Teacher's Pet

I had told him my story. I’d had everything altered when I’d had my name changed. Because the person I was before my name was Abby Terrell was effectively gone from the face of the earth, it was a little complicated.

He listened to me stone-faced, and then told me that he understood if I wanted to take the rest of the day off and that he would take steps to make sure that that never happened again. I appreciated the thought, but I did know that having the reporters around would have been bad for business, so it wasn't totally for me.

I felt okay enough to finish up work. Makani asked me about three times each hour whether I was sure I was okay, and the answer was consistently yes. The initial shock of it had been bad, but the thing was, I wasn't a kid anymore. I wasn't helpless. I loved that Nate had done what he had done, but all it made me worry about what would happen to him now.

After work, I went straight to his suite, not sure whether I'd find him there. I knocked at the door, knowing that he’d open it for me if he was in there. I flew into his arms when he opened it. I kissed him deeply, cupping his face in my hands, feeling his prickly stubble against my palms.

"Whoa, I was going to ask whether you were okay, but I guess I know the answer to that," he said. I pressed my forehead to his.

"What did you do, Nate?"

"What do you mean?"

"With the reporters? I wish you had let me handle it," I said.

"I wasn't going to stand there and let them bully you."

"But what if they come after you now?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I have practice. All news becomes old news eventually. They can't talk about me forever." I sighed, running my hands down his chest.

"Thank you for doing it," I said.

"They weren't getting away with that," he said, hugging me tight to his chest.

"I came to get you," I said.

"Why? Where are we going?"

"I want to take you out to eat. My treat."

"You don't have to do that, babe. It was nothing. Really."

"You still have to eat," I said, smiling up at him. I let him go and got dressed before we left. We walked down the beach past my house, getting to the restaurant through the beach. It was a small place, and we had to wait to get a table, but it served fantastic seafood, and I just wanted to say thank you to him somehow.

There was still something that was nagging at me that I needed to know the answer to. I knew how I felt about him, and at this point, it was safe to think that he might have felt a little similar, but even as I was trying to get over the shock of seeing the reporters, I couldn't stop thinking about what he had said he wanted to do.

"I'm gonna miss these places when I go back to LA," he said. I glanced up at him from my plate.

"When you go back?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Not a lot of nice mom and pop places left."

"If you stayed here, you wouldn't have to miss them," I said, looking down at my dinner.

"Yeah. You could take me to every last one of your cool spots here on the island," he said.

"Did you mean what you said earlier today?" I asked quickly.

"When? What about?"

"About moving to Lanai. Did you mean it?"

"I don't know," he said shrugging. "I knew that I had to say something that would get their attention, and that did it."

"Have you thought about moving here permanently?"

"I've thought about not going back, but it wouldn't be as easy as just refusing to leave, you know?" he said.