Chapter 13
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
KOA
“I heard the hot new teacher lives with you,” Paka said as he sat down on the couch next to Koa.
The firehouse was teeming with activity.
The living space, where Koa now sat, was a big open area with the cooking on one side and lounging on the other.
It overlooked the level with the trucks as well as a giant workout room.
Preston and a few guys were in the kitchen starting dinner for that evening while others were working out or relaxing.
Koa had just been a part of the working out group and had been chilling for a second before he went to join Preston in the kitchen.
“Her name is Mia,” Koa clarified, Paka’s description of her rubbing Koa the wrong way.
Yes, Mia was hot, but what Paka had said, how he’d said it, felt like he was demeaning her as a woman. And Koa didn’t like that at all.
“Yeah, Mia. Do you think she has a thing for fire knife dancing firefighters?” Paka asked, puffing his chest out.
“If she does, I’ll let her know there are at least a dozen better options than you,” Jana, one of their coworkers said, as she walked toward them from the stairs.
No one put Paka in his place as well as Jana.
Koa smiled.
“Shut up, Jana,” Paka pouted.
Jana hit Paka with witticism and Paka usually reverted to playground rejoinders.
“Bet you a hundred bucks she says yes when I ask her out.” Paka stood and walked toward Jana.
Wait, when had Paka gone from thinking Mia was hot to having the nerve to ask her out? He wasn’t deserving of her.
“Bet you two hundred she ends up with someone way better than you,” Jana shot back.
The other guys were starting to notice the banter and all eyes were now on the bet battle.
“Bet you three hundred she dates me ‘til she goes back to the mainland,” Paka went toe to toe with Jana.
“Bet you five hundred she goes on one date with you and then ghosts you,” Jana didn’t back down.
“See, told you she’d go out with me,” Paka said confidently.
“Sure, I’ll give you your one hundred for the date and you’ll owe me four hundred for the ghosting,” Jana said with a wicked smile.
Their audience began rolling with laughter, only Paka seemed to not understand how badly he’d been insulted.
But Koa couldn’t bring himself to laugh. Imagining Paka on a date with Mia? His stomach hardened.
Then again, what right did he have to feel this way? It wasn’t like he’d asked her out.
“He’s such a dummeh,” Jana said about Paka as she flopped onto the seat beside Koa.
“Do you think she’ll say yes when he asks her out?” Jana asked him since everyone knew Mia had moved into Koa’s home. He would have blamed Preston for loose lips, but this island was too small. Anyone could have been sharing the news.
“She’s really nice,” Koa said, imagining what would happen and then hating what he’d imagined. Mia would say yes. She was too nice.
“So she will say yes,” Jana rolled her eyes. “But I know I’ll win the last bet. Unless she’s stupid. Is she stupid?”
Koa shook his head. Mia definitely wasn’t stupid.
“Good,” Jana said.
Koa pushed himself off of the couch, his muscles already sore from the workout he’d done. He knew he’d pushed it on the bench press too hard, but that pain had felt good compared to how his heart was nagging him.
What if he asked Mia out? Before Paka could? He knew it was no longer just attraction driving him to want to ask Mia. And he also knew that he wanted so much more than just casual with Mia. Honestly, that was what scared him the most.
“Chop,” Preston said as he threw Koa a head of lettuce.
Koa did as commanded while Preston went back to his giant pot. Preston was famous for his Portuguese Bean Soup, and the firehouse was amped by the sight and smells of it.
“So you gonna just sit by and watch him ask her out?” Preston asked as he added the macaroni noodles. “After what happened last night? After you decided you weren’t going to let fear stop you?”
Preston had been annoyed with Koa when he’d told him about the conversation he’d had with Mia–. He hadn’t shared any of Mia’s secrets, but he had let him know they’d gone deep. Preston couldn’t believe Koa hadn’t asked her out yet, after all that.
“It isn’t that easy,” Koa let his frustration drip into every word.
“Sounds that easy to me,” Preston replied.
“Remind me again how easy dating is? Mr. I haven’t been on a date since I moved to Maui?”
Preston shook his head.
“You know people are starting to call you the firefighting monk,” Koa said.
Preston shrugged. “I’ve been called worse. And just because I don’t date doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m talking about. You like her. She likes you. Ask her out.”
“I don’t know that she likes me,” Koa said, though that was kind of a lie. The way she’d gripped his hand, the look in her eye, none of that was just friendly.
“And didn’t you say she doesn’t have family on the mainland? That she feels like Maui is home?”
“Exactly what Talia said,” Koa replied.
“For someone who says they aren’t still hung up on someone, you put a lot of stock into what she did and said.”
“It’s called learning from my past.”
“It’s called letting your past dictate your future.”
Ouch. Was Preston right?
“Is it ready yet?” Paka joined them in the kitchen.
“Instead of asking that, how about you hit the weights a little longer? Your left boobie is looking a little deflated,” Preston teased.
Paka dropped his head immediately checking one pec and then the other.
“No, it’s not,” he countered before backing out of the kitchen. Koa would bet good money that Paka was on his way back to the weight room.
“One date isn’t a whole future,” Preston said before taking a spoon to the giant pot and tasting the broth.
“That’s the thing. I know she just moved here, but part of me feels like I’ve known her forever. And that part tells me she’s it. So if I ask her out, if I go on this date, things are going to race forward. At least in my mind. But if she’s not right there with me?”
Preston threw his spoon into the sink and then nodded. “Then I guess you can’t ask her out.”
Koa raised an eyebrow. He knew what Preston was doing.
“Seems like you thought it through and it makes no sense to take the chance. Better to let Paka ask her out and see how things land. Then, after she finds another guy who isn’t as good as you but one you give your thumbs up on, you can watch her marry him.
Maybe she leaves him at the altar and goes back to the mainland.
Or maybe she chooses him forever. Either way that guy wins because he got to be with Mia.
And of course you win too because…wait, why do you win? ”
Koa shook his head, not saying a word as he passed the bowl of chopped lettuce back to Preston.
Man, the guy was annoying. He thought he knew it all. Koa wished he could ignore what Preston had said, but he knew he couldn’t.
Because even as annoying as his best friend was? Koa knew he was right.