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“What’s up, bitches?” Faith asked.
“Talking about love,” Kalina said.
“What else would the sapster of the island talk about?” she replied.
“Sapster?” Kalina asked, truly not understanding what she meant.
“Like you’re sappy, Toots. You’re the Disney princess of the island. You’d probably be Sleeping Beauty if you weren’t afraid no prince would show up to wake you and you’d end up sleeping forever and missing out on all the fun.”
“There’s a lot of truth to that,” Kalina agreed.
“You’ll find love, Kalina,” Paisley assured her.
“Running out of single guys here,” Kalina said. “Maybe I should start trying to hook up with Horace.”
All three of them made a fake gagging sound. Horace was the biggest sweetheart in the entire world. He was an old sea turtle shifter who, when he wasn’t in his green-shelled form, was nothing more than a hippie full of knowledge and magic powers. There was a time when Kalina didn’t think his powers strayed beyond lucky guesses under the influence of all the weed he smoke, but she’d been wrong. He’d proven time and again that he had real healing qualities and was the one person to go to when one was truly lost. To put it into perspective, Kalina always thought of him as the Rafiki of their people. Their own priest-like baboon from The Lion King.
Okay, enough of this childlike thinking. Enough Disney. In those movies there’s always a happily ever after. I need to come to terms with the fact that I might find only an ever after.
The sound of a motorboat in the distance tickled at her senses. She scanned the horizon and everyone else did the same. Juan Diego’s boat was distinguishable from all others. They’d heard that one arrive and depart so often it was little more than natural background noise. This, however, was different. Kalina tried to get a fix on it, and as she did, the boat finally came into view.
“Should we hit the water?” Paisley asked.
With Thane gone, the natural leaders tended to be Faith and Kino. They were the two Thane looked to most often for support.
“What do you think, Faith?” Kino asked. “Wanna go for a swim?”
“I’m lazy,” she said. “Just woke up. Let them come to us.”
“Yeah, good idea,” Kino said as he tossed the football too low and Oliver caught it.
“Fuck,” Kino said.
“Guess whose dumb ass gets to go to the middle?” Oliver said. “And you better prepare to be there for a loooooong time because you
left me there forever, you prick.”
“I am what you eat!” Kino hollered.
“Funny,” Oliver said.
The boat approached quickly and when it finally became clear who was driving, Kalina felt her knees get weak. Kane was steering, but next to him was the gorgeous figure of the man she hadn’t stopped thinking about since last night. Rafe waved at her and she gave her own lame wave back. Her breath quickened, and she looked down at her body, wondering if the bathing suit she wore and the jean shorts looked sexy enough.
Thank God I’m not naked.
Kalina, like the others, wasn’t shy at all about her nude body. She walked around in her bare skin quite often, but she knew it would be strange for Rafe if he drove up and found a beach full of nudists. He might get scared away. It would have been more normal for Kalina and her kind to stay in the nude. It would make sense since they were constantly shedding clothes and having to pick up new ones, but they’d made it a point to try and stay dressed as often as possible with the kids around. At some point, the children would need to mingle with regular people in the real world and it wouldn’t help matters if they were used to strolling around with all their private parts dangling around. Right now, Kalina was so glad they’d made this decision.
Before the boat came to a complete stop, Rafe hopped off and landed in the water. It must have been deeper than he’d expected because he let out a loud “whoop” and went under. He bounced back up completely wet and Kalina fell for him all over again. She loved his innocence. His willingness to make a fool of himself and laugh it off.
“What a goof,” Faith said at her side.
“He’s endearing,” Kalina argued.
“Whatever,” Faith replied.
“Oh, he’s cute,” Paisley said.
“Back off,” Kalina snapped, looking at her friend with a warning glance.
