§ § § -- June 8, 1985

It was close to midnight, and Leslie had been in her room for some time, considering the new direction her life seemed to be going in. She was very much drawn towards Teppo Komainen, had been from just about the very first moment she'd seen him. Had it been only that morning at the plane dock? It seemed as if a week had passed; so much had happened.

She had asked him, "Why did you turn away from me like that at the beach, just before Kekipi showed up and Lempo took over?" It had been after that second heady kiss; they'd stood easily in each other's arms, watching the evening sky deepening into twilight, and their conversation had been quiet and unhurried, as if they were basking in their newly discovered feelings.

Teppo had loosed a sheepish chuckle. "Well, you said something about how you were never interested, after I wondered if Mr. Roarke had been keeping you under wraps all this time. For some reason I thought perhaps you weren't interested this time either. Stupid of me, after the way you responded to my kiss just now."

She had giggled softly. "I'll say," she'd teased him. "I meant only that I'd never been interested before. Not till you came here." He had hugged her then, and she'd stood there feeling strangely safe and protected in a way that even Roarke had never been able to do.

As if the thought had summoned him, Roarke appeared in her doorway and regarded her with some surprise. "I thought you'd be asleep by now," he said.

Leslie shook her head. "Too much to think about," she said cheerfully. "I guess you're about to call it a night, then?"

Roarke paused before replying, surveying her thoughtfully, then took a step or two into the room. "May I?" he asked, indicating a spot beside her on the bed, and she nodded. He sat down, turned partway to face her, and said, "I was unable to talk to you earlier, of course."

Leslie nodded again. "You were with Teppo's parents, and then I guess Kekipi finally deigned to show up for that talk you wanted to have with her."

"Yes," Roarke said, clearing his throat. "About that…" She tilted her head quizzically to one side, and he finally admitted, "I have asked Kekipi to leave the island."

Leslie struggled to hide her elation at this, but wasn't altogether successful; and she knew perfectly well that Roarke was aware of her reaction. "What for?"

Roarke hesitated before replying. "I sensed that there was some discord between you and her," he began, "but I felt it was something the two of you must learn to overcome. However, I came to realize that there was more to it than that."

Leslie couldn't prevent the wry smile from spreading across her face. "You might as well come out and say it directly, Mr. Roarke. Kekipi had a huge crush on you. She always has, and that's the reason she never got along with me. She was jealous of me – which was stupid, of course, because you and I are father and daughter for one thing…and for another, she'd never have had a chance anyway. Next time you hire an assistant, Mr. Roarke, it'll have to be either another man, or a married woman."

Roarke gave her an exasperated look. "Do you realize exactly how difficult it is to find a qualified assistant, young lady? That's five now, since Lawrence departed last year. It's fortunate that Julie's bed-and-breakfast inn has prospered to the point where she can afford to hire people to operate it for her on the weekends, because I will have to call her back into service yet again. And there is no doubt in my mind that she was hoping for a summer off from working for me. Why is it that I seem to have so much trouble finding a competent assistant?"

"Beats me, Mr. Roarke," Leslie said with a shrug. "It's occurred to me that you might think of hiring Julie on permanently. Like you said, her B&B is really thriving; she could simply turn over the actual running of the place to other people and supervise them as needed, while working for you. Or else…what about Cindy? Remember her? She used to help out sometimes when we were experimenting with granting kids' fantasies for a while."

"Yes, I do remember her," Roarke said, "but unfortunately, you appear to have missed hearing about Cindy's recent marriage and new teaching position at the high school." Leslie mumbled a sheepish "oh" in response and shrugged again.

"Well, I tried. If you can't hire Cindy and you won't hire Julie, I don't know what else to suggest, except maybe put some more newspaper ads out there." Leslie yawned and then sat up straight. "Wait a minute. It just occurred to me. Mr. Roarke, you know it's not ethical to fire someone just because she has a crush on you."

Roarke chuckled. "Surely you know better, Leslie Susan. Quite a large part of it was due to her insistence on not getting along with you, but I've recently discovered that she has a way of procrastinating with the errands I assigned to her. On a number of occasions, she failed to do them at all." He sighed quietly. "The errand I sent her on this morning, while we were first speaking with the Komainens, was the latest one that didn't get done. I had to remind her to do it this afternoon after the incident on the beach. Since she also tried to unjustly accuse you of what had happened to her while Teppo was possessed, I finally came to the conclusion that she couldn't continue here. She left on the six-o'-clock charter."

"Thank goodness," Leslie said with feeling, eliciting another laugh from him. "Oh, gosh, look how late it is. I think we'd better get some sleep."

"Quite so," Roarke agreed warmly and squeezed her shoulder. "Good night."

Leslie was sure she wouldn't get any sleep, but her brain had other ideas and she dropped off within minutes of dousing the light. By morning she felt refreshed and exhilarated, and her stomach seemed to be light with some mysterious excitement. She jumped up and dressed, and was making her bed when Roarke tapped on the door.

"Ah, very good," he said. "The Komainens are due to come here in one hour, and that gives us just enough time for breakfast."

At the Hilltop Bungalow, the Komainens were in the middle of their own morning repast, mostly in silence. Teppo's parents kept eyeing him oddly, as though he had sprouted another head, and he shot them increasingly bewildered glances. Finally he dropped his fork and sat up straight. "All right, what's the matter?" Since the family was alone, they spoke in their native Finnish.

Jaakko Komainen cleared his throat, but his wife spoke right up. "I think you're growing too attached to that girl," she said point-blank.

"You mean Leslie?" Teppo asked. "Why is that a problem?"

"There's one large obstacle to any kind of relationship between you two," his father explained kindly. "Teppo, she lives here, and you live in Finland. You can't stay here beyond the weekend. How do you expect there to be any future to this?"

"That all depends on whether Mr. Roarke can grant our fantasy," Teppo said. "Something tells me you two won't leave before that happens, and there's no telling how long it'll take." He held up a hand to forestall their protests. "Don't you think you're jumping the gun a bit here? For heaven's sake, Leslie and I met only yesterday. Why don't we concentrate on doing something about Lempo, and then we'll deal with any other issues." He scowled suddenly. "I just wish you'd trust me. Leslie is a sweet, wonderful girl and I wouldn't hurt her for the world. As the saying goes, what will be will be. Let it rest, all right?"

"We'll see what Mr. Roarke has to say," his mother said with a meaningful look at her son before she went back to her breakfast. Teppo sighed deeply and, when his parents weren't watching, rolled his eyes in exasperation before he realized abruptly that something was dulling the edges of his consciousness. He had time only to shout, "No!" before he lost all awareness of his surroundings and found himself locked away again in his own brain. Oh God, he thought frantically, I'm going to hurt my parents now… And then he blacked out altogether.