my opinion. When I worked with clients, it became so important to build their vision that I sometimes lost mine in the process.
But working on Makoa’s condo?
It was just like being twelve again, like endless possibilities and a creative outpouring with nothing to stop it.
“I can see smoke coming out of your ears,” Makoa said, slipping up behind me where I stood in the middle of his sitting room.
It’d been a week since he held me outside Doc’s bar, since we made a pact to give this thing a shot, and every minute since that one had been terrifyingly blissful.
Work was still crazy, and Gemma still had to lead on Makoa’s project while I handled the Coffee & Cubicles contract. But almost every evening I ended up here, looking at what had been done and tinkering with shit until it felt right.
And in the midst of it all, there was Makoa.
I smiled as he wrapped his arms around me, leaning back against his chest with my eyes still on the wall. “I’m just thinking.”
“About how badass this room looks, thanks to you?”
I chuckled, rubbing his massive hands where they rested over my hips. I both loved and feared how comfortable it felt, that small, intimate touch. “It is coming together, isn’t it?”
“I think it’s the best room in the house. The way you’ve managed to bring Maui and Chicago together…” He kissed the skin under my ear, eliciting a shiver. “It’s unbelievable.”
“If you’re trying to butter me up for a better price,” I said, leaning back to kiss his neck. “It’s working.”
Makoa smirked. “Oh, no haggling going on here. You’re worth every penny.”
He smacked my ass with that affirmation, and I swatted him away, turning my attention back to the far wall of the room. We’d upgraded the fireplace that was there to one that lined the whole wall, one you could turn on with the push of a button. Gray rocks lined the bottom of it, and with the warm lighting and polished teak accents of the room, it felt akin to what I imagined being on the island during a hot summer night would feel like.
Everything I’d envisioned was coming together. Along with the warmth of the island, there was the cool, edgy vibe of Chicago weaved into every corner, too. The metal art print of the volcano pouring into the ocean was framed in a cold geo frame, one that played with the legs of the coffee and end tables. The soft hazelnut leather of the chairs and sofa were offset by the bright, smooth, pearl and pewter marble tops of the tables, and the plush fur rug that brought them all together seemed to capture both the island and the city as one.
Every piece of art, and furniture, every vase and plant, every inch of that room was a vision come to life.
But there was something missing.
“I think it needs a personal touch…” I mused, tapping my bottom lip with my index finger. I spun to face Makoa as the idea struck me. “How do you feel about family photos?”
“You want to hang some in here?”
I shrugged. “Why not? We could frame some, put them on the bookshelves. Oh! And maybe some childhood knick-knacks. Did you have a favorite toy that you kept over the years, or a book or movie or something?”
A knowing grin found Makoa’s devilishly handsome face, and he held up one finger. “Hold, please.”
I turned my attention back to the wall, imagining all the ways we could tie in those pieces of home. When Makoa came back, it was with a large box, and he dropped it to the middle of the floor before the beast of a man made his way to sit cross-legged in front of it.
He patted the floor next to him, and that childhood feeling found me again as I took a seat.
“One thing about my family,” he said, popping the cardboard flaps open on the box and reaching inside. “We’re possibly the most sentimental people on the planet.” He pulled out an old, ratty, stuffed bunny with one eyeball missing. “And we might hold onto enough stuff to get us on an episode of Hoarders one day.”
I laughed, taking the bunny from his hand and turning it over in mine. “Who is this cutie?”
“That’s Mr. Bunny, of course.”
“What a unique and unsuspecting name choice,” I teased, cocking a brow at Makoa.
He grinned, taking the bunny and watching it with a distant smile as he plucked bits of