Page 26 of Try Easy

They started down the hill back to the valley, and Lou stayed a few paces behind Keoni. She stalled, taking more pictures than necessary to give her time to clear her head.

There were certainly plenty of opportunities to fill rolls of film. Everything was lush and green. Some of the trees reached for the sky, but others broke off in different directions, stretching their gnarled and twisted roots back toward the ground.

Tombstones carved from granite and limestone marched up the hills. Green mountain peaks rose behind the grave sites and disappeared into a thin layer of fog.

Lou looked up from her camera and saw Keoni’s back. His shirt was threadbare, so thin that she could see the flex of his muscles underneath the fabric.

Keoni turned and waited for Lou, catching her stare. She glanced down at her camera again, taking comfort in the cold metal resting against her chest. It wasn’t wrong to appreciate beauty, she thought to herself, justifying her attraction to Keoni. She enjoyed beauty all the time. It was called art. And Keoni was nothing if not a work of art.

The door to the house opened and the sound of laughter and conversation drifted over the gravel drive.

Bones stood at the door, looking out at them. “You coming, or wot?” he asked.

“Yeah. In a minute,” Keoni said.

“I’ll put my camera away,” she said, walking toward the station wagon.

It was time for her to join the rest of the world. Lou remembered Paul’s advice to make sure she looked around some while she was in Hawaii, and she cringed. She knew he didn’t mean looking at Keoni.

Lou tucked her camera back in her bag and leaned through the open window of the station wagon to put it on the back seat. When she straightened, she noticed the shiny surfboards on top of the car. She couldn’t imagine trying to balance on one of those over the giant waves she’d seen in the movie. The red board was longer than the blue one—it had to be ten feet long. Lou reached up to touch it. Her fingers barely grazed the slick surface of the board when Keoni came up beside her and grabbed her hand. Lou felt the strong vise of his long fingers around her palm and also the spark of frisson that accompanied his touch.

“Don’t touch my board,” he said in a low voice.

Lou’s eyes snapped from the red surfboard to Keoni’s face. She thought he might be joking, but when she saw his eyes, she knew he was serious. Gazing up at Keoni’s chiseled face, Lou felt the stirrings of anger. A steely glint in his eyes warned Lou to back down, but she refused.

“Why not?” she asked.

“It’s bad luck.”

Lou laughed. Surely, he was kidding, now. Keoni took a step closer, erasing the distance between them. Lou stopped laughing. He was serious. She’d never met someone so hard to read. She looked into his eyes, glancing from his perfect left eye to the bruised and bloodied right eye. Then she looked down at his mouth. His lower lip was swollen and split, and Lou had the irrational urge to heal him with a kiss. She wanted to stretch up on her toes and kiss the cut on Keoni’s mouth, to taste him.

She pictured Keoni’s mouth sliding over hers, and a kaleidoscope of butterflies took flight in her belly. Her heart began to beat double-time.

At home, Lou let Paul set the pace. But she wasn’t at home. This wasn’t the bustling, damp city of Seattle. This was Hawaii. Languid and warm, this place was rugged and raw. The rules were different.

And so was Lou.

She raised up on her toes. She saw the quick flash of desire in Keoni’s eyes before she brushed her lips over his. It was a soft kiss. She only wanted a brief taste of him. She only wanted to satisfy her curiosity. Lou knew it was wrong of her, but she couldn’t stop herself. She felt the spark that exploded between them, and she sighed as she dropped down to her heels.

Keoni’s hand slid up Lou’s arm, and he pulled her against his chest. He’d moved so quickly that Lou hadn’t seen it coming. The air escaped her lungs as his mouth closed over hers. His kiss wasn’t light. It was firm and demanding. Lou had started the kiss, and now Keoni was finishing it.

Keoni’s hand cupped the back of her neck. His hand was rough and calloused and unlike any man’s hand that had ever touched Lou. She shivered at the thought of feeling his big hands exploring every inch of her skin.

Lou was pinned between the car door and Keoni’s body. The hard length of his thighs pressed into her. Opening her mouth, she succumbed to the temptation to taste him, and touched her tongue to the split on his lip. Lou felt the evidence of Keoni’s desire bulge against her hip before he shifted away and released her. Keoni pressed his knuckles against his lip and glared down at her.

Lou blinked up at him, trying to clear the fog from her brain. That kiss had stolen her breath, weakened her knees, and opened her eyes. She felt like she’d been kissing boys her whole life, and she had just been kissed by a man for the first time.

“What was that?” Keoni asked.

Reality came crashing back, and Lou realized what she’d done. She’d kissed another man. Her face turned pale as she thought of how Paul would feel if he knew.

“I dunno wot movies you seen,” Keoni said. “But I ain’t one Beach Boy here to show you a good time, you hear?”

“What?” Lou’s cheeks darkened with embarrassment. “I don’t think that,” she said.

“I’m not some vacation fling.”

“I…” Lou clamped her mouth shut, embarrassment turning to outrage. “I…” she sputtered, but no words came to mind. She pushed Keoni in the chest, feeling gratified at his painful grunt. “You’re trapping me,” she said.

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