My Beloved: A Thin Love Novella (5 page)

Keira thought she looked like something out of Vera Wang’s wet dreams, but without the subtlety or editing. She felt like a cupcake, surrounded in bright white lace and silk and various other adornments that added to the dress’s fifteen pound weight. It was a beautiful gown, really, but
Dear God
, there was too much of it.

She wanted to kill Kona. Well, she wanted to throttle him, at least.

Him or Auntie Malia, but when the old woman looked up at Keira with a wide, bright smile, her thin hands held to her chest as Keira stepped onto the circular platform in the bridal shop, her anger dulled to a low throb.

“Niece…” Malia said, covering that big smile with her fingers, nodding once when Malaine, her daughter, whispered in her ear. A quick thumbs up and the loud, excited women in the room, at least twelve of them, all related to Kona in some way, laughed and smiled, hugging Keira, ignoring the large bridal shop manager when she tried to wave them away.

“Really, Keira, you look beautiful. Cuz will fall out when he sees you.”

Of all the loud, sweet cousins Keira had met since coming to the island, it was Malaine that she understood most. As in, literal understanding, not some metaphor for unspoken sisterhood between the two women.

Malaine worked as a booking agent at Turtle Bay, planning events all over the island, dealing with a lot of mainlanders. She spent most of her time around
haoles
. Malaine usually spoke to Keira without pidgin, the comfortable dialect most locals used. After a few days immersed in this language, Keira had picked up a few phrases, she’d even caught Kona’s accent slipping the more he hung out with his cousins, but Keira’s knowledge of the island lingo was still limited.

The dialect was most pronounced when Kona’s family got excited—like the women were then, fussing over Keira, fluffing her hair and admiring the ridiculous gown they’d all chosen for her.

“Pretty Keira! Cuz is lucky
. How did he land you?” Keira shrugged, laughing at Lina, one of Kona’s cousins and Bridesmaid #8. “Hmm, longer train is mo better. Maybe you need more silk on the end, yeah?” Seeing Keira’s mouth hanging open, Lina laughed, a good natured sound that had Keira worried and then smiling when she patted her shoulder. “Nah.” Then she pointed to Keira’s face, likely pale and anxious, and elbowed her cousins, all of them laughing at Keira. “
Haole
cuz look sick, yeah?”

Keira was saved from their teasing when Leann slid into the room, dragging a disheveled, likely jet lagged Mark Burke behind her. The laughter died all around them as the women stared after Mark, analyzing him with careful, sharp eyes until Malaine waved them off. Keira caught the phrase “funny kine” and “best friend,” knowing Kona had told them about Mark and his relationship with Keira and Ransom. She liked that they suddenly hurried to offer him smiles and friendly nods as they walked out of the room. Relaxing at just the sight of her cousin and best friend, Keira watched them step quickly in front of her to give her the once over.

She knew by the smirk Mark tried and failed to cover, that Keira in this massive gown was the height of humor. He took out his phone, held it up at Keira and clicked a picture before she could hide her face.

“You will be throat punched, Burke.”

“Come on, Johnny won’t believe this.” Keira couldn’t help bristling at how loud he laughed, how amused he was at seeing her in this monstrosity of a dress. The idea that Johnny, Mark’s longtime partner, would share in the hilarity did not make Keira feel any better.

Leann held much the same tickled expression, but Keira arched an eyebrow at them both and shook her head once.

“Say a word and I pull out pictures from Cancun 2004.”

Her cousin paled, eyes immediately becoming cold and hard before Mark elbowed her. “She’s lying. Besides,” Mark said, stepping closer to the small stage, “you know we have dirtier dirt on her.”

Keira protested. “There is no way—”

“Uh huh. The year was 1999 and it damn sure wasn’t me or Leann who jumped Trisha Yearwood’s fence, pre-Garth, of course, and dodged her security to slip a demo under her Welcome mat.”

“Fine,” Keira said, not amused by how smug Mark had grown.

“Get off that little stage and come hug us.”

And Keira did, letting down her guard and allowing Leann and Mark to surround her, their arms and kisses the reprieve she needed from the chaos the wedding plans had been. She’d missed them desperately. Leann had been busy training her competition dance team for Regionals for weeks now and Mark had only just returned from his stint in South Sudan with Doctors Without Borders.

“Where’s my boy?” Mark asked, helping Keira toward the dressing room when the shop manager asked her if she wanted out of the gown.

She slipped behind the door, wiggling to her underwear with Leann’s help. “Kona took him to
Kahuku
High School.” She worked her head through her pink halter and shimmied on her white capris. “The football team is supposed to be like a religion here. Ransom didn’t believe Kona when he told him how many state championships and national rankings the team gets. He wanted to see them practice for himself.”

“Well hey there, person I recognize now.” Mark laughed at his own joke when Keira emerged from the dressing room, slipping on her wedges. “When will I get to see him?”

“Tonight. We’re supposed to be having a luau for the rehearsal, though I’m pretty sure it’s all for show. Luaus aren’t customary for locals.” She stepped up on the balls of her feet and kissed her friend on his cheek when Mark gave her a smile, as though he couldn’t believe he was seeing her in person. It had been half a year almost since Mark left for South Sudan. But that sweet cheek kiss was cut short when pounding on the large, glass window along the shop’s entrance started up.

“Keira! Does Kona know you’re cheating on him?”

“Shit,” she said, pulling Mark and Leann away from the windows, toward the storage room in the back of the shop.

“
Auwe
!” Keira heard Lina shout at the three photographers who had suddenly appeared in front of the store. Together the shop manager and Lina pulled the blinds down, blocking the photographer’s view. “Cuz, you stay here. Kona no want you around this
lolo kine
.”

“We can’t stay here forever,” Leann whined behind Keira, pulling on her bare arm. “Has this been going on a lot?”

“Started when we landed.” Keira tried to take the sharp tone out of her voice, but Mark and Leann both caught on. They each stood next to her, close, as though they were sentries and not overprotective drama queens. But Keira didn’t mind their melodrama. Other than Ransom, they knew her best and both were aware how much she hated attention. Keira had enjoyed success in obscurity. TMZ usually didn’t care about songwriters who didn’t party, didn’t often attend industry events and never dated. Then, Kona came back into her life and his wretched mother thrust both Ransom and Keira into the spotlight. The attention had only grown worse since Kona retired and had reached ridiculous levels now that Kona had returned to the island.

But the photographers outside weren’t many, and though the crowd was growing, doubled with the pleasant locals who wanted a bit of Kona’s time, Keira understood that this group was more interested in finding Kona than pestering her. It happened often enough back home and she knew that Kona coming back to the island only encouraged the excitement of the locals. It was hero worship that Keira understood. They only wanted a picture, a conversation, maybe an autograph. But “just one minute” and “this’ll only take a sec” usually turned into hours, sometimes an entire day that kept Kona from his family. Keira hadn’t seen or heard from him all day and now that those photographers—she recognized the same slimy ponytail wearing jerk that Kona had yelled at from the airport—had converged, joined by Kona devotees, and were likely inventing wild, ridiculous scenarios about her and Mark, that attention would only grow. It would take them awhile to duck out unmolested, especially if the crowd didn’t soon discover Kona wasn’t with her at the bridal shop.

“Is Kona supposed to be picking you up?” Leann asked, frowning as the banging on the shop window didn’t abate.

“He said he would, but that was before he went to the high school. I have no clue how long he’ll be out on that field.” Kiera pulled out her phone and sighed when a call to Kona went straight to his voice mail.

“All day if the kids spot him. He’ll be doing autographs, pictures, possibly pep talks.” When Keira looked up at Mark, tilting her head, he shrugged. “I watched ‘Any Given Sunday’. Jocks do that sort of stuff.”

“Not when their fiancés are trapped in a tiny bridal shop with a crowd stalking her.”

“That’s a wildly exaggerated version of the truth, Leann.” Keira waved off her cousin’s frown and stepped out of the storage room, nodding Lina over. “Can you get through to Kona?”

“No, cuz. He’s out with the Red Raiders. My boy Neo said that most of the town is running out there. That
kine
no take football easy like, yeah?”

“Great,” Keira said, moving back into the storage room when Lina answered a call. “I don’t like Ransom being around all those people.” Keira looked down at her phone, scanning through it to find her messages. There were none from her son or Kona and that bothered her more than she thought it should.

“I don’t like
you
around those people,” Leann said, nodding toward the front window to scowl at the three photographers still lurking outside the shop, trying to snap pictures between the slats in the lowered blinds. “They need to call the cops.”

Keira felt the pinch of tension working its way up her back when she lowered her shoulders. “Leann, it’s three photographers and a few locals who think Kona is here with us. Besides, all the cops are probably out at that school following Kona around.” She looked up at Mark, then to Leann, hoping that she didn’t sound too pathetic and whiny. “We’re gonna have to make a run for it.”

And that’s what they did. Mark in back of her, Leann barging through the small crowd toward the driver holding the car door open until they were all inside of it. She’d attempted polite nods, but couldn’t bring herself to answer their intrusive questions. And when they’d returned to the resort and Keira had still not heard from Ransom or Kona, she worried what sort of crowd
they’d
run into out on that high school football field. The bridal shop hadn’t been surrounded and the people milling around it were maybe twenty deep, aside from the lingering photographers. Keira worried that Ransom and Kona would be stuck out there unable to get back to the resort.

That worry turned to annoyance when she finally managed to get in touch with her son.

Keira:
Haven’t heard from you. What’s going on?
she texted Ransom. It took a minute, one that Keira thought stretched as the temperature in the suite rose and not even the cooling breeze wafting in from the balcony could keep the sweat off her skin.

Finally, her cell chirped and Keira read her son’s message.

Ransom:
It’s a madhouse over here. You get finished with all your girl stuff?

Keira:
Yes. Sort of. Is your dad watching out for you? I heard there’s a crowd.

She didn’t like the pause between his messages or how quickly that paranoid, anxious mother gene of hers kicked in. Ransom was big, just like his father, but Keira still saw him as her little boy. She didn’t like that he was out there with a bunch of strangers crowding around him.

Another chirp, and Keira frowned as she read Ransom’s reply.

Ransom:
They’re treating him like a king. It’s crazy. All these people everywhere. Hundreds. It’s freakin hilarious.

The niggling pluck of annoyance grew in Keira’s mind. She sat there worrying about her son, about Kona getting lost in that crowd and Ransom spoke like he was having the time of his life.

Keira:
So you’re safe?
She texted back, choosing to disregard her son’s king description.

Ransom:
Why wouldn’t I be?
And then, a few seconds later, before Keira could respond, he shot back,
you should get out here and see this shit.

That small flicker of irritation only grew. Mark and Leann had stayed with her at the resort for a while, but then she’d sent them back to their rooms, wanting some time to relax before Kona and Ransom returned. That was hours ago and the waiting and irrational worry for her son’s safety only made the time slow to a snail’s pace. Once again, though Keira hated to admit it to herself, she’d been shuffled to the sidelines as Kona, and now Ransom, enjoyed the spotlight. Frustrated, Keira knew sarcasm and anger didn’t translate well via text, but she still hoped Ransom caught on to her attitude.

Keira:
Can’t. Had to dodge a few photographers of our own. The car isn’t available and I’m stuck at the resort.

She was going to stuff her phone into her bag, try ignoring Ransom for a while to let her frustration cool, but the phone rang, vibrated in her hand and Keira relaxed, a little too happy when she saw Kona’s number flash across the screen.

“Hello?”

“Baby?” His voice was loud, as though shouting was the only way he knew he’d be heard over the screaming and laughing voices around him.

“Kona? I can barely hear you.” In her vivid imagination, Keira could see the crowd, faces similar to Kona’s kin, as they slapped his back and shoved footballs and Sharpies into his hand, begging for autographs. Kona’s voice was a faint blip among the hundreds of voices.