Chapter Seven
Their expanded group—which now included Amy, Doug, and Emily—stood clumped together, like a football huddle, just inside the entrance to the Polynesian Cultural Center.Out of earshot of the others, Tish collared Ray.“You sure you want to do this?”
“Visit the Tongan village?”Ray pretended to study his map.“We could check out Samoa first, if you prefer.”
“You know what I mean.”His sister fisted her hands at her sides, as she had when she was eight and had had enough of him teasing her.“I’ve seen the way you and Amy look at each other.You’re just asking for trouble.”
He looked into her stubborn blue eyes.“Hey,I’mthe big brother.But did I ever tell you, back home, who you should and shouldn’t date?”
“No, because I never dated back home.If you had known Brady when I first met him, you would have—” She bit her lip.
“I would have what?”
“Never mind.”
“I would have what?”
Tish sighed.“You would have worried about me.Like I’m worried about you.”
He folded his arms across his chest.“What’s wrong with Amy?She’s sweet, smart, beautiful—”
“There’s nothing wrong with her.She’s perfect.I wish you’d dated someone like her in high school instead of those tramps who fell all over you.”
“It wasn’t me.It was the football uniform.”He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice.“So, if you like Amy, then what’s the problem?”
“You know what the problem is, Ray.She lives in San Francisco.Do you plan on flying halfway across the country every other weekend or so to see your girlfriend?”
Girlfriend?“Don’t you think you’re rushing things?I really only met her today.”
“Exactly.”
“And, even if we lived two miles from each other, the odds of this going anywhere are slim.She’s getting her master’s degree.She has a plan for her life.I just left my job, and I still don’t know what the hell I want to be when I grow up.”Blast.Their odds just went from slim to none.
“So this is just a casual… whatever it is?”
“Mmm-hmm.”At least that made sense.Whereas nothing else about his feelings for Amy did.When he looked at her, when she gazed up at him, he wanted to drink in her eyes and heart and soul.
“Hey, guys, we’ve decided to start with the Samoan village.”Courtney bounded over to them.“The show starts in ten minutes.”
They crowded onto bleachers to watch a man, wearing little more than a loincloth, scramble up a tree and knock down a coconut, then open it using only a small rock and his bare hands.Coconut milk poured out.The demonstrator allowed some of the tourists in the front row to sample it, while the narrator explained that, in Samoa, it was the men’s duty to prepare the food.
“I think I might like living in Samoa,” Amy leaned forward and whispered near Ray’s ear.Rising from the bench behind him, she stepped over the wooden plank to squeeze into the small space beside him.
He scooted closer to Tish to make more room.“You don’t like to cook?”
“Not every day.”She slid the sunglasses sitting atop her head down over her eyes.“I do have a few specialties I enjoy making.”
“Is your mom’s lasagna one of them?”
She shrugged.“It is, but Mom’s is still better.Maybe one of these days—” Amy stopped midsentence.She had to quit thinking as if this were a budding relationship.She wouldn’t be cooking for him.She wouldn’t be seeing him again after Hawaii.And, regardless of how good he looked wearing that hotel towel, it wasn’t Amy’s nature to do casual flings.
Yet they sat side by side during the Rainbows of Paradise Pageant, where colorful canoe floats from all the neighboring islands glided past the viewing stand as dancers performed for the tourists’ amusement.And they walked silently together through the Fiji exhibit, featuring massive clubs and weapons native to the culture, their hands swinging, fingers laced.Maybe they didn’t speak because they’d already run out of things to say.Or maybe because Doug and Emily were rarely more than a few chaperoning feet behind or in front of them.Or maybe just that words were not needed, a soundless connection radiating between them.
In the Tahitian village, they watched men and boys, and some women, compete in a spear throw.“You up for that?”Doug asked Ray.
Ray met her brother’s challenge.“I’m up for anything.”
A pissing contest, Amy thought, but she was too curious to stop them.
