Try Easy: A Slow-Burn Vacation Fling Love Story (Aloha Series Book 1)

by Jill Brashear

  For a little while, Lou forgot about everything that was bothering her and let herself enjoy the night.

  Penny sat down next to Lou on the blanket, and they looked up at the starry sky.

  “What happened with you today?” Penny asked.

  They hadn’t seen each other since early that morning. They had hardly seen each other at all over their vacation. Penny had gone off alone with Bones at every opportunity. Even though Lou hadn’t approved of their relationship, she hadn’t complained, because it had given her time with Keoni.

  “I tried chili water,” Lou said, summing up her day for Penny. “I almost died, and Keoni kissed me.”

  Penny drew in a sharp breath. “How was it?”

  “Which part?”

  “The kiss!”

  “I felt it in my toes,” Lou said in a hushed voice. “I felt it all the way to my toes.”

  Lou lifted her gaze to where Keoni and Bones sat by the fire. They were laughing over something and tuning their instruments to a new song. Keoni had his guitar, and Bones was playing the ukulele. The tiny instrument should have looked ridiculous in the hands of a man his size, but nothing about Bones was ridiculous. He was handsome and kind, and nearly as funny as Keoni, only in a more direct way.

  Lou could see how Penny had fallen in love with Bones.

  Her eyes flicked over to Keoni. The light from the fire danced over his handsome face, concealing the bruises.

  The thought of saying goodbye to Keoni in a few days made her heart constrict, and she looked away.

  “What about you?” she asked Penny. “What did you do today?”

  Penny glanced away from the ocean to look at Lou. Even in the darkness, Lou could see the guilt on her face.

  “Penny?” Lou took her friend by the shoulder and gripped her hard. “Tell me.”

  “We’re in love,” Penny said.

  “You’ve only known each other a few days. How can you say you’re in love?”

  “When you know, you know.”

  “What about Joe?” Lou asked. “What about Seward Park? And our plan?”

  Penny glared, her amber eyes glittering in the darkness. “You kissed Keoni.”

  “He kissed me,” she protested, even though the result was the same.

  “You let him,” Penny pointed out. “What would Paul think?”

  Lou’s mouth clamped shut. “Don’t turn this around on me,” she said, straightening her spine.

  “Lou, I could use your support on this,” Penny said.

  “You really mean this?” Lou asked. “You would really throw away everything for him?”

  Penny nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. “I would.”

  Lou thought about everything she and Penny had been through. No one knew her better than Penny, not even Paul. She hated to believe that all the plans they had made together were finished. But as she looked at Penny, Lou knew there was no point in trying to change her mind.

  Opening her arms, Lou pulled Penny into her embrace.

  “I want you to be happy,” she said. “If he makes you happy, then I’ll be there for you.”

  “Thanks, Lou.”

  “You’re welcome.” Lou took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts. She hoped Penny would help her make sense of her conflicting ideas. “I need to talk to you about something,” she said.

  “What?”

  They were interrupted when Bones came over and squatted down in the sand next to Penny.

  “Can I steal you away for a walk?” he asked.

  Penny glanced at Lou for permission.

  “We’ll talk later,” Lou said.

  “Promise?”

  “Yes.”

  Bones and Penny wandered off, leaving Lou and Keoni alone once again. Keoni was busy with his guitar. He adjusted the strings and started playing a new song. He strummed a few chords and started singing.

  He had a strong, sexy voice that made Lou’s heart beat faster. A tingle rushed down her spine as his rich voice filled the air. Their gazes met over the fire, and he smiled his crooked smile. Lou’s heart stopped for a beat and then started up again in a hurry.

  She was more than halfway in love with Keoni. She wondered how many women Keoni had seduced with his music, his smile, and a surfing lesson. He’d said he wasn’t good at games, but it seemed like he was playing one. Was she a game to him?

  He finished the song and grabbed two beers from the cooler. He gave one to Lou and popped the top on the other one. They both watched the receding figures of Bones and Penny along the beach.

  “Penny thinks Bones is in love with her,” Lou said. “What do you think of that?”

  Keoni shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Lou felt a spear of anger. “Love isn’t a game,” she said.

  “Yeah,” he said, angling his body away from her toward the fire. “I know that.”

  “Maybe you should tell your cousin.”

  “K’den,” Keoni said, drinking his beer.

  “Maybe you should tell him he shouldn’t mess with people’s lives.”

  Keoni turned to look at her, one eyebrow lifted. “K’den,” he said.

  “Does he really love her?” Lou demanded.

  “I’m not a mind reader.”

  “Tell him to be careful.”

  “What else should I tell him, eh?” he asked, his voice rising with anger.

  Lou realized Keoni might not be too happy about Bones and Penny either.

  “She can’t just forget her life in Seattle to come out here and marry Bones,” Lou said. “It’s ridiculous.”

  Keoni stared at her. The fire cast shadows over his face. He wore a stony expression that Lou couldn’t read. “Why not?” he asked.

  “Because it’s ridiculous.”

  “Yeah, you said that already.”

  “I didn’t come here to have vacation fling,” she blurted.

  “We weren’t talking about us,” he said.

  “You kissed me,” she said.

  “You kissed me,” he corrected her, his voice softening.

  Lou knew from Keoni’s tone of voice that he was thinking about that kiss, and now so was she. She wanted to kiss Keoni again, even though she was angry and confused. She wanted to press her body to his and feel the hard ripple of his muscles under her fingertips.

  Keoni wet his lips, and Lou watched the pink tip of his tongue find the groove of the cut on his lip. She remembered the metallic taste of his blood on her tongue, and suppressed a shudder of desire.

  “Cold?” Keoni asked.

  “A little,” she admitted.

  Keoni broke some twigs in half and fed them to the fire. Sparks danced into the sky.

  “I don’t know why I’m so angry,” Lou said, feeling her frustration fizzle as she stared at the flames. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

  Keoni shrugged. “Me, too,” he said, even though he hadn’t done any yelling.

  He threw another branch on the fire and sipped his beer, seeming lost in thought. He had that look on his face again—the pained expression that Lou had referred to earlier. Lou wished she knew Keoni well enough to ask him what he was thinking about when he retreated into his own little world.

  She studied his profile, appreciating the strong lines of his face. He had a straight, proud nose, full lips, and a square jawline under the scruff of his beard. He was so handsome, it was hard to believe he didn’t have a girl.

  “Why don’t you have a girlfriend?” Lou asked.

  “Who says I don’t?”

  Lou smiled. “If you had a girlfriend, you wouldn’t be spending all your time with me.”

  “Maybe I like you.”

  Maybe she liked him, too. She said, “Answer the question.”

  Keoni took a long pull from his beer, and then glanced down at her. “I never met the right girl,” he said, looking into her eyes. “I want somebody special.” His throat worked as he swallowed. “I want somebody who isn’t afraid to show how she feels. Somebody brave, who can face
her fears. Somebody kind, who looks out for her best friend.” Keoni reached up and brushed a strand of hair behind Lou’s ear. His fingers curled around her neck. “I want somebody whose laugh lights up my world.”

  Lou shivered, but it wasn’t because she was cold. The heat from Keoni’s body was warmer than the fire. They were so close that she could feel his breath on her cheek.

  “Why don’t you date tourists?” she asked.

  “I fell in love with one,” he admitted.

  “What happened?”

  “She broke my heart.”

  “Is that what makes you so sad sometimes?”

  He dropped his hand and turned to look at the fire. “No,” he said.

  Lou hoped Keoni would say more, but he didn’t. The grief-stricken look was back on his face. Lou felt guilty for putting it there, and she would do anything to drive it away.

  “So that one girl ruined tourists for you?” Lou said.

  “She did.”

  “What was her name?” Lou asked.

  “Claudia,” Keoni said, making the name sound like an exotic flower.

  Lou shivered again, wishing she had a name that sounded so beautiful coming out of Keoni’s mouth. She sighed and stared into the flames.

  They fell silent, watching the flames consume the wood as night fell around them.

  The Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Contest

  Sunset Beach, Oahu

  January 31

  * * *

  Keoni

  * * *

  The sun rose over Sunset Beach on the morning of the 4th Annual Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surf Championships, illuminating Keoni’s lone figure bobbing on his surfboard in the waves.

  Keoni’s heart overflowed with emotion as he let the waves roll under him. The last time he had paddled out to the lineup at Sunset Beach was to scatter Eddie’s ashes into the waves that had stolen his life.

  Eddie hadn’t wanted to be buried in the ground. He’d lived his life for the ocean, and that’s where he belonged after death.

  Keoni stared out at the waves, wanting very badly to hate them and blame them, but he found he couldn’t. The ocean hadn’t stolen Eddie as much as Keoni had lost him.

  The lives of everyone Keoni had saved flashed before his eyes. He’d pulled a soldier who’d come up to Waimea Bay from Schofield Barracks on a day’s leave. He’d rescued a toddler whose mother had thanked him with an open-mouthed kiss. He’d saved a tourist taking pictures of the waves, who had refused to let go of his camera and swim. There was the elderly man who lived in Pennsylvania who Keoni had saved at Waikiki when he was a teenager. The man was still living, and he wrote Keoni a Christmas card every year, thanking him for saving his life.

  Keoni had saved dozens of people from tragic deaths in the ocean. He remembered every one of their faces. But the one that haunted him the most was the one he hadn’t saved.

  Keoni felt the agony of losing Eddie down to his bones. He could never forget Eddie’s lifeless eyes, staring up at the sky, and he could never forgive himself for letting it happen.

  Catching something out of the corner of his eye, Keoni turned toward the shore. A surfer was paddling toward them. As the surfer came closer, Keoni recognized the man’s shaggy blond hair and lean build. It was Declan.

  Keoni cleared his throat and sat up straighter, nodding at Declan, who carried an armful of colorful leis.

  “Howzit?” Keoni asked.

  “I can’t do this, brah,” Declan said.

  Keoni took one of the leis from Declan and put it around his own neck. “You have to,” he said. “For Eddie.”

  Declan shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “For what?”

  “I’m sorry for saying you should have saved him. I know you couldn’t.”

  “It’s awrite.”

  “I can’t do this.”

  Keoni clapped Declan on the shoulder. “You don’t have a choice,” he said. “So, you better win. You hear? You better kick some ass.”

  A moment later, they were joined by Tau and Bones, who’d come to the contest early with the same intention of honoring Eddie. Declan handed them each a lei, and they formed a circle, joining hands just as they’d done at Eddie’s wake.

  Keoni said a few words about Eddie, and then they placed the leis in the ocean and watched them float away.

  No one spoke. There was only the crash of the waves against the shore and the cry of birds overhead.

  Eventually, the spectators started to show up, and it was time for Declan to check in with the other contestants.

  They paddled into the waves, riding the surf back to shore. All except Keoni, who sat by himself in the lineup until the last possible moment.

  He stared out at the sparkling sea, waiting for the hard lump in his chest to soften. All his life, the ocean had been his place of refuge. He understood the ocean more than most people. He saw the patterns in the waves and felt the vibrations of the ocean through the thin polyurethane of the surfboard.

  A wave that looked like a lump in the distance suddenly exploded against the reef, creating the perfect hollow pipeline as it closed out.

  Keoni’s heart sped up. The wave was pure perfection. It looked like it had been sent down from the gods. Keoni forgot his troubles as he watched the wave coming straight for him.

  Keoni paddled hard to get ahead of the wave, but it caught him quickly and lifted him. Keoni popped up, sliding his feet under his body and crouching low over the board as the wave roared beneath him.

  The wave doubled in size, growing stronger as it hurled toward shore. Keoni dropped in on the steep wave, bent at the knees halfway down the line, and stalled his surfboard by stamping down on his back foot. He leaned sideways and scraped his hand along the face of the wave, slowing his speed. He made a big bottom turn, and with a snap under the lip of the wave, he maneuvered the long nose of the Himalaya into the most dangerous section of the wave.

  The wave formed a barrel around him, just as Keoni had intended. For a few moments, the outside world fell away. His fears, his worries, his disappointments were eclipsed by the blue-green wall of water that surrounded him. It was a religious experience, getting tubed inside a wave. Everything moved at once, yet everything stood still as the roar of the wave filled his ears.

  At that moment, inside the turquoise barrel of the wave, time stood still. Keoni was mesmerized by the brilliant light at the end of the tunnel. If he died at that very moment, then it wouldn’t be a bad way to go. He hoped Eddie had felt the same.

  Keoni pumped forward and came gliding out the end of the wave to a deafening cheer from the crowd gathered on the shore.

  He was tempted to double back and paddle in for another, but the contest was getting ready to start. He headed for shore.

  As Keoni exited the water, he was surrounded by adoring fans shouting his name and demanding to know why he wasn’t included in the contest.

  Keoni shrugged. He didn’t have an answer for them.

  He tucked his board under his arm and shook out his wet hair, conscious of everyone staring at him. He smiled and raised his fist in the shaka sign, and the crowd erupted in a cheer.

  Keoni pushed through the crowd, determined not to lose the lightness in his heart created by the wave. He made his way through the press of his admirers, bearing their attention with patience. He paused to say hello to those he knew, shook hands, and received hugs.

  Then he saw Lou, standing alone at the edge of the crowd, and his heart stopped. She was watching him with a bemused smile. Keoni felt his cheeks redden as he read her thoughts. Lou would tease him about being a celebrity, but what she didn’t understand was that these were his people. He’d known most of them for half his life. Hell, he was related to a quarter of them. Of course they wanted to say hello.

  Lou managed to look sweet and sexy at the same time in the white bikini she’d had on at Makaha. Keoni thought he was going to lose his mind just looking at her. She was the most beautiful woman
in the world.

  The sun loved Lou. Her honey-brown hair sparkled, and her skin glowed. A sprinkling of freckles dusted her shoulders and the bridge of her delicate nose. Keoni wanted to kiss each one of them.

  He swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to act as if he didn’t want to pick her up and carry her off the beach to somewhere they could be alone.

  “Howzit?” he asked.

  A dimple winked in Lou’s cheek, and her eyes sparkled with a smile. “You are amazing,” she said.

  “Thanks, eh?”

  “Everyone is talking about you,” she said, lowering her voice conspiratorially. “They want you to surf in the contest even though you’re not invited.” She reached for his hand, drawing his attention when he tried to look away. “I think they may protest.”

  Keoni stiffened and then relaxed his shoulders in a shrug. “It won’t change anything.” He glanced at the crowd and changed the subject: “Where’s Penny and Henry?” he asked.

  “They’re around here somewhere,” Lou said. “They got tired of me taking pictures. We’ve been here since sunrise.”

  “Oh?” Keoni asked.

  So she’d seen their ceremony with the leis. Keoni wondered what she’d made of it, but didn’t ask.

  Lou stared up at him. “Do you mind if I hang around with you? I’ve never been to a surf contest before. You can tell me what’s happening.”

  “K’den,” Keoni agreed. He looked down at her, wondering how he was going to keep his hands off her the whole day. “You don’t mind being stuck with me?” he asked.

  She shook her head. Their eyes met and clashed, and Lou looked down, suddenly engrossed in her camera.

  “What did you do yesterday?” Keoni asked.

  “Henry took us to the top of Diamond Head.”

  “Ah,” said Keoni. “Did he tell you the story of how it got its name?”

  “He said something about the sailors thinking that the crust might have had diamonds.”

  “Remind me to tell you the real story,” Keoni said, smiling.

  Lou smiled back.

  The horn sounded announcing the beginning of the competition, and everyone turned their attention to the surf.

  The magazine and television reporters jostled to get the best spots as the men paddled out to the lineup. A helicopter hovered over the bay like a giant fly.