“After you,” he said, gesturing towards the front door.
She slipped her feet into a pair of sandals and then climbed up into the cab of Noah’s truck. They reminisced about their shared childhood as they drove north along the highway. It felt strange at first, but before long they were laughing over trouble they’d gotten into. Then they both got misty-eyed talking about Kimo.
In Hilo, they stopped at a tiny shop that sold sushi to go. They made their selection, and then they drove further up the coast.
The tranquil two-lane highway rose up along with the land until they were soaring along the cliffs, admiring thatmagnificent green-and-blue Hawaiian view that no other place could match.
Anne assumed that he was just taking her to some pretty picnic spot – until Noah pulled up to a familiar shop at the edge of a tiny coastal town. An old wooden sign held a single, faded word:Malasadas.
“No way!” she exclaimed. “They’re still here?”
“Of course!”
“I’d forgotten about this place.”
The little no-name shop made the best malasadas on the entire island – at least, Anne’s family had always thought so. Often, when he had a day off, Kimo would load the whole crew into the back of his pickup truck and drive them up the coast just for this. Usually they would stop at the beach on the way home. Those days had been some of the best of Anne’s childhood.
“How could you forget?” Noah asked.
She met his eyes for a long moment. “I don’t know.”
“Lunch first?” he asked, holding up their take-out.
“Yeah.”
They got out of the truck and found a nice spot in the shade, where they sat down in the lush green grass and faced the vast ocean view. They were quiet for a while, eating more than talking.
It felt easy, being there with him.
Then she thought about how little she really knew him anymore, how little she knew about the past thirty years of his life, and she began to feel uneasy.
He knew the basics of her life because he had never really lost touch with her family, but she knew so little about him.
“So… you work in construction now?” she asked.
“Sometimes. Odd jobs here and there.”
“Like… a handyman?”
“If you like.”
There was something guarded in his tone, and she wondered if she had offended him. She didn’t mean anything by it. Her father had worked in construction all his life, and he was the best man she ever knew… but she worried that to say that aloud would come across as placating or patronizing.
Anne cleared her throat and looked away.
Sitting there with him, her focus on her food, her mind clear, had felt like the most natural thing in the world. But as soon as her brain started up again, her anxiety ruined everything.
She hadn’t been on a date in twenty years. And this wasn’t just any date. This was Noah. She felt like a fool for saying yes to begin with. She had too much else on her mind. She didn’t know how to navigate this.
She looked down into her lap and found that she’d shredded her paper napkin to bits.
“Mostly I flip houses.”
“What?” Anne looked up with a start.
“I don’t work many construction jobs anymore. I fix up run-down houses and resell them.”
“Oh. That’s cool.”
