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“You are?”
Can’t help smiling at the sand.
“If it’s alright with you.”
I look him straight in the eye, and fake calmness.
“Let me know when, so I can reserve you a good table.”
“Great. Let’s exchange numbers.”
“I’ll give you mine. I don’t have my phone with me.”
He takes out his cell and hands it over.
“And by the way, it isn’t attention my mother is tired of. It’s the pain. Hula’s eventual price tag. She doesn’t go many places other than the restaurant.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. She doesn’t know me, but please give her my respect for her impressive talent. She was always an inspiration.”
The phone is returned with the new contact entered.
“I will.”
He stands and brushes the sand from strong hands.
“You up for a walk?”
He doesn’t wait for an answer. A hand extends and I take it. Skin to skin, a connection locks. The sun from behind blocks out details of his face, but it outlines the shape of the man. The width of the shoulders and the hills and valleys of the arm muscles. Fingers wrap around mine as he gently pulls me up. It feels freaking magical. I’m in a Hallmark movie.
We walk in silence to the hard packed sand of the shore. The final roll of a wave washes over our feet.
“Tell me now, are your beaches in Northern California as good as this one? Careful, I will defend this spot on Earth. In my opinion it is perfection.”
With a smile, he dips his chin and looks over the sunglasses.
“You’ll get no argument from me.
Chapter 3
ALEK
Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, I methodically floss while plotting a way forward. I’m not usually the guy who has toplot.Haven’t plotted since high school. It isn’t adesperate times requires desperate measuresthing either. It’s more anIrecognize who I’m dealing withissue.
Leilani is not the usual girl. She has a vibe and it got to me. Meshed with mine. Something about the woman, beyond the pale green eyes, holds my attention. Don’t know any other way to think about it.
Talking with her is easy like a Sunday morning over breakfast. There was not a gap in the conversation, unless we chose to be silent.
But that isn’t it. A lot of people are comfortable conversationalists. It was how I felt. Every part of me recognized something that can’t be described, but was unmistakably present. My dick thought so right away. Like the canary in the coal mine. Even before the rest of me figured it out.
It sort of reminds me of what it was like with my first real girlfriend. Bowled over by the revelation of the female. After that, I was too mature and logical to be in the goofy stage. I knew what I had to offer and liked girls who thought that of themselves. Like that first one did.
It wasn’t until meeting Jody, that my brilliant plan went out the window. She didn’t have the greatest confidence in herself and I had to walk slowly toward her heart. Love is its own master and never does your bidding. You are not assembling something with specific pieces, like a puzzle that only fits one pattern. I learned real love makes its own rules and allows for deviations. It wouldn’t have mattered if she had two heads. She was the one.
Her life and death shaped me. I can never be satisfied with just okay, just nice or sexy, just anything. I would rather be by myself, enjoying more casual connections, than be with someone who doesn’t make me feel as good about life as I did being with her. Shit. Don’t say that out loud. Maybe it was because we knew from the start it would be short-lived. We had to fit a lifetime into the years that were allotted.
Why am I even thinking about it? There is a woman that piques my interest to say it mildly. The fact is I don’t know Leilani. Allowing myself to be so immediately taken with a woman is not typical. I keep going back. Don’t think either of us were planning on such a long walk, but suddenly we were at Ipo Point.
It was only because I wanted to see if Alana and Kanaka were back, that we turned and retraced our steps. It would have been great to walk through the break in the rock and sit for awhile watching the surfers take off on waves around the point. It will happen.
