After her father’s retirement, they’d bought the house they were in now and, as they put it, settled down away from the hustle and bustle of tourists on the other side of the bay area.
It was halfway through that conversation when her father suddenly went still. His eyes grew large and then he gasped.
At first, Jules thought he was having a heart attack. But then he turned to her mother and shouted, “Why did you do that? I told you we weren’t going to come today.”
Everyone looked very confused for a second. But then Jules’s mother quickly apologized and told the other couple that they’d chat with them some other time and that he wasn’t feeling himself.
From there, things got worse. Her father’s voice got louder, and nothing seemed to settle him down. Not even after the food arrived.
“Mom,” Jules said softly.
“I think we’re going to head home,” her mother said suddenly.
“I’ll get this.” Jules motioned to the table. “Daddy, I’m sorry, I need to go to work,” she said standing up.
“Oh.” Her father seemed to come back to himself for a moment. “Okay, bean. Will we see you tonight?”
She didn’t know what he was talking about but nodded just in case it set him off.
After her parents left, she bumped into the other couple at the cashier’s station.
“Is everything alright with your parents?” the woman asked.
“Yes.” She held her head up. “My father is showing early signs of Alzheimer’s.”
The woman nodded and looked at her husband. “We went through that a few years back with George’s father. I’ll give your mother a call later this week. Maybe we can help her out. She shouldn’t have to go through this alone.”
Jules wanted to tell the couple that she was not alone, but she smiled and nodded in reply instead.
By the time she arrived at work, she had a slight headache from worrying about her father. She sent her mother a text asking how he was. Her mother replied quickly that he was resting and enjoying watching a game on television.
Just knowing her father wasn’t affected as much as she and her mother were should have relaxed her. But it didn’t. Instead, she worked through the entire evening stressed.
Working the dinner hour should have been fun. After all, tonight’s dinner theme was a luau. She’d changed into the traditional attire that she’d grown up wearing around her father’s family whenever they returned to the Big Island.
When they were with family, she and her cousins would usually make actual grass skirts, but tonight she was wearing ones made of synthetic material instead.
Still, she felt very comfortable walking around the dining hall and the patio area serving food in basically a swimsuit with a skirt.
But then one of the guests cornered her outside. She hadn’t talked to the man before but had noticed that he was there with a younger woman who was easily half his age of around sixty.
“Well, well, aren’t you a luscious little exotic flower?” the man said, blocking her from entering the building. She had a pitcher of ice water in her hands. The moment he cornered her, she used it to block his body from pushing up against her own. If she had to, she could either pour the ice water over the man’s head or knock him out with the heavy metal material instead. At any rate, she didn’t feel too threatened by him, since there were a dozen people within shouting distance that she knew would come to her aid.
“Did you need something?” she asked him, lacing her voice with a non-friendly tone. It normally did the job to let men know she wasn’t interested. However, the guy continued to lean into her.
“You know, I’ll be here for an entire month. Why don’t we set a time to…”—his hand moved up to her arm as she jerked away— “play.” He wrapped his fingers around her upper arm.
Dumping the ice water on him felt so good. He screamed and jerked away from her, giving her the opening to dart past him. The moment she did, she saw Damion rushing towards her from the pathway that led from the boathouse.
“Are you okay?” he asked her, his eyes running over her entire body.
“Never better,” she said and stepped inside.
“That man…” He trailed off when the guy started shouting about getting her fired.
“Is a dick,” she finished. “And I’ll make sure to tell Elle and the others exactly what happened. But there’s no need. He did all of that directly under a security camera.” She smiled and set the empty water pitcher down. “God, it feels good to work for friends who are smart women who stick up for each other.” She sighed. “What are you doing here?”
He seemed to relax for the first time since she’d seen him. “I heard you were working the night shift and thought I’d come say hi.” He leaned against the counter. “What time do you get off?”