Chapter 23 I feel like if he can handle working in this hot weather, he can handle my attitude. -Creole's secret thoughts CREOLE "Hey, man," I heard the man say. "I heard you're in town?" "Hey, buddy. How's it going?" Audric asked as he pulled my body into his. "I heard you got married and didn't invite me." "I didn't invite anyone," he admitted. "It was a secret ceremony just for us. We started to do the whole big ceremony thing, but our mothers were nuts, and my girl was depressed as hell. So I took her off to our secret place and married her with a priest and my girl's little brother as a witness." "That's awesome," Audric said, reaching for the soap. "Your mother can be a lot." "Speaking of Mother," he sighed. "She's sick as a dog. My big brother is sick. My cousin is sick. And I desperately need your help." There was a long moment of silence before Audric said, "I'm not putting on..." "Please." Audric sighed and leaned his head against my shoulder. "What is it you want me to do?" I'd never thought that I was going to go to a luau with Audric's dad and the love of his life, but there I was, doing it. "I've never been to one of these, and I've lived here for twenty years," Telly, Audric's dad's girl, said. "I feel like an ass for never coming." They were absolutely adorable together. From what little I was able to figure out in the time that we'd been together over the last hour of traversing one of the busiest roads on Oahu, Carter had shown up on Telly's doorstep and Telly had let him in instantly. She hadn't made Carter work for it, either. Which, if I were an honest person, was quite telling of Telly's personality. She was a sweet woman and only wanted the best for Carter. I wasn't that type of woman. I'd have made him work hard for it, and I wouldn't have stopped until I felt like he'd been sufficiently punished for putting me in an impossible situation for how many ever years it'd been. Even more, he'd have had to perfect the groveling. No way would he have just walked back into my life without scraping his knees up begging me to take him back. I bumped her shoulder. "If it makes you feel better, I'm here every other day and I haven't come to one, either. This will be both of our firsts." She flashed me a smile. "You're here for a couple of hours, most of them sleeping. It's more than understandable that you would not have time or inclination to leave. You probably also don't have the hour and a half to fight the traffic to get here." I grinned. "So what, exactly, happens now? What..." A man with a conch shell showed in the middle of the lawn, his smooth, bronzed chest on full display with his flowing fabric covering most of his lower legs, showing just a hint of the boxer briefs he wore underneath as the wind blew. He blew into the horn, and everyone in the audience stopped talking. "My friends!" he called out. "Aloha!" "Aloha!" everyone answered back. The next ten minutes consisted of the man, who was the host for the evening, talking about friends and Ohana, and what this night was all about. "Now, let's talk coconuts," the man, who I now knew as Audric's friend since he'd introduced himself as Keanu, drawled. "How do you think that we get these coconuts out of the trees?" There were lots of answers thrown out through the crowd, but it was Carter's reaction that had me turning to look at him. "What?" "You'll see," he said cryptically. Intrigued now, I paid better attention as Keanu explained everything that happened in picking the coconut, as well as what happened once they'd picked it. "Okay, so a few of you were right," Keanu said after a few more minutes of coconut discussion. "We're going to have a little race." Carter again chuckled. "I have a special surprise for you all tonight. My best friend from childhood is in town, and he and I are going to perform a time-honored tradition. Not a day passes when we're together that we don't perform this race. Each time he visits from the mainland, we make sure to test his skills. And since he doesn't have his own coconut trees at home, sometimes I give him a little head start. Tonight will not be one of those times!" Keanu declared loudly, using his enchanting voice to project his feelings toward the back of the crowd. Carter crossed his arms over his chest, a huge smile on his face, as he turned his head to the side. I did, too, but there was a huge man in front of me taking up most of the viewing area. I chose to skirt to the side, squeezing in between Telly and Carter. Carter shifted to the side to allow me to pass, and suddenly I got my own unencumbered view of the sexiest man alive dressed in his authentic Hawaiian attire. I realized now that Audric's skin tone nearly matched his good friend's. And Audric had just as many tattoos as Keanu did. Seeing the two of them together... Wow. There was nothing else I could say to describe it. Words couldn't be formed to explain their combined beauty. "You ready, hoaloha?" Keanu asked Audric. "Ready when you are." He flashed a grin. The two went to their separate trees that were surrounded by a crowd of a hundred and shook out their arms. A different man yelled out, "One, two, GO!" I didn't know who to look at. Keanu, to see if he was winning, or Audric because he was just that beautiful of a man. In the end, I chose to stare more at Audric, taking in his bulging biceps and thick thighs. Carter laughed joyously beside me, but all I could stare at was the man at the top of the tree who was pointing at his friend across from him saying, "Victory!" Their joyous laughter had me beaming from ear to ear. "Wow," Telly said as she stared at the two men. "I didn't know that was even possible." "They've been fighting this out for years," Carter informed us. "Every single gathering they had, the two of them would be in those damn trees racing. There's been more than a few broken bones over the years, too. Though, Audric has had more of them. He's a little more rusty since he doesn't do this often. I'm honestly surprised he won, though." Audric and Keanu descended their trees, and when their feet hit the ground, they came together for some complicated handshake before Keanu took over the talking. An hour later, we were watching the best show on earth. Or maybe it just felt like that for me because this was my man and watching him undulating and sweating while dancing under stage lighting was fantastic. You could tell that he was rusty. He messed up more than once, and he would laugh it off. He'd definitely done it before, though. Honestly, it looked like he was having the time of his life, and I was all there for it. "This last one is a time-honored tradition," Keanu said after dinner was served and we were working on dessert. "Who's heard of the Haka?" My heart started to pound. I'd read about the Haka. According to the books I'd read, the Haka was performed to celebrate, welcome, to show respect, or even to protest. I'd read all about the Haka in my favorite rugby books, but I had no clue how exciting and exhilarating it would be to witness it in person. "My friend and I, we used to have competitions to see who had the best scary face." Keanu laughed. "Y'all will have to tell us who actually wins when we're done!" The lights dimmed, and I watched, enraptured, as Audric performed the Haka. I couldn't stop myself from taking a photo of him pounding on his thighs, veins bulging, head thrown back as he bellowed for all he was worth. I set it as my lock screen and knew that I wouldn't be changing it ever. God, if this man asked me to marry him right now, I would. I had no clue just how much he meant to me until that moment as I watched him let go and be happy for the first time in a long time. To truly see him let go... "He looks so happy," Telly said softly. I looked to my new friend and said, "I agree." They ended the night with a fire show as all the men used long sticks with fire on both ends to twirl around their bodies, showing off their hard abs and each dip and divot of their bodies. It was the second-best part of the show. As everyone was leaving, Audric brought Keanu up to meet me. He held out his hand and said, "Ahh, the arch nemesis. I've heard a lot about you, and not all of it good." I grinned wildly, only feeling a twinge of discomfort due to his nearness. Audric immediately picked up on it, pulling me into his side as he said, "Don't go there. I just finally got her to like me." "Oh, we should definitely go there," I teased. "I thank you for sharing him with us tonight. We were in a bind, and I would've been sunk without him," he explained. "Oh, it was my pleasure to share him with you. I loved seeing him up there. I definitely got a lot of photos of him for my troubles." I snickered. I showed him the photo I'd taken of Audric doing the Haka, and Keanu laughed. "I guess he does win the scary contest." I snorted. "Y'all were both ferocious." A little girl walked up then, tugging on Keanu's hand. Keanu bent down and lifted the girl into his arms. The girl looked over and squealed, throwing herself at Audric. "Aric!" "Sigh," Keanu said. "My own daughter loves him more than me." "He's a hard man not to love," I teased. "How old is she?" "Three." He smiled as Audric peppered kisses all over the girl's face. "Alani, honey," a woman who looked exhausted said. "Come on, let's let Daddy finish up. It's time for bed." Keanu dropped a kiss onto his wife's cheek, and it was only then that I saw the newborn strapped to the woman's chest. Her flowing dress made it impossible to see unless you were looking closely. "Kiana," Audric said. "I can't believe he has you out here working six weeks after giving birth." Kiana rolled her eyes. "Family business doesn't just stop when you have babies. Life goes on. But this one, she rolls with the punches. Didn't move an inch when I was working today at all." That's when I realized that she'd had the baby strapped to her during her many dances earlier. Talk about strength. "But I'm super tired, and we're ready for bed. I'm sorry to cut it short, Audric," Kiana apologized. Audric dropped a kiss to her head and said, "Let me introduce you to my future wife before you go." Kiana's eyes lit with happiness before she turned to me. "I'm so rude. It's nice to meet you. I'm Kiana." "Creole." I smiled. "I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to meet properly. Get home and get some rest." She looked at me with relief. "Talk to you again soon. Aloha." "Aloha." I smiled again as I watched her go, taking the young Alani with her. That left the four of us again, and Keanu asked, "Future wife?" "It's news to me, too." I snorted. Audric offered me a naughty smile. "I'd planned to convince you over the weekend." I snickered. "We shall see." And we did. By the time that we left, there were no lingering doubts or apprehensions. Only him and me, and the knowledge that we were meant to be. I was also sporting a ring on my left finger belonging to his grandmother as I greeted passengers forty-eight hours later. With a smile on my face, and the knowledge that with Audric by my side, I didn't have to live in fear anymore. Too bad that was tested a few days later.