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The wonderful aroma of garlic, butter, and seafood drew her forward after she lifted Sniper out of the backseat of Nick’s SUV. “You said this was a great place to stop, and now I believe it.”
A long line of customers had queued around the perimeter of the lot and seemed to be solely interested in a single white truck at the back. By the time Nick and Lucy ordered and received their food, just as many folks were lined up behind them.
Nick led her across the highway and down a shady, grassy slope ending at a broad, white sand beach, where they nabbed one of the empty picnic tables.
He slid in next to her so they both could look out over the sparkling waves. “So what do you think?”
“The view is stunning.” She picked up a second piece of buttery shrimp heavily laden with fresh minced garlic and closed her eyes in pure bliss. “And the shrimp is amazing. I would fly to Oahu again just for this.”
“Maybe you should,” he said easily. “Come back for the shrimp, that is.”
His words and the teasing glint in his eyes made her laugh. But they also made her wonder if he was feeling the same glimmer of something deeper between them. Something worth exploring.
But that was beyond imagining.
Coming back to Oahu wouldn’t happen anytime soon—if ever. She needed to find a new job with benefits and a future, and that would mean working a good year before earning a vacation.
This wonderful shrimp might still be available, but not the man beside her.
Once he made peace with his loss and found himself able to move on, he would easily find someone new.
And then he wouldn’t remember her at all.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The next week passedin a blur.
They’d gone to travel up the leeward side of the island exploring beaches, though they only managed a few stops each day because each was too beautiful for them to rush away.
Today, they’d gone back to explore even more of the leeward side of the island, and ended up on an eight-hour hike up to Mount Ka’ala—with Nick carrying Sniper most of the way.
With every day they spent together, she’d learned something new about Nick that intrigued her all the more.
“Another day, another adventure,” she said when he pulled up in front of her Airbnb at ten o’clock. “I can’t thank you enough for everything. I never would have seen so many places on my own, and I know your time is valuable.”
Draping his left hand over the steering wheel, he turned to face her. “I couldn’t be spending it in a better way.”
