glance at her brother and sister, who were still watching the entire drama as if it was filmed entertainment. At least they weren’t on Mia’s phone. “These two are going to hang out here until lunchtime.” 

“Oh really?” He seemed to get the picture pretty quickly. His green eyes sharpened. “Isn’t this hale booked?” 

“It is not.” 

“What about the cleaning staff?” 

“Don’t you worry about that, Jimbo.” How had they switched to her getting grilled instead of him? “Can you stand? I don’t want to leave until you can walk out of here.” 

He tried on his own, then gave up, his head hitting the tiled floor with a soft thud. With a groan, he said, “I just need a minute. Go on, I don’t want to hold you up.” 

“Sorry, there’s no world in which I leave you here with the kids.” She got to her feet and stuck out her hand. “I’ll help you up.” 

“I’m not going to hurt your kids.” Irritation roughened his voice. 

“We’re not her kids,” Mia said quickly. “She’s our sister. Older sister. Much, much older. Crone territory, really.” 

Zara gave Mia the death glare she deserved, which got her an eye roll in return. “Aren’t they just the cutest?” she cooed. 

Mia stuck out her tongue. She was, actually, the cutest, in Zara’s biased opinion. They all shared a family resemblance—ungovernable wavy brown hair and a penchant for going barefoot—but Mia also had those dimples. If only she didn’t insist on wearing nothing but black. Then again, she was in mourning for her dead social life, according to her, so Zara supposed it made sense. 

“Enough about us, you don’t need to know our business.” She raised her eyebrow at Mia to reinforce the point. “Come on, one more try.” Bracing herself, she clasped Jim’s hand in hers. A little electric thrill traveled from his skin to hers. 

Okay, she really had to have a talk with her physical side. 

Before she could even try to pull Jim to his feet, Eddie let out a yelp. “I see a mouse!” he yelled. He raced across the kitchen, stepping on Jim’s belly in the process, as if he was nothing more than a rug. 

Jim released her hand and clutched at his stomach with a groan. 

“Eddie, don’t you dare go after that mouse! Come back here and apologize to this poor man you just trampled. Eddie!” Her seven-year-old brother loved all creatures great and small, and never seemed to understand that they could carry diseases. 

The prospect of a mouse being present galvanized Jim into action. He rolled onto his side and pushed himself onto his hands and knees, then upright, onto his feet. There he stood, swaying, while Zara lunged after Eddie. She caught him around the waist just before he disappeared into the cabinet under the sink. 

With her foot, she slammed its door shut. 

“No one else is going under there, understood?” She carried Eddie over to Mia and plopped him next to her. “You two. Into the living room. I have to fix this pipe real quick before I go to work. You.” She pointed at Jim, who was rubbing his forehead with the heel of his hand. “Stand guard while I take care of this. It’s just a quick fix, but if I don’t do it, I’ll have to call maintenance and then I’ll have to find somewhere else for the kids today. I don’t have time for that.”

She noticed that he was looking at her oddly. 

“What?” 

“You’re going to fix the pipe? Are you a plumber?” 

“No. I mean, I could have been, but I never finished the course.” Which could apply to a number of potential career paths she’d considered. “But I can fix that pipe, at least temporarily. I’ll have to come back with a pipe-cutter for a real repair, but I’ll do that after work.” 

Looking bemused, he nodded. A trickle of blood slid down his neck. 

“You look like you got bitten by a vampire. Can you take care of that yourself, or do you need a hand?”

“I got it.” He touched his neck, seemingly surprised to see blood. “I’ll clear out now. Thanks for getting me out. I promise I won’t forget it.” 

So serious. “You’ll put me in your will, is that it?” she teased.

It took him a moment to see that she was joking. Did that mean he actually had a will? Why would a gardener who looked to be in his thirties have a will? There was definitely something odd about this particular groundskeeper. 

“Don’t worry about it.” She waved off his thanks, then followed him out of the kitchen. “Us plebes have to stick together, right?” 

She didn’t understand the expression that crossed his face. Was he insulted that she’d called him a plebe? She hadn’t meant it that way. In her experience, the most uncongenial people were the ones at the top of the ladder. But that might be a side effect of her job.  

At least he wasn’t swaying anymore as he strode out of the hale and into the bright sunshine. She wondered if she’d run into him again somewhere on the property. Maybe it would be like learning a new word and then seeing it everywhere. 

Since he was kind of hot—she always did go for scruff and rough edges—she hoped their paths would cross again. She still wanted to know why he’d stuck his head under the sink of hale twelve, and then managed to avoid offering any explanation at all.