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Jun mulled this over. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll come.”
“I can pick you both up at six.”
“No,” Jun said quickly. “I’ll meet you there.”
Kai decided not to press the issue. She’d agreed to come. He’d have to be satisfied with that.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THAT EVENING AS Jun made her way to the Kona Estate, she griped her steering wheel and thought, once again, about turning around and going home. She glanced in the rearview and saw Po happily kicking his feet out from his booster seat, staring out the window and clutching his favorite Spider-Man figure in his tiny fist. She felt nervous about meeting Kai’s family—his aunt and sister. She already felt an unnatural pull to the man. Maybe meeting his sister and aunt would show just how hopeless he was. If they were in any way rude, she vowed to leave. Plus, he’d offered his aunt as a babysitter while they worked. If she found fault with the aunt—say, if the woman was mean to Po—then it would be easy to tell Kai no and walk away. Maybe the dinner would give her the excuse she needed to bow out of the job offer.
Dallas and Allie, of course, were another story. She remembered them from the emergency room last year, when they’d looked after Po and helped find her. Jun had liked them immediately, but then, she would’ve loved anyone who delivered her son safely to her. She still remembered how Po’s hands had been sticky from mango candy that Allie had fed him. Under different circumstances, she would’ve been disapproving of the sugar, but right then she was just so happy Allie had shown her boy kindness in a difficult time that she didn’t care. She knew Dallas and Allie were good people: they’d risked their lives going out in the flooding to find Kai. And by doing so, they’d found Po, too. She’d seen the couple around the island since and always said hello, but this would be the first time she’d been to their house.
She glanced at the seat next to her and the bag with her hostess gift tucked inside: another homemade candle and some macadamia-nut cookies she’d baked herself. At least she’d get a chance to tell Dallas and Allie thank-you once more.
She saw a sign for the Kona Coffee Estate and drove up the long gravel drive, lined on each side by lush coffee trees bursting with brightly colored cherries. It was hard work running a coffee plantation but Dallas and Allie seemed made for it. Jun knew they’d won award after award in the past year for their Kona brew. Through her open window, she smelled the smoky goodness of barbecue being roasted from somewhere nearby.
As Jun looked for a place to park, she saw brake lights flash on a new Jeep and then Kai stepped out.
Her heart thudded as she watched him move, wearing easy khaki shorts, a button-down and flip-flops. She tried not to stare at the muscles in his chiseled forearms. If she thought he looked good shirtless, he was somehow even sexier in clothes. He wore his thick dark hair in waves back from his forehead, and she itched to run her hands through it.
“Kai!” Po shouted out the open window.
Kai turned and spotted the boy, and his face split into a wide grin. Jun was barely out of the car before Po had wiggled out of his seat belt and gotten the door open. He was getting too independent, she thought as he bounded up to Kai. The surfer swept the boy up in the air, and he squealed in delight. Jun felt warmth in her stomach that she quickly pushed aside. She didn’t like Po getting attached to people who weren’t going to stick around.
Kai gently put Po down on the ground and then looked at Jun. “Glad you came.”
“Again!” Po cried, holding up his hands and asking to be picked up.
“Po,” Jun warned her boy, putting a hand on his shoulder. As they stood near the front porch of the farmhouse, the door slapped open and Dallas came out, a big grin on his face.
“Good to see you, man,” Dallas said, shaking Kai’s hand. His Texan drawl gave away that he wasn’t born on the Big Island, which Jun knew already.
“Jun, welcome,” Dallas said, holding out a hand, which she took. “And there’s the little guy. High five, Po?” Dallas offered a hand that Po gladly slapped.
“Hi, everyone!” cried Allie, coming out on the porch and throwing her arms wide to give Kai a hug. Jun felt a little surge of something that felt a bit like jealousy. Until she saw the bright diamond on Allie’s left hand.
