“No, that's fine,” I said, stopping her apologies. I reached over and squeezed her hand. “Honestly. It's easier said than done, I guess.”

“Of course, it is,” Gretchen said. She smiled at me. “But I do think that you can do it.”

“I appreciate that,” I said. I turned back to the water for a moment, considering. Then, I shook myself a little. “I know I'm just over-thinking things. I'm sure things will be fine when I get back there, but… Yeah.” I glanced over at Gretchen. “Thanks for listening. And seriously, thanks for bringing me here.” I laughed, feeling a bit self-conscious to admit, “I didn't think I was ever going to see you again, and that was also bumming me out this morning.”

Gretchen rolled her eyes. “Come on. You don't have to lie to me,” she said. “I know you could get any girl on this island. You would have forgotten about me by the end of the week, if not by the end of the day.”

I frowned over at her. “Like I said, the ‘me’ who's here is not the ‘me’ who I have been back in New York.”

“Good,” Gretchen said, even though I could see in her eyes that she still wasn't sure that she believed me. She paused. “You know, in the spirit of continuing to see one another, there's going to be a luau on Monday that you might want to come to.” She paused. “It's going to be mostly locals. I'm going to know everyone there, and you're definitely going to be the outsider, but it will be great.”

I snorted. “What, you don't think that the famous Christian Wall can handle a crowd of people?”

Gretchen laughed with me. “Sorry, that's not what I meant to imply,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s just we don't get many tourists over to our luaus. But they're a ton of fun, and I like showing you my Hawaii.”

I reached over and caught her hand in mine, lightly stroking my thumb over the back of her hand. “I like seeing your Hawaii,” I told her. “I really do.”

Chapter Eighteen

Gretchen

Mina hopped up onto my porch the morning after I had taken Christian to the waterfall. She wrinkled her nose when she saw me. “Reading again,” she sighed, shaking her head.

I laughed and put a bookmark in my book, setting it off to the side. “Reading again,” I confirmed.

Mina frowned at me, peering over at me. “You're happy,” she accused.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Should I not be?”

Mina rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean,” she said.

I laughed again and rolled out of the hammock

. “So, I guess we're having brunch?”

“Of course, we are,” Mina said, as though it was a given. “You have the day off, and I didn't see you at all yesterday. Where did you disappear to, anyway? I came all the way over here to bother you on my lunch break, and you weren't even here.”

“Sorry that I can't always be there for you, darling,” I said.

“But where were you?” Mina asked. “Running errands?”

I paused. “Well, actually.” I led her through the house to the kitchen and began pulling out yogurt and fruits and some frozen hash browns that I had cooked up a few weeks before, in a massive batch. “I was with Christian,” I told her.

Mina's eyebrows shot toward her hairline. “You were, were you?” she asked, smirking. “I thought you weren't going to see him again. How did you explain to him about having kicked him out of bed?”

I sighed. “We didn't discuss things. I just went over there to his hotel and apologized.”

“I can guess how eloquent that apology was,” Mina said, a grin tugging at her lips. “And then?”

“I took him out to the waterfall,” I told her, shrugging a little. I paused. “We had a nice day together.”

“Sex?” Mina asked, always straightforward.

I shook my head. “No,” I said. “I don't know if I want to yet. I just want to show him the real Hawaii, if he's going to be here for a while. I can tell that he needs that.”

“So, you're going to see him again?”

I blushed. “Yeah, actually,” I told her. I popped a piece of peach into my mouth, chewing slowly. “I invited him to the luau on Monday night.”

Tags: Claire Adams Romance
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