Page 97 of Try Easy

His fingers squeezed hers encouragingly.

“I’m sorry,” she said, not knowing where else to start, or how to erase his pain. “I shouldn’t have left the way I did. Not when Bones was missing. I should have waited.” Keoni’s thumb paused, and Lou continued. “Can you forgive me for being so cruel?”

Keoni brought Lou’s hand to his mouth, and he kissed the inside of her wrist. “I forgive you, nani.”

Lou cupped his cheek in her hand, her fingers sliding over the silk of his freshly shaved skin. He was so soft and so rough at the same time. His hands were calloused, but his cheek was smooth. Keoni looked years younger without the beard, and Lou realized she didn’t know how old he was. Then she realized it didn’t matter. Keoni could be any age, and she wouldn’t love him any less.

Keoni drew her hand back down, and his eyes turned serious again. “I have been a wreck while you were gone,” he said.

“You have?”

“I was pretty much drunk for two weeks straight. And I did some stuff I’m not proud of.”

“What stuff?”

Keoni looked away, and Lou watched his profile as he decided how to answer. Her heart began to pound in her ears as she watched the emotions cross over Keoni’s face. What had he done? she wondered. What was so bad that he looked so tortured?

Keoni turned to look at her again, and Lou saw the depth of sorrow in his eyes. “I was with another woman,” he said.

Lou flinched at the words. Then she accepted them, knowing that Keoni had the right to do whatever he wanted and with whomever he chose. She’d left him.

She’d gone to be with another man. Still, Lou didn’t like the idea of Keoni with another woman. The jealousy she felt only confirmed that her feelings for him were stronger than ever.

“I’m sorry,” Keoni said.

Lou looked into Keoni’s soft brown eyes under the dark line of his black eyebrows. There was so much raw honesty in his apology that Lou knew she would forgive him anything he asked.

“I forgive you, too,” she said.

Keoni’s eyebrow arched and he looked at her like he wasn’t hearing her. “You do?”

“Yes.”

Keoni smiled his lopsided grin. “If it makes you feel any better, I thought of you the whole time.”

Lou cringed, not wanting to picture the details of Keoni with another woman. “It doesn’t,” she said.

“It made me realize I don’t want to be with anyone else. I know this is crazy. I know we just met. But will you give me one chance?”

She would probably give him a thousand chances, but she agreed to one. “Yes,” she said.

“You and Paul?” he asked.

Lou shook her head. “It’s over.”

Keoni sighed, relieved. “You didn’t? With him?”

Lou shook her head. “I couldn’t think of anyone but you.”

Keoni smiled and turned toward her. “I’m glad,” he said, putting his hand on her thigh.

Lou’s thigh burned with the heat of Keoni’s hand. She looked down at his big hand spread over her leg, and her heart started to pound so loudly that she swore Keoni could hear it.

The image of Keoni standing in the outdoor shower under the moonlight, completely naked and so damn majestic flashed through her mind. Her heart beat so fast that she felt like she was going to pass out.

Keoni had laid himself bare for her. He’d been honest with her when there had been no reason for him to say anything.

She felt the need to do the same.

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