Page 69 of Try Easy

“A long time ago,” Keoni began.

“Oh, boy,” she muttered.

Lou started running her hand over Keoni’s abdomen again, causing him to lose focus.

Keoni pulled her tighter against his chest. “Try listen,” he said. “A long time ago, the goddess Pele came down to Maui for a swim in her favorite pond. She happened to see a warrior chief training for battle at the top of a waterfall, and she fell in love with him.” Keoni swallowed hard as Lou’s hand dipped lower under the quilt. He cleared his throat and said, “He felt the same about her, and they spent a few precious days together. When Pele had to go home, the warrior chief wanted to ask her to stay, but she was a goddess, and he was only a man. He knew he couldn’t.”

Lou’s hand stilled, and she lifted her face to look at him. “Did he let her go?” Lou asked in a quiet voice. Tears sparkled in her eyes.

Keoni cupped her cheek and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “He had to. But he told her that he would wait for her if she wanted to come back.”

“And then what happened?” Lou wanted to know.

“She came back.”

They fell into a deep silence. Lou rested her hand on the flat of Keoni’s belly, and he worked his fingers through the tangles in her damp hair. Her breathing became so regular that Keoni thought she might have fallen asleep.

“Keoni?”

“Yeah?”

“That story doesn’t explain how you’re descended from the gods.”

“Sure it does.” Keoni kissed the top of her head, smelling his shampoo in her hair. “The warrior chief was my great-great-great-great-grandfather.”

Lou laughed and shook her head against his chest. Keoni pulled her tighter against him, and a few minutes later she drifted off to sleep in his arms.

Keoni was usedto staying up all night, working the late shift at the cannery. He held Lou as she slept, savoring the feel of her warm body pressed against his. Keoni didn’t think he would fall asleep with Lou in his arms, but the last week finally caught up with him, and he drifted off to sleep.

The sun on his face woke him with a start. Lou was curled against his side, and her body was so warm and soft that he closed his eyes again, drifting off briefly before he was awakened by a feeling of cold dread in his belly.

Keoni turned toward Lou, intent on waking her slowly when he realized the cause for the sinking feeling in his gut. He sat bolt upright and looked at the clock on the nightstand.

It was 6:30. He’d overslept. He should have been at Henry’s a half hour ago. Keoni jumped out of bed and ran naked down the hall. In the kitchen, he yanked the phone off the wall and dialed Henry’s number.

Leaning his head against the wall, Keoni waited for an answer. “Come on. Come on,” he begged.

The phone rang, but no one answered. Keoni slammed the phone down, nearly knocking it off the wall.

“What’s wrong?” Lou asked. She was standing in the hallway, wrapped in the quilt. Her voice sounded sleepy, but her eyes were alert. “Is everything okay?”

Keoni took one look at her and felt his heart stop. Lou was beautiful in the morning, with her face naked of any makeup and her hair in a mess of waves that his hands had created. The quilt slid off one shoulder, revealing her bare skin.

“Nothing to worry about, nani,” Keoni said. “I’m late is all. I messed up.” He walked down the hall and stopped in front of her. He kissed her swollen lips and pulled the quilt tighter around her shoulders. “Can you get dressed real quick?”

Lou nodded, impressed by the quiet urgency of his tone. They gathered their clothes from the floor of his bedroom, dressed in a hurry, and were in his car headed south in less than ten minutes.

Keoni drove straight to the marina, hoping to catch Bones and Henry there. He sped through the country roads toward Honolulu, once again pushing the VW Bug to its maximum speed. When he peeled to a stop next to Bones’s truck at the marina, it was 7:30.

They’d made it in record time, but it was still too late.

Keoni stood at the empty space on the dock, balling his hands into fists.

Clyde Ho, a man Keoni had known since junior high school, was washing down a boat in the next slip. “Bones gave me a message to tell you,” he said, shutting off the water and straightening. His eyes darted to Lou as she came to stand beside Keoni on the dock. “But I shouldn’t say it with a lady present.”

“Fuck,” muttered Keoni.

Clyde smirked. “That’s pretty much what he said.”

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