Not only did Asa love Nancy, but Nancy loved Asa. This was romance. Just like the movies. In fact, this was better than the movies. This was really, really something. I was glad I had joined Asa at Orinoco. I was learning something. After this, everything else would be dull stuff.

"How do you know she loves you?" I asked.

"The way she looks at me, dummy."

"The way she looks at you?"

"Yeah, the way she looks at me."

"How does she look at you?"

"For Christ's sakes, do I have to tell you everything?"

"Sure would be nice, Asa."

"Romance at the Swimming Hole," The Sound of Hilo Rain by Roy Kodani

"Why don't you tell me more about what's happening in your love life? You said it's on the rocks?"

"I've never been great with relationships," she admits. She tucks her legs underneath her. "It's one reason my older sister and I don't get along. She was very angry at me for seducing her husband." She rolls her eyes derisively.

I try to hide my shock but she notices my discomfort immediately.

"What?" She arches a perfectly plucked eyebrow. "It's not as if we can control whom we love. Or desire."

"Pele in Therapy" by Darien Gee, Don't Look Back: Hawaiian Myths Made New edited by Christine Thomas

"Makia, I really like you."

"You nice, too."

"You have a girlfriend? A lady you're close to?"

"I have friends, nothing romantic. I was married before."

She thought about that.

With all I had to cope with I didn't think there was anything there to love. I felt bad for her. I told her. I wasn't being cruel, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings. I wanted her to know, "Look at me, you're out of your head." The place for her was not with me. She was haole and she was rich. She didn't have the disease. I was fifty-one. She was in her forties.

But it was tough to say no to Ann. She slowly started to cut the resistance. And we had fun together, joking each other. She thought I was something, but she was something. She said she loved me and I gave in. Despite my fears I began to see a life with this woman who was so different from me.

My Name is Makia: A Memoir of Kalaupapa by Makia Malo and Pamela Young

Peggy was as bubbly in person as she was on the screen. She was very warm and friendly. No star-like airs. During the lunch she casu�ally asked, "So, where is Mrs. Sherman?"

"There is no Mrs. Sherman," I answered.

Her eyebrows shot upward. She paused and smiled, "Oh!"

She was a star entertainer. World famous. Played the best hotels and nightclubs. She had appeared in dozens of films from childhood and guest-starred in all the top TV shows. Me? I was just a hack news�paper columnist, way out in the blue Pacific. A great star like Peggy Ryan certainly couldn't take our Hawaii romance seriously. Marry me? Impossible.

"Peggy Ryan," Frank, Sammy, Marlon & Me by Eddie Sherman