Elizabeth Lowell - Eden Burning: A Classic Love Story

Contents

HarperCollins e-book extra:

Youve never seen anyone like her. That picture we sent doesnt begin to do her justice. No picture could.

Sitting in Oregonon the bed, because the motel room chairs were piled with reportsChase Wilcox frowned at the phone and the eager affection in his younger brother, Danes, voice. His married younger brother. The younger brother who had a lovely wife and two wonderful children. The younger brother who couldnt stop talking about some glorified shimmy dancer who was giving his daughter hula lessons.

Hula, for Gods sake.

Not that Chase objected to his niece, Sandi, learning the dance. From the little he had seen of hula dancing, it looked like good exercise. The problem was Sandis daddy. He was much too enthusiastic about the instructor for Chases comfort.

And that instructor was sexy enough to set fire to stone.

Almost reluctantly he touched the facedown photo that had come with his brothers latest letter from Hawaii. Slowly he turned it over, hoping it wasnt as bad as he had first feared.

It was worse.

Lust hit him hard and low and hot, the kind of heat even his very beautiful, very skillful, sexually manipulative ex-wife hadnt been able to generate in him.

The woman in the snapshot apparently had been caught just as she finished turning in a swift circle with Chases little daughter in her arms. Lisa was laughing with a freedom he had been afraid would never come again after her mothers casual cruelty. He owed Danes wife, Jan, for helping Lisa. Jan had a gentle patience and welcoming love that came to her as naturally as breathing.

Chase owed the dancer Pele something entirely different. She of the hip-length, flame-red hair and luminous gold cat eyes. Pele, who radiated sexuality like fire radiated heat. He couldnt see what kind of body she had beneath the seething curtain of hair, but he was certain it was showgirl caliber. Women who strutted their stuff onstage for the benefit of cheering, leering men generally had something to strut.

Hey, bro, you there or are you trimming your mustache? Dane asked.

Yeah, Im here, yawning and listening to you run over like a plugged toilet about some exotic dancer who isnt your wife.

In Hawaii, Dane laughed despite the frown that came from his brothers sour view of humanity in general and women and particularexcept for Jan, his sister-in-law. For her, Chase had a well of tenderness as great as he had for his own daughter. That was what gave Dane hope that his brother was coming out of the bitterness that had followed losing custody of his daughter.

Hey, dont worry. Jan is the first to sing Nicoles praises, Dane said. Shes good with kids and has real talent as an artist. In fact, wait until you see the drawings she does. Youll see why we wanted her to do the illustrations for...

While his brother ran on and on about Pele/Nicoles skill as both an artist and a scientific illustrator, Chase drummed callused fingers silently on the desk in the generic motel room that was presently his home. Outside the window, invisible beneath the Pacific Northwests customary lid of clouds, the shattered cone of Mount Saint Helens steamed, brooded, and waited for the energy to blow its top again.

Chase wouldnt have to wait as long for his own personal eruption. He was fed up to the teeth with hearing his brother rave on and on about the paragon of womanhood who just happened to be a shimmy dancer. If Jan was too gentle and good to see the danger to her own marriage, Chase sure as hell wasnt. Having once been married to a gorgeous home wrecker, he had no problem recognizing one when she started swinging her hips around his little brother.

Abruptly Chase decided he couldnt wait any longer. His lifes work was studying the return of life to volcano-scarred slopes; he didnt want to have to help his brother survive devastation of the kind the dancer Pele would bring. Chase knew too much about that kind of personal agonythe numbing self-doubts, the despair, the cold blaze of hatred. He wouldnt let it happen to Dane, to his wife, or to his children.

With the ruthlessness of an older brother, Chase cut Dane off in mid-word. I got the go-ahead to study kipukas. Im coming out to Hawaii as soon as I wrap up a few more details here.

Really? Dane said instantly. Lisa will be over the moon. She misses you.

Not as much as I miss her.

His voice was rough. He hadnt known how deeply he loved his little daughter until he had stood in court two years ago and silently raged against the judge who had been too dazzled by Lynettes angelic beauty to see through it to the absolute selfishness beneath. Lisatender, shy, intelligent Lisa, a little girl who had just turned fivehad been given over to the sole care of a woman who shouldnt have been trusted with custody of a gravel pit.

Chases hand closed into a fist against the pain of being separated from his daughter. He ached to hold her, to feel her small fingers patting his tickle fur while she giggled with delight and he blew furry bubbles against her cheek. He needed to reassure her of his love and to reassure himself that the sins of her parents hadnt scarred the little girls self-confidence beyond healing.

You did the right thing to leave her with us after that bitch dropped her on your doorstep, Dane said quickly. Having Lisa crawling around with you on Mount Saint Helens or your pet South American volcanoes just wasnt possible, especially with her recovering from pneumonia. And even if you had found a wonderful nurse/nanny... well, its just not the same as family.

I know. Chases voice was tired and angry. He was tired and angry.

It seemed like he had spent a lot of time that way since the final custody hearing. He certainly had spent the past few weeks living with too much work and anger. He had put in eighteen-hour days in order to turn over enough of his old projects so that he could take a week or so in Hawaii, set up the new project, and sort out his blissfully stupid younger brothers life. Then, finally, Chase would be able to settle with Lisa on the Big Island for at least a decade of studying Hawaiis fascinating balance of destruction, creation, and the stubborn ability of life to survive no matter what the odds.

After Lynette, Lisa needed the security of a loving family, of a woman like Jan, Chase said, trying to keep the old bitterness out of his voice. Lisa needed to love and be loved by a mother. From the smile on her face in the pictures you sent, I owe you and Jan more than I can ever repay.

Our pleasure. And dont forget Nicole. Shes really good with kids. She and Lisa

Oh, I wont forget Nicole, Chase interrupted. Thats a promise. Give Jan a big hug for me. And give yourself a big kick in the butt for being so gullible, he added silently.

He hung up and stared down at the photos of Lisa and Dane, Lisa and her cousins, Lisa and Jan, Lisa dwarfed by one of Hilos giant tree ferns, Lisa smiling shyly up at a dark-haired, tanned Hawaiian boy whose facial bones gave promise of future strength and beauty. Like Lisas face; even at seven she had a loveliness that made people stare.

Like her mother, she was too beautiful to be real.