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Except recently.
In the past year, her go-for-broke, hit-the-weights-harder approach just hadn’t been working for him. The more she yelled, the less he wanted to do anything.
But the fact that Gretchen wasn’t yelling at him now only made him nervous. That she was suddenly so calm made him realize the situation was far worse than he’d thought. She gestured with her hand and her diamond wedding band caught the light and sparkled like fire. Happily married to one of the best tour-boat captains on the island, she was off-limits. Kai liked that their relationship had been strictly professional. Gretchen was one of the few women in his life who didn’t feel complicated.
“You said I couldn’t be late anymore or skip sessions.”
“Or?”
Kai swallowed. “Or you’d quit.” Panic rose in his throat. First Bret had quit on him. Now Gretchen, too? Everyone’s abandoning me because they know I’m finished.
“Exactly.” She ripped off the page on the top of the clipboard. “My official letter of resignation, effective now.”
He glanced at the handwritten note, stunned.
“Gretch, you can’t quit! I need you. I...” She’d been with him for almost all of his surfing career. As his star had risen, so had hers. They made a nearly unstoppable team. He’d never worked with anyone else before and hadn’t even considered the possibility.
Gretchen raised her chin, determined. He knew that look, and it was the one where she usually told him he needed to run five more miles and do an extra round of strength training.
“I can quit and I am. I told you to cut out the partying and staying out late. You didn’t. I told you to eat right. You didn’t. I told you to show up at training sessions, and you haven’t. It’s not me who’s quitting. It’s you.”
Kai knew she was right.
“But I pay you anyway,” Kai pointed out. “And I can pay you more. Name your price.”
“It’s not about the money.” Gretchen shook her head, a look of pity washing over her face. “I’ve got my professional pride, Kai. You’re in some kind of really dark place, and you need to find a way out of it. Maybe me quitting will be the inspiration you need to figure out what’s wrong and do something about it. I don’t know, but what I do know is that I can’t help you. Not until you get your head right.”
“Gretchen, give me one more chance. I promise, I—”
“You promised last week. No, it’s done. I’m done. I’m sorry, Kai.”
“But the surfing competition is in a matter of months! Who am I going to find on this kind of short notice?”
“Maybe some of your friends can help you?” Gretchen held up her smartphone and showed him the picture of him drinking in the hot tub. That damn picture was going to be the death of him. He suddenly wished for a massive internet malfunction, or at least just some strange outage that affected only social media sites.
“That’s not as bad as it looks.” That was the second time in as many days that he’d said that, but it didn’t make it true. “Look, I know I’m a mess, but...”
“I can’t do anything for you, Kai. You’ve got to change that.”
Now she sounded like Jun.
“Gretchen, please...”
“Uh-uh. Kai. That’s strike three, and I told you, after strike three, you’re out. I don’t mess around.”
There’d be no changing her mind. Kai was officially screwed, and not in the way that involved tourists and hot tubs.
What am I going to do now?
On his patio, he saw Jun’s gift bag and next to it, on the tabletop, her card: “Good for One Free Tai Chi Class.” He saw a list of scheduled classes on the back, one of which was being held this afternoon.
It’s not like I have anything else going on. He went inside to dry off and get dressed.
CHAPTER THREE
JUN WAS PACKING up her gym bag, trying very hard not to think about Kai Brady. She’d been trying for nearly an hour, but it wasn’t any use. She’d made the mistake of searching for him online and found a photo of him making out with at least one of the women she’d seen at his house. That wasn’t the only photo, either. It seemed that Kai made a point of posing with attractive women whenever he could. She didn’t know why she was surprised. He was handsome, rich and a bona fide celebrity.
