That's Amore! - Janelle Denison [6]
She admitted to falling hard and fast, too, and in a few short days he'd learned all he needed to know that Leila Malekala was the woman he'd been waiting for all his life. She was wholesome, nurturing, and openly caring, not to mention sexy and bold, with an adventurous spirit that continually intrigued him. She was his equal, and complemented him in so many ways.
She was everything that had been missing from his life since his parents' death nearly ten years ago. And Jason didn't need any more time with her to know that they were meant to be together—despite her Hawaiian heritage that set them apart, as well as the generations of traditions and customs she was expected to live up to. Not to mention her family's objections to her involvement with a haole, a white boy and foreigner to them, when they had such high hopes of her reuniting with her childhood sweetheart, Kalani Pakolu, and doing the right thing in marrying the island native.
Those were obstacles Jason hoped they'd overcome together, as well as him winning over her family's support with his relationship with Leila.
On the morning of the last day of his vacation in Maui, Jason presented Leila with a gold bracelet he'd had specially made for her, which consisted of a chain of hibiscus flowers adorned with a diamond in the center of each blossom. The significance of what the bracelet implied wasn't lost on Leila. He was claiming her, and making a clear statement that she belonged to him. Now and forever.
As he secured the piece of jewelry around her wrist, Jason asked Leila to marry him and be his wife. With tears of joy in her eyes, she said, "Yes."
Unfortunately, trying to convince her family that they were meant to be together wasn't as easy.
CHAPTER TWO
Seven months later
LEILA GLANCED anxiously at the clock on the wall, willing the time to pass more quickly. Another half an hour and she'd once again be reunited with Jason after three long, agonizing weeks apart. After seven months of him commuting back and forth between California and Maui to balance his company's business with their long-distance relationship, and her occasional visits to the Mainland to be with him, their frequent separations were about to become a thing of the past.
With a deep, impatient sigh, Leila continued to pace the cozy living room in the small cottage behind her parents' house, which they'd insisted she move into when she'd made the decision to find a place of her own a year ago. Living within walking distance of her mother and father wasn't what she'd had in mind when she'd decided she needed independence and freedom from familial pressures, but she'd resigned herself to taking one small step at a time toward becoming her own person.
Never would she have guessed just months later she'd meet the man of her dreams and her entire life would change course altogether. And now, in three more days, she was getting married to Jason Crofton, and they'd finally be husband and wife.
The excitement of that thought was eclipsed by other more distressing issues that had cropped up in Jason's absence. With him away settling business matters before taking time off for their marriage and honeymoon, she'd been left to deal with the last of the wedding plans, as well as trying to convince her parents that just because she'd decided to move to California to be with Jason after they married, it didn't mean she was forsaking her family or her Hawaiian roots.
Her parents didn't quite see things that way, and had no qualms telling her so. She was the first of the Malekala clan to ever move away from the Hawaiian islands, and her mother assured her that her ancestors were undoubtedly rolling over in their graves that she was turning her back on her culture and heritage. All for a haole.
It didn't seem to matter