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He leaned close and his hot breath steamed up my ear when he said, “And you look smokin’ hot in it.”
That settled it.
I looked straight at the concierge. “I guess I won’t be buying that suit after all. Thanks for the help though.” The woman forced a smile and headed for the elevators. “I’ll be sure to leave a fantastic customer service review before I check out,” I called after her.
“You want to throw some other clothes on,” Kai asked, “or do you want to go in your robe? Because I’m cool with that.”
“Clothes! Right. Wait here, I’ll be back in a second.” I jogged into the bathroom and threw a flowy maxi skirt on over my swimsuit. I tied a button-down shirt at my waist and called it an outfit. After taking a deep breath, I strolled back to Kai as if excitement wasn’t buzzing throughout my entire body.
“Come on,” he said, stepping backward and jutting his thumb toward the elevators. “Our dinner is waiting.”
“So, dinner is our first stop?”
“Yes, you haven’t lived until you’ve had my mom’s lomi-lomi and poi.”
I followed Kai out the door and it wasn’t long before we were back on the road, this time driving at a more leisurely pace.
Crowds and traffic thinned as he took us on yet another scenic drive. As beautiful as it was, I felt like a kid who might blurt are we there yet, any minute. The sun was lowering, and I was eager to find out what it would be like to enjoy the sunset on the beach with the man sitting next to me.
“You know,” I said, “I didn’t expect an island to have quite so many back roads.”
“My island is bigger than you expected?” He glanced at me from the corner of his eye as his smile widened.
I liked the way he called it “his” island. It made the fact that he was sharing the best parts of it with me feel more special, almost as if he were sharing a part of himself with me.
“It’s much bigger. Ever since I heard about the job opening at Blue Pacific, all I wanted to do was get to Hawaii. But I really had no idea what I was in for.”
Pain stabbed me in the heart. I’d been talking about the island itself, but there was a double meaning to the words I’d said. I certainly hadn’t had a clue about what I was getting myself into when I took this job. That was a fact!
“Life is full of surprises,” he said, pulling onto the shoulder of the road.
I played with the brim of my hat, going over all my recent surprises.
Landing my dream job. Great surprise.
Meeting up with Kai again. Fantastic surprise.
Learning the true nature of my new job. Horrible surprise.
At least the good surprises outnumbered the bad ones, but would that trend hold steady? Marketing was my strong suit. Spotting trends and jumping on board with a smart strategy was what I did best.
There had to be a way for me to wrangle my future and bend it to my will. The answer was somewhere inside me, I just had to find it.
But my solution was probably going to have to stay buried in my subconscious for a little while longer. It was too hard to think straight with this sweet piece of Hawaiian man candy occupying so much of my brain space.
Right now, all I could think of was spending this evening at the beach… with Kai.
