The voice is familiar to me now, and I turn, ready to give him a look or maybe a snide remark, but thankfully I look before speaking because he’s talking to his daughter. How would she be putting her own sunblock on?
“Dad?” She laments, cocking her head to the side. “You know I can’t put my own sunblock on, silly.”
“What? Since when?” Denver replies to her, dumbfounded.
“Since forever. Geez. You just put it on me yesterday. Don’t you remember?”
“No, I don’t remember at all, actually,” Denver continues.
“You’re embarrassing me,” his daughter says, placing her hand up to him. I accidentally let a snicker out while watching their banter.
“Aya, if there is one thing I’m good at in life, it’s embarrassing pretty girls.”
“Lame,” she says, strutting over to the lounge chair by my left side. She tosses a towel down onto the chair and pulls her bathing suit cover-up off, then tosses her little pink sandals to the side. “Ready?”
“I haven’t even said good morning to Miss Kai yet, Aya. Relax,” Denver says.
I love how he’s talking about me as if she should be familiar with me by now. It’s only been a day, even though it feels like a week has passed since yesterday morning.
“Who is Kai?” Aya asks while sitting down at the edge of the pool and dangling her feet into the motionless pool of glowing blue chlorine.
“This beautiful woman behind you,” Denver says. I’m glad I have my sunglasses on because he just admitted that he has a knack for embarrassing women, and yet here he is, doing it again. I don’t want him to think he’s having an effect on me, though, so I’ll act complacent.
Aya turns around, squinting against the sun peeping through the thick palms. “Youarepretty,” she says. “You kind of look like a hula dancer. Do you hula dance?”
“Aya!” Denver snaps. “That’s rude.”
“Why is it rude?” I ask him.
“To insinuate that because you’re beautiful, you must be a dancer of some sort.”
Oh my God. He’s good.Asshole.
“Aya, I do dance the hula here once a week during our traditional Luau. It’s tomorrow night, as a matter of fact,” I tell her.
Aya stands up from the edge of the pool and runs up to my guard chair, wrapping her hands around my ankle. “Will you teach me?” she asks. Whoa. I wasn’t expecting that. Without making assumptions, I would be hard-pressed to assume her mother isn’t a native. She has darker skin than Denver, but a combination of dark and light hair with crystal blue eyes. She’s gorgeous, definitely a mixture of two good-looking people.
“Oh, I’m sure your mom wants to teach you that,” I tell her. I am definitely not stepping on anyone’s toes.
“Uhhh,” Denver interrupts. I look over at him, and he’s slicing his hand across his throat and shaking his head.
No. No. No. Her mother is dead. No. Crap.
“Um, you know what, Aya. I would love to teach you. Will you still be here at lunchtime?”
Aya turns around, facing Denver. “Dad, can we stay for lunch, then go to the house?”
Denver crosses his arms over his broad chest and grins a half smile. “Sure, baby.”
Aya squeals and claps her hands together. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ve always wanted to learn how to do the hula dance!”
“I actually teach a class here at lunchtime, so there will be other kids too. Is that okay with you?” I should have said that first. I hope she’s okay with that.
“Of course!” she says without blinking. “I could use some new friends now that we’re living somewhere new anyway.”
I think my heart just broke. She’s so strong for moving somewhere new and just looking to start a new life here without a crack in her smile. Unfortunately, most of the kids at the hotel are guests and don’t live anywhere near the island. “Friends are a great thing,” I tell her with a smile.
“Yup! I don’t have any right now, so it will be good.” Aya runs back to the edge of the pool and sits back down, repositioning her legs so they dangle in the water. That’s so sad.
