The Islands Read Online Free PDF Page A

the airport terminal everyone was smiling, welcoming, greeting people with ‘Aloha, aloha’. Walking through the exit Catherine saw waving palms outside the glass doors and a blur of faces.
    And there was Bradley, just as he’d promised.
    In the last few months, Bradley had surprised Catherine with letters and occasional phone calls and this had strengthened the bond between them. The distance had given them time to develop a different relationship where they’d exchanged thoughts and feelings on all kinds of subjects, the kind of things that might be difficult to say face to face. And without the physical closeness there wasn’t any pressure to move their friendship to an intimate level.
    Strangely, she felt she knew Bradley better because of this space between them, rather than if he’d been by her side. He wrote to her about his new job, telling her that he might be based in Pearl Harbor for the next few years or so. He described his commanding officer and his organising wife. In his letters Bradley summed up his colleagues and the people he met in a few pithy sentences that were often quite hilarious. Catherine really enjoyed his sense of humour, which she hadn’t appreciated in the short time they’d known each other in London.
    They had arranged to meet on her way back to Australia so that he could show her round Honolulu and take her to dinner and a show. Catherine’s father had insisted on treating her to a final fling before she came home and ‘got back to work’, so here she was booked into an old but stylish hotel on Waikiki Beach.
    Catherine walked towards Bradley and found she was shaking at the sight of him. He stood out from the crowd not only because he was so tall, but he also looked handsome in his crisp white naval uniform. His arms showing from under the short sleeves of his shirt were tanned and he held his peaked officer’s cap under one arm while he carried a lei made of perfumed creamy flowers. He was smiling broadly and Catherine couldn’t help noticing the second glances he got from other women.
    â€˜Hello, hello!’ He embraced Catherine, kissed her cheek, took her luggage and put it down beside them as he lifted the lei over her head. ‘Local custom.’ He smiled and kissed her lightly on the lips.
    She lifted the lei and inhaled deeply. ‘How gorgeous. Are they frangipani?’
    â€˜Plumeria. Slightly different. Is this all your luggage? I’m parked out the front. You must be exhausted. Such a long flight.’
    As they drove to the Moana Hotel they fell into easy conversation, picking up where they’d left off in their last phone call. She felt as if she’d known him for years. Bradley pulled up under the Corinthian columns of the portico at the hotel entrance as a smiling bellboy opened the car door and took her hand luggage.
    â€˜I’ll see if I can park out on Kalakaua Avenue,’ called Bradley as Catherine followed the young Hawaiian into the lobby.
    As she looked about her, she realised that the hotel had gone through many stages – the old wood panelling, the touches of art deco, some fifties modernisation and the Italianate entrance made it an odd mixture, but the breezy open plan looking out to a courtyard flanked by wide verandahs was definitely tropical.
    â€˜First order of the day – a drink under the banyan tree,’ said Bradley as she signed the registration card.
    â€˜I don’t know what time of night or day it is,’ laughed Catherine.
    â€˜A fresh pineapple juice, with a splash of coconut milk,’ suggested Bradley. ‘Or a coffee?’
    â€˜Juice sounds wonderful, thanks. Wow!’ Catherine gasped as they came to the steps leading to the courtyard flanked by the polished wood floor verandahs. The hotel was at the edge of the beach and the sand was swept and lined with deck chairs where holiday makers lounged. Beyond them glittered the blue ocean where long