Love Me Forever by Ari Thatcher

divide and kiss it. Instead she turned toward the back seat. “So, what's our first stop?”
    Adam answered. “I thought we should start at the beginning, the harbor. Keawaiki. Then follow the mapped walk.”
    Matt glanced in the rear-view mirror. “Sounds good. I can take you to a few off the path sites while we’re in that area.”
    They’d started early enough in the day the crowds hadn’t gathered yet. A guided tour had just begun, the docent reciting the standard script about the harbor and the ships that commonly docked outside the reef. Jen and her friends hung back, letting the group move on a ways before starting off.
    “We’ll probably want to walk slowly to not catch up with the group,” Matt suggested. He paused outside an art gallery and examined the window display. “A lot of the historical walk describes buildings that are no longer standing, but a few have been restored, and there are a few museums you might enjoy.”
    Adam pointed at another shop and walked down the street. Ben caught up with him while Jen and Matt moved more slowly.
    “Do you want to get in some shopping while we’re here?” Matt asked her.
    “I do need to get some souvenirs. The hotel has some nice postcards, but I’d love to find some dresses and shirts for my sister’s family. And a muumuu for Mom.”
    “You have a sister?”
    She glanced up at him, her hair swinging over her shoulder. It startled her, still, how much she needed to look up to meet his eye. “Yeah, didn’t I ever talk about her?”
    “I don’t think either of us talked about family. About where we came from, who we were. We were too busy focusing on the moment.”
    Laughing, she added, “Who’d hooked up with whom. Which actors were having an affair. And what musician had a new release.”
    “That’s all that mattered when we were twenty. And yet I felt like I knew you inside out.”
    A delicate teacup and saucer in the store window caught her attention and she paused. “You did. You knew the important stuff. That I liked to dip my French-fries in chocolate shakes, not catsup. I preferred sweet tea to soda pop.”
    “That you even called it soda pop. I always thought you were something out of a sitcom, too pure to be real.” He pulled at a lock of her hair, drawing her attention back to him. Standing on the sidewalk in the shade of a tree, he held her in place with his gaze. “You definitely weren’t like the girls I was used to.”
    Shrugging, she wrinkled her nose. “I guess I was pretty innocent. I never realized the reason everyone went to Ricky’s room was to buy cocaine. And when I found out that Kimmy, the waitress, was sleeping with three different guys, sometimes at the same time, I was speechless.”
    “They don’t have foursomes in Missouri?”
    “The only time I heard the term was when Daddy was golfing on Saturday morning. And I don’t think they dropped their drawers to do it!”
    Matt pushed his shades up on his head and studied her. “Do you think if I hadn’t lost your phone number, we’d have been able to have a relationship?”
    The need to remove any barriers hit her as it must have him. She took off her sunglasses, holding them by one earpiece. “I’d planned on it. I was sure that’s what you wanted, and I held onto hope until the end of winter break.”
    “I never felt so frustrated over anything. I searched the phone listings online, searched for your name.”
    “Yeah, you said. Look, it’s in the past. We can’t change how life ended up. Let’s just enjoy what we have now.”
    Stroking his hand over her cheek, he looked deep into her eyes before leaning down and claiming her mouth. The kiss started so tender, so familiar, and build into a passionate, private moment.
    Ben’s voice reached them from down the street. “Hey, you guys, are we taking a tour or what?”
    Matt pulled back, grinning at Jen. “Yeah,” he called out, “We’re coming.”
    She fitted herself to his side, tucked under his