Chapter Thirty-Seven
Leo
Sophia and I walked into Joe’s by Kennedy in Waikiki, a café set just off the main streets where tourism seemed to be bountiful.
A dark-haired man as tall as my father—but much broader—and about the same age, with a polite-but-tough demeanor stood behind the counter, handing a coffee to a customer.
He looked up and noticed us, and when his eyes settled on Sophia, his face broke out into a big smile and the tension in his shoulders disappeared as he quickly came around the counter.
She met him halfway across the room and he pulled her into a hug that I had to imagine felt like being hugged by a bear.
A very strong, slightly intimidating bear.
“We missed the hell out of you, Soph,” he said, squeezing her tight before letting go.
She stepped back and smiled at him. “I missed you too, Uncle Eric.” She gestured to me. “This is Leo.”
Eric’s shoulders pulled back and his face hardened again, none of the warmth he displayed when looking at Sophia present. I might as well have been the customer he’d just served.
“This is the hockey player?” he said, looking me up and down.
“You’ve heard of me then.” I smirked, figuring that if I acted as confident as I usually felt, I’d feel that way again soon.
“Unfortunately, yes. I have,” Eric said, giving me another once over. “What are you doing with my niece?”
I glanced at Sophia, but she looked at me expectantly, almost like this was the time she wanted me to make the proclamation of love she kept teasing me about.
Okay, here goes.
“I’m an honorable guy, sir. I love Sophia.” I stepped forward, putting my arm around her shoulders as she leaned into me. “Made her my girlfriend the other day and everything.”
“The other day,” Eric said. His tone had zero inflection.
Is that how Navy SEALs are trained? To give nothing away when they speak? Because the training clearly worked on him. Or is he just like that?
He continued, “I’ve heard your name for far longer than that. You decided to be honorable just before arriving here to meet us? That’s convenient.”
“Uncle Eric!” Sophia said, giving him a stern look.
I was starting to sweat. This guy didn’t crack a smile even though I’d just seen him full of smiles seconds ago with Sophia. How am I supposed to know if he’s joking?
“He’s kidding,” Sophia said before pressing a kiss to my cheek.
“I’m not,” Eric said, looking me up and down again like he was assessing everything about me.
I panicked and started talking again. “I’ve been in love with her for a while. I mean, how could I not be, right? She’s smart and beautiful and funny. She’s also sweet, and have you heard her laugh? It’s like music.”
Eric glared at me. “You think I don’t know what my niece sounds like when she laughs? I met her the day she was born.”
“Right, of course.” I took my arm off Sophia before he considered chopping it off, and rubbed my sweaty palms on my shorts. “Please help,” I whispered to Sophia.
Sophia chuckled and gave her uncle an unimpressed look. “Uncle Eric, shift your protective energy to Elena. You’re scaring my boyfriend.”
“There’s no point, she feels no need to listen to my opinions.” He looked at me again. “If you hurt Soph, I can think of a dozen ways to torture you that won’t leave a mark.”
I swallowed audibly.
“Speaking of,” Eric said, stepping closer. I backed up instinctively. “You’re not the only person in Boston on my hitlist. I bet you know the name of the person I’d like to put at the top.”
I almost screamed Harley Green at the top of my lungs. I’d clearly never make it through SEAL training given how little it takes to crack me.
“Okay.” Sophia stepped between us and looked at me. “He doesn’t really have a hitlist. Now he’s making shit up to freak you out.”
“Are you sure about that, Soph?” Eric said with a smirk and a subtle eyebrow raise.
A bell dinged as a customer walked through the door and I considered offering to pay for their coffee to express my gratitude at having the SEAL’s eyes finally shift away from me.
Sophia grabbed my hand and pulled me to a table in the corner while Eric went back behind the counter to take the man’s order.
“That was—wow,” I said, as she slid into the half-circle booth, and I slid in after her. “You all were not kidding. Is his wife around? I could use an easy one. Better yet, let’s just go back to your mom’s. I like Dave.”
Sophia laughed. “We haven’t even gotten coffee yet.”
“I’m plenty awake and alert. I think caffeine will only launch me straight into a heart attack.”
Eric finished ringing up the customer and turned to us. “What do you drink for coffee, Leo?”
I leaned close to Sophia’s ear. “Is this a trick question?” I whispered.
“Of course not,” she said with a laugh.
“Americano, please, sir,” I said.
Eric chuckled and shook his head before turning around to make our coffees.
While he was working on them, a dark-haired woman in an orange, floral-patterned dress came out of the back of the café, looking flustered with a phone in her hand. She spotted us. “Shoot, did you already meet him?”
Sophia jumped up to hug her. “Hey, Aunt Kat.”
“I’m so sorry,” Kat said. “I had to take a quick client call, but I was planning to be out here to police him when you arrived. Kennedy made it clear you needed the help.”
“I don’t need to be policed, Gorgeous,” Eric said, still facing away from us.
Kat glared at his back before nudging Sophia back into the booth and sliding in on her other side.
“It’s fine, Aunt Kat. We survived,” Sophia said.
“Speak for yourself,” I grumbled, holding out a hand to Kat. “I’m Leo. I’m in love with Soph. Is your husband violent?”
Kat laughed. “Oh, you’re cute.” She shook my hand. “He’s not violent, but he could rip you limb from limb if he wanted to.”
Eric set down a coffee in front of me and handed Sophia her iced vanilla latte, glaring at me.
“And does he want to?” I asked, staring back at him.
“Not yet,” Kat said with a cackle.
“Aunt Kat,” Sophia said. “I thought your assignment was to help.”
“Right, sorry.” She turned toward Eric. “Babe, do you remember when you met my dad for the first time and you were a panicked ball of nerves?”
Eric lifted his eyebrow slightly and smirked at her. “Doesn’t sound familiar.”
Kat grinned at him. “Sure, okay, we can pretend it didn’t happen that way. Just take pity on the poor boy. You were a trained Navy SEAL, and you were still terrified.”
“You are a lot scarier than her father,” I said to Eric as I took a sip of my coffee. “And her stepfather.”
“Her stepfather is a giant teddy bear of a man,” Eric said with what could maybe be called a smile on his face. “If you feared Dave, I’d be concerned. You should be more worried about Laura. And Danny is all talk, completely harmless.”
“And you?” I asked, warily.
“Not harmless,” he said with a proud smile.
“Soph, I’m losing the chill, easy-going vibe you love so much,” I said, shaking my leg.
“Uncle Eric,” Sophia said sternly. “I’m going to call Kennedy and tell her you’re not behaving.”
He smiled and shook his head. “There’s no need for that. We all know she’s the one to really fear around here. Welcome to Oahu, Leo. If you’re having sex with my niece, keep that information to yourself and you and I will be just fine.”
Sophia snorted and Kat smiled adoringly at him.
“Yes, sir,” I said. There was no world in which I was going to admit to this man that I touched Sophia beyond a chaste hand hold.
“Eric is fine, you don’t have to call him sir,” Kat said, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear.
“I don’t hate the sir,” Eric said, walking back to the counter. “But she’s right. You can call me Eric.”
Kat laughed and hugged Sophia again. “Okay, I did my job. Kind of. I need to go to the store and get a few things. Elena’s letting me redo her room.”
Sophia laughed. “Do you have enough black things for sale in your store?”
“I’m aware of her style choice and I’ve ordered a few things,” Kat said, standing up. “She gave me permission to go heavy on dark purples and blues as long as the main color scheme is black.”
“Good luck,” Sophia said. Kat scurried over to the counter to kiss her terrifying husband goodbye.
Sophia smirked and took a sip of her iced latte. “Still love me?”
“Always, Hawaii.”
“You made it through them all in just under a day.”
“Well, I’ve never met a woman’s family before but if I had known it would be like this, I’d have gotten on my private jet and flown home immediately.”
I glanced at the counter and saw Eric’s eyes on me again.
“I’m not positive it’s over, Soph.”
She laughed. “If you want to do relationships now, you’ll have to get used to this.”
“You seem to be grossly misunderstanding this situation, Hawaii. I don’t want to do relationships now. I want to have a relationship with you. I guarantee you this is the only family I’ll ever need to impress.”
She smiled sadly at me, but she didn’t say anything.
Maybe she was honoring our agreement not to think about life after graduation.
But what she didn’t understand was that I’d let her go so she could be happy here with her family—who were all obviously as great as she’d said—but there wouldn’t be anyone else for me after her.
I’d find a way to make peace with that eventually.