Page 108 of Gin and Lava

Get through the rest of the week and the wedding, Tate. Then Shauri and her husband will jet off on their honeymoon and return to Washington. Her friends will head back to the mainland, and Sam will disappear into his career and ignore me again.

Things will go back to normal.

Right?

That’s what I want, isn’t it? My job at the spa, creating jewelry for fun (not for anything serious), looking after the beach house, and sending checks back to Texas.

Simple. Easy. No problem.

And Mason? He’ll go back to his bar, and maybe we’ll fuck a few more times, and that’ll be that. He’ll have been a fun fling during Shauri’s wedding, a funny fake-boyfriend story I’ll laugh about with Esme.

Esme who also lives on the mainland, far away.

When did Hawaii become so empty?

32

NAOMI

We’ve kayaked, and gawked at feathery peacocks, and watched Polynesian warriors throw spears and climb forty-foot palm trees. The afternoon ends with a traditional luau at the cultural center, which is staged with ladies belly dancing in grass skirts and their hips undulating. After the fifth comment from Sam, musing about what obnoxious thing Mason would say if he were here, I’ve had enough.

I grab Sam by the shirt and yank him away from the group, leading us past the bamboo buildings and giant tiki statues to a palm grove away from the performances.

“What’s your problem?” I snip, releasing my Viking Princess grip on his shirt.

“My problem?” Sam bristles, brushing out the wrinkles I just put in his button up. “You’re the one who dragged me out of the audience like you’re about to enact a revenge plot.”

“Mason,” I clarify. “You can’t keep your mouth shut about him.”

“Your double standard for that fool is astounding,” Sam shoots back, lifting his hands into the air in frustration. “I make a few small comments and you’re pissed? Meanwhile, he makes cracks about your body and your sex life and you laugh like it’s not demeaning. What’syourproblem, Naomi? What happened that you’re mixed up with a guy who treats you like that?”

“What happened?” I snap. “Youhappened. We broke up. You threw my entire world out of whack.”

“So, you’re going to marry some asshole with a tiki bar?” Sam’s eyes flash with condescension. “I don’t like the idea of you even messing around with that guy, but marriage? You aren’t really serious?”

Every hair on my neck bristles like an animal reacting to a threat. Of course, I’m not serious.It’s Mason. But that truth feels like a punch in the gut, and I hate that Sam sees how flimsy I am. How I’m a fraud. How the Viking Princess is just a game; a fake person I wish I could be.

What was I thinking? Was I really delusional enough to think I could hide any of that from Sam?

I harden my frown. “I need you to lay off,” I say through gritted teeth. “Me and Mason are our own business.”

“He makes all your private business public,” Sam replies.

“He’s just joking,” I defend.

“Is he, though?” Sam shakes his head. “Or is he gloating? You deserve better, Naomi. You always have.”

I deserve better?That’s a slap in the face.

I didn’t deserve Sam. He made it clear I wasn’t good enough for him.

“You don’t get to have an opinion about what I des—” I bite back the emotion that pricks my throat, rising in a fist that chokes off my words. When did I become my mother? When did I become the woman who felt she deserved so little, that her whole life was marred by desperation?

I look into the green foliage at the thick broad leaves that jut out of the ground like flat shields. Emerald palms that could swallow us with their wildness as if we all forgot Hawaii is a jungle and not just a tourist attraction. I want to rage right now. And I want to run away. I want to run into those plates of green and hide this woman—this weak person—I’ve been.

But all my shortcomings still don’t give Sam the right to insult Mason. Mason may not be refined, but he has a good heart. And Sam isn’tbetterthan Mason. Being educated and rich and good looking doesn’t make Sam a more valuable human being. It makes him a snob.

I cough to loosen the thickness in my throat.

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