Eighteen (18) (24 page)

“Double awww.” I have to place my hand over my heart. “I love your mom.”

“She likes you too.”

“She hired me to redesign the Anaheim website.”

“I like web design as your career choice. You can do it from anywhere.”

“Will I need to do it from anywhere?”

“We won’t know until I’m done with my defense, I guess.”

We
. God, maybe Gigi was right? Maybe he’s really planning on us being together after this is over?

“I’ve got a lot of institutions interested in my project, but no buyers yet. Hopefully that will change tomorrow.” He’s holding my hand and he brings it to his lips and kisses it. And then he gives me a sheepish smile that is so different from the man who usually has me sucking his dick in his kitchen while talking triangles.

“You’re gonna do great,” I say. “You’re gonna wow the fuck out of those Hawaiian nerds.”

His face lights up with amusement. “That’s why I love you, Shannon. You always know how to make things right.”

“Aww. You’re a romantic like your dad.” I giggle.

“I did learn from the best.” He leans over and kisses my lips. It’s one of those long, slow ones. He doesn’t break away until he’s good and finished, even when the attendant stands there asking for our empty drink cups so we can take off. “I know how to treat a woman, Shannon. So far we’ve done the ‘getting to know you’ stuff, but the ‘we’re in it together’ stuff is yet to come. So get ready.”

I stare at him, my mouth probably hanging open. “I’m ready.”

“Finally.” He chuckles and hands our empty cups to the waiting attendant.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

He wasn’t kidding. He does know how to treat a woman.
There’s a chauffeur waiting for us in Hilo after we get our bags and the whole drive to the hotel, I am jittery with anticipation. The closer we get to the ocean, the more I realize that this is not just a trip. This is a milestone in our relationship.

The Four Seasons Hotel in Kailua-Kona is a long drive. An hour and a half from the astronomy center. And if that little fact wasn’t enough to convince me this trip is about us, then the romantic ocean-front room is. Mateo tips the bell boy as I stand out on the terrace. Waves are crashing not fifty feet from me. The beach looks perfect, and the sun is just about to rise, so it lights up the west with a haze of pink and orange. I know we have a big day, but I can’t stop myself.

As soon as the bell boy leaves I turn to Mateo. “We need to swim! Now!”

He laughs. “You act like you’ve never seen a beach before.”

“I don’t even know what to say about this, Mateo. Really, I had no idea you had this kind of money.”

He comes up behind me and wraps his arms around me. “Does it bother you?”

“Are you kidding?” I giggle. “No. But I know this is special. I won’t expect this kind of luxury every time we go somewhere.”

“Why not?” he asks. “That’s what money is for.”

“Because I’m young. I haven’t worked for it. I should have to put in a little more effort to get things like this.”

“You can put more effort in any time you want, Miss Drake. But I’m not keeping track. You’d really rather swim than sleep with me right now?”

We’re all off schedule. We slept on the plane, since that was a six-hour ride. But we got in at three am and it took forever to get here and get checked in, so now it’s closer to six. He needs to be at the planetarium at noon to start setting up and that’s all the way back by the airport, so sleep is probably the better option.

And of course, who in their right mind would choose swimming over sleeping with a man like Mateo?

“I choose you,” I say, turning into him and leaning up on my tiptoes to kiss him on the mouth.

“Right answer,” he says, taking me by the hand and leading me towards the bed.

Six hours later we’re dressed—Mateo is wearing a dark blue suit and I’m in a semi-wrinkled sundress—and messing around with his computer in the planetarium control room.

“How old are the kids?” I ask Mateo, who is kneeling down trying to figure out how to hook up his computer. I have figured out from conversation that Mateo has written software for this presentation. Some kind of very impressive software. I’m not overly surprised because he’s a genius.

“Twelve,” he says. “Sixth graders. That’s the optimal age to get them interested enough in science to plan a high-school math curriculum.”

“Ah. I see I’m six years too late.”

He looks up at me and shoots me a scowl. “Don’t, OK?”

“Don’t what?”

“Make jokes about your age. It bugs me.”

“Why?” I say, kneeling down to grab the cord he’s not seeing, but needs.

“Because it’s always been an issue for you and I don’t want it to be an issue today. There are a lot of important people here from other planetariums around the world I’m counting on being impressed. I really don’t want to be wondering if you think I’m too old for you.” He takes the cord from my hand and slides it into the port on the top of the control panel. There’s a ton of doohickeys and knobs, things I have no clue about, but which look very serious.

“OK,” I say. “And it’s not really an issue.”

“Good,” he says, his smile back. “Because I have a surprise for you.”

I give him a sideways look and an eyebrow arch for good measure. “Should I be worried about that surprise?”

“No.” He laughs and gives me a kiss.

The doors open below and kids start filing in. The control room is situated up above the seats, much like a projector is in a movie theatre.

“OK,” he says, “go find your seat. And here.” He grabs a program off the console and hands it to me. “You can read this while you wait. I’ll be down in”—he checks his watch—“fifteen minutes.”

He starts to turn away but I place my hands on each of his shoulders and make him go still. “You’re going to do great, Mr. Alesci. You are the smartest man I’ve ever met. You will rock this place so hard, they won’t know what hit them.”

He lets out a deep breath as I straighten his tie and lean up on my tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Shannon. I needed that.” He gives me another quick kiss just as the director of the planetarium comes in and they start to chat.

I take my cue and leave, making my way down the stairs. It’s sorta interesting what Mateo does. Astronomy. Very unusual, especially for a such a tough guy. I do love the stars on his body though. I trace them every time we make love at his house. Some of them are patterns. I guess those are constellations. I’m not all that up on my astronomy, but I have a feeling he’s going to wow me today. Especially if what he’s working on is suitable for twelve-year-olds.

I chuckle to myself at that, and then start searching for my seat as I walk into the auditorium through a special side door. It’s not hard to find, I’m in seat A-15. Right smack in front of the podium.

I take a seat next to a girl who is diligently reading her program. She has dark pigtails that hang halfway down her back and she’s wearing white shorts and a yellow top that make her bronze skin glow. “What’s this word?” she asks me, shoving her unruly friend away in the seat next to her.

I lean over and find the words she’s having trouble with. “Trigonometry,” I say.

“What’s that?” She crinkles her nose.

“It’s math. You use circles and triangles to figure out mysteries of the universe.”

“Do not!” the hyper girl in the next seat says.

“Be quiet, Kani,” the pigtailed girl snaps, before turning her attention back to me. “How do you do that?”

“Um…” Shit, I should have an answer. I feel inadequate as Mateo’s biggest cheerleader. “Well, the guy who is talking today is my boyfriend and he knows all about it. So if you listen to what he says, you’ll understand when you leave here.”

“Does he study the planets?”

“Ahhh…” Damn. I should know this. “He studies stars. And… exoplanets. Those are planets that orbit around stars that are very far away from our sun.” I feel proud that I actually remember that. Mateo has been reading about exoplanets all semester.

“I think I like stars.”

“Mmm,” I say, my eyes wandering to the picture of Mateo in her program. He’s got his dress shirt sleeves rolled up in that picture and I can see his tattoos. “Me too.”

The lights dim and Mateo comes out of the special door that leads to the control room, and then all the kids start shushing each other to be quiet.

“Good afternoon,” he starts, his eyes finding me immediately. I smile at him. Beam at him, actually. I’ve never really seen Mateo in his work mode. He’s all smart and sexy-looking right now.

He introduces himself and tells the kids a little bit about his project, why he’s here, and what they can expect. And then the place goes complete black and every kid gasps.

But then the ceiling lights up with stars and begins to move. It swirls, slowly at first, making the stars begin to blur, and then faster and faster until the kids are squealing and the stars are so blurred, they form white circles above out heads.

It stops, and Mateo talks. And with each thing he describes, the show above us changes. We move past the Solar System and he zooms in on a faraway smear of bright colors, calling it by name.

And when I look around, every head is turned up. Every mouth is open in awe. And every set of eyes is filled with wonder.

Mateo has that effect on me as well.

He talks about the stars for a long time. He talks about faraway planets that we can’t actually see, but he’s got animations that capture everyone’s attention and make them all go, “Ohhhh.”

God, I might love this man for real.

And then he brings us all back to Earth and lights the ceiling up with the outlines of the constellations. “The ancients came up with these pictures,” Mateo says. “But you can come up with your own pictures in the stars. Should we make a new one today?”

“Yes!” they all scream.

“OK,” he says, clicking the remote in his hand. “But we have to solve problems to do it. So who knows the answer to this problem?”

It’s an easy multiplication problem, so they all shout it out. And up above us, a line appears. It connects one star to the next. He calls out another problem, and another, and each time the lines connect the stars like a dot-to-dot puzzle.

“He’s spelling something,” rowdy Kani whispers from the other side of pigtail girl.

“It’s a name,” my new friend whispers back.

It
is
a name. My name.

“Are there any Shannons in here?” Mateo asks once it’s all spelled out.

Everyone looks around, searching for Shannon.

“Come on, someone here is named Shannon.” He looks right at me. I shake my head, so embarrassed. “You?” he calls out to me. “Your name is Shannon?” He holds out his hand. “Come here, Shannon.” And he says it in that growly voice he usually reserves for our kitchen antics.

The girls next to me squeal and the pigtailed one starts pushing me to join him up front.

“Oh, my God.” But I get up and walk over to him, taking his hand.

“This is my girlfriend,” he says, looking at me with the biggest grin. “And I tricked her into coming to see this show today so I could ask her something.”