The Marines jumped up to congratulate him and Pallas gave Dutch a wink. "Start practicing."
FOURTEEN
KAWEHI
Kawehi had never been muchof a superstitious person. You had to have a few growing up in Hawaii. Like you don't take pork off the Pali. Be careful of old women by the sea and beautiful women in the mountains walking along all by themselves. But those were more cultural myths and warnings than superstitions. At least that's what she told herself.
The strange feeling of something crawling across her skin on the back of her neck was new.
When she described it to her uncle, he gave her a strange look and told her to watch her back, but she didn't know what she had to be worried about. For the first time in what felt like forever, she had everything in front of her and a light at the end of the tunnel that wasn't a train.
Business at the bowling alley was hopping. Once she'd gotten Maile to put out pictures of the guys bowling on social media, the women starting flocking in and like Mike Taffer said on Bar Rescue, if you want guys to come to a bar you have to havewomen. It was a good thing that the Coconut Wireless was an unspoken rule for Hawaii.
There was every indication that they'd have money to keep things going, including the large property tax bill that was coming up.
Still, she had that feeling.
It had to be something crazy. She wasn't used to this kind of feeling.
A knock at the door was quickly followed by a yell.
"Cuz! Cuz! Open the door!"
Shaking her head, Kawehi moved into the hallway, calling out as she went. "I'm coming! Hold your horses!"
"Coming?" Maile called back. "Oh, then I'll come back when you and your Dom are done!"
Kawehi's head dropped back, and she came to a slow stop in the middle of the main room of the house. "Why?"
"Come on, Cuz! Open the door!"
"Why do you keep talking about this?" She lifted her head and stared at her cousin. "Maybe I should ask how things are going with Axl, huh?"
Maile's jaw dropped open and then she folded her arms across her chest. "Seriously? You're going to bring that up? That's a low, low blow."
"Well, I think it's fair. But I'm also curious. I think you guys like each other, but you don't want to say it."
"Stop." Maile yanked on the door handle. "This isn't grade school. He's not pulling on my pig tails."
"Please," Kawehi joked back as she unlocked the screen door, "this is very much grade school for you and Axl."
Maile skirted around her and dropped her purse on the couch as she moved toward the kitchen area. "Hardly. If it was grade school, I would have kissed him already."
Kawehi covered her mouth to hide her laugh. "I would have sworn you would have."
Maile turned around with the gallon jug of POG in her hand. "If I had I would have told you. I think he's just trying to drive me nuts." She let the refrigerator door close and pulled out a cup from the cupboard. "But it's okay. I'm planning on pushing him across the line first."
Kawehi drew in a deep breath trying to put the right words together in her head. "Maile, are you sure? I don't think that's a good idea."
"Why not?" Maile set the jug down and turned around with a full glass in her hand. "He started it."
Kawehi's chin dropped a little. "You were the one who said this wasn't grade school."
Maile lifted her mouth away from the glass and gave her a stare. "Well you and I went to different grade schools." She grinned. "You went to Punahou, and I went to Kam."
Kawehi folded her arms across her chest. "I thought you said to call it Kamehameha."
Shrugging, Maile took another sip. "That's when I'm not trying to drink a glass of juice, Cuz."
