Page 30 of Hula Girl

“Uh, yeah. For sure,” Pika says.

“You can call me Hiro,” Hiroto says, extending his hand. He’s of Japanese descent, tall and obscenely handsome. He’s never had trouble with women, though he has no interest in settling down.

Ava smiles and takes his hand before sitting to my right. When I slide the beer over to her, my fingers brush against hers. I can almost hear the crackle of electricity that passes between us in that moment.

“No tequila tonight?” she asks with a smirk. “Probably for the best.”

I can’t help but flash back to last night when I licked the spilled tequila from her inner thigh. Shifting, I marvel at how easily she can turn me on.

“Ah, so this isn’t your first date, then?” Hiro inquires.

I meet Ava’s eyes, unsure what I should tell these guys about the no strings thing we’ve got going.

“Date,” she offers, “is probably too formal a word. We just met yesterday. And we’re hanging out a bit before I go back to LA.”

Pika clutches at his heart dramatically. “Oh, that’s tragic.”

“What is?” Ava asks with a laugh.

“You’re just here on vacation?”

“I am. I leave the day after tomorrow.”

“And then what? A long-distance romance?” Hiro asks.

I punch him in the arm. Hard.

“Fuck, man,” he whines and rubs his bicep.

I should feel bad for that. But I’d rather cut him off with a painful punch than let Ava feel like this was some sort of setup, as if I planned for my friends to be here to play up the romance angle between us.

Ava takes a long pull on her beer and I see her eyes bouncing from me to Hiro and then to Pika. When her eyes circle back to me, she quirks an eyebrow.

I shrug and shake my head a little, trying to dismiss the incident and any suspicion it might have raised.

“So, what do you do over there in LA, Ava?” Hiro asks, helpfully changing the topic.

“Um,” she starts, clearly uncomfortable.

“We’re not talking about all that real world stuff, guys,” I say quickly. “Ava’s here for a true vacation from everything.”

“That go both ways?” Pika asks.

“What?” I ask.

“Does she know about you? And your traitorous history of—”

“Fuck off,” I say slowly, emphatically.

Pika had been grinning with his intention of telling her all about how I used to be a local but became a traitor by leaving. Now his smile slowly fades with his confusion over me shutting him down.

Ava leans forward and pats his hand. “Yes, it goes both ways. No real world stuff from either of us. Just the here and now.”

He gets momentarily lost in her gaze before looking down at her hand on his. We all watch as she slowly moves it away from him. I realize that there really is something magnetic about her. Something that not just I feel. She’s beautiful but there’s more to her. You just want to be near her.

“Oh, shit!” Hiro says and drops his head into his hands with elbows on the table.

“Hannah?” Pika and I both ask, craning our necks to see around the bar.

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