My Kind of Town
>> Kahala Beach Sticky as kona weather
Fawn Nakamura had never kissed any guy on the first date. She had her rules.
The 27-year-old virgin had never even held hands on a first date! And here she was strolling hand-in-hand on the beach with Chuck Ryan as a sliver of new moon charmed the sky.
At first it was the emotional reaction that Fawn noticed, feelings that she had never known before were stirring. Now those emotions were having a physical effect too. Even with a freshening trade wind in their faces, Fawn felt as warm and sticky as kona weather. But she was not about to pull her hand away from Chuck Ryan's hand.
"Thank you," she said.
"For what?"
"For this evening. For the tea and conversation, and..." She waved her free hand at the beach and palm trees, the moonlight and stars sparkling on the ocean. "...for this."
"The pleasure is all mine." An old line, but the way he said it, with his soul wide open, warmed Fawn even more.
In his line of work, Ryan was always looking for alternative motives in people. It's one of the first things you learn in the spook trade. He had run this scenario through already when they were having tea and cucumber sandwiches and scones at the Veranda, and he did so again now. But there's no way that Fawn could be a plant. The only person who knew he was going to the Honolulu Iron Works to work out was the concierge desk at the Royal Hawaiian. Not likely they were working for the bad guys.
But you never know, and that was the one loophole in all of this. Still, Ryan had a hard time believing it was anything but chance that two women, Lily and Shauny, came in to exercise while he was there, and later Shauny's twin Fawn joined them.
It was Shauny who sort of came on to him and asked Ryan to join them in the restaurant for drinks. But it was Fawn, Shauny's identical but very different twin, to whom Ryan was drawn.
Ryan would keep his eyes open, as always. But inside he had to smile. If Fawn was a plant by the bad guys, it would be the first time that he'd encountered a spy using a virgin-until-marriage cover.
Bottom line, until today Ryan had never believed in auras. The moment he saw her, even before formal introductions, he'd seen a pure, white light radiating from Fawn. He saw it still.
But now, walking hand in hand with Fawn on the beach, he felt something else. The night had turned sultry.
Don Chapman is editor of MidWeek.
His serialized novel runs daily in the Star-Bulletin
with weekly summaries on Sunday.
He can be emailed at dchapman@midweek.com