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Buck looked down at his arm and saw the three thin white lines that Ebi had left on the back of his hand near his wrist.

It made him smile even more.

“Did you ask her out?”

Buck watched Riptide turn his head one way and then the other, before pulling out onto Liliha Street.

Buck enjoyed the momentary silence, but it didn’t look like it would last for long.

“When did you meet her?”

See?

Smiling he let out a breath. “I met her today.”

“Today?” Riptide smiled as he drove. “You work fast, my friend.”

“And no,” Buck answered his earlier question, “I haven’t asked her out.”

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Buck regretted them but for a reason other than what Riptide might think.

What could he offer her?

He was one foot in Hell and the other? Fuck if he knew!

He just didn’t feel like he had much of a future anyway.

His smile slipped and he looked out at the passing scenery as they got onto the Pali Highway.

The air seemed noticeably cooler with the windows down. The kind of Jeep that Riptide drove didn’t have walls. He liked the open air.

It was better closer to the ocean, he said.

Buck turned to look at his friend, realizing that his silence wasn’t just affecting his own mood.

“Thanks,” he began, “for picking me up.”

“Shootz.” Riptide grinned at him.

Buck gave him a look. “Trying the local lingo, again, huh?”

Riptide shrugged. “Might as well, it’s almost closer to what I’m used to than living in the U.S.”

Less than a second passed before Riptide laughed at himself.

Sighing, he turned and Buck saw his friend’s face was redder than it had been moments before.

“You know what I mean.”

“Kid wouldn’t have seen the issue.”

Kid was from Duluth, Minnesota and when he’d been tapped to come to Hawaii to join the team, he’d been concerned there wasn’t enough time to get a passport.

They both laughed softly.

“Yeah, well, it’s easy to forget that we’re in the US sometimes,” Riptide explained, “the energy here is different. The culture, too.”

Buck nodded and slightly turned his head as he caught sight of the waterfalls coursing down the mountain side. The gray clouds above it looked like they were too heavy with rain and couldn’t make it over the mountain.