My Kind of Town
Kiss Me, Love
>> Kahala Beach
Fawn Nakamura had her rules. The 27-year-old virgin had never even held hands on a first date, much less kissed a guy. And here she was strolling hand-in-hand on the beach with Chuck Ryan as a sliver of moon graced the sky and glittered the sea. And she didn't feel guilty! She was feeling wonderful in a kind of way that she'd never experienced before. Fawn suddenly understood how some girls made mistakes in the heat of the moment.Feeling her own humanity made her suddenly nervous. "We should probably be heading back," she said.
"It is getting late," Ryan said.
They walked up from the beach, past the Kahala Mandarin Oriental pool and stopped to watch the dolphins, but couldn't see any movement in the dark lagoon.
"Maybe they're sleeping," Fawn said. "Do dolphins sleep?"
"You got me," he said. Boy, did she.
Fawn seemed to understand his double entendre. She smiled up at him. The feeling was so mutual.
Up the stairs, past the Veranda where they'd earlier had tea and cucumber sandwiches, still they held hands. But then they reached the valet desk and had to fish out their claim tickets for Billy Pasco, the head valet. He smiled knowingly. When they left him an hour ago, they seemed nervous, distant. Now they were holding hands. Billy knew there was magic in the moonlight on that beach, and this couple proved it again. He was 50ish, she was in her mid-20s. An unlikely couple, but they looked happy together.
Ryan's rental Intrepid came first, but he wouldn't leave until Fawn's Accord arrived. He tipped Billy for both of them, walked Fawn to her car.
"I got it," he said to the young valet who brought her car, and held the door for Fawn. "I hope I can see you again."
"You have my card. Call any time."
"I will."
And then, before God and Billy Pasco and everyone else, Fawn did what she had never done before. She stretched on tiptoes to give Ryan a quick little kiss on the cheek. But she found it difficult to move away when she smelled his masculine scent, and her lips lingered longer than she planned.
Before she could break any of her other rules, Fawn practically jumped into her car, threw it into gear and pulled away, feeling breathless and hopeful as the radio played the Makaha Sons' "Kiss Me, Love."
"Oh my," she said to herself. "Oh my."
Ryan waved and watched her go, forgetting everything but the new life she had breathed into his heart.
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