I didn't get a lot of suits since I didn't have an office job. Guys who made music got away with a lot more. I had a couple in LA, but of course, I hadn’t brought them. Keno joined me after talking to the shop owner a little. They knew each other, just like everyone else on the island.
"How are you and Makani doing?" I asked since it had been a little while since we were all together.
"Great. It's weird that you asked that, actually," he said.
"Oh yeah? Why?"
"I'm gonna pop the question tonight," he said.
"No way. You’re gonna marry her?"
"I'm gonna ask her to marry me. We talked about doing it before we broke up, and I think this time around she's ready. I'm tired of waiting, you know? I love her. She's it for me."
"You have a ring?" I asked.
"I always have it on me. I've been thinking about doing it this whole week. I think tonight's the night. She's coming over, and you're hanging out with Abby, so she won't be busy. I've talked to her parents already. It's all set."
"I wish I had some words of advice, but my marriage failed," I said. He laughed.
"From what you've told me, you were married to the wrong girl. Are you ever going to do it again?"
"Get married?" I didn't really know, I realized. It hadn't even been a year since the divorce, but Kirsten and I had dated a little while before we got married. I had needed that time; I had been so busy with the band, so we didn't even get that much time together.
It had been good some of the time, but she had left me. I had been a mess, and I couldn't blame her for it, but what about that sickness and health bullshit? Whatever. What happened, happened. If we were still married, I never would have met Abby.
"Yeah. You and Abby seem-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa — me and Abby?"
"Of course. Who else would you marry?" he asked.
"It's been one summer, man. Not even that long. Like, half a summer."
"Sometimes that's all it takes," he said.
"How long was it before you knew you loved Makani?"
"Honestly? I told her I loved her after two months, but I knew I did weeks before. Sometimes you just know, Nate. I've seen the way you and Abby are."
"I like her a lot."
"Yeah, you like her so much you asked her to move to LA with you."
"That's not happening. She doesn't want to leave the island."
"If you want to stay with her, you're going to find a way to make it work."
"I know that. I just feel like she would never ask me for anything. She'd never say to me that she wanted me to stay. She'd tell me to go have a career and live my dream in LA."
"She's a great girl," he said. I knew that. I knew that probably better than most people.
"I wish she'd tell me what she wanted."
"I think it's pretty obvious what she wants," Keno pointed out.
"No, like for us. I want her to tell me whether she wants me or not."
"The ball's in your court if she already told you she isn't leaving."