Chapter 2
KAWEHI
She shook her head as she read the note, trying not to groan out loud.
“It looks like your Uncle thought I was hungry. Really hungry.”
“He took Mister Compos home so he didn’t have to drive and he left a bowl for me.”
“I guess he didn’t want me to eat alone.” There was a lighter tone to his voice and she found that she liked it.
A lot.
“Or maybe he didn’t want me to stare at you while you ate.” She sighed at herself for possibly sticking her foot in her mouth. “I mean-”
“Come on and sit down with me.” He picked up his bowl and utensils and moved to one of the tables on the carpet. “I promise that I won’t drop anything on the floor.”
Oh. Okay.
She picked up her bowl and the napkin that her uncle had left for her.
She walked around to the opposite side of the table and set it down. “Don’t worry about the floor. I can vacuum it up before I leave.”
He looked up and gave her a smile that she thought might be a little… unhappy.
“If you think I’m going to walk out of here and leave you alone… stop. That’s not going to happen.”
Okay. She understood it now. He was being a gentleman.
That, she got.
Pulling out her chair she sat down and picked up her chopsticks.
He looked up at her and saw the chopsticks in her hand. “Is it easier with those?” He nodded at the chopsticks.
“It’s how I eat it.” She looked at his fork. “Do you want some chopsticks?”
“That would be great.”
She got back up and went to the counter. Leaning over it, she reached under the lip of the countertop and pulled out a set of chopsticks still wrapped with paper. When she turned back, he was smiling at her.
“Thanks,” he took the chopsticks and quickly stripped off the paper, folding the wrapper into a little knot before setting it down on the table. “This is perfect. Thanks.”
She sat down in her seat and looked at the little paper knot on the table. “Okay. I’ve never seen that before.”
He chuckled and laid his chopsticks on it. “Keeps me from using my napkin to put the chopsticks down.”
She nodded at the idea. “Something tells me I should have given you chopsticks instead of a fork and a knife.”
He shrugged. “Maybe, but you didn’t know me then.”
“And I know you now?”
“Almost.” He reached out his hand and she reached across the table to shake his hand. “I’m Domenico Pallas.”
She blinked a few times as she let go of his hand. “Domenico Pallas. That’s a… a lot of name.”
“Really?” He picked up his chopsticks again. “I’ve heard some long names here in Hawaii.”
She blushed. “True. Very true. You know I’m Kawehi.”
“I do.”
She might not have blushed if his voice didn’t sound so delicious saying those words. They might not be the best memory of her life, but that didn’t stop her from thinking Domenico’s voice sounded like heaven saying them.
Realizing that she’d fallen silent, she stumbled over her next words. “My name is Kawehi Phillips. I mean…” she huffed at her own faulty memory. “Kawehi Carter.”
He paused with a bite halfway to his mouth. “Carter?”
She nodded and decided to just tell him. No sense in trying to pretend that her life wasn’t as ridiculous as it was. “Kawehi Phillips is… was my maiden name. God, I hate that word. ‘Maiden.’ I married a few years ago. So I’m Kawehi Carter.”
He set his chopsticks down again, this time across the lip of his bowl. “You don’t sound all that happy about it.”
She saw his quick furtive look at her left hand.
“We’re… separated?”
“You sound like you’re not sure.”
“Well, I’ve been trying to divorce him for more than two years. He hasn’t been helping.”
“That sounds like a reason for divorce.”
She laughed, but it was an awkward sound. “Well, there were a lot of reasons, but now I think he’s just stringing me along. He left the islands and left me behind when I was trying to serve him with papers. I don’t even have an address to serve him with divorce papers. So, I guess I’m Kawehi Carter for… the foreseeable future.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she waved a hand trying to dismiss the feelings that always threatened to make her cry, “you weren’t the one who married him.”
“Have you tried to talk to his boss? Maybe they have an address for him now?”
She hesitated for a moment and she could see him shake his head.
“He’s in the Marines, isn’t he?”
“Yeah. He was stationed at KBAY.”
PALLAS
Well, fuck.
He meets a woman that makes him smile and he finds out that she doesn’t have the greatest impression of Marines. Not because of the military, but one marine in general.
Her husband.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuckin’ hell.
“I’m sorry about that, Kawehi. I-”
“How about we don’t talk about him or it at all.” She gestured at his bowl. “If you don’t eat that soon, you won’t really get to enjoy it. And I don’t want you to think I wasn’t telling you the truth.”
He shook his head. “I’m not worried about that from you. I know it couldn’t be easy to tell me that, but you did. And I am sorry that he did that. We’d like to think that everyone in the military are the good guys, but they’re not. Some marines are absolute assholes. Just like in regular life.”
She smiled then, a real ear to ear smile. “Like those jerks that we kicked out of here?”
“Just like them.”
He had more than a little satisfaction when he heard her say ‘we.’
He took a moment to finally put a bite of food in his mouth and he was surprised. He chewed it like it was heaven because it was.
“I’m glad you like it.”
He looked up at her and smiled as he continued to chew. He nodded his head.
“It’s not pretty to look at, but it is a big bowl of warmth. I like it when I’m working here because the whole place gets a little cold at the end of the night, and this warms me back up.”
They continued to eat for a few minutes and Pallas was trying not to shovel the food in his mouth. He hadn’t really had lunch earlier after making his rounds on base, looking for his team, so once he started eating, his stomach let him know how empty it was.
He looked up when she put another glass of water down at his side.
He swallowed and looked at her. “Thanks.”
“It’s good to see how much you like it.”
He paused. “I know I’m stuffing my face.”
“It’s good. I’m not judging. I like seeing people enjoy themselves. It’s part of the reason I love working here. The people that come in from all over the world.”
“Tourists.”
She almost laughed, barely holding it back. “You say it like it’s a bad thing.”
“Isn’t it?” He gestured at the door. “Those three?”
She nodded, acknowledging his words. “Again, the exception that proves the rule as far as I’m concerned. Most of the tourists that come in here are really nice. They’re looking for a way to spend the time. We’re the busiest when it’s raining.”
“And it rains quite a bit around here.”
“Yes, it does.”
“So, it’s good business.”
She nodded. “Nights around here are a little slow. There are quite a few bars in the area who don’t mother their customers.”
He nodded. “Like with Mister Compos?”
Kawehi smiled. “He’s a sweetheart. I wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt on their way home or hurt someone else. So I do have a professional grade breathalyzer behind the bar.”
“That sounds like a great idea. I think that would be helpful to your customers.”
“You’d be surprised how many people feel like that’s an invasion of privacy.”
He narrowed his eyes at her comment. “I would think it would be better to find out that you’re over the limit before you get in your car instead of hoping that the police don’t pull you over for a traffic stop.”
“But responsible and fun are like warring factions,” she explained. “Still, it’s a rule I won’t change. If you want to drink in here, I get to make sure you’re safe to drive, or we get people rides from local taxis if they don’t have a ride share app they can use.”
“What about a League on certain nights?”
Her soft laughter told him part of the story.
“Not a big thing around here?”
She shook her head. “It used to be, but that was a different generation. At least that’s what my uncle says.”
He was starting to put together a picture in his head and he didn’t like what it looked like.
“Someday, though.” He could hear how she put a hopeful spin on her words. “I’d love to see this place hopping in the evenings. But right now it’s just a family work crew at night. I was really surprised that my uncle snuck out of here when he did. He normally waits until I’m ready to go before he leaves.”
“I think he knew that I wasn’t going to leave you here alone.”
He saw the surprise in her eyes.
“I’m not about to leave you alone to close up.”
He could tell that she was hesitating to speak. He had a feeling he knew why.
“I think they both knew that I was interested, Kawehi, in you.”
She drew in a breath and held it.
“I’m not going to push you for anything. I didn’t know that you were married.”
Kawehi looked down at her bare left hand. “I haven’t worn the ring since he left, but I’d understand if you felt… whatever you’re feeling. I don’t really tell people about it. I don’t even know why I dropped it on your shoulders. Please feel free to ignore all of that, okay? We can justfinish up and you can leave. I don’t need you to stay while I clean up. I’ve done it for years. I-”
“You need to take a breath,” he smiled and demonstrated a deep breath for her.
She copied him and when he let out his breath, she did too. “Thanks. I just feel like my life is stuck in neutral and I can’t get out. If I’d met you before-”
Kawehi looked away and he knew he’d love to find her husband and kick his ass for leaving her in a bind.
“I would have liked that too.”
She looked back up at him in shock.
“I mean it, Kawehi.”
She looked back down at her food and nodded. “Life sucks.”
“It can,” he agreed, “but sometimes you meet people who make it suck a little less.” He picked up another bite of food from the bowl. “I’m hoping you think I’m one of those people.”
“I know you’re one of those people, Dom.”
He looked at her and felt his breath catch in his throat.
Everyone he knew in Hawaii called him Pallas. His family called him Domenico.
But Kawehi, she called him Dom.
Yeah.
“And you’re one of those people for me too, Kawehi.”
She sat back in her chair and gave him a look that made him want to wrap his arms around her and pull her close, but for now, he’d have to content himself with just being there for her. And he would, because he knew from the moment he saw her that Kawehi was going to be someone important in his life.
He could wait for her as long as it took. He could be a very patient man.
KAWEHI
Kawehi wasn’t sure how awkward it was going to be after she told him that she was married.
Separated.
Very, very separated.
So separated that when he’d walked in, her heart had pounded in her chest like it wanted to burst out of her chest.
To say that she was attracted to him was an understatement, but even though she didn’t wear her wedding ring, she’d felt it weighing on her ring finger like lead.
When he helped her get rid of those guys earlier, it felt good.
She hadn’t had someone stand up for her like that in a long time. Her family? Of course they did, but outside of that? Not so much. That’s why she was so shocked when he’d come up to help her.
And after her really awkward admission, he hadn’t run for the hills, or mountains as it was on the Windward side of the island.
Eating with him had been fun after that, too. She told him about growing up in the area and living the life that she’d enjoyed until…
And then she’d asked him about his life and learned about why he was so great with chopsticks.
“Dad was stationed all over and for a time we were in Okinawa. It was called Camp Courtney and we were in Uruma City in Okinawa. Our next door neighbor was from Hawaii actually. So between going over to their place with my mom, I had a lot of exposure to chopsticks.”
“You’re good at it.” Kawehi smiled. “You might be better than me.”
He shook his head.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t ask you what you wanted for utensils instead of assuming.”
He laughed. “I don’t blame you. You’re used to either locals who know what they’re doing or tourists who don’t. I can tell that you weren’t expecting me.”
“No,” she shook her head, “I certainly wasn’t expecting you.”
“That makes both of us.” He smiled. “I can tell I’m going to like it here.”
“Here?” She coughed a little, tapping her knuckles against her breastbone to calm herself.
He gestured at the building around them. “I like to bowl.”
“You… you like to bowl?”
“You look surprised.” He certainly seemed to smile at the idea.
“Well, yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone who looks like you, bowling.”
“I think I’m going to spend a lot of time surprising you, Kawehi.”
“You’re already doing a great job of it.”
“This is just the beginning.”
Just the beginning.
Whoa boy.
She had to remind herself that this beginning was just a friendship.
A friendship with the best guy she’d ever met. She knew that for sure.
Nick had bowled her over and kept after her until he’d excused all of the red flags that she’d seen early on. But she should have paid more attention to those red flags. That was on her. She could fault herself.
He love bombed her from the get go and she had been so worried about other things in her life that she hadn’t seen the downside to his overwhelming actions.
She hadn’t seen it, but she hadn’t wanted to see it.
She wanted to love and be loved. And Nick made her feel like she wasn’t alone.
She’d leaned into that and ignored the rest because ‘no one understands my pain.’
That might be true, but it didn’t help that she turned a blind ear to the comments from her family and walked into the driving winds of stupidity of her choices.
“So you work here every night?”
“Well, not Mondays and Tuesdays. That’s when we have a couple of college students who come in. My uncle works those nights and on Wednesdays and Thursdays, I have one of my uncle’s friends working the grill. He’s just too bored at home after retirement, so he gives himself and his wife a break on those two days and comes in to cook for us.”
“So I’m guessing that you wouldn’t like to come in on your night off and go bowling.”
Laughing, she shook her head. “I do want a day or two out of the building.”
“Okay.” He leaned in on the table, folding his arms on the surface. “What would you like to do?”
“Wait. Are you asking me-”
“To go out and do something fun with a friend.”
“A friend?” She couldn’t help smiling at him. “Okay. I would like to have some fun with a friend.”
“Then since I asked, you get to pick where we go and what we do.”
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone out just to have fun.
“How are you at mini-golf?”
“How am I? He grinned back at her. “Are you trying to see if you have a hope of beating me?”
“Oh, I know I can. I’m just trying to see if you’re going to cry about it or stomp off and leave me there.”
He narrowed his eyes at her as he stroked his chin like a beard. “You do have the home course advantage, but I have to warn you that I’m a little competitive.”
“Just a little?” She leaned in toward him as well. “That’s disappointing.” When she felt she’d made her point, she gave him a big grin. “Maybe we should go axe throwing. Or swim in the Ala Wai. Or-”
“Swim in the Ala Wai?” He gave her a sideways look. “Are you trying to kill me? You are competitive.”
Laughing outright, she waved her hands in surrender. “No. No. I wasn’t going to make you do that. I wouldn’t do that to a friend.”
He laughed and she wanted to keep him laughing because while he was darkly handsome, when he was laughing, he was devastatingly so.
“So, why don’t we start with mini-golf,” she suggested. “Once I beat you at that, you can beg for something easier.”
He shook his head and gave her a sly smile. “When I beat you at that, you can do the same.”
“You’re on, Dom. You are on.”