Lokahi

by Edie Claire

  Personally, I thought maybe getting to meet his parents on dry land over a slice of lilikoi cheesecake would be more than adequate for a thank you, but Makani seemed to have a thing about getting everybody involved in his rescue “back on the horse,” so to speak, so that his misadventure wouldn’t color their view of Hawaii in general or surfing in particular. And who was going to argue with him?

  Since the accident had left him with dozens of stitches in his head and who knew what kind of grief to his lungs, we really didn’t think it would actually happen. But Makani had been true to his word. Bright and early on Saturday morning, Tara and Kylee’s last day in Hawaii, he had rounded up a bunch of his friends and led us all to one of his favorite “secret” surfing spots on the South Shore. The break was somewhere off the beaten track past Ewa Beach, so it wasn’t easy to see or to get to, and if it had an official name, Zane had never heard it. But it was uncrowded and the conditions this morning were, according to Makani himself, “beginner perfect.”

  Kylee screeched. I noticed that over the last week Zane had become so used to the sound that he no longer flinched. “Ahhh!!!” she bellowed, cartwheeling her arms to either side. “I’m gonna fall!!!”

  “Nah, you’re good!” the bronzed hottie surfing along on her right encouraged.

  “Stay low!” called the grinning guy to her left. He was even cuter.

  Kylee laughed, then screamed, then toppled sideways off her board and splashed awkwardly into the water. The two guys chuckled as they effortlessly turned their boards and then jumped off into the ocean beside her.

  “She is eating this up,” I murmured. “I swear she keeps falling off on purpose. And I know she could get back on that board all by herself if she wanted to!”

  “I’m pretty sure they know that, too,” Zane said with a grin.

  “Coming through!” This time both Zane and I flinched as Matt’s thunderous voice carried to us over the water. He was nowhere near us, really, but it never hurt to check. The guy was a one-man disaster zone.

  Matt stood up on his extra-wide beginner board for all of about two seconds, standing on one foot while the other foot stuck straight out sideways. He flailed his arms like he was trying to fly, then kicked the board out and flew off of it. He landed on his back like a turtle, creating a giant splash that was almost more impressive than the wave he had tried to take off on.

  Everyone cracked up laughing, and the loudest of all was Lacey. “That was the best move you’ve had all day!” she praised when he resurfaced. Lacey had been correct when she insisted that she was fine, in that she hadn’t taken any significant water into her lungs. But ever since the ordeal, she’d been more than fine. She’d been looking as happy and healthy and as radiant as I’d ever seen her. And far from being afraid to get back out on the water, for the last hour she and her egg board had been doing some serious shredding.

  Matt smiled back at her, shook the water from his hair, and gave her a big thumbs-up sign. “I aim to please!” Tonight, I reminded myself, would be their first real date. Unless, of course, they’d managed to sneak in a bonus outing since the last time I saw them. Judging from the looks they’d been giving each other all day, that seemed a distinct possibility.

  “Hey, Kali,” he yelled back at me. “You scared you can’t look worse than me? I got the bar set pretty low over here!”

  “Oh, I can look stupider than you!” I said with a laugh, unable to resist his bait.

  “Can not!” he taunted.

  “Come on, Kalia!” my grandfather Milo cajoled.

  He and my dad both smiled with encouragement. They had both been hovering expectantly for the last hour, surfing a little here and there, trying to pretend they weren’t watching me. But I knew they were. I also knew that my mother was standing on the beach by Makani holding about six different cameras.

  Three generations of Lam-Thompsons surfing together.

  No pressure or anything.

  “I’m not sure she’s feeling it today, Milo,” Zane defended mildly.

  I wanted to jump off my board and hug him. I really did love the guy. So much. But he didn’t understand why I hesitated. I wasn’t afraid of drowning anymore, not even after everything that had happened this week. I was over that. And I certainly wasn’t afraid of looking stupid. I’d felt like a freak all my life! It wasn’t even the pressure of the whole “three generations” thing. I knew that I probably could surf. At least long enough for my mom to take one picture.

  I just didn’t think I would like it.

  Zane’s expression of concern nearly melted me. He wanted this so very badly. We’d been working up to it all summer long. My eyes got moist.

  He reached out and grabbed my board and pulled it right alongside his. “Enough,” he said quietly, where only I could hear. “Tell me the truth right now. What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Honesty, Kali.

  “Nothing’s wrong, exactly. I’m not scared, if that’s what you think,” I attempted to explain. “Well… no, that’s not true. I am scared. But what I’m scared of is…”

  He waited.

  Crap, this was hard.

  “I’m afraid I’ll disappoint you,” I forced out. As expected, he opened his mouth to argue, but I interrupted him. “Not because I won’t be good at it, Zane! I know you’d be a patient teacher. But because I know myself well enough to know that there’s no way I’m going to love it like you do. I may not even like it. And I know you have this whole fantasy in your head of us surfing off into the sunset together!”

  His face registered a stunned sort of shock. “I…” he began.

  “Don’t deny it,” I said sadly. “I like to fantasize about your dancing ballet with me, too. A pas de deux. And we both know that’s never going to happen.”

  He shut his open mouth. “I’d give it a try,” he said weakly.

  I smiled at him. “That’s sweet. I may take you up on that someday. But you don’t have to do everything I do. We both like other kinds of dancing.”

  His green eyes studied me for a long moment. “I’m sorry, Kali,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean to pressure you into anything. If you like surfing, great. But if you don’t, you can always admire my moves from the beach.”

  I smirked at him. “See, you’re making a joke. But it’s not. I love admiring your moves from the beach.”

  His distressed look at last gave way to a smile. “Really?”

  “Really,” I assured.

  “Well, that’s a coincidence,” he replied, his eyes twinkling mischievously. “Because I love admiring your ballet moves in the studio. From the other side of the waiting room window, that is.”

  I chuckled. Zane’s occasional presence at the dance studio caused more of a stir than he knew, even — embarrassingly enough — among the dance moms. I was so amazingly lucky.

  “Just give it a try, honey!” my dad called out impatiently. “You have great balance!”

  “You never know how much longer I’m going to live!” Milo teased.

  “It’s not that hard, Kali, I swear,” Tara called, paddling her way back out toward me. “I never thought I could do it!”

  I huffed out a breath. I could do this. Zane had taught me the various stages of how to get up on the board, and I could do them all with no problem — as long as the board was flat on the ground and not moving. We had practiced them multiple times on multiple days, in fact, as opposed to Tara and Kylee, who had run through them on the beach with Makani and his buds for all of about five minutes.

  So seriously, how hard could it be?

  “I’m ready now,” I announced to Zane.

  He flashed me a brilliant smile. “Well, all right!” He helped me get my board oriented, and we waited for just the right wave. My dad and Milo waited off to the side, hoping to catch the same wave a little farther down. We did not have to wait all that long.

  “Okay, this one’s perfect. Get ready,” Zane coached excitedly as a nice
little baby wave rolled up behind us. “Okay, paddle now!” And with that, he gave the tail of my board a push.

  I felt the rush of the water around me and paddled hard with my arms until I could feel the wave itself moving my board. Then I grabbed the sides of the board (Zane called them “the rails”) and pulled my chest and head up into a cobra-like position.

  So far, so good!

  Quick as I could, I pulled my knees to my chest, then moved my left foot up and to the center. To the center! I wobbled just a little, but then got it right. I couldn’t believe how weird it felt… When you watched a surfer it seemed like they were driving the board, but this board was running away from me!

  Next step, swivel to side. I braced my feet as well as I could and did a swivel. It was an awkward crouching position, but my dancer’s muscles served me well.

  Now let go of the rail.

  “Are you freakin’ kidding me?” I yelled out loud to no one. It seemed impossible. There was no way to balance on this thing. It was moving! Dancers had good balance, yes, but a dance floor didn’t move!

  “Awesome! Yes! Kali, you’re doing great!” That was Zane.

  “Yay, Kali!” Tara.

  “You can do it!” Kylee.

  “That’s my girl!” The Colonel.

  “You got it!” Milo.

  “Smokin’!” Matt.

  “Woohoo!” Lacey.

  I let go of the rail. The board under my feet felt like a runaway train. It rumbled and shook beneath my feet, but to my amazement, I stayed on. Two seconds, three, four. I wasn’t standing straight up but I wasn’t doubled over either — I was kind of crouching awkwardly and I probably looked ridiculous, but who cared? The fast, deep water was moving beneath me carrying the board, and that board was carrying me, and we were all out moving together on top of the wide and wonderful Pacific.

  “Don’t look now!” I heard my grandfather call gaily.

  “Three generations!” my dad shouted.

  I probably shouldn’t have looked. But of course I did. I looked up just long enough to see the other two generations of Lam-Thompsons surfing to the near side of me. And not only did I see their proud faces beaming, I’m pretty sure I saw my mom smiling from the beach beyond.

  Then I fell butt-first into the water.

  It wasn’t bad. It was even kind of fun. But I’d been right about myself… surfing would never be my passion. Thank goodness Zane loved me for me.

  He paddled his surfboard up next to mine and then rolled into the ocean. I had already gotten back on my board, all by myself, and so was pretty surprised when he pulled me back off of it.

  “What was that for?” I sputtered, hanging onto the rail.

  “I can’t kiss you up there,” he explained, grabbing onto my board with one arm while sweeping me up against him under the water with the other. “And I’ve always wanted to kiss a surfer chick.”

  I grinned at him. “What if we cause another tsunami?”

  His green eyes sparkled. “I have the feeling that our being together may cause all kinds of scary surprises down the road.”

  “Looks that way,” I agreed. “You sure you’re okay with that? The road, I mean. Not knowing where it leads?”

  He smiled that incredibly irresistible, sexy smile of his. Then he leaned in for a kiss right in front of my whole family, all our friends, an ocean full of fish, and everybody.

  “I like long drives,” he answered.

  Author’s Note

  I hope you have enjoyed reading the story of Kali and Zane as much as I have enjoyed writing it! When I finished Lokahi, I thought that the Hawaiian Shadows world had reached its conclusion… but I was wrong. It turned out that things with some of the other characters weren’t exactly as they seemed, and that Lacey had her own story to tell! Skip ahead now to read an excerpt from the next book in the series, The Warning.

  If you’d like to be notified by email when new books are released, just sign up for my New Book Alert. To see pics of some of the real-life locations behind the scenes, check out my “Kali’s Oahu” board on Pinterest. Then be sure to look me up on Facebook and say aloha! And if you enjoy listening to books, you’ll love the audiobook version of Wraith, narrated by the award-winning Tavia Gilbert!

  You can find out more about the Hawaiian Shadows series and other books by Edie Claire on my website. I have written novels and plays in six genres, so there is much to choose from, including the USA-Today bestselling Pacific Horizons series, which is set in both Hawaii and Alaska! You can also explore my titles in romance/mystery blends, the Leigh Koslow Mystery Series, women’s fiction, and humor. I always enjoy hearing from readers via email, so if you’re so inclined, please drop me a note. Thanks so much for reading!

  Edie

  Books and Plays by Edie Claire

  www.edieclaire.com

  ROMANTIC FICTION

  Fated Loves Collection

  Long Time Coming

  Meant To Be

  Borrowed Time

  Pacific Horizons Series

  Alaskan Dawn

  Leaving Lana’i

  Maui Winds

  Hawaiian Shadows Series

  Wraith

  Empath

  Lokahi

  The Warning

  WOMEN’S FICTION

  The Mud Sisters

  LEIGH KOSLOW MYSTERIES

  Never Buried

  Never Sorry

  Never Preach Past Noon

  Never Kissed Goodnight

  Never Tease a Siamese

  Never Con a Corgi

  Never Haunt a Historian

  Never Thwart a Thespian

  Never Steal a Cockatiel

  Never Mess with Mistletoe

  Never Murder a Birder

  HUMOR

  Work, Blondes. Work!

  COMEDIC STAGE PLAYS

  Scary Drama I

  See You in Bells

  Excerpt from Hawaiian Shadows, Book Four: The Warning

  Copyright © 2017 by Edie Claire

  All rights reserved.

  Prologue

  I was so incredibly, ridiculously anxious that my hands were shaking, and the fact that I was anxious made me mad, which made the shaking worse. If Matt noticed that my hands were shaking and misinterpreted it — if he thought I was nervous just because we were technically on our first date — I might very well break down and scream. Not that he wouldn’t be right. But he would assume there was some simple, obvious explanation for my angst, and nothing about my raging, tangled, hot mess of feelings for him was in the least bit simple.

  He had parked his car on the street, and we were walking toward the side gate that led to my door. The house where my mom and I rented two small rooms was perched near the top of a sweeping suburban Honolulu mountainside, and in the dark of evening we could see lights twinkling all the way down to Pearl Harbor. I’d seen the same view countless times before, but tonight it looked different. Tonight everything seemed different.

  For three solid years now, Matt had been my brother-friend, my rock, my teddy bear. His hugs were like a drug to me. They were chocolate. But since he had always been my boyfriend’s best friend, I had tried not to notice how gorgeous he was. Tall, broad-shouldered, muscular, and athletic, with light brown hair and clear blue eyes. He played football and water polo and wanted to go to the Air Force Academy to be a fighter pilot, and if it weren’t for his warm nature and baby-faced smile, you could picture him starring in a commando movie. I used to tell myself I wasn’t attracted to the ripped, macho type.

  Yeah. Right.

  I needed to believe that, you see, because my boyfriend Ty was lanky, pretty-faced, and a born weakling. And heaven forbid I should ever consider breaking up with Ty. We’d been a couple since the end of the seventh grade and made it all the way through our junior year of high school. So it must be true love, right?

  Yes, you do detect sarcasm.

  Ty and I
broke up at the beginning of this summer. Now summer was over. Senior year would start in a matter of days.

  “You sure do have an awesome place here,” Matt praised. He stopped walking suddenly and pivoted. “I love this view.”

  I stopped also, studying him. So far, on this “real date,” Matt hadn’t acted much differently than he did any other time we were together. Dinner was burgers at a local grill, and our entertainment was watching a movie at his house with his family hanging around. We’d sat close on his couch and kind of cuddled, but that meant nothing — the guy was like a giant plush toy with all his female friends. Walking me to my door, however, meant making a decision. If he really wanted to take the plunge and be more than friends, he would kiss me goodnight.

  I had to wonder — as I hid my still-trembling hands behind my back — if he was stalling. Was he having second thoughts?

  A flash of raw fear cut me to the bone. I got the irony, considering my own angst, but his hesitation hurt me just the same. After so many years of being physically invisible to the guy, being dismissed as some sexless sister-friend, I could swear that in the last two days he’d been looking at me as if I were an actual female human person.

  Now, all he wanted to look at was a bunch of lights. Had I been deluding myself?

  When he’d asked me out tonight, he had used those words: “a date.” Of course, he’d also joked right afterward that it was time I went out with “a real man.” So maybe the whole thing had been a joke. Maybe he wasn’t attracted to me after all.

  Not that I’m knocking my own appearance. My boyfriend Ty had certainly been attracted to me — the scumbag! — and so had Austin, my rebound guy. The fact that they were attracted to other girls simultaneously says more about their lack of discernment than my appeal.

  I know my assets and my flaws. I’m naturally blond with big blue eyes, and with the right makeup I can look awesome in a headshot. I’m also short and let’s say “not skinny,” so I’ll never be gracing the cover of Cosmo. But I’m a long way from obese and I know how to carry myself, so you’re not going to find me sticking a finger down my throat, either. I’m good with me. And I’d always gotten the feeling that Matt was cool with me, too.