Chapter Thirty-Six #3
Danny reheated the food while Kennedy joined him in the kitchen.
She pulled out two water bottles from the fridge and slid them to us before standing next to her husband.
His arm snaked around her waist immediately and I suppressed a grin.
It was always obvious to me when a man was obsessed with his wife, having witnessed it with my parents for so long.
I glanced quickly at Sophia. It would be so easy for me to still be that into her in twenty years.
Kennedy spent a few minutes telling us about the pool house setup while Danny slid containers of food to us as he pulled them out of the microwave.
Sophia dug into each one first before passing them to me and trying to explaining what each of the Hawaiian foods were.
There was food I was more familiar with too, and it was nice to see how Dave had taken food this family had grown up with and combined it with his Hawaiian culture.
Sophia talked animatedly about my hockey games and Christmas with my family, telling them all about her stay with us.
Just like when she’d talked with Laura and Dave, she was open with details and clearly not worried about their judgement.
Though I did notice that she left out the part about sneaking into my room while talking to her father.
The smile on her face when she talked about watching me on the ice was nearly as big as the one she had when she talked about her family.
I wonder if she knows that.
We’d made it through a good portion of the food—which was as delicious as Sophia had promised—when the twins finally came back. They must have been looking through all their stuff to pick something for me to sign.
They stood next to me, both looking more sheepish than they had when we’d arrived. Isaac handed me a baseball glove and Ian held out a soccer ball.
I looked between the two of them. “No hockey gear in paradise, huh?” I asked.
“No,” Ian said, looking down at his feet, and mumbling to his brother. “I told you we should have found something else.”
I took the soccer ball from him and Danny passed me a Sharpie from a drawer in the kitchen. “I’m happy to sign anything you want. And I’m putting a hockey puck with my autograph on it in the mail for you as soon as I get back to Boston.”
I scribbled my name on the soccer ball and handed it back to Ian. His face lit up as he showed it to his mother. Isaac shoved the baseball glove under my nose. “Can we each have our own hockey puck?”
“Isaac,” Danny scolded as I scribbled my name again. “You can say thank you for Leo’s generosity to begin with?”
"Sorry,” Isaac said, taking the glove back. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. And I’m pretty sure I can find two pucks,” I said, earning a smile from him too.
Isaac must have saved up a lot of questions because as Sophia and I finished our dinner, he stood there quizzing me on hockey in a way that made me worried I might fail his test. How do they get the ice in the rinks? Hell, if I know.
“Sophia told me there’s a rink on the island. How about I take you both skating while I’m here,” I said.
“Really?” Isaac yelled, eyes wide with excitement.
“Yeah, if it’s okay with your parents.” I turned to look at them and saw them both eyeing Sophia with looks that made me think they approved of me so far.
“Of course,” Kennedy said. “Can’t be more dangerous than surfing, and they do a crap ton of that.”
“Leo will keep them safe, I’m sure,” Sophia said, giving me an appreciative smile.
“I taught your sister already,” I said, turning back to the boys. “I bet we can train you up to be better than her in no time.”
“Can Koa come?” Ian asked quickly.
I looked at Sophia through narrowed eyes. “He’s their best friend,” she said.
“Sure, the more the merrier,” I said.
They both jumped up and down, taunting Sophia about being better skaters than her, while she smiled at them with adoration. Danny and Kennedy stepped around the counter and told the boys it was time for bed. They all said goodnight to us and the two of them ushered the grumbling boys up the stairs.
Sophia and I put the empty dishes in the sink, and I retrieved our bags from the entryway.
She led me to the back of the house where we stepped through a sliding door onto a patio that included a huge table, an inground pool with a pool house to the left of it, and the sand of the ocean right up against it all.
“Wow,” I said, listening to the waves crash. “No wonder you love it here.”
She smiled wistfully. “I know. It can’t be beat.”
“You up for a quick walk?” I asked, noticing a firepit with outdoor couches surrounding it.
She nodded excitedly and pulled me toward the pool house where I dropped our bags and we slipped off our shoes before I wrapped my arm around her waist and let her lead me to the ocean.
After a short, romantic stroll along the edge of the water, we changed into our pajamas in the pool house and collapsed next to each other on the bed.
“Hawaii, I’m exhausted. Please tell me you don’t need another dick-down today.”
She laughed and rolled over, curling against my side and resting her head on my chest. “I’d fall asleep before we even started, Leo.” She tipped her chin up and kissed me gently. “I love having you here with me.”
I kissed her head. “I love being here with you.” The only thing better than falling asleep with Sophia in my arms was doing so with the waves crashing in the distance. I could really get used to this.