Page 88 of Try Easy

“Moment of weakness?” Lou asked indignantly.

Paul nodded. “Let me guess? You got caught up in the romance of Hawaii? Maybe you even fell in love with it. You took some of your little pictures, and you got confused.”

“My little pictures?” Lou asked.

In the back of her mind, a warning bell went off. Could Paul be right? Was it the island that had enchanted her and not the man? Lou had a hard time separating the two. When she thought of Hawaii, she thought of Keoni.

Paul took a drag on the cigarette, flicked the ashes in the tray, and leaned back to blow smoke into the hazy air. His eyes never left hers.

“It’s going to be okay. I forgive you.”

The tears she had been trying to hold back threatened to spill. Lou straightened her back, refusing to cry.

“Who is this guy?” Paul asked, seeming only mildly curious, as if the man was an afterthought.

Lou shook her head, not wanting to talk about the details. “He’s a surfer.”

Paul pinched his cigarette between his lips, and his eyebrows shot up. “A surfer? That’s not a job.”

“Well, no, it’s not his job,” Lou said.

“Do you need to have a college degree to be a surfer?” Paul asked, laughing as he exhaled a cloud of smoke. “Or even graduate from high school? This guy sounds like a loser.”

“He isn’t a loser. He saved me from drowning. The ocean is very dangerous.”

Paul leaned back in his chair, studying Lou. “So, he rescued you. You were scared and confused. I get it now. I really do, babe. But I’m not going to let a vacation romance ruin all our plans.”

The words were exactly what she should have been grateful to hear. But they didn’t make Lou feel happy—instead, she felt incredibly sad. Then a terrible thought occurred to her.

“Have you had a ‘moment of weakness,’ Paul?” she asked.

Paul looked Lou in the eye. His eyes were his best feature. They were brilliant blue, contrasting nicely with his translucent skin. Paul’s eyes were direct and piercing. They pinned Lou to her seat.

“Everything will be fine once we’re married,” he said, squeezing her fingers.

“Do you think so?” she asked.

“Of course. Now drink your beer, if that’s really what you want, and let’s forget all about this.”

“Are you sure?” Lou asked, picking up her beer.

She felt a strange mix of relief, embarrassment, and confusion. She hadn’t expected the conversation to be so clean and precise. In fact, she hadn’t even planned to tell him.

“I’m sure,” he said.

The problem was every thought Lou had led straight back to one place—Hawaii, and the man that embodied the aloha of the islands. The thought of forgetting Keoni was unbearable. The thought brought tears to her eyes. The heavy cloud of smoke in the restaurant suddenly seemed too thick to breathe.

“I need some air,” she said, pushing back from the table.

Lou made it all the way to the sidewalk before Paul caught up with her. He’d been so quiet that she hadn’t heard him coming. He took her elbow and stopped her, pulling her back under the awning as a light rain started.

“Lou, wait a second. Don’t just walk out like that.”

His grip on her elbow was firm, but not painful. She could have easily shaken him off.

“I can’t go back to the way things were,” she said. “I don’t think I want to.”

Lou looked up at Paul, waiting for his reaction. She’d never seen Paul angry. She’d never seen him anything other than calm and reasonable. He was too smart to let his emotions take control.

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