Mom laughs, patting my stomach again as she says, “Yes, you have. You love your family and this island and surfing.”
“I mean, yeah,” I say with a laugh. “But that’s different.”
“Tell me,” she now says, moving so she’s standing in front of me, her hands gripping mine as she looks up at me, an easy smile on her face.
“Tell you what?”
“Do you think about her when you’re apart?” she asks, tipping her head in the direction of the porch.
“Every second,” I reply.
Mom’s smile widens. “And when you’re together...”
“When we’re together, I can’t stop looking at her or touching her or kissing her,” I say, my eyes on Quinn, who’s still on the phone. “I want to be with her all the time, Ma.”
“I know,” she says, squeezing my hands. “And when you do look at her, what do you see?”
I smile, the words out before I have a chance to stop them. “My future.”
She squeezes my hands again before letting them go, resting her palm against my cheek. “That’s what being in love feels like, Kai,” she whispers. “It looks good on you.”
I roll my eyes, smiling as I pull her into another hug. “Yeah, yeah, don’t go getting all mushy or whatever on me.”
Mom laughs as she pulls back. “I’m just happy you’re so happy,” she says.
“I am,” I confirm with a nod as Quinn hangs up the phone and looks over at us.
“Alright, well I’ll leave you to it. Come for dinner sometime this week, both of you,” she adds, looking up at Quinn, who’s walking back to us.
“We will. See you, Ma, and thanks again for the fish.”
I drop a kiss to the top of her head and watch as she hugs Quinn goodbye before driving off. Slinging an arm around Quinn’s shoulders, we head inside.
“Everything okay with Allie?” I ask.
“Yeah, she just wanted to let me know the first payment has been made and to say thank you again for the exclusive.”
“I get a good vibe from her,” I say as we head into the kitchen. Opening the fridge, I pull the fish out, along with two beers and some salad ingredients. “You okay with the mahi mahi for dinner?” I ask.
She smiles. “Only if you cook it. I have no clue how to.”
“Easy done, babe,” I say with a wink. “So how do you think today went?” I ask.
“Good. I agree, I get a good vibe from her too. She feels genuine, like she really wanted to hear my side of the story, all the good and bad parts.”
“Yep.”
“She wanted to know if I was okay with her mentioning that my parents died too.”
“Are you?” I ask, twisting a cap off one of the beers and handing it to her.
Quinn takes it, blowing out a breath before she takes a sip. “I am, yeah. I’ll let Isla know once I’ve heard the final edits, but it’s a part of everything. Why I fell for him, why I stayed. Why I stupidly wanted to have kids with him.”
I twist off the cap of my beer. “Do you still want to have kids?” I ask, that weird feeling that’s been in my chest all day intensifying again.
Quinn takes another sip of beer, her eyes never leaving mine. “I mean, yeah,” she eventually says. “But I don’t know, maybe it’s not going to be on the cards for me.”
I step toward her, my mom’s words, that weird feeling, all of it colliding together inside me. “Why?”
