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Her voice floated upward. “Next time you have a bright idea, maybe bring me the coffee first. It’ll be less of a struggle for both of us.”
I smiled to myself. “So that’s a yes?”
“Do you really have a dress picked out?”
“Only in my imagination. You know I like surprises.”
She lifted her head, and our gazes met. “Just so you know, I’m pretty sure I won’t be saying no to anything you ask anymore.”
I tapped her nose. “Wow, I said I wanted control again in my life, but I never thought I’d get so much. You sure you want to say such a thing to a guy like me?”
The apples of her cheeks rounded, and her sweet Cupid’s bow puckered out with a close-mouthed smile. “I’m sure.”
I went outinto the kitchen, as I’d promised Maeve a coffee in bed. The chef I’d hired was already making a breakfast of lobster Benedict. That was the most luxurious thing I’d been able to think to ask for for my friends. My family. This was the first of as many elaborate get-togethers I’d plan for as long as I could.
Koa was already up and sitting at a breakfast bar watching the chef. Being a surfer seemed to make you a morning person. I knew Jas wouldn’t be far behind.
I overheard them chatting about cooking in the galley of a yacht for high-end customers. Now I was a high-end customer. So strange. I couldn’t even afford the fish I’d slung in Pike Place a year ago.
“Morning.” Koa gave me a fist bump. “Well done last night, bradded. You got yourself a wifey. Or almost. Have you told her about Vegas?”
“Just this morning.”
Everyone had been in on this entire plan for almost two weeks. Koa and Jas had helped me organize the Vegas portion. Koa had booked restaurants for our huge group. Jas had found wedding dress boutiques and booked in try-ons for all the girls to sip champagne and watch Maeve look equally as beautiful in every dress she tried, an impossible task to pick just one.
So really, Maeve had had no choice but to say yes. I’d tell her about the dress situation later. After the coffee. It vaguely occurred to me that I now straddled the fine line between a secret and a surprise, but it was likely I’d break a lot of my own rules now that life was different.
Koa scratched his cheek, a lawn of morning stubble he’d grown overnight that was shocking. This guy was pure man. “Wild to think that less than a year ago we were all at Uyu.”
“I know. Yet it feels like it’s been a million years with Maeve. And then sometimes, not long at all.”
“Guess it’s all about how much you open up to your person. If you never unzip, they never see anything new. Maybe that’s how things get stale in relationships. Not so much about getting bored of the same person but about them not showing themselves. People are like prisms. But if they never let you shine a light inside, they start to just look like an ordinary piece of glass.”
I’d known Koa for a long while now. He was one of my best friends. But unlike El or Jasmine, who mostly wore their hearts on their sleeves, he was even more closed off than Maeve. But it wasn’t because he didn’t know about vulnerability or that he wasn’t a deep character—he was always rattling off wise life lesson observations like this one—it was that he hid something.
Sometimes, I even felt as though the friendship was one way. Koa constantly supported us. He’d sent money to Helena when she’d left her abusive husband and he’d gone AWOL. He’d flown to see Jasmine and paid for her Uyu tickets and all sorts of stuff while her dad was sick. He’d come to see one of my shows when I was on tour, and hell, he’d paid for both Flick and Helena to be here this weekend. He never let any of us be alone or in need. He was like a fairy godfather. Always giving and asking nothing in return. That was a lie, he demanded one thing. That we didn’t ask too many questions.
“What do you know about that?” I grabbed him by the shoulder and gave him a shake. “You ever gonna settle down?”
“I’m probably past that now.”
“You saying you’re old?”
“I’m saying I’m past it. That ship has sailed.”
“Was the ship a girl? Or something else?”
He said nothing, just took a sip of his coffee and nodded. I’d asked too many questions. A hint of grumpy Koa snuck out into our morning and changed the subject. “You gonna get a coffee? It’s top-notch.” He lifted his cup toward the chef.
I’d gotten this far with him several times before. Then, shut down. After talking to Jasmine about it, who’d known him longer than me, I got the impression something had happened with a woman. That woman might have been her sister. Even Jasmine wasn’t entirely clear, but she’d told me Koa was always cool and composed around women, aloof and completely disinterested, except around her sister, Leilani. Jasmine had admitted she might be wrong—apparently, her sister was just as tight-lipped about Koa.
Maybe it was something. Maybe it was nothing. But I’d never met a man so in tune with what love was and so closed off to finding it for himself.
I turned to the chef. “I’ll have two coffees please.”
“You got it.” He stopped mixing something that looked like sauce and grabbed a stainless-steel pot and two coffee mugs. “It’s all about the beans.” He poured.
Koa took another sip. He kept his voice low. “My license came through just in time. Had to pay an arm and a leg to rush that.”
