One Drop of Golden Sun

Ch. 36 Here on the Pier

*Ray

Feet in the hot sand and sun on her face, the gentle rocking of waves in the distance—the last thing she should have on her mind was a couple of jerk-face dudes.

And yet...

Ray tried to forget Zach existed.

But those last couple of hours she spent at the house in Honolulu kept storming into her head and taking up real estate space. Like all the space.

And with the memories came the creeping nausea and thrumming, raw ache in her chest.

It must have been Zach who had visited when she was gone. He came back, and without knowing it was him, she bounded down the stairs when Felipe called for her.

Sun glowed on his hair and tanned skin, flecks of freckles danced on his nose and cheeks. He was nervous, shuffling his feet and ducking his head as he talked to her.

She hadn't wanted to listen. She knew for a fact he was full of bull-honkey, as her mother would say, and it was all the same old song over and over.

"I love you."

"We have to make this work."

"You're my girl. Not his, not anyone else's."

"I've been writing you, too. I'll get this straightened with Lokela, and then you'll see."

It was the last one that was different—the one that caught her by surprise.

Chewing on her lower lip and bouncing in place after she slammed the door on him, she had tried to immediately forget his existence.

It hadn't worked. She had been stuck in the hallway, frozen with indecision behind the front door.

Why would he need to figure his love life out with Lokela to prove himself to her? Weird. She returned to her room, where she picked up where she left off—finding her earrings. One of them had snagged on Lokela's hair last night...

He had already left for work. Knowing full well it was wrong, she tiptoed to his room. It wouldn't be more than thirty seconds to find it, if it was there. He wouldn't mind.

Would he?

She ducked inside, glad he had left the door unlocked. At the bed, she ran her hands over the bedspread, refusing to let herself think of what had gone on in that bed recently, then under the pillow and she pulled back the blanket. She crouched on all fours to peer under the bed. It was too dark. She hopped up to pull the blinds.

An envelope was under his other notebooks. Something was written on it that ended in ay.

Her throat , went inexplicably dry. Letters.

Zach's message on her phone: ...Lokela has been lying...

I've been writing to you...I'm going to talk to Lokela and figure this out...

She told herself to leave. She told herself to call Lokela and tell him about Zach and ask if he knew anything about letters or what he meant. She told herself not to take something without asking from Lokela's desk—not to spy and pry in his personal things.

She took the envelope from the bottom of the pile. Ray.

Her heart thudded, compressed by her rib cage. She opened it, breaking the seal. The scratch of tearing paper announced that she would never return to the time before this moment. She was crossing a line.

With a final tug, she obliterated that line. There were a dozen letters, dated, and all with her name on the first line.

Love letters.