A matter of heart, p.37
A Matter of Heart, page 37
“And Rome.”
He pulls me closer until our bodies are flush against one another. “Oh, most certainly
Rome.” Our lips brush lightly. “And every other single place we want to go. We’ll have almost two hundred years to hit them all.”
I want him so much right now it’s painful.
“So you like this place,” he murmurs in my ear before our lips meet again. He holds us up, strong swimmer he is.
“No,” I sigh against his mouth. “I love it.”
His lips travel to my neck. “Because it’s beautiful?”
I can feel how much he wants me, too. I reach down and graze my fingers against the length of him; he gasps, and I can’t help but thrill that my touch can do that to him. “Because I’m here with you.”
Our mouths come together, over and over; his fingers slide across my belly, lower and lower, until I’m the one to gasp into his mouth. I’m having trouble staying afloat, but this time, it’s not because I’m drowning in sorrow, it’s because I’m literally so weak in the knees I can’t keep kicking and thinking at the same time. We need to get up on the deck. Now.
“Uh, yeah. Excuse me?”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
We break apart and find a guy standing on the deck, leaning over the railing. He’s holding a pizza box, practically leering. I can’t believe we forgot we ordered pizza earlier.
“I tried knocking; when nobody answered, I came around the side. You two look like you’ve worked up an appetite, huh?
Dying. Absolutely dying of mortification right now. Also, why is the universe so conspired against me seducing Jonah?
Jonah laughs under his breath and presses his forehead against mine for a brief second. “Yeah. Just. Can you wait for us at the front of the house?”
I’m uneasy with the guy’s blatant staring, but Jonah makes it so he loses interest and wanders away. But our magical moment has already slipped through our fingers.
In the busy week following our return from Tahiti, the one thing I never got around to doing is calling or seeing Kellan. This was both purposeful and indirect. On one hand, I barely had any free time for myself, what with a trio of quick missions and lengthy Council sessions; I rationalized that any contact with him needs to be meaningful. A one-minute phone call wouldn’t suffice, nor mere minutes in his presence. On the other hand, I’d just decided, yet again, that I’m definitely, absolutely going to marry Jonah.
Which technically means I ought to call or see Kellan so I can tell him straight up about the decision. But, being the coward I am, I’ve made sure there’s absolutely no time to have that discussion.
I figure he must know we’re back in town; after all, he and Jonah talk to each other constantly. At least, I’m assuming they’re still talking to each other, but lately I’m not so sure. Because during our entire trip in Tahiti and the subsequent week home, Jonah hasn’t mentioned his brother’s name once, which is bizarre. So strange, in fact, it’s never happened before. When they weren’t hanging out with each other at the end of high school and the first few months we lived in Annar, Jonah still talked about his brother. Still talked, their way, to him. But this last week and a half?
It’s like he doesn’t even have a brother.
I don’t know what to make of it, and frankly, I’m too nervous to bring it up considering Jonah is mostly acting like normal. And yet, despite being good with the decision that I’m going to marry Jonah, I miss Kellan so much it hurts. Physically, literally hurts.
How can one person be so goddamn happy and miserable at the same time?
My class gets out early; the professor is called away for what I can only assume is an imaginary emergency (since it happens more often than not this semester), leaving everyone to burst through the doors towards freedom with forty minutes of so-called lecture (i.e. internet surfing) left to spare.
I’m supposed to meet Jonah; we’re going to go have lunch at a café I’ve been dying to try out now that my appetite has semi-returned, but as he’s still in his one so-called class, I decide to head out to the quad and work on my golden tan achieved in Tahiti.
Before I can do so, though, a familiar profile coming out of a building across the way catches my eye. All of my hesitations about talking to him go flying out the window because I simply cannot resist getting my Kellan fix.
We stare at each other with loopy, matching grins as we meet halfway in the quad. And when we both finally decide to speak, it’s at the same time.
“You first,” he offers after we both stop talking. For some reason, this makes me take a step closer, which I shouldn’t be doing, considering my recent decision to get married within the month, but it’s no use.
I absolutely cannot resist Kellan Whitecomb. And that’s the real problem, isn’t it?
Nor can I lie to him. So I give him the two words that he and his brother hear far too often from my lips. I ought to just get them tattooed on my forehead: “I’m sorry.”
The grin slips away, but he doesn’t move his eyes off of mine. My stomach churns as I, for the millionth time, curse Fate for the crummy hand it’s dealt me.
“I know it wasn’t your idea.” His anger and disappointment are palpable, but I know they’re not angled at me. Kellan’s furious at his brother.
Why he doesn’t blame me is unfathomable, but then, don’t they tend to always blame each other and not me? Which is grossly unfair because even I know that I’m the sole cause of pain in this trio. No Chloe means no friction between brothers.
“Don’t be mad at him,” I say quietly.
“Why wouldn’t I be mad, C?”
“It’s not like he did this to hurt you!”
His lips quirk up at one corner. “Is that what you think?”
Everything around me grinds to a halt. “Excuse me?”
He tugs his dark sunglasses on so the one part of his face that ever gives me the smallest glimpse of his emotions is effectively shielded. “Nothing. Forget I said that.”
“No. Explain what you meant.”
He tilts his head to one side. “Do you really want me to tell you?”
“Obviously, or I wouldn’t have asked.”
He rocks back on his heels, hands stuffed in his pockets. “Fine. I happen to know all this came about simply because he wanted to put me in my place. He’s royally pissed off at me but won’t tell me why. All I know is he’s so mad he won’t even speak to me anymore and the last time we were in the same room we came—” He catches himself. “Almost came to blows.”
“Whaaat?”
“Marrying you would’ve been his checkmate move against me. His response to whatever I’ve done that’s angered him.”
I refuse to believe this. “You must be mistaken.”
“No. I’m not.” He’s inscrutable behind his dark glasses. “Sometimes we’re able to tell each other things that we may not necessarily want to reveal. It’s sort of like surging, but mostly come about when we’re tired or asleep. We don’t have any control over it. I saw the whole thing in his mind, C. I know it was his idea. I saw the entire reasoning behind it, how he knew it’d be like throwing a grenade at me.”
I fumble for rational words. “But . . . but . . . Jonah? He’s not like that!”
Kellan laughs grimly under his breath. “He is exactly like that.”
“But—”
“You just so happen to see the very best of us, C. We don’t tend to show you all the nasty sides of our personalities. But just because you don’t see them, it doesn’t mean they’re not there. Jonah is quite capable of a move like this—and, if I weren’t the intended victim, I’d congratulate him on his deviousness because I’m capable of just such a move, too.”
“Are you saying that he only wanted to marry me because it’d hurt you?”
“He wants to marry you because you’re his Connection and he loves you more than anything else in the worlds,” Kellan says calmly. “But he also wanted to put me in my place.”
I just can’t accept this. “But—”
“I’ve always known you two are going to get married.” He looks away. “I knew this in Costa Rica, even when I tried to delude myself differently, but I suppose I always believed I’d have time to work myself up to the reality. I’ll never be okay with it, but at least it wouldn’t be like a suicide bombing that appears out of nowhere. That’s what Jonah was banking on. Hit me out of the blue so the damage was a thousand times worse.”
I feel like throwing up. “You must hate me.”
“No.” He lowers his head towards me. “And I don’t hate him, either. I could strangle him right now, but I certainly don’t hate him. I don’t think it’s possible to hate someone you’re Connected to.”
“Why did you go to Cora?”
He laughs mirthlessly. “Jonah knows when I’m within fifty feet. The moment he would’ve felt me in the Transit Station, he would’ve doubled his efforts to get you out of there. Cora was a much easier alternative.” His smile is rueful. “Let’s just say he likes Cora just as much as me nowadays.”
I figured as much.
The cramping, spasming, and all of the other awful things that my stomach has been doing over the last couple of months hit me like a tidal wave. I’m nauseated and upset and angry all at the same time.
This is what they’re doing to each other, and it’s all because of me.
All of this coming from me startles him. “Chloe, you need to sit down.”
“No.” I hold out a hand. “No. Just . . . just give me a minute.”
It’s hard to process that Jonah had gone so far in some kind of angry fit towards his brother. To purposely hurt Kellan like that . . . well, it meant there had to be an unimaginable amount of anger.
Why was he so angry? Was it because I’d asked Kellan to come and get me in Hawaii, and not him? I just can’t wrap my mind around Jonah doing this to his twin brother. Who he just so happens to be Connected to.
Self-hatred is a piss poor emotion to have. It doesn’t do anything toward the betterment of a situation. But man, do I have a lot of self-hatred right now. “How are you doing?” I ask, rubbing my forehead.
He doesn’t have to verbalize it for me to know: he’s hurt, angry, and relieved all at the same time. And yet, he says softly, “How do you think I’m doing?”
Nothing I’m doing is helping. These two are devolving into bitter, vindictive fighting and I’m left carrying bags and bags of guilt and self-hatred.
I can only work on one person at a time. I grab his arm. “Let’s go.”
“Go?” he asks, but he follows me without resistance.
“Go. As in leave. Exit. Find another location to occupy.”
“If I’m not mistaken, aren’t you supposed to be meeting my brother shortly?”
I stop suddenly. “How do you know that, if you two aren’t talking?”
“I may be out of the loop, but I’m not stupid, C.”
I take out my cell phone when I resume walking and text Jonah, knowing he’s in class still. Something’s come up, can’t make lunch. See you tonight!
I hold it out so Kellan can see the message and say, “I’m hungry.”
I’m not; I’ll most likely puke anything that goes past my lips, but it’s a good enough excuse to keep moving.
An eyebrow quirks up past the dark glasses, because he knows I’m lying through my teeth. But, being the gentleman he is, he asks, “Where would you like to go?”
“I want shaved ice.”
“Shave ice.”
“Whatever! Like it matters if there’s a d or not!”
“It matters to the Hawaiians,” he insists, but I shoot him an evil enough look that he quickly adds, “Shave ice it is.”
I let the call that comes half an hour later go to voicemail because I simply cannot deal with Jonah blowing up at his brother for humoring me and my need to escape to Hawaii. Again. But I do text him, outright lying as I claim I’m hanging with Callie. He avoids her like the plague, unless it’s family dinner night, and then he always positions himself as far away from her at the table as possible. I think he’s afraid that I still worry about the two of them; but while I know Callie is still desperately in love with him, I also realize she understands they’re over and never happening again.
Speaking of . . . “How’s Callie? I haven’t seen her in awhile.”
We’re on his front porch, eating flavored ice. “Believe it or not, she’s jumped back into the dating pool.”
Whoa. I did not see that one coming.
“Some non we knew back in Maine. I guess they hooked up when she went home for a weekend.”
Huh. “Does she like him?”
“It’s still new.” He sets his empty cup down. “She hasn’t really thought that far ahead. Cal is all about living in the moment. She says if you look too far down the road, things get blurry.” He smirks, but it’s sad. “Says she learned that from my brother.”
Live in the moment. I like that. Too much of being a Magical means always looking down the road ahead. I tell this to Kellan and he nods.
“I’ve tried to adopt her philosophy lately,” he admits, toying with his spoon. “One day at a time. Sometimes it makes life more bearable.” He doesn’t let me respond to that, because he and I both know I’d just apologize like I always do, and everyone involved knows it never make anything better anyway. “You ought to check your voicemail.”
It’s short and sweet: Hey honey, just got your text. Um, I was really looking forward to lunch, but I understand. Thought I’d let you know I’m going surfing with Karl and Raul. Should be home late.
“Interesting,” I murmur, slipping the phone back in my bag.
“What? He mad?”
I jab at him with my spoon. “You don’t know?”
“As he and I aren’t speaking . . .”
That sobers me. “He’s gone surfing with friends.”
This prompt my very favorite half-grin to surface. “You mean I have all day with you, if I’m so inclined?”
Resistance is pointless, but at least I’m aware of it.
“I want to show you something,” he tells me as we drive the coastline in Joey’s old Jeep. “One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.”
We don’t drive too far up the highway before he turns off the main road, parking in a dirt lot. We hike a short distance up a hill before he angles us towards a cliff. Below us is a craggy, gorgeous emerald valley that drops into the ocean. It takes my breath away, leaving me speechless for nearly three minutes.
“What is this place?” I finally ask, unable to actually tear my eyes away from it.
“The Nā Pali coast. It’s usually best seen by boat or helicopter, but I didn’t really have a lot of time beforehand to set one of those up.”
“Have you ever done that?” I ask, still staring at the beauty before me.
He’s so close to my back I can feel the heat radiating off his body. “When Cal and I vacationed here last year, she insisted we go snorkeling so we could hang with sea turtles. She liked the place so much that she had us see it by helicopter, too.”
Lucky girl. I sigh my out envy. “I bet it was amazing.”
He touches my shoulder briefly. “I think I left something in the car. Hold on a moment?”
I nod, but I’m distracted by the valley below me. I feel very small, so very insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Which is ironic, because if I wanted to, I could create such a scene anywhere I wanted. But I hadn’t known about something like this before, hadn’t ever really thought about these random spots in the worlds, places where nature itself has created beauty out of nothing, taking something like lava and letting it twist and change over time into something so incredibly breathtaking that its mere existence is proof that Magic is overrated.
Kellan nudges my shoulder. “Time to go, wahine.”
I whine when I say I don’t want to, and have no shame doing so.
He taps an imaginary watch on his wrist. “Tick-tock, C. We’re on a schedule here.”
“What schedule?” I demand as he herds me towards the Jeep. But he stays maddeningly silent as we drive away. None of my efforts to get him to talk about where we’re going work.
We don’t go to the house, though. He turns off in the town of Hanalei, parking in front of a row of shops. “I’ll be right back. Stay here,” he orders before jumping out and heading around the corner of the stores and toward the back.
The shops are all fairly indistinct: clothes, clothes, souvenirs, small coffee shop, toys. What could he be looking for here?
He’s gone for nearly ten minutes before returning. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Go where?”
He rolls his eyes as we hit the highway. “Live in the moment, C. Didn’t you say you wanted to try that?” And yet, he ends up taking me back to his house.
“Well, this is something new to see,” I mutter as we walk in.
“Just sit down and wait.” I think he heads to his bedroom. Something heavy hits the ground somewhere in the house; I stand up immediately, but he yells out, “Just sit down, will you?”
By the time he emerges, I’m dying of curiosity. I crane my neck toward the hallway. “What were you doing?”
He plops down in a chair opposite me. “So. Seen any good movies lately?”
I don’t know whether to laugh or smack him with a pillow, so I say, just as calmly, “Nope.”
“That’s too bad.” His long legs sprawl out before him. “I saw one a few nights ago with Cal that was pretty good.” Then he proceeds to tell me, in great detail, all about this movie.
After about twenty minutes of frustrating small talk, he finally stands up and stretches his arms over his head. Golden skin peeks out in a small slice of yummy skin between shorts and shirt. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Go?” I fear I’m drooling.
His half-smile quirks; a cacophony of butterflies takes off in my stomach. “Yup. Go.”
Kellan takes me back to the strip mall we’d been at earlier. Once the engine’s off, he turns to me. “I want you to close your eyes.”
I have a million questions, but then I think about Callie’s new mantra, and what Kellan was trying to do. Live in the moment.
He pulls me closer until our bodies are flush against one another. “Oh, most certainly
Rome.” Our lips brush lightly. “And every other single place we want to go. We’ll have almost two hundred years to hit them all.”
I want him so much right now it’s painful.
“So you like this place,” he murmurs in my ear before our lips meet again. He holds us up, strong swimmer he is.
“No,” I sigh against his mouth. “I love it.”
His lips travel to my neck. “Because it’s beautiful?”
I can feel how much he wants me, too. I reach down and graze my fingers against the length of him; he gasps, and I can’t help but thrill that my touch can do that to him. “Because I’m here with you.”
Our mouths come together, over and over; his fingers slide across my belly, lower and lower, until I’m the one to gasp into his mouth. I’m having trouble staying afloat, but this time, it’s not because I’m drowning in sorrow, it’s because I’m literally so weak in the knees I can’t keep kicking and thinking at the same time. We need to get up on the deck. Now.
“Uh, yeah. Excuse me?”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
We break apart and find a guy standing on the deck, leaning over the railing. He’s holding a pizza box, practically leering. I can’t believe we forgot we ordered pizza earlier.
“I tried knocking; when nobody answered, I came around the side. You two look like you’ve worked up an appetite, huh?
Dying. Absolutely dying of mortification right now. Also, why is the universe so conspired against me seducing Jonah?
Jonah laughs under his breath and presses his forehead against mine for a brief second. “Yeah. Just. Can you wait for us at the front of the house?”
I’m uneasy with the guy’s blatant staring, but Jonah makes it so he loses interest and wanders away. But our magical moment has already slipped through our fingers.
In the busy week following our return from Tahiti, the one thing I never got around to doing is calling or seeing Kellan. This was both purposeful and indirect. On one hand, I barely had any free time for myself, what with a trio of quick missions and lengthy Council sessions; I rationalized that any contact with him needs to be meaningful. A one-minute phone call wouldn’t suffice, nor mere minutes in his presence. On the other hand, I’d just decided, yet again, that I’m definitely, absolutely going to marry Jonah.
Which technically means I ought to call or see Kellan so I can tell him straight up about the decision. But, being the coward I am, I’ve made sure there’s absolutely no time to have that discussion.
I figure he must know we’re back in town; after all, he and Jonah talk to each other constantly. At least, I’m assuming they’re still talking to each other, but lately I’m not so sure. Because during our entire trip in Tahiti and the subsequent week home, Jonah hasn’t mentioned his brother’s name once, which is bizarre. So strange, in fact, it’s never happened before. When they weren’t hanging out with each other at the end of high school and the first few months we lived in Annar, Jonah still talked about his brother. Still talked, their way, to him. But this last week and a half?
It’s like he doesn’t even have a brother.
I don’t know what to make of it, and frankly, I’m too nervous to bring it up considering Jonah is mostly acting like normal. And yet, despite being good with the decision that I’m going to marry Jonah, I miss Kellan so much it hurts. Physically, literally hurts.
How can one person be so goddamn happy and miserable at the same time?
My class gets out early; the professor is called away for what I can only assume is an imaginary emergency (since it happens more often than not this semester), leaving everyone to burst through the doors towards freedom with forty minutes of so-called lecture (i.e. internet surfing) left to spare.
I’m supposed to meet Jonah; we’re going to go have lunch at a café I’ve been dying to try out now that my appetite has semi-returned, but as he’s still in his one so-called class, I decide to head out to the quad and work on my golden tan achieved in Tahiti.
Before I can do so, though, a familiar profile coming out of a building across the way catches my eye. All of my hesitations about talking to him go flying out the window because I simply cannot resist getting my Kellan fix.
We stare at each other with loopy, matching grins as we meet halfway in the quad. And when we both finally decide to speak, it’s at the same time.
“You first,” he offers after we both stop talking. For some reason, this makes me take a step closer, which I shouldn’t be doing, considering my recent decision to get married within the month, but it’s no use.
I absolutely cannot resist Kellan Whitecomb. And that’s the real problem, isn’t it?
Nor can I lie to him. So I give him the two words that he and his brother hear far too often from my lips. I ought to just get them tattooed on my forehead: “I’m sorry.”
The grin slips away, but he doesn’t move his eyes off of mine. My stomach churns as I, for the millionth time, curse Fate for the crummy hand it’s dealt me.
“I know it wasn’t your idea.” His anger and disappointment are palpable, but I know they’re not angled at me. Kellan’s furious at his brother.
Why he doesn’t blame me is unfathomable, but then, don’t they tend to always blame each other and not me? Which is grossly unfair because even I know that I’m the sole cause of pain in this trio. No Chloe means no friction between brothers.
“Don’t be mad at him,” I say quietly.
“Why wouldn’t I be mad, C?”
“It’s not like he did this to hurt you!”
His lips quirk up at one corner. “Is that what you think?”
Everything around me grinds to a halt. “Excuse me?”
He tugs his dark sunglasses on so the one part of his face that ever gives me the smallest glimpse of his emotions is effectively shielded. “Nothing. Forget I said that.”
“No. Explain what you meant.”
He tilts his head to one side. “Do you really want me to tell you?”
“Obviously, or I wouldn’t have asked.”
He rocks back on his heels, hands stuffed in his pockets. “Fine. I happen to know all this came about simply because he wanted to put me in my place. He’s royally pissed off at me but won’t tell me why. All I know is he’s so mad he won’t even speak to me anymore and the last time we were in the same room we came—” He catches himself. “Almost came to blows.”
“Whaaat?”
“Marrying you would’ve been his checkmate move against me. His response to whatever I’ve done that’s angered him.”
I refuse to believe this. “You must be mistaken.”
“No. I’m not.” He’s inscrutable behind his dark glasses. “Sometimes we’re able to tell each other things that we may not necessarily want to reveal. It’s sort of like surging, but mostly come about when we’re tired or asleep. We don’t have any control over it. I saw the whole thing in his mind, C. I know it was his idea. I saw the entire reasoning behind it, how he knew it’d be like throwing a grenade at me.”
I fumble for rational words. “But . . . but . . . Jonah? He’s not like that!”
Kellan laughs grimly under his breath. “He is exactly like that.”
“But—”
“You just so happen to see the very best of us, C. We don’t tend to show you all the nasty sides of our personalities. But just because you don’t see them, it doesn’t mean they’re not there. Jonah is quite capable of a move like this—and, if I weren’t the intended victim, I’d congratulate him on his deviousness because I’m capable of just such a move, too.”
“Are you saying that he only wanted to marry me because it’d hurt you?”
“He wants to marry you because you’re his Connection and he loves you more than anything else in the worlds,” Kellan says calmly. “But he also wanted to put me in my place.”
I just can’t accept this. “But—”
“I’ve always known you two are going to get married.” He looks away. “I knew this in Costa Rica, even when I tried to delude myself differently, but I suppose I always believed I’d have time to work myself up to the reality. I’ll never be okay with it, but at least it wouldn’t be like a suicide bombing that appears out of nowhere. That’s what Jonah was banking on. Hit me out of the blue so the damage was a thousand times worse.”
I feel like throwing up. “You must hate me.”
“No.” He lowers his head towards me. “And I don’t hate him, either. I could strangle him right now, but I certainly don’t hate him. I don’t think it’s possible to hate someone you’re Connected to.”
“Why did you go to Cora?”
He laughs mirthlessly. “Jonah knows when I’m within fifty feet. The moment he would’ve felt me in the Transit Station, he would’ve doubled his efforts to get you out of there. Cora was a much easier alternative.” His smile is rueful. “Let’s just say he likes Cora just as much as me nowadays.”
I figured as much.
The cramping, spasming, and all of the other awful things that my stomach has been doing over the last couple of months hit me like a tidal wave. I’m nauseated and upset and angry all at the same time.
This is what they’re doing to each other, and it’s all because of me.
All of this coming from me startles him. “Chloe, you need to sit down.”
“No.” I hold out a hand. “No. Just . . . just give me a minute.”
It’s hard to process that Jonah had gone so far in some kind of angry fit towards his brother. To purposely hurt Kellan like that . . . well, it meant there had to be an unimaginable amount of anger.
Why was he so angry? Was it because I’d asked Kellan to come and get me in Hawaii, and not him? I just can’t wrap my mind around Jonah doing this to his twin brother. Who he just so happens to be Connected to.
Self-hatred is a piss poor emotion to have. It doesn’t do anything toward the betterment of a situation. But man, do I have a lot of self-hatred right now. “How are you doing?” I ask, rubbing my forehead.
He doesn’t have to verbalize it for me to know: he’s hurt, angry, and relieved all at the same time. And yet, he says softly, “How do you think I’m doing?”
Nothing I’m doing is helping. These two are devolving into bitter, vindictive fighting and I’m left carrying bags and bags of guilt and self-hatred.
I can only work on one person at a time. I grab his arm. “Let’s go.”
“Go?” he asks, but he follows me without resistance.
“Go. As in leave. Exit. Find another location to occupy.”
“If I’m not mistaken, aren’t you supposed to be meeting my brother shortly?”
I stop suddenly. “How do you know that, if you two aren’t talking?”
“I may be out of the loop, but I’m not stupid, C.”
I take out my cell phone when I resume walking and text Jonah, knowing he’s in class still. Something’s come up, can’t make lunch. See you tonight!
I hold it out so Kellan can see the message and say, “I’m hungry.”
I’m not; I’ll most likely puke anything that goes past my lips, but it’s a good enough excuse to keep moving.
An eyebrow quirks up past the dark glasses, because he knows I’m lying through my teeth. But, being the gentleman he is, he asks, “Where would you like to go?”
“I want shaved ice.”
“Shave ice.”
“Whatever! Like it matters if there’s a d or not!”
“It matters to the Hawaiians,” he insists, but I shoot him an evil enough look that he quickly adds, “Shave ice it is.”
I let the call that comes half an hour later go to voicemail because I simply cannot deal with Jonah blowing up at his brother for humoring me and my need to escape to Hawaii. Again. But I do text him, outright lying as I claim I’m hanging with Callie. He avoids her like the plague, unless it’s family dinner night, and then he always positions himself as far away from her at the table as possible. I think he’s afraid that I still worry about the two of them; but while I know Callie is still desperately in love with him, I also realize she understands they’re over and never happening again.
Speaking of . . . “How’s Callie? I haven’t seen her in awhile.”
We’re on his front porch, eating flavored ice. “Believe it or not, she’s jumped back into the dating pool.”
Whoa. I did not see that one coming.
“Some non we knew back in Maine. I guess they hooked up when she went home for a weekend.”
Huh. “Does she like him?”
“It’s still new.” He sets his empty cup down. “She hasn’t really thought that far ahead. Cal is all about living in the moment. She says if you look too far down the road, things get blurry.” He smirks, but it’s sad. “Says she learned that from my brother.”
Live in the moment. I like that. Too much of being a Magical means always looking down the road ahead. I tell this to Kellan and he nods.
“I’ve tried to adopt her philosophy lately,” he admits, toying with his spoon. “One day at a time. Sometimes it makes life more bearable.” He doesn’t let me respond to that, because he and I both know I’d just apologize like I always do, and everyone involved knows it never make anything better anyway. “You ought to check your voicemail.”
It’s short and sweet: Hey honey, just got your text. Um, I was really looking forward to lunch, but I understand. Thought I’d let you know I’m going surfing with Karl and Raul. Should be home late.
“Interesting,” I murmur, slipping the phone back in my bag.
“What? He mad?”
I jab at him with my spoon. “You don’t know?”
“As he and I aren’t speaking . . .”
That sobers me. “He’s gone surfing with friends.”
This prompt my very favorite half-grin to surface. “You mean I have all day with you, if I’m so inclined?”
Resistance is pointless, but at least I’m aware of it.
“I want to show you something,” he tells me as we drive the coastline in Joey’s old Jeep. “One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.”
We don’t drive too far up the highway before he turns off the main road, parking in a dirt lot. We hike a short distance up a hill before he angles us towards a cliff. Below us is a craggy, gorgeous emerald valley that drops into the ocean. It takes my breath away, leaving me speechless for nearly three minutes.
“What is this place?” I finally ask, unable to actually tear my eyes away from it.
“The Nā Pali coast. It’s usually best seen by boat or helicopter, but I didn’t really have a lot of time beforehand to set one of those up.”
“Have you ever done that?” I ask, still staring at the beauty before me.
He’s so close to my back I can feel the heat radiating off his body. “When Cal and I vacationed here last year, she insisted we go snorkeling so we could hang with sea turtles. She liked the place so much that she had us see it by helicopter, too.”
Lucky girl. I sigh my out envy. “I bet it was amazing.”
He touches my shoulder briefly. “I think I left something in the car. Hold on a moment?”
I nod, but I’m distracted by the valley below me. I feel very small, so very insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Which is ironic, because if I wanted to, I could create such a scene anywhere I wanted. But I hadn’t known about something like this before, hadn’t ever really thought about these random spots in the worlds, places where nature itself has created beauty out of nothing, taking something like lava and letting it twist and change over time into something so incredibly breathtaking that its mere existence is proof that Magic is overrated.
Kellan nudges my shoulder. “Time to go, wahine.”
I whine when I say I don’t want to, and have no shame doing so.
He taps an imaginary watch on his wrist. “Tick-tock, C. We’re on a schedule here.”
“What schedule?” I demand as he herds me towards the Jeep. But he stays maddeningly silent as we drive away. None of my efforts to get him to talk about where we’re going work.
We don’t go to the house, though. He turns off in the town of Hanalei, parking in front of a row of shops. “I’ll be right back. Stay here,” he orders before jumping out and heading around the corner of the stores and toward the back.
The shops are all fairly indistinct: clothes, clothes, souvenirs, small coffee shop, toys. What could he be looking for here?
He’s gone for nearly ten minutes before returning. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Go where?”
He rolls his eyes as we hit the highway. “Live in the moment, C. Didn’t you say you wanted to try that?” And yet, he ends up taking me back to his house.
“Well, this is something new to see,” I mutter as we walk in.
“Just sit down and wait.” I think he heads to his bedroom. Something heavy hits the ground somewhere in the house; I stand up immediately, but he yells out, “Just sit down, will you?”
By the time he emerges, I’m dying of curiosity. I crane my neck toward the hallway. “What were you doing?”
He plops down in a chair opposite me. “So. Seen any good movies lately?”
I don’t know whether to laugh or smack him with a pillow, so I say, just as calmly, “Nope.”
“That’s too bad.” His long legs sprawl out before him. “I saw one a few nights ago with Cal that was pretty good.” Then he proceeds to tell me, in great detail, all about this movie.
After about twenty minutes of frustrating small talk, he finally stands up and stretches his arms over his head. Golden skin peeks out in a small slice of yummy skin between shorts and shirt. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Go?” I fear I’m drooling.
His half-smile quirks; a cacophony of butterflies takes off in my stomach. “Yup. Go.”
Kellan takes me back to the strip mall we’d been at earlier. Once the engine’s off, he turns to me. “I want you to close your eyes.”
I have a million questions, but then I think about Callie’s new mantra, and what Kellan was trying to do. Live in the moment.
