Chapter 2
CHAPTER
TWO
KOA
That evening, Koa frowned down into the soda he’d ordered an hour before. The ice had long melted, leaving a layer of water at the top of the dark liquid. His dinner of Kalua pig and cabbage was long gone, and all that remained was his lackluster drink, making him all the moodier for it.
“Why you so grumpy?” Shanel, Koa’s long-time friend and the owner of Puka’s Brewery asked.
Puka’s had always been a neighborhood hangout but had fallen into major disrepair before Shanel had taken over ten years ago.
Shanel had put in some major elbow grease along with a sprinkle of her Shanel magic, and now it was once again the favorite spot of half the island.
A laid-back bar/restaurant, it was a place people felt equally comfortable coming to for a pau hana drink or a casual family meal.
“He rescued some girl who was the doppelganger of Talia at his lifeguarding job today,” Preston, Koa’s best friend and fellow firefighter, answered for him.
Koa glared at his friend who ignored him in return.
Shanel shook her head. “I wish I had never introduced you to that pilau piece of….”
Koa’s eyes shot up, asking Shanel to refrain from finishing her thought.
Yes, Talia had ripped his heart out when she left him at the altar.
And then stomped on it when she’d explained afterward how he’d never be good enough for her and that she’d been delusional when she thought his looks could make up for what he lacked in every other department.
But he still didn’t want others speaking badly about her in front of him.
Even if he’d thought many of those same things.
“So this other girl looks like Talia? Who is she?” Shanel pressed.
Koa knew he should have gone home instead of joining Preston when he’d asked him to come out that evening.
Koa had to be back at the beach for his next lifeguard shift early the next morning.
He could have used lack of sleep as an excuse.
But it felt like all Koa was doing these days was making excuses to keep from socializing.
If someone needed their deck cleaned or their engine repaired, Koa was your man, but to just sit here in front of a soda and talk?
That was his very definition of hell at the moment.
“Just some tourist,” Koa answered so Preston wouldn’t.
“Some gorgeous tourist if she looks like Talia,” Shanel responded as she wiped down the bar in front of the open seat next to Koa.
“Don’t you have other customers to bother?” Koa muttered.
“Wow, you’re extra grumpy today,” Shanel said as she put the rag she’d used to wipe the counter next to the sink.
“But one, you’re not a customer since you know I won’t let you pay for your meal or soda, and two, no.
It’s Friday at five. Pi’i is taking care of the restaurant side so it’s just you and these two dummies who don’t deserve any attention.
” Shanel pointed to Timmy and Lolo, regulars who loved to argue with Shanel.
“So tell me about this tourist,” Shanel pressed.
Koa grunted, knowing Shanel wasn’t going to let it go.
They’d been friends since the first grade at Makalani Elementary, when Shanel had noticed Koa didn’t have lunch for the second day in a row.
Koa’s mom had “forgotten” again as she often did thanks to her addictions.
Shanel hadn’t said anything, just sat next to Koa and slid her brown paper bag closer to him.
The two had shared her meal in silence and that was it.
They were friends. From then on when Koa’s mom forgot his lunch, Shanel shared hers.
Her mom often packed two of every item just for Koa.
And when Trevor Tavares had snapped Shanel’s bra strap in seventh grade, Koa had threatened to lick him.
Shanel was the sister Koa had never had, and sometimes having a sister was the best. But in moments like this one, not so much.
“She was just a dumb tourist who ignored all of the giant signs along the beach with the big bright yellow flags and jumped into the water thinking she was above the rules.” Koa knew that last part wasn’t fair.
He didn’t know if the tourist thought she was above the rules, but it was what Talia would have thought, and if the tourist looked like Talia, why wouldn’t she act like her too?
Not to mention being foolish enough to go into the water under such dangerous circumstances.
“But it wasn’t a red flag,” Shanel pointed out, sticking up for this girl she’d never met.
“She shouldn’t have been swimming on a green-flag day,” Koa said causing Timmy and Lolo to laugh.
Koa began to feel a little better and a little bolder after making people laugh.
He really had been a terrible companion to his friends, and his bad mood had been largely to do with the tourist, so the least he could do was create some kind of enjoyment for those around him now—even if the tourist bore the brunt of his story. What she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.
“So she got pretty far out?” Shanel asked.
“She stood on the shore for a while, but then the next thing I knew, she was out even beyond the surfers,” Koa explained.
“Stupid, ah,” Timmy responded.
“She must have been smoking pakalolo,” Lolo said, laughing.
The part of the story Koa would never tell was that he spent too much of that time while she was standing on the shore checking the gorgeous woman out.
Of course he’d kept his eyes mostly on the ocean—his job was to protect—but the tourist had been mesmerizing.
He’d hated the ways his eyes kept going back to her.
Her own eyes were so intent on the horizon that she didn’t notice that every guy on the beach and in the water was watching her.
Talia would have not only noticed, she would have played up the swaying of her hips, used her charming blue eyes to draw every man in and never let him go.
“At first, I thought she wasn’t going to go out.
There was a group of intermediate school boys who were causing trouble so I kept my eye on them.
” Koa continued when he realized he’d been in his thoughts for too long.
“But then I looked back at her and she was gone. By the time I found her, I could tell she was trying to swim back to shore. She was going completely against the current, and I knew she was in trouble.”
“It’s her fault, though, yeah? For being so stupid,” Lolo said.
“You should have let her drown,” Timmy added.
That was a bit harsh, but then Koa recalled the time Talia had been “drowning.” It had all been an act to get his attention.
Frustration at his ex-fiancé led him into the next part of his story.
“It took me forever to get out to her because the dumb tourist kept changing direction.” Koa knew he hadn’t had to add the word dumb to his description but the tourist had been dumb.
She should have paid attention. She should have known to stay out of the water.
At the very least, she should have known not to swim against the current.
That was one of the first rules of water safety.
“It’s tourists like her, who ignore every sign, think they don’t need to know ocean safety, and then expect us to make it right for them that make our job so hard,” Koa concluded.
Shanel pursed her lips before pointing out, “But without tourists like her you wouldn’t have a job.”
Koa shook his head. “There’s plenty for me to do without having to save the people who are too stupid to save themselves.”
“That’s right!” Timmy cheered.
Shanel shrugged, her way of reminding Koa that everyone has their own story. She left them to go to the tables near the bar.
If there was anyone who tried to keep Koa on the straight and narrow, it was Shanel.
She hadn’t let him wallow in his grief after Talia, and she wouldn’t let him grow bitter now.
Though she was allowed to be plenty bitter toward the woman who’d broken Koa’s heart.
She’d explained the reasons why she was allowed to hate Talia and Koa wasn’t, but Koa couldn’t remember them, nor did he think they made sense.
But to Shanel they did, so those were the rules they lived by.
And though Koa tried not to be too bitter, she and he both knew he’d been too hard on the tourist in his story.
And they both also knew why he’d been so hard on her.
Whether Shanel liked it or not, Talia had changed him.
Made him wary of all women, especially stunning women.
And most especially a woman who looked just like Talia.
“Remind me never to fall in love,” Preston said with a chuckle as he downed the last of his own soda.
A lot of the guys at the firehouse no longer drank in front of Koa after finding out his family history with prescription drugs and alcohol. Preston, being his best friend, no longer drank at all. Shanel, too, hardly touched the stuff, even though she ran a bar.
Despite his grumpiness, Koa knew he had the greatest people he could ask for around him.
Footsteps sounded behind him and he turned to see Shanel making a beeline right to him, her expression full of anxiety.
“She’s here,” Shanel whispered urgently as she lifted her gaze to a booth behind Koa.
The way the booths were arranged, their high backs were to the bar, giving those who wanted to dine in the restaurant part of Puka’s some privacy and distance from those who were drinking at the bar.
But from experience, Koa knew that those high backs did little to keep the noise on one side or the other.
Especially during a quiet time in the bar like right then.
“Who’s here?” Timmy asked turning around to look behind him.
“Shh,” Shanel said before smacking his arm and then turned back to Koa, “and I think she heard everything.”
Koa shook his head to clear it. Shanel wasn’t making sense. Who was there? His heart dropped. Talia?