“Theophilus
Hsu.” A voice from behind him made him halt and turn. At the sight that greeted
him, his heart sank.
“Kekoa
Palapiti. Wow. Nice to see you. God. What a coincidence—” A horrible thought
occurred to him. “Wait—”
“Your
mother sent me to pick you up.” And just like that, paradise got lost. “She was
worried she wouldn’t be up to lifting your baggage.”
Kekoa
Lani Palapiti—next-door neighbor, childhood friend, and secret lifelong thirst
trap made that sound like “psychological” baggage. As if he thought Theo had a
lot of that particular thing.
Theo
shrugged. Christ. “I can lift my own
luggage. She could have called. I’d have taken a cab.”
“So
next time tell her you got cash to throw away. Save me a trip.”
Theo
turned away and swiped his card in the cart machine. “Next time.”
Theo
knew his mother well enough to know she’d forced this meeting for the sake of
expedience. Without it, who knew how long it would have taken him to get the
nerve to talk to Koa. Still, it felt forced and ridiculous, and now they were
both only going along because she wanted it and they loved her.
Aren’t we?
Koa
helped him shoulder his bags onto the cart. His scent filled Theo’s nostrils
with the smell of rain on taro leaves.
“Follow
me.” Koa turned and started walking.
Theo
had no choice but to grab the cart and follow.
On
the way to the parking garage, he focused on Koa’s thick,
broad shoulders, his narrow hips. His boy had grown up as fine as promised.
Mom’s photographs didn’t do him justice, but then a photograph couldn’t convey
the swagger of a born badass like Koa. He hadn’t lost that arrogance. If
anything, he wore it like armor now.
“So,
you didn’t like Big Lake?” he asked.
There
was no easy answer for that. “Bear Lake was where I lived specifically, and…
no. Not really. I liked some parts.”
“Like
what?”
Since
Koa seemed to ask for form’s sake, Theo didn’t actually have to oblige him with
an answer. Nevertheless, he spoke truthfully. “It was pretty.” He’d enjoyed
driving in the darkness along roads where the trees looked like ice-covered
ghosts. “People are as nice as they say.”
“You’ll
be joining the HPD?”
“Yep.”
He’d applied to and been accepted by the Honolulu Police Department. It wasn’t
a lateral move, but he’d move up quickly if he showed initiative. He didn’t
care. New life, new dreams. He might not even stay on the force if he found
something that he wanted to do more. He might go back to school….
“Te?”
Theo
blinked and found they’d stopped at a pedestrian crossing. The sound of his old
nickname slid over his spine, dazing him momentarily. Obviously Koa had asked a
question and now he waited for an answer. “I’m sorry, I was lost in space or
something.”
“I
said, I was sorry about your dad. I meant to send a card, but you know how it
is….”
“Likewise,”
Theo offered, since Koa’s parents had both passed fairly recently, a few months
apart. “I was really sorry to hear about your folks.”
Koa
shrugged again.
Theo
asked, “You still living in the Ssugar
Sshack?”
“Where
else?” A sly smile found Koa’s lips at the reminder. Whether it was the shared
memory or evidence Theo still had some local knowledge, Koa thawed visibly on
hearing their nickname for the odd wreck of a house the Palapitis had called
home.
Theo
let his thoughts out. “I’ma miss your mom, brah. Even more than the candy.”
They
paused for a moment of silence for the woman whose homemade chocolates,
caramels, fudge, and nut brittles were so completely off-the-charts delicious,
her friends had forced her into business.
“Can’t
bring Mom back,” Koa said. “Auntie Lala makes the candy now, she’s got Mom’s
recipes. Been a while since I cooked sugar.”
“I
can imagine.” A detective probably had little time to cook. “So. Work. Ma says
you got your shield now? Must be good, huh?”
“What’s
good?” Koa gave an eye roll. “You know how it is. There are bad guys
everywhere, dirty money flows, but the economy sucks, and assholes think
Hawai‘i is their private playground to shit on.”
The
muscles in Koa’s jaw flexed. Mnh. You
could open a coconut with a jaw like Koa’s.
“I
see your new hobby is optimism. That’s so nice.”
Theo
figured he’d see Koa again, but he wasn’t prepared for the jolt of desire that
shot through him every time he got a fresh look at how well he’d turned out. He
had tats and piercings and a sweet scruffy soul patch. A warm, if mostly
hidden, grin.
Koa
rubbed at his chin. “Sorry. Had a bad night. Caught a body.”
“And
my mother still tapped you to haul me in? She is shameless.”
“What
do you mean?” Koa frowned at him.
“She’s
been bugging me about getting together with old friends. You know what?” He
motioned between them. “I think this is a playdate.”
“I
think she knew her car would flip over with all your crap.” He motioned for
Theo to stay on the curb. “Wait here, I’ll come around and pick you up.”
“I
can walk.”
“Don’t
be an ass.” He slipped his Oakleys on. Same kind Theo wore, different color.
Figured—they always had the same taste. “Wait here.”
Koa
loped across the street and into a parking garage with such easy grace. He’d
grown up sleek and fast and powerful. A detective with—if Theo’s mother’s few
phone conversations were to be believed—a consistent, statistically high solve
rate. His mother was fixated on making sure they got reacquainted, but he
hadn’t realized how determined she was. He’d expected her to give him a day or
two.
He
and Koa were childhood friends. Blood brothers. Theo had been on the cusp of
adolescence and ready to confess that, for him, the feelings went much deeper.
He’d even started writing stories about two boys having adventures and sharing
them with Koa as a way to let off that prepubescent steam, when his dad decided
it wasn’t enough to just divorce his mom—the two of them had to leave the
islands and start fresh somewhere else. Just the men.
He
and Koa were strangers now. But he’d still call Kekoa Palapiti his first love.
Theo
slipped his shades on and waited until Koa pulled up to the curb in a massive
black SUV with tinted windows. Magnetic door signs read Ohana Sugar Magic and
featured Auntie Lala’s smiling face. Together they threw his bags into the
back. Koa let the SUV idle while Theo ditched the cart.
“I
can’t believe you paid money for a cart.” Koa laughed at him when he returned
and got in. “That’s, like… the uncoolest thing I think I’ve ever seen. Three
suitcases that roll and you shell out for a cart. Buy a bungee cord.”
“You’re
one to talk. Whose big bad SUV has his aAuntie
Lala’s face on the doors? That’s some fierce shit, brah.”
“It
is when Lala’s driving it with candy in the back.”
Theo
let him have his fun. “Mom tells me there’s no Mrs. Palapiti.”
“My
mother was Mrs. Palapiti. Until she passed.” He threw an inquisitive glance
Theo’s way. “She’d give you a ration for bailing on your mom’s wedding. But I
get why you didn’t go.”
“Do
you?” Theo’s dad had been killed the week before the wedding. Nothing anyone
could have done for him. Even so, Theo hadn’t been able to make himself go to
his mother’s wedding while his dad was in the morgue—his body still evidence of
a crime. By the time they’d laid him to rest, his mother was back from her
honeymoon in Bali and it didn’t matter as much anymore. After that, he just
kept putting off meeting his mother’s new family for one valid reason after
another.
“Your
mother understood,” Koa told him. “She doesn’t expect a person to grieve a
certain way.”
Theo
knew that. He wanted to point out that he knew his mother too, but he only
asked, “What keeps you busy these days?”
“Work.
Training. I dance because your mom would kill me if I stopped, but I don’t
really have time now. Just charity shit when I can.”
“Mom
says dance keeps her young. Something must.” At nearly sixty, his mother still
looked to be in her midthirties. He hoped it was genetic. She loved hula and
his dad had hated it. He said if Theo could learn to dance, he could learn to
fight, and enrolled him in martial arts as soon as he could walk.
“It
keeps me in shape.” Koa slid a glance Theo’s way. “You’re looking good. What
keeps you in shape?”
“Subzero
temperatures and Midwestern food.”
“Isn’t
the food pretty calorie dense up there.”
“Not
iof
you don’t like it.”
“You
always were a picky eater.” Koa chuckled. “I guess you don’t surf much either.”
“You
can surf the Lakes, you know.” Theo gave him the look he deserved for being an
asshole. People did surf in the Great Lakes. But they were airheads who came
from Norway or something. Their ancestors had probably mated with reindeer and
polar bears. On their behalf, he pointed out, “The waves are best in winter.”
Koa
glanced his way. “Pics or it didn’t happen.”
“I never did it,” Theo admitted. “I’m
saying it’s theoretically possible.”
Silence
stretched out between them again. It was a long ride, and as Koa drove, Theo
flew his hand out the window and marked the buildings he remembered. So much
had changed. He’d changed.
When
they pulled into Theo’s mother’s driveway, Koa turned to him. “I hope you don’t
mind, I don’t have time to come in. Say hi to your mom.”
“Okay.”
Disappointment warred with relief in Theo’s heart. Relief came out a winner.
The last thing he needed was disinterested bystanders. “Pop the locks, I’ll
just get my things from the back.”
He
stepped down, went around, and hauled his things out. From the outside pocket
of the lightest one, he pulled a signed copy of Plummet to Soar. He’d put it there to give to his mother because
he’d assumed she’d pick him up. He had other gifts for her, so it didn’t
matter.
“Hey,
brother.” He smiled awkwardly and waved for Koa to roll down the window.
“Present for you.”
“Mahalo.
Really?” Surprised, he took it and gave it a quick perusal. “Hey, it’s
autographed to you. You sure?”
Theo
nodded. “That book changed a lot of things for me. I hope you enjoy it.”
Koa’s
dark eyes—when he lifted his gaze—held some earnest question Theo couldn’t
begin to answer. They widened. “I don’t suppose you ever figured out what
happened at the end of that thing you were writing…?”
“You
remember that shit?” He said the words like Sheesh,
who remembers? As if he hadn’t just been thinking that very thing.
Obviously now he understood what those ridiculous stories were, but at the
time?
Looking
back, Theo blushed with shame.
Koa
gave his lower lip a quick nibble. Theo’s dick sat up and got ready to beg. Down, boy. “I think when last I read,
our plucky heroes were in a Malay prison.” Koa glanced at him. “Sentenced for a
crime they didn’t commit.”
“Tunneling
their way to freedom.” Theo nodded. “One of those boys always got himself
jammed up, and the other saved the day.”
“Well,
you write what you know.” Koa was laughing at him.
Theo
didn’t take lead and he wasn’t much of a follower. Sidekick was more his style.
But in those stupid stories, he always, always saved the day. Maybe with Koa
he’d wanted to try taking the lead….
Koa
asked, “Wasn’t one of them about to be caned?”
“Yeah?”
Theo admitted hoarsely. At the time, news stories of corporal punishment—as
applied to dumb Westerners in places like Malaysia and Taiwan—had fired his
imagination, for a lot of reasons. Some not so wholesome.
Koa
snorted. “You dug writing that dark shit. The beatings. The extra, extra tight
male bonding. Admit it.”
“Hell
yeah.” Motherfucker. You went there. I cannot believe you went there the second
you saw him again. “I never finished writing any of those. But there’s
always time, you know?”
Koa
glanced over again. This time, unmistakably, he checked Theo out. “Maybe you
should.”
Holy
mother. Had Koa just…?
Did he just…?
Koa’s
SUV was well clear of his mother’s property before Theo had the words to
