Bury the Hatchet

Chapter Ten - Bury the Hatchet

TALLIE

Our time in Maui might have ended up being one of my favorite weeks of all time, if not for the lingering worries I had over Kade and the rest of Hunter's family. I probably wouldn't be quite so bothered if Hunter would talk and let me know what was going on with them, but he didn't want to, and I didn't think it was something I should push him about at this point in our relationship. It might not ever be. Whatever had happened between him and his brother was none of my business, and even though we were married, I didn't know how to act around a husband who was still a complete stranger. I wasn't part of his family on anything more than a highly temporary basis.

Maybe it was silly of me to worry when Hunter had as good as pushed them out of his mind the instant we'd stepped off the plane and into the tropical air. He was the one who knew them, after all, and he was acting as though nothing was out of the ordinary. No matter what sort of airs he might try to give off for the world to see, I knew he wasn't cold and callous. One glance at him flying toward his mother when all the commotion had started was all I needed to grasp just how much he loved his family, even if there were issues.

And what family didn't have issues? Lord knew mine did, so why should his be any different? I just wasn't sure how deep the problems ran, let alone if there was any chance to repair them, so all I could do was sit and wait. If there was something I could do to help, I'd figure it out soon enough. More than likely, there wasn't anything beyond keeping my head down and my nose in my own matters, where it belonged.

For now, we were on vacation together in Hawaii. This was my chance to get to know Hunter as well as I could before we returned to Tulsa to face the year ahead of us.

Other than the fact that we were sleeping in separate rooms in our suite instead of sharing a bed, no one would know that we weren't exactly like any other honeymooning couple in paradise. Everything seemed normal on the surface. We had romantic dinners on the beach with nothing but candles or the light of the moon helping us to see. We spent our days walking along the beach and getting to know each other, sometimes going out into the ocean, and other times just dipping our toes in the crashing waves.

After a few days of it being just the two of us, we had started to feel more comfortable together, to the point that he would even pick me up and toss me in the water, making me squeal. Once, he'd made a big splash and gotten my hair wet even though I'd begged him not to—because it would take me forever to get it looking right again without my team to help me—winking at me when I huffed in protest.

Actually, every time I mentioned my beauty team, he gave me a you-know-you're-crazy look. "Do you not have any idea how gorgeous you are? You already look sexier than any woman should have a right to the second you roll out of bed in the morning," he told me on multiple occasions.

I always felt so conflicted when he said things like that to me, despite the fact that I was gradually spending less time getting ready and more time with him, styling and makeup be damned. There was a part of me that knew there had to be at least a kernel of truth to his words. But there was another part of me that still heard Mama and Lance nattering on in the background, analyzing every aspect of my appearance and how they could fix it. Even when I'd gone off to college, I hadn't been free from it. Lance had ensured I had a team there to prepare me every day. My sorority sisters had given me such a hard time about it, but the only time I'd done without my team in the three years of my college education had been when we'd gone to Cancun, just the girls.

Maybe if I spent enough time with Hunter, I would hear his voice rising above Mama's and Lance's. Maybe the insecurities I felt after years of being told I wasn't up to snuff could fade until they were just background noise, like the chatter at a restaurant. I doubted it, but there was at least a glimmer of hope now.