Page 80 of Try Easy

Molaka’i

Keoni

The living room of the Keaukalanis’house was packed with people, but hardly anyone was speaking to each other. Everyone was gathered around the kitchen table, drinking strong coffee and staring hopefully at the phone.

Bones had been missing for over six hours. The sky was growing dark, and they had only a few more minutes of search time before they had to give up.

Keoni finished the song and started playing Otis Redding’s hit again. Thoughts of the last time he’d played the song on the beach with Lou filled his head. He remembered the way she had looked at him across the fire.

Keoni’s hands stilled on the guitar, and he sighed heavily.

Lou had done nothing but give him mixed signals the entire time she’d been in Hawaii. She’d reeled him in with a glance or a casual touch, and then she’d pushed him away. He’d resisted her, telling himself she was off-limits because she was a tourist. Keoni should have followed his instincts and stayed the hell away from her. His predictions had come true.

He’d fallen for Lou, and now she was gone.

Keoni was left picking up the pieces, just like when Claudia had left six years ago. Keoni had only been nineteen years old when he’d met Claudia Jones and fallen in love with her. He’d always blamed his stupidity on youth, but he was a man now and had no one to blame but himself.

“Play us another.”

Keoni pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked up at the woman standing in front of him. Only a few months ago, Ryla had been a girl. It seemed she had blossomed into a beautiful woman overnight. She wore a colorful strapless dressed tied in a knot between her breasts that hung loosely to her calves. She had flowers woven into her waist-length dark hair. She must have just come from her gig at the airport—she was still wearing her stage makeup.

Keoni adjusted the strings on his guitar and began playing a traditional Hawaiian folk song. Ryla smiled as she recognized the tune, but her eyes were haunted with worry. She sat down on the floor at Keoni’s feet and began to sing.

The crowded room went silent as Ryla’s enchanting voice filled the air. She sang the lyrics in the old tongue, and her voice was so filled with emotion and beauty that Keoni felt his eyes fill with tears.

As Keoni strummed the last note on his guitar, his eyes met Ryla’s and they smiled at each other. They had always made a good team. Ryla’s sweet soprano voice blended effortlessly with Keoni’s deep baritone.

“Another?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

Keoni nodded and adjusted the strings for another song. Playing guitar and singing usually took his mind off his troubles. Tonight it was proving hard to forget about Bones and Lou. He had to force himself to focus on the chords.

If only he hadn’t fallen asleep, Keoni thought. If he’d been on the dive, Bones would have never gone missing.

Keoni stopped playing in the middle of the song and pinched the bridge of his nose to clear his thoughts. Lou had told him he was egotistical thinking that he could save everyone. She’d said he was no more responsible for Eddie’s death than he was for Kimo’s safety in Vietnam. Keoni wished he could believe it. He wished Lou was here now to tell him again, to hold him and give him her strength.

He felt Ryla’s hand on his arm, and he opened his eyes to look at her.

“Don’t stop,” she said, squeezing his arm. “You’re making everyone feel better with your music.”

Keoni shook his head, looking deeply into Ryla’s brown eyes. She had a rare beauty that matched her exquisite voice. With her full mouth and dark eyes, Ryla looked exactly like the drawings of the Hawaiian goddess Pele.

Why couldn’t Keoni have fallen in love with Ryla instead of Lou? It would have been so much simpler. Ryla was equally as beautiful as Lou, maybe even more so. Ryla was kind and loyal. She loved her family as much as Keoni loved his. And she was Hawaiian. She would never leave the islands and abandon her home. Keoni had known Ryla since they were kids, and even though he was older than her, it wasn’t by that much. They were both adults. It could have worked.

Unfortunately, Keoni loved a woman who had refused to give him more than one night of herself. But what did love matter anyway?

Keoni glanced up at the clock on the kitchen wall. Time moved slowly as they waited. Hopefully, it was slow enough to allow Bones to resurface. Once darkness fell, his chances of being rescued were slim to none.

The shrill noise of the phone ringing pierced the tension in the room. Auntie K snatched the phone off the wall before it could ring twice. She held the phone to her ear, and the tears started flowing before she even said hello.

Keoni’s uncle pried the phone from his wife’s hand. “Hello?” he asked, his gruff voice crackling.

The entire room went still. Except for Auntie K’s crying, there wasn’t a sound.

“Oh, thank god, son!”

Bones was okay. Everyone began talking at once.

“Keoni,” his uncle said, waving him over to the phone. “Bones wants you.”

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