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I tried to remember where Juno had gone with the others, but I didn’t know enough about the island to follow them. And that gave me two options. To go inside and amuse myself with abook or try and talk to whoever else hadn’t gone with Juno and was in there.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Lukas
I frowned as I saw Kit still deep in conversation with Sarai and Richard. She had been talking to them for some time and hadn’t even tried to come over and spend time with me. After she had tried to claim that she wanted to spend the day with me and didn’t want anything between us to be just one night, I was more than a little confused.
Knowing the pair who were talking to her, I could imagine she was doing only one thing—trying to get herself some work. She kept showing them photos from her phone, and I shook my head every time.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Kai asked as he sat next to me.
I shrugged, not wanting to talk to anyone about her yet. “Nothing important.”
“Want to come for a ride out on the water to look for dolphins and have a snorkel or something?” He studied me as if he didn’t buy what I was saying but was offering me a way out anyway.
I looked over at Kit, still deep in conversation. Kai followed my gaze, but I smiled at him anyway. “Sure. I’ve got nothing to do here.”
Before he could suggest otherwise, I got up and abandoned my half-eaten breakfast. I was definitely done here, and I wasn’t going to come back for a while. That suited me just fine.
Within twenty minutes, I was sitting in the back of a small boat, swimming trunks on and surrounded by the rest of Jack’s band. Jack himself wasn’t with us, doing something else with Juno, but plenty of the other men were, many of them also single. It kept the talk of women to a minimum. Instead, Kai took it upon himself to help us find the interesting areas around the island where we could see exotic fish and swim with the wildlife.
There were snorkels and flippers for all sizes, and I donned those, too, wanting to enjoy the experience. For the next few hours, I switched off from everything and explored the water. Kai was right alongside me for a lot of it, still spry for his age and eager to see and experience everything.
It was infectious, and I soon forgot everything and enjoyed the moment. Once we were done in the water and sitting on the back of the boat on towels, he looked over at me again.
“Jack said you were wrapped up in your work a lot of the time, and I gotta admit, I wasn’t sure you’d be fun company, but you know how to relax too. Thank you for being here on this one.” Kai reached out his hand to shake mine, and I eagerly shook back.
“I’ll confess, I wasn’t sure about spending a few days on an island in the middle of nowhere, but it’s been good to get away from work and let it all go. It will still be there when I get back.”
“It’s always there if you let it. You should spend more time having fun. Kit seems to be willing to spend time with you. When she doesn’t have Sarai talking her ear off.”
“I think they were both talking each other’s ears off. Kit likes talking about what she does.”
“Don’t we all?” Kai chuckled and smiled as if I hadn’t just criticized Kit. “You should hear Alma sometimes. I think it’s adorable as long as they’re happy and not harming anyone. Life is hard enough on women when it comes to their careers. If I can support her to make up for it, I will.”
Although I didn’t entirely agree with the sentiment, I nodded and smiled politely. It was clear that Alma and Kai loved each other first and foremost. Helping someone who had your back and loved you was different from being taken advantage of by someone who was only with you for what they could gain.
I wasn’t about to make Kai worry about that when he was already safe and didn’t have to, though. As soon as I could, I asked him what Alma did, letting him talk about her and enthuse about her work while I listened. It was clear he enjoyed talking about her, and it helped pass the time on the way back to the island without him prying any more into my situation or insinuating that I should pursue a relationship with Kit.
So far, I had seen everything I needed to. She was only interested in me if a better business opportunity wasn’t around. And I didn’t want to be a girlfriend’s business opportunity or financial security. I was done being used in that way.
Now all I had to do was get through the rest of this trip and head home in the morning. I had plenty I could be getting on with, and if nothing else, I could say that I’d had a good time on the island and enjoyed the company at any point during the vacation.
It would be interesting that evening if Kit wanted to eat with me again, but one battle at a time. I wasn’t even back on the island yet. Not that it took us long to sail back. And everyone was hungry and ready for dinner by then.
Kit and most of the other women were nowhere to be seen, which made it easy for me to make some excuses and head to myroom to be alone for a while. I wanted to change after getting wet and being out in the sun the rest of the day.
Once I was dressed in a clean shirt, feeling refreshed again and ready to rejoin everyone else, I made the mistake of checking my phone. There were twenty missed calls from my PA and several from the office, too.
Although I considered ignoring them and going down to dinner anyway, I opted to call them back and see what they needed.
“This had better be urgent,” I said as soon as Henry answered.
“Sorry, boss. I didn’t want to disturb you, but it looks like Lucy is still having trouble with the client of the Grintock project.”
I frowned. “Can she straighten it out before I get there tomorrow?”
“Doesn’t seem like it. They’re asking for you and refusing to do any kind of deal. They think that only you can understand them and respect what it is they’re trying to achieve. Something about artistic differences.”
