Chapter 4

Allie left Hawaii feeling hurt, alone, and depressed. But she had no one to blame but herself. Steve was right. She'd had all those years but chose not to say anything and it ended up costing her best friend. And no matter how hard she tried to fight her feelings for Steve, Allie just couldn't let them go.

One good thing about this mission was that Catherine was aboard. She was a good person and a good friend, and that was just what Allie needed to keep her grounded. They worked well together and talked about almost everything.

Before Allie knew it, two and a half months had passed. The mission had been exhausting but successful so far, and it and Catherine helped to keep thoughts of Steve away.

Until the day Catherine got a personal phone call during the middle of their shift.

"You want me to do what?" Allie heard her say. Then Catherine lowered her voice and Allie was unable to hear the next several words. A few moments later, Catherine sighed and said, "All right I'll send them to your phone."

She hung up and then looked at Allie, who immediately looked back at her screen. She heard Catherine start typing again and after another minute, heard Catherine texting on her phone. Allie chanced another look and saw Catherine set the phone down and then learn back in her chair. Finally, she said, "Steve really is ridiculous sometimes."

Allie didn't say a word. Her mind was replaying the day she told Steve how she felt and with that all of the feelings that she had been trying to get over came rushing back.

"Allie?" Catherine asked. "Allie? You still with me here?"

"Huh? Sorry. Sorry, I was…what did you say?"

Catherine gave her a funny look. "I said Steve really is ridiculous sometimes.

"Oh yeah, sure."

Allie hoped that would be enough to drop the subject of Steve, but Catherine's look became more intense and she said, "You okay, Allie? You haven't talked much about Steve since we started this mission. Is everything okay with you guys?"

Allie didn't like when people knew her business so she just made her answer short and hoped that would be the end of it. "Me and Steve had a falling out."

"Oh! Allie, I'm so sorry. If I had known that I wouldn't have asked."

"No it's all right," Allie told her, "but let's talk about something else please, okay?"

"Sure."

The mission came to an end. Allie was happy, but she knew going to back to Hawaii was going to be hard. She had wanted to be transferred closer to home but that would have taken a while. When they docked back in to Pearl, Catherine wanted to celebrate their successful mission. Allie felt she could use a drink, but she was tried and wanted nothing more than to take a bath and sleep in her own bed. So she talked Catherine into celebrating later in the week.

The next few days went by in a sort of blur. Allie pretty much kept to herself. But when Catherine called on Friday night to ask if Allie was up for those drinks, Allie accepted. They then agreed on a place to meet and Allie hopped in her car.

When she walked into The Tiki Brewery, she spotted Catherine sitting at the front bar in jeans and a black blouse. Allie started walking over but then stopped dead when she realized who Catherine was talking to.

Without thinking, Allie turned around and started heading for the doors. She didn't even make it five steps before she heard Catherine yell, "Allie!"

Damn it, Allie thought, staring at the doors. She was stuck now.

She turned and walked over to the bar, keeping her eyes on Catherine the whole time. When she got there, she avoided looking at Steve by giving Catherine a quick hug and then quickly pulled her off the barstool and to the side.

"What the heck is he doing here?" She whispered.

Catherine's eyes widened and she let out a little gasp. "Oh God! Allie, I'm so sorry! I completely forgot!" Do you want me to get rid of him? Because I will, if you want."

"No," Allie said. "It's cool. I'm going to go. I'm tired from work anyway and I only came because I promised I would have drinks with you. I'll see you tomorrow okay?"

"All right. We'll make other plans." Catherine look worried. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Don't worry. Night, Cat."

Allie then walked out the door and headed for her car. As soon as she touched the door handle, she heard Steve's voice call, "Allie!"

She looked up. Why? She silently asked God. Then she saw him running over. He looked so good and familiar that it hurt and she just started to scream at him. "What? What could you possibly want now?"

He came around the car and blocked the door. "I want to talk."

She couldn't look at him. "Well, I don't. I'm going home. Now if you don't mind, move."

"I do mind," he told her. "Look, I know I messed up that day not by following you and telling you how I felt, but I was confused. There I was telling you that I was in love with Danny then to have my best friend tell me she had been in love with me for years… I was just lost, okay?"

Allie made herself get angry. Anger was good at hiding other emotions. "And I guess now that you're with Danny, you're hoping my feelings for you will just wash away and we can go back to the way things used to be? I'm sorry Steven, but that's not how it's going to work. I have finally gotten to a place where I'm okay without you and I am not putting myself through all that hurt again."

He grabbed her shoulders and that scared Allie into finally looking up at him. His eyes were serious. "Allie, I'm not with Danny. I never was. After you left, I couldn't stop thinking about you. Then while I was trying to control my feelings about everything, Danny asked me to be his best man at his and Gabby's wedding."

"Wedding?" Allie repeated before she could stop herself.

"That's right their wedding," Steve told her. "Because while I was confused and thinking about you I never noticed that they got back together. And it was that moment, Allie that I realized how much I loved you. So when Cat called me and asked me to have drinks I said yes because I needed to see and tell you how I really felt."

Allie just stood there, lost in every word Steve had said. He loved her? She was all he thought about? Allie would have never thought he would be that emotionally involved in something. She just wanted… well she didn't know what she wanted at that moment. That was until Steve pulled her in by her waist and put his lips on hers.

She tried to fight it, but couldn't. After a minute, he pulled away and ordered, "Come home with me."

They spent the night making love and catching up. When the sun rose, Allie awoke to the touch of Steve's leg entwined with hers. The expression on his face was relaxed with a tiny smile, and Allie couldn't help but smile back. There was the little boy she had grown up with.

This was the life she always wanted. Right here.

Allie got up without waking him and headed downstairs to make some food and coffee. Steve appeared a bit later, gave her a quick kiss and went out for his morning swim. Then just as Allie was putting food on the table, she heard her cell phone ring from her purse in the living room.

She walked over and answered. "Hi, Cath."

"Hi Allie. Are you doing okay? I'm so sorry about last night. I can't believe I forgot that you guys weren't friends."

"No, it's fine. Really. You helped a lot actually. Because of you Steve and I are…well, not only friends again but we're together."

"Really! How did it happen?"

Allie explained everything that had happened from the time they left for the mission up to last night. She didn't go into exact detail about last night, but she knew that Catherine could make the leap herself. Either way, Allie was now loving life and almost couldn't believe what happened to her.

But her life was about to take another turn that she wasn't prepared for.

And there was no stopping it.