I quickly pull my hand out of Kai’s to cross my arms across my chest, suddenly feeling like I’m not wearing anything at all.
“Don’t be an ass,” Kai warns, quickly standing in front of me, shielding me while I drape my towel over my body.
Timothy scoffs and rolls his eyes as he brushes past Kai. “Just admiring the view.”
Kai doesn’t let him walk away that easily though, giving him a light shove on the arm. Not enough to make him stumble, but enough to make him pay attention. “Why don’t you goadmireyour girlfriend?”
“Whoa, whoa.” Timothy holds his hands up in surrender, brows pinched. Despite his peaceful gesture he shoves Kai back with twice as much force—knocking him back into me. “Watch yourself, bud.”
“Watchyourself,” Kai snaps back, looking as though he’s going to lunge.
I reach out to grab his arm before he can retaliate, not wanting things to escalate into a full-on fight—overme, no less. Though Kai doesn’t seem like he’s a fan of Timothy in general. Based on the way Timothy is glaring at him, the feeling might be mutual.
“Whatever,” Timothy says, rolling his eyes before heading down the stairs.
As soon as he’s out of view Kai lets out a harsh exhale. The tension in his body eases beneath my touch like a knot coming undone.
He shakes his head, pacing in a line before stopping in front of me. “Shit, I’msosorry. I knew he was a dick but I didn’t…”He trails off, unsure how to finish that sentence as his gaze falls to the floor. When he looks back up, his eyes linger on where my fingers are gripping the towel so tightly my knuckles have gone as white as the towel itself. “Are you okay?”
I nod quickly, relaxing my hold now that we’re alone. “M’fine.”
Kai glances out a window behind us, overlooking the deck. Through the glass we watch as Timothy steps outside with his arms thrown high in the air, like a god greeting his mortal subjects. Neither Kiki nor Carla give him the time of day, even after he flops into the hot tub with enough force to send a wave splashing onto the deck. Kiki scolds him with a punch to his arm while he buries his face in Carla’s neck and attempts to steal her drink with his free hand.
“We can skip the hot tub if you want,” Kai offers with a sheepish smile. “Stay in and finish that movie.”
While the thought of staying insidedoessound more appealing than facing Timothy again, I can’t imagine that’ll buy me any favor with the group. I’m not really here to make friends, but Kiki is Kai’s twin sister. She will always be in his life, a constant I could never come between. And avoiding her won’t help convince her that I’m worthy of Kai’s time and attention. If I want a future with Kai, that also means a future with Kiki.
“I’m okay.” I give him my best smile before starting toward the staircase, the smile faltering the second I’m out of his line of sight.
Kai doesn’t let me make it far. He reaches out for my arm and whirls me around, sliding his arm up to grip my shoulders as he steps in closer to me. “I promise I won’t let him get near you, all right?”
His words make my insides glow as warm as the fairy lights strung up outside. I resist the urge to hold my pinkie up between us—to make him promise the way Papi always did when I was little. But that memory, like so many, is soured.
Promise me you’ll come home,I whispered to him the night before the cops took him, the scent of tequila still on his breath as he whispered back that he would. Always would. It was a promise he couldn’t keep, but he took my pinkie in his anyway.
I offer Kai a nod instead. “All right.”
With my reassurance, Kai runs his fingertips gently down the slope of my arm until he reaches my hand, linking our fingers again. It would be so easy to lose myself in how perfectly we seem to slot together. When he tugs me gently toward the stairs, I follow as if I’m floating on a cloud, all thoughts of Timothy and his wandering eyes and Papi and his broken promises left behind.
12
Even with the string lights on, the deck is startlingly dark. If the others are put off by it, they don’t let it show. Carla has connected her phone to a Bluetooth speaker on the glass table beside the grill, blasting a song I vaguely recognize and swaying to the beat as she pours herself a fresh drink. At the far edge of the hot tub, Timothy takes a long drag from his vape pen while Kiki is perched on the opposite side of the tub, focused on telling Carla how to make her drink properly.
“That’s enough!” She waves her hand until Carla lifts up the can of pineapple juice. “I said asplashof pineapple.”
“That shit’s gonna give you cavities,” Timothy says with a lazy grin, blowing his cherry-scented smoke in my and Kai’s direction. He welcomes us to argue against him with a smirk that makes my skin crawl, but neither of us takes the bait.
“It wouldn’t if Carla made it right,” Kiki mutters bitterly under her breath.
Carla whips around and stomps her foot like a toddler. “I did exactly what you said, you’re just—”
Kai breaks up the potential fight by standing between Kiki and Carla before their bickering can get any louder. He puts agentle hand on his sister’s shoulder and grabs the drink from Carla with his free hand.
“Can we say thank you to Carla for making you this drink so you didn’t have to get your lazy ass out of the water?” he asks his sister with a raised brow.
Kiki sucks her teeth as she wriggles out from under his grip. “Don’t talk to me like I’m a fucking five year old.”
“Then stop acting like one,” he snaps back.
