Order vs. Chaos

Chapter 2-1

Chapter Two

“I don’t have to go. It’s not a big deal. I just thought I had a few days off,” I said with a shrug.

“Do you read your emails? At all. Or do you just fly by the seat of your pants and do whatever you feel like?”

“Uh…” Emails? What emails?

She threw up her hands and huffed. “This is why I didn’t want to hire you. You’re used to jumping all over the world and instead of actually working, you’re off playing with whomever.”

Did I detect a hint of jealousy in her tone? And how would she know how I spent my time?

“I said I was not going to hire a male photographer. I wanted a female. One with experience shooting weddings. Someone I knew I could count on, who wouldn’t run off the second something shiny came along. But no! Who do I hire? A guy who can’t even check his email and doesn’t know he needs to work!”

She got up and paced away from me, toward the water. I looked at Kapena, who shrugged.

“Why didn’t you just tell me there’s a wedding tomorrow?”

He grinned. “This is much more fun.”

He happily shoveled his food into his mouth, leaving me to stare after his sister and figure out how the hell I was going to resolve this.

I pushed up from my seat and walked toward Kiana, clearing my throat when I got close and heard her muttering to herself. The words “worthless” and “i***t” were clear enough to know she was talking about me.

She spun on me, her hair smacking her in the face. She yanked it back and glared up at me. I wasn’t as tall as her brother, but I still had her by a good eight inches or so, making her glare borderline cute. Like a wiener dog staring down a bull mastiff.

“If you can’t be here, I can’t have you working for me. It’s as simple as that. I’ll find someone else and pay freelancers if I have to. But I need someone I can count on if you’re going to do this job.”

“Kiana, I apologize. I didn’t know I needed to work tomorrow. It’s not a big deal. The last email I got from you was just about getting here and checking in with you when I arrived.”

“Which you didn’t do,” she pointed out.

I sighed. “I was going to. But I figured it was pretty pointless for me to be here without any transportation. I had to buy my bike first. That way I can get to all of the weddings you host.”

I softened my words with a grin that usually had women giggling and cozying up to me, but all Kiana did was glare harder, if that was possible.

“You bought a motorcycle?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’ve always wanted one. This is a great place to have a bike.”

“How are you going to get all your equipment to jobs on a motorcycle? How are you going to get there?”

My eyebrows tugged together. “I thought our jobs were all close. At your site.”

She shook her head and sighed. “Do you know anything about what Opposites Attract does?”

I paused and realized that, honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure. I knew it was a destination wedding business. That they planned weddings for couples who visited Hawaii and wanted a local flair for their events. But aside from that, what did I really need to know?

“You plan weddings?” I said lamely.

She groaned and walked back toward the house. Obviously, that was the wrong answer.

She spun on me, and I almost collided with her. I stopped myself short and closed my mouth when she started speaking.

“We organize wedding events for the wedding party and all the guests. We take care of everything from the day they arrive until the day they leave, if they want us to. Our weddings are not just weddings. They’re Hawaiian celebrations of love. We have weddings on the beach, some on the mountains, some at the coffee plantations, all over the island. We had a wedding at the volcano last year. No two weddings are the same. Yes, I have a site, but a lot of our guests want something unique.”

“Uh, okay. It’ll be fine. I have saddlebags for the bike and all my equipment will fit. I'm not worried about it.”

“Are you worried about the wedding tomorrow? About getting prepared for it or anything?”

“It’s just a wedding.”

Kapena howled with laughter, which earned him a glare from Kiana. The short beach and how close we were to his house made me realize he’d overheard our entire argument. Not only that, he wasn’t trying to help me at all. He kept laughing. I think he even laughed harder when he saw my face, but eventually, he carried his plate inside, leaving Kiana and I alone.

“We don’t just have weddings. If you can’t understand that, then this isn’t going to work out. I’ll pay for your flight here and for a ticket for you to return to the mainland. I apologize for wasting your time, Mr. Carpenter.”

She extended her hand to shake mine again, but I crossed my arms and refused. God help me, she glanced down at my pecs. I flexed them, making them bounce just enough to widen her eyes.

Hell yeah. I wasn’t the only one fighting the attraction buzzing between us.

“I’m not leaving, Kiana. I want this job. I took this job. I’ll be good at this job. I’ve never shot a wedding before, but I’m a damn good photographer. You know I am. So let me do this wedding for you. If you still think, after this one, that I’m not worth what you’re going to pay me, then you can fire me. But I’ll tell you one thing… I don’t fail.”

She finally dropped her hand and sighed. She didn’t say anything to me when she walked past. I turned to watch her and was surprised when she snatched her clothes off the chair, stuffed her feet into her shoes, and disappeared into the house. A few seconds later, the front door slammed.

Kapena looked out back and saw me standing alone.

“Where’d she go?”

I shrugged. “No idea. She just left.”

“Not good, man. She really doesn’t like you now. You’d better impress the hell out of her tomorrow at the wedding, or you really will be on a flight off the island. My sister doesn’t mess around.”

Which meant I was screwed.

I spent the rest of the night researching Opposites Attract, like I should have done before I moved there, and found myself increasingly impressed with my sexy new boss. I really needed to stop thinking about how sexy she was and how much I wanted her, but it was almost impossible when I was staring at her life’s work all night long.

She’d built an impressive business. She wasn’t kidding when she said the weddings they hosted were events. She offered everything from a luau with fire dancers to an intimate ceremony for two. She had contracts with cruise ships and booked weddings for guests who were only in town for a day.

The weddings she hosted at her site were clearly her bread and butter. I could tell from the pictures that they were a lot of fun for the guests and the bride and groom.

The pictures on her site all had a notation as being taken by Anthony Ortega. I was more than a little impressed with his ability to capture the emotion of the weddings until I saw the picture of Kiana.

I was fairly sure the picture was candid, but it looked like a professional head shot. She was watching him, the guy behind the lens, with a look I’d seen many times in the eyes of a woman. It was the look Tara gave my brother. And Peyton gave Wyatt. And Olivia gave Ethan.

And dammit if I wasn’t jealous as f**k of that asshole.

I never wanted a woman to call my own. Someone who could demand anything from me, and I’d have to give it to her because I loved her enough to do whatever she wanted. Watching my brother and so many friends find that woman made me wonder if I was missing out. I moved to Hawaii to settle my mind, not to fall in love.

But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit there was a part of me that wanted my sexy, new boss to look at me that way.

I may have jerked off with her curvy a*s and kissable lips in my mind. My name a memory on her tongue as I hissed hers out with my o****m.

Not that I was going to admit that to anyone.