Page 95 of Try Easy

Keoni’s fingers curled around hers. “Were you expecting someone else?” he asked, his brows drawing together.

Lou bit her lip and nodded. She couldn’t lie to him. “Yes.”

Keoni swallowed hard. Blinking slowly, he nodded. “I get that,” he said. “But I was hoping that maybe you were as miserable as me.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “I didn’t mean…”

Lou reached up and took his hand, coaxing it away from his face. “I knew what you meant,” she said. “I’ve been completely miserable.” The thought of her pictures on the wall at Pacific Camera came to mind, and she beamed. “Except the most wonderful thing happened today!”

“What?”

“I sold two pictures,” she said.

Keoni’s eyebrows raised and he pulled her to his chest in a hug. “Congratulation, nani.”

Lou sank against Keoni’s chest and wrapped her arms around him. Now that she was in his arms, it was going to take a lot to convince her to let go.

Keoni was what she wanted. Keoni was what she needed.

“What are you doing here?” she asked against his chest.

Keoni pulled back and looked down at her. “I never got to finish my story about Diamond Head,” he said.

Lou laughed. “You came out here to tell me a story?”

“Yeah,” he said. “You wanna hear it?”

Lou looked up at Keoni. The sound of his voice was just as enchanting as she remembered. “I want to hear everything you have to say,” she said.

Keoni’s eyes flashed, and he pulled her closer. “Lou,” he said, his voice tormented. “Can we get out of here?”

Lou glanced around and saw that everyone in the lobby was staring at them. They were necking in the middle of the bank. She cleared her throat and tried to think. She’d already taken her lunch break, so she really couldn’t leave again.

She took a step back. “I’ll be right back,” she said.

Lou went to the employee closet in the back and retrieved her coat. She told her boss she was feeling sick and needed the rest of the day off. When he tried to question her, Lou eluded to female problems due to that time of the month and ducked out of his office before he could respond.

She walked back into the lobby and grabbed Keoni by the hand. “Let’s go,” she told him. “I’m leaving early.”

Keoni picked up his guitar and slung a duffel bag over his shoulder, then he was right behind her.

They stepped outside into the cold. Keoni shivered in his lightweight jacket. It was suited for cool breezes in the tropics, not February in Seattle.

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