Busy as a Beaver

Chapter 21

A few days later, Charles Green woke up, and he was officially arrested for the assault on Gloria and the murder of Michael Carlton. Bee and Buster were both incredibly upset that he couldn’t be charged with the assault on Buster and made sure I knew that they considered the human justice system to be incredibly biased and unfair, and that if they ever got their hands on Charles Green, he would know real cat justice.

As the cold days got even colder, the Christmas season fast approaching, I quickly found myself swamped with work. Not only did I have my regular patients to take care of, but on top of that I also ran an informal wildlife center out of my backyard, and in the winter I always had more injured animals who required longer care with me before being able to be re-released into the wild.

Luckily, however, a week before Christmas Jason promised me a nice weekend away, and after a long Friday spent taking care of a group of animals, I made my way home and got ready for the special trip.

To my surprise, Jason drove us straight from Willow Bay to the airport, and my mouth dropped open when I saw my boarding pass: Portland to Honolulu, direct flight. We were going to Hawaii.

“I haven’t packed a bathing suit,” I complained. “What with that whole ‘it’s December’ thing.”

“Don’t worry, I got Charlotte to pack a bunch of warm clothes for you one night when you were out,” Jason said with a grin. “That way you won’t look like a 30-year-old male picked out your clothes for the weekend.”

“I appreciate that,” I laughed. “Not that you dress badly, but I did catch you wearing socks with sandals that one time.”

“Hey, I was hungover that day,” Jason replied with a grin. “Now come on, let’s find some warm sun.”

Five hours later we landed in Honolulu, and I took in a deep breath as I stepped off the plane and was met with a burst of hot air. It felt like I hadn’t been warm in months, and I grinned at Jason as we made our way through the semi-open air space of Honolulu airport. Even though it was nearly nine o’clock at night – it was just about midnight back home – the temperatures had to be in the eighties.

Jason grabbed us an Uber, which took us to our hotel, right along the beach in Waikiki. I’d seen this view so many times while watching episodes of Hawaii Five-0, but I had never imagined I’d actually be here. Certainly not on such short notice, anyway.

While it was too dark to actually see the ocean, the rhythmic pounding of the waves against the shore reached my ears from the open balcony door as Jason and I fell asleep that first night, ready for the most amazing weekend away ever. Little did I know just how amazing it was going to be.

Jason and I woke up pretty early the next morning, thanks to the time zone shift, and found ourselves seated at an Oceanside table at Duke’s restaurant, featuring the best breakfast buffet I’d ever had in my life.

Between the freshly-squeezed orange juice, made-to-order omelette bar and the coconut bread pudding, I was completely and totally stuffed by the time we left.

“Let’s go walk along the beach,” I suggested. “Unless you had something else amazing planned.”

“No, I know how you eat at buffets,” Jason laughed.

“Like a bear preparing to hibernate for the winter?”

“Exactly. I figured you’d probably want to walk it off after.”

“You know me so well.”

I took off my shoes as the two of us walked along the beach hand-in-hand, the warm sand sinking beneath my toes.

“Hey, watch it!” I heard a tiny voice say, and managed to avoid stepping on a little crab who was busy scurrying out of the way.

“Whoops, sorry,” I said to him with a smile as Jason and I continued. “Have you ever been to Hawaii?

“No,” Jason answered. “When we went somewhere warm in the winter, it was always nearby. The Bahamas, Bermuda, that sort of thing.”

“Me neither,” I said. “To be honest, I’d never actually left the Pacific Northwest, except for a trip to New York I took one summer when I was in college.”

“This place is pretty amazing.”

“I agree,” I smiled. It was nice to be able to finally relax. There were no murders to solve. There hadn’t been any more issues between the beavers and the guy living by the creek. Charlotte was getting ready to move, and I was completely comfortable with it.

Yeah, life was pretty good right now.

Eventually, Jason and I settled on the beach and spent a few hours just lazing around in the sun. It was so nice, lying down in mid-December, with the warm rays beating down on me, warming me down to my bones and refreshing my soul.

This was definitely exactly what I needed.

By the time the sun began to make its way towards the horizon, my stomach began to grumble and Jason smiled. “What do you feel like for dinner?”

“I’ve heard Hawaii has amazing Japanese food,” I replied. “Let’s find something good.”

A quick search on my phone later and we found ourselves waiting in line with other people for udon noodles that were apparently the best in Hawaii. I was kind of worried that we weren’t going to get a table, but luckily, the turnover seemed to be pretty quick despite the line, and right as Jason and I grabbed our bowl of noodles along with some tempura vegetables, a couple got up to leave and we managed to snag their spot.

“So, there’s only one thing that I still wonder about,” I said to Jason as we were eating.

“Oh yeah?”

“Where did the money end up? After all, Chuck admitted that Michael never told him where the money was, and Gloria had absolutely no idea either. Presumably that secret went to the grave with Francis.”

Jason grinned. “Only you could be sitting here in Hawaii wanting to wrap up loose ends about the murder investigation.”

“I’m just curious,” I laughed. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on going treasure hunting.”

Because of the time difference, Jason and I woke up pretty early naturally, and took an Uber to the entrance to Diamond Head, where we arrived right as the gates opened at six in the morning. The climb was long, but not the most strenuous, and about forty-five minutes later we found ourselves at the top.

My mouth dropped open as I gaped at the view of the ocean and Waikiki as the first light of day began to creep up over the horizon. The orange glow grew deeper, giving the ocean a surreal look as the eastern side of the buildings all began to be covered in the light. The sun began to climb higher and higher and Jason and I watched in silence, his arm around me, as the sun rose over the horizon to the east and began to climb up towards us, on the far western side of Oahu.

When daylight finally appeared, I turned to comment on the beauty of the scene to Jason, but he wasn’t right beside me anymore. He had moved about two feet away, and he was down on one knee.

He was down on one knee.

My hands rose to my mouth as he held out a small, black box.

This couldn’t be happening. No way.

“Angela, will you do me the honor of marrying me?” Jason asked with a smile on his face.

“Oh my God, of course. Yes!” I practically squealed. I didn’t even have to think about the answer. Of course I was going to marry him. Jason’s smile turned into a huge grin as he stood up and placed the ring on my finger. A few other onlookers clapped for us as I admired the ring. It was gold, with a large princess-cut diamond in the middle, surrounded by two smaller diamonds on either side.

The first light of the sun hit the diamond and it glistened on my fingers, matching the tears that welled up in my eyes. I normally wasn’t the sort of person who cried when they got emotional, but this was definitely an exception.

“I love you so much,” Jason said. “I can’t imagine spending another day of my life without you.”

“I love you too,” I replied breathlessly. Was this seriously happening? I couldn’t believe this was happening.

Jason took me into his arms and kissed me; our first kiss as an engaged couple instead of just boyfriend and girlfriend.

“You have no idea the stress I’ve been under trying to get this ring done,” Jason laughed. “I saved a whole bunch of posts of diamonds on my Facebook account, so I’ve been keeping my account logged out, to avoid you accidentally coming across them, and I’ve had to reset my password about six times.”

“Oh,” I said with a laugh. That explained why his account had been logged out before.

“Then, when I actually went into town to pick up the ring, that was the day you texted me asking if I was home. I half freaked out, thinking you and Sophie must have known where I was, and that you would have figured out I was going to the jewelry store to pick up the ring.”

“Don’t worry, we had absolutely no idea,” I replied truthfully. I felt a little bit silly; while Sophie had been trying to convince me that Jason might have been doing something a bit untoward, she was completely wrong. Jason had been hiding something from me, that was true. It was just the greatest surprise ever.

The rest of the day absolutely flew by, and the next morning, as we flew back from Honolulu to Portland, I couldn’t help but think that while I didn’t want to leave, I was also really looking forward to celebrating with everyone.