Page 11 of Finding Him

“Sorry. I am distracted.”

“You have been for the last few weeks,” he tells me.

I blow out a breath. “Nothing’s suffering too badly.”

“That’s because I’m really good at my job. I really only need you to handle the bridezillas, and we don’t have many of those, so,” he shrugs.

I laugh. “So what you’re saying is you don’t need me here.”

“We all like having you around, but lately, your mind is somewhere else. Or with someone else.” Kaeo bobs his eyebrows. “How’s college life?”

“Shut up. It’s not like I’m in college.”

“What’s really bothering you?” Kaeo asks.

“I’m going to have to tell her dad.”

Kaeo sucks air in through his teeth. “Yeah, that seems…like an uncomfortable conversation.”

“It also seems like a conversation to be had in person. That way, if he wants to throw a punch, he doesn’t build up steam on the flight over here before he does it.”

“Or maybe he’ll cool off on the flight.”

I nod because that could happen.

“He’s texted me a few times over the last month. I think he wants to tell me that Nita’s here. Which means she hasn’t told me that she’s already seen me.”

Kaeo snorts. “In the biblical sense.”

“Shut up.”

And then my phone rings. When I see Drew’s name on the screen, my stomach fills with dread. I can’t lie to him. He’s one of my oldest friends. That also means that I know him well enough to know he’ll be pissed. I’m not what he wants for his daughter.

“Drew,” I say as I answer the phone, giving Kaeo a hand signal telling him I need a little privacy for this conversation. With a wave and a smirk, he leaves my office.

“You’re a hard man to get a hold of,” he says.

“Life is busy.”

“I thought you moved to Hawai’i to slow down.”

“That’s the eventual goal. And I do get to surf every morning. Speaking of which, you didn’t tell me Nita was moving here.”

Drew laughs. “I should have known she’d beat me to it. I didn’t even tell her where you were and she found you?”

“It was a coincidence. She had a friend who booked a wedding at my hotel. She was here, and we bumped into each other. I almost didn’t recognize her.”

“She’s all grown up, or so she tells me,” Drew jokes.

“So this call was to tell me she’s here for college?”

“It was more to tell you that we’ll be coming over more to see her, and I wanted to see you too.”

I’m not sure that will still be true once I come clean.

“You still living at Tutu’s place and living the life of a surf bum?”

“I am. In fact, I’ve been teaching Nita how to surf.”