Chapter Thirteen
Kelly
The week went by at a sluggish pace, and all I wanted was for it to be Saturday. It didn’t help that Kalani and her missing eyebrows were giving me the cold shoulder. Our work environment felt tense, but it was worth it to have gotten my only chance at kissing Reese.
A week ago, I was living my life, doing everyday tasks without a care in the world.
Now, I was haunted by the best kiss of my life, knowing it was never going to happen again.
I was not in the right place in my life for a relationship.
I was under a lot of pressure to make sure my business succeeded.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t have a new friend. And I wanted to be Reese’s friend.
I opened our text conversation and started typing when I saw a silver Prius pull up next to me. I felt myself release a breath as I got out of my truck to greet her.
She looked confused as she got out into the empty parking lot.
“Okay, two things. First, where is Ted? And second, what are we doing in an empty grocery store parking lot?”
“Good morning to you, too.” I stepped closer and resisted the urge to pull her in for a hug. We were just friends, and I had no excuse to touch her today.
“If you plan to kill me, Ted Bundy, you chose a pretty public place. I bet this parking lot has cameras.” She reached back to pull her hair up into a ponytail.
She was wearing cut-off jean shorts and a thin blue jacket with a black shirt poking out through the top.
Even though she had looked stunning at my parents’ house, I could tell she felt more like herself today.
“No murders today, I promise. But to answer your questions, Ted is staying home today. I turned on his favorite show—Everybody Loves Raymond.”
“Wow, he doesn’t love his namesake?” she asked in mock disbelief.
“Nope. He’s a Raymond Barone fan. To answer your second question, you’re about to find out what we are here for.” I pointed to the other side of the parking lot, where a food truck was parked.
“There’s a food truck open this early?” The morning light cast her in a warm glow.
“You have to get here this early if you want to beat the tourists for the best malasadas on the island.”
“What’s a malasada?” She scrunched her nose at the word.
“Oh man, you are in for a treat.” I started heading for Sal’s Malasada Truck. Reese walked by my side, keeping my pace. “Malasadas are a Portuguese donut. They are sugar-coated donut balls with different fillings. I recommend the guava and haupia fillings.”
“Haupia?” she said the word slowly.
“It’s like a coconut filling.”
Reese made a delightful moaning sound. “I love coconut!”
I laughed, trying not to show how affected I was by her moan. “You’re in the right place then. Sal’s has a bakery downtown, but their food truck only does malasadas.”
We reached the truck and got in line behind a couple of people.
“I’m shocked how many people are already here,” Reese said, her arm grazing mine as she stepped closer.
“It’s a staple here. But if you wait until later in the day, then the line will start halfway back to where we parked.” We stepped up to order, and I turned to her. “What are you thinking?”
“I’ll take your suggestions and try the guava and the haa-pee-uh,” she pronounced it slowly.
I smiled as I ordered for both of us. She grabbed for her purse to fish out some bills, but I shook her off.
“My treat. This is how your trip should have started in Hawaii.”
“You don’t even know the half of it!” She laughed. “But I should pay. This isn’t a real date.”
Those words, although the truth, cut me harder than I thought they would. “I want to,” I said. “As a friend,” I added.
“Okay,” she agreed as she put her money back in her purse.
I handed over some bills to the cashier. “Mahalo, ‘cuz,” I said as we stepped to the side to wait. “You brought a swimsuit, right?”
“Oh shoot! I’ll have to go naked.” I could tell she was joking, but now I was hoping she wasn’t. “Just kidding, I’m already wearing it. Where are we going, anyway? You have kept today such a big secret.”
My name was called out, and I collected our malasadas. “Have you ever gone swimming with turtles?” I asked, handing her a hot malasada.
“We’re going to swim with turtles?” Her eyes looked like melted gold this morning.
“We’re going to try. I have a place I like to go that tourists don’t usually know about. There’s a good chance we’ll see some honu this time of year. But go ahead, take a bite,” I said, nudging towards her malasada.
She didn’t argue with me as she bit into her haupia first. Her mouth was covered in sugar, and I wished I could lick it off.
Fuck. I needed to tame down my thoughts.
“Oh my gosh,” she groaned, her eyes going wide, “you weren’t kidding. These are freaking great.” She moaned a little as she took another bite.
To avoid saying something stupid, I took a bite of my own.
“I can’t believe I have gone my whole life without these,” she said as we started to head back to my truck, taking bites along the way.
“I don’t even remember the first time I had one of Sal’s malasadas. We’ve been going since I was a little kid. I think both of my parents even went as kids.”
“I think it’s cool that your family has traditions like this.”
“Your family doesn’t have traditions?” I asked.
“Not really.” She looked up at me, and I could see a dark shadow in her eyes.
“We never stayed in one place long enough to have a ‘usual’ place. I mean, we had certain things we did every Christmas. But I feel like even those things started to disappear as I got older. I haven’t spent a holiday with my parents in over four years.
And my dad...I don’t even know the last time we were together. ”
We reached my truck, where she quickly finished her first malasada. I unlocked the truck, and Reese climbed in, setting her other malasada in her lap.
“You can eat your other one on the drive up,” I said as I put the truck in reverse.
Her eyebrows shot to her hairline. “You don’t mind?” she asked. “It’s so messy, though.”
“I trust you.” I smiled. “Besides, it’s just food. I can always clean up later.”
She smiled down at the malasada in her lap and picked it back up.
“Do you not get along with your parents?” I asked, hoping to learn more about her.
“No, we get along just fine. We have never been in a fight, but I wouldn’t say we are close.”
“Maybe that’s the problem,” I said as I turned onto the highway. “Fighting is a normal and healthy thing.”
“That was not an option in my house. I was brought up in a military family. It was all about respect and following the rules,” she said, her head held high and her shoulders straight.
“You need to break some rules then.” I glanced over at her.
“I bet you did enough rule-breaking for both of us.” She shoved me a little, and I laughed easily.
“Me? Why, I never!” I said in mock shock.
“Enough about me.” She looked out the window at the sun that was now right above the horizon. The rays illuminated her hair, making it appear lighter than normal.
I decided to let the topic of her parents go and instead asked, “I want to hear why getting stung by jellyfish and eating at a stranger’s loud and crazy family home was not even the start to your bad experience here.”
“I’ll have you know that dinner with your family has been the highlight of my trip,” she corrected me.
“Ouch. You must have had a really terrible start if you thought that was fun,” I teased.
She rolled her eyes and shoved me again. I loved it.
“You know, Kelly, your family is great. You’re very lucky.”
She didn’t even know exactly how lucky I was. Even though I hadn’t smiled this much in my whole life, and she was the reason behind it, I wasn’t ready to tell her about that part of myself yet—the story of my adoption.
“Story time, Ms. Phillips. I’m all ears. Tell me what happened before you got here.”