Iowa Girl (Natalie) moves to Maui with her cousin-turned-best-friend Blayne, as Blayne gets a flying job at Mokulele, a local island-hopper airline. The two had been scheming to move somewhere together for almost a year, and Hawaii was the ultimate goal. They are young and oh-so-ready for an adventure. Within the first month of moving to the island, Blayne set up a breakfast with some of her Mokulele pilot buddies and Natalie at the Kula Lodge (amazing macadamia nut pancakes). A bit after everyone was sat down, someone with a strong mustache strolled in late - a captain named Kyle Stisher. Maui Boy (Kyle) had moved back home a year or so prior, hired on as a street captain at Mokulele. He had been living in a yurt by himself, although Natalie would tell you it was more like a glorified General's tent with a beautiful backdrop and a bathroom outside. Then, a few weeks later, Blayne and Natalie got their first invite to go out on the town with some new friends. They were stoked. Little did they know, they were going out to celebrate the late man with a mustache, Kyle, who was turning 27. They all had the most fun night, picking Kyle up at his parents house (his car had broken down), and dancing the night away at the Dirty Monkey in Lahaina. Natalie was DD on the way home, while the birthday boy insisted on riding shotgun. They talked the whole hour-way drive. Natalie was so curious about Kyle’s life growing up on Maui – it was so different from the one she had experienced in Iowa! When the car was close to dropping off Kyle, he slyly asked Natalie what she was doing the next day. She obliviously told him she and Blayne were going surfing, and he waited a moment before saying, “Oh we should go surf.” It dawned on her then that Kyle may have been flirting with her throughout the night and she immediately panicked, brushing off the comment. They didn’t see each other again for a couple weeks. Kyle made it clear to Blayne the next time he flew with her that he may be crushing on her cousin. Blayne immediately began teasing him, calling him ‘cousin lover’. Natalie heard the whisperings of course, intrigued but not overcome by the idea just yet. Not until they went to another birthday party in Lahaina, and all 11 people were kicked out of their one hotel room (huh, weird?!). Natalie and Kyle danced all night yet again, and, due to getting kicked out of the hotel room, ended up sleeping on the beach that night with some other friends. The two talked allll night long, and Natalie was struck by how easy he was to talk with and how much he made her laugh. Kyle was hoping for a kiss, but he didn’t quite earn that just yet. Even then it took a couple more weeks, to another night the friends had all met at a bar called Stopwatch in Makawao, when Blayne and Natalie needed a ride home. They practically forced Kyle to take them, and Kyle finally got his kiss that evening. :) Natalie and Kyle were glued together from then on, knowing from the start of their dating that this was special and different. They had so much fun together, constantly laughed, and constantly cared for one another in sweetness.